How to add a pen to a Real Time Trend using a script

Introduction

Hello and welcome to a new guide on how to best use Movicon.NExT™.

In this technote, we are going to create an example to show you how to add and change a pen in the Realtime Trend object using a script.

Example

In this example we shall define three tags to link to the Demo driver offered by the Movicon.NExT platform.
These three tags will be added to the trends using a script associated with a button.
Each trend will have their own screen with buttons and Display objects to display the tag’s value in realtime.

How to insert and configure the driver

After having started up the Movicon.NExT editor and created, or loaded, a project, insert the Demo driver by following these steps below:

• Open the I/O Data Server located in the project tree within the Project Explorer window and select the I/O Driver tab.
• Once opened, right-click within the workspace and select the Add New Driver option from the menu that appears.
• Search and select the Demo driver from the list that appears. Click on the next step button to configure it.
• Leave the properties in Driver’s General Settings with their default settings and click the arrow button to proceed on to the next step.
• Check that the channel name is Channel0 in the Driver’s Channel settings section and then click the arrow to go to the next section.
• In the Driver’s Station settings, leave the properties set for default.
• Click Finish to conclude the Driver’s configuration and to insert it on the driver list.

How to create the tag

Now that the driver has been added, we shall proceed with creating the tags that will be needed for simulation purposes:

• Open the I/O Data Server located in the project tree in the Project Explorer window.
• Access the Tags List by selecting the corresponding I/O Data Server’s tab.
• Right-click on the workspace and select the Add New Tag option from the menu that appears.
• Configure the tag’s parameters as follows:
• 
  

  Name	Counter
  Model Type	Variable
  Data Type	Int32

  
  
• Click the OK button to confirm and then click the Accept Changes button on the tag’s property window’s top toolbar.
• Go to the Tag’s Execution property section and click on the three dotted button of the far right of the Physical I/O Address option to configure the tag’s PLC address.
• In the popup that appears, enter Ramp as the Demo Type, 0 as the minimum value and 100 as the maximum value, 1 as the Delta value, and select the station from the combobox.
• Click OK to confirm.
• Click the OK button to confirm and then click the Accept Changes button on the tag’s property window’s top toolbar.

Once the Counter tag has been created, create another two tags and configure them in this way:

Name	Random
Model Tyoe	Variable
Data Type	Int32
Demo Tyoe	Random
Minimum Value	0
Maximum Value	100
Station	Station0

Name	Triangle
Model Type	Variable
Data Type	Int32
Demo Type	Triangular Wave/Up Down Counter
Minimum Value	0
Maximum Value	100
Delta	1
Station	Station0

When you have finished configuring the tags, click on the Save All icon located on the Movicon.NExT editor’s toolbar at the top to save the project.

How to create the Data Logger

Now that the driver and tags have been instantiated, we can go ahead and define the Data Logger to assign the tags to. To do this, open the I/O Data Server:

• Go to the Data Loggers tab and click it.
• Right-click on workspace and select the Add New DataLogger option to add a new Data Logger to the project.
• Configure the Data Logger as follows:
• 
  

  Name	DL_1sec
  Recording Frequency	0 (Days) 00:00:01:000

Assign the Counter, Random and Triangle tags to the Data Logger you have just created:

• Select the Data Logger that you have just configured and right-click it to open the contextual menu.
• Select the Assign Tag option to assign the Data Logger to the project’s tags.
• Select the Counter, Random and Triangle tags to be entered and confirm with the OK button.

How to create the screen

Now, we will need to create a screen:

• Look for the Screens resource in the project's tree structure in the Project Explorer window and select it.
• Right-click it and select the New option from the menu which opens.
• A New Screen popup will appear through which you can set the screen's main properties. Configure the screen as follows:
• • Width: 1920
  • Height: 1080
  • Name: Main
• Click the OK button to confirm the configuration.

Once the screen has been created, you can then change the project's properties by inserting the screen as the project's Main screen which will show when the project starts up. To do this:

• Select the name of the project from the application's tree structure.
• Open the Properties window.
• Change the following project properties in this way:
• • Startup Page Type: Main Screen
  • Startup Screen Name: Main

Once you have finished configuring the project startup page, click on the Save All icon located on the toolbar at the top to save the project.

Now, open the Main screen and click on the Toolbox tab, which is located on the far right of the editor window, next to the properties window, to open the Toolbox library provided by Movicon.NExT.
Drag three Display objects, three Standard Metro Style buttons, and a RealTime Trend object on screen. These are found in the Display, Buttons/Standard and Trends folders, respectively.

Assign the Counter tag to one of the Display objects in this way:

• Select the Display object on screen and open its Properties window.
• By using the textbox in the Tag property, select and Insert the Counter string in the to assign it.
• Save the changes by clicking on the Accept Changes icon on the toolbar at the top of the Properties window.

Repeat this procedure to assign the Random and Triangle tags to the other two object.

Click on the Save All icon located on the Movicon.NExT editor’s toolbar at the top to save the project.

RealTime Trend

At this point, we can configure one of the buttons by changing its Text property with the Set Counter as Pen string.
Once you have entered this string, confirm the change, and make sure the button is still selected and open the Script tab. Once the Script tab opens, insert the reference to TrendRealTimeSlim.dll. To do this:

• Click on the script editor to open the contextual menu.
• Select the Edit item and then the References item.
• Once the References popup shows, click on the Browse… button to access the operating system’s file explorer. Browse the window until you reach the C:\Program Files\Progea\Movicon.NExT 4.x\Toolbox folder.
• Once you have reached the Toolbox folder, search for the TrendRealTimeSlim.dll, select it and click the Open button to confirm.
• Check that the dll is inserted and active, and then click on the OK button to confirm and close the popup.

Now that the reference to the RealTime Trend’s dll has been inserted, copy and paste the following script in the button:

'#Language "WWB.NET"

'This script use reference: <Movicon.NExT Folder>\Toolbox\TrendRealTimeSlim.dll
'Script to insert into a button

Public Sub Control_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs) Handles Control.Click

    Dim myInterval As System.TimeSpan
    Dim fElement As System.Windows.FrameworkElement
    Dim rtControl As TrendRealTimeSlim.RealTimeTrendControl
    Dim newPen As TrendRealTimeSlim.PenItem
    Dim tagName As String
    Dim penName As String
    Dim penType As Integer
    Dim myScaleMin As Double
    Dim myScaleMax As Double
    Dim i As Integer

    Try

         fElement = Document.MapScreenEntities("RTTrendControl").Element
         rtControl = TryCast(fElement, TrendRealTimeSlim.RealTimeTrendControl)

         'remove all pens from the Trend
         If rtControl.GetPensNumber > 0 Then
         For i = 0 To rtControl.GetPensNumber
              rtControl.RemovePen(i)
         DoEvents
         Next
    End If

    'Initializing pen
    If Not IsNothing(rtControl) Then
         tagName = "Counter"
         penName = "Counter"
         penType = 1
         myScaleMin = -1
         myScaleMax = 101
    End If

    'Add new pen
    newPen = rtControl.AddPen(penName, tagName, System.Windows.Media.Color.FromRgb(255,0,0), myScaleMin, myScaleMax, False, penType)
    'Update pen properties
    If Not IsNothing(newPen) Then
         newPen.StrokeThickness = 2
         newPen.ShowAxis = True
         newPen.Visible = True
         rtControl.ReloadPens()
    End If

    'Set Trend Time
    myInterval = New System.TimeSpan(0,1,0)
    rtControl.SetTimeRange(myInterval)

    'Reload Trend Data
    rtControl.ReloadRuntimeSettings()

    Catch ex As System.Exception
    MsgBox(ex.Message)
    'MsgBox(ex.InnerException)
    Finally
         rtControl = Nothing
         fElement = Nothing
    End Try
End Sub

After this has been done, the code will delete all the Trend’s pens, if any, and then add the Counter tag alone with its parameters.
Repeat this procedure for the other two buttons by changing the text to Set Random as Pen and Set Triangle as Pen. Also change the tag reference in the script from Counter to Random and Triangle respectively.

Once the buttons have been configured, select the RealTime Trend object, and change its name to RTTrendControl. To do this, select the object and:

• Right-click it to open the contextual menu.
• Click on the three dots of the first item on the menu. A popup will appear with the object’s actual name.
• Change the object’s name to RTTrendControl.

Runtime Test

Once the application is started and the synoptic appears, and as soon as the project has been fully loaded and the driver started working, click on the Set Pen button to assign the specific pen to the trend.