HMI Objects, Symbols, Images

HMI objects are the visualization elements used to design HMI pages. The 'Objects' group under the 'HMI' category contains standard HMI objects that can be inserted into the HMI page. It provides various graphical forms such as lines, ellipses, paths, check boxes, etc.

HMI objects can be inserted into an HMI page either by dragging and dropping the object from the COMPONENTS area into the page or selecting the object in the COMPONENTS area, left-clicking anywhere in the page and drawing by dragging the mouse.

An HMI symbol (for short: symbol) is a collection of zero or more HMI objects or other HMI symbols (that making a nested symbol) that can be re-used (instantiated) in any of your HMI pages. Usually, an HMI symbol has symbol parameters that have been defined when creating the symbol. Each symbol parameter is linked to one dynamic/action property of an object contained inside the symbol. Therefore, a symbol parameter provides access to one particular dynamic property or action of the symbol.

When inserting a symbol into an HMI page, an instance of the symbol is created. Changes made to the symbol are immediately applied to any corresponding symbol instance used in your HMI pages.

After having inserted a symbol instance into an HMI page, you have to assign each public symbol parameter to an HMI tag, HMI page or constant value. Otherwise, an error is reported in the Error List (MESSAGES window). This way, the symbol is animated based on the value of an IEC variable or the application can be operated via the HMI symbol.

You can create and edit your own HMI symbols or use the HMI symbols provided in the HMI symbol library. In contrast to user-defined HMI symbols, the HMI symbols from symbol libraries cannot be modified.

Each user-defined HMI symbol is edited on a separate symbol page. To open a symbol page, double-click the HMI symbol in the 'HMI' category. The symbol page of a library symbol is opened in read-only mode.

Note You can open the symbol page directly from the HMI page where the symbol instance is inserted by right-clicking the symbol instance and selecting 'Go To Symbol Definition' from the context menu.

Further Info For information on how to add an HMI symbol to the 'HMI' category, see topic "Working with User-defined HMI Symbols".

You can add images to the project in order to create an image object and assign a dynamic property, use the image, for example, as background image, or use the images in image lists. An image added to the 'HMI' category can be re-used in the HMI pages as often as required.

To add an HMI image to the 'HMI' category, right-click the 'Local' folder or the 'Images' folder (only available if there are images already added) and select 'Add HMI Images...' from the context menu. In the appearing file selection dialog, select the image and click 'OK'. The image is added to the 'Images' subfolder. (This folder is automatically created when adding the first image.)

An HMI image can be inserted into a page by drag and drop from the COMPONENTS area.