Stage Viewer

[ATU]

I have talked about this in the AD forum, but thought it might be a good oportunity to ask again, since I constantly get into situations that I wish that I had this tool.

What I would like to see is another type of stage viewer. I primarily use stage programing and typically would use a great number of stages. The current stage view is good for looking at sections, and would be great if I had a monitor large enough to see everything, but thats not practical on a laptop. What I could really use is a specialized watch window that would automatically have all the used stages set up in a grid, small as possible with the stage numbers inside the indicators. You would only see the stage numbers that are in use and each stage that was "ON" would be illuminated a color. When I debug a stage program, it really would be helpfull to see which stages are active at a glance. I am using standard watch windows ,setting up VS registers in binary. It works but  I don't want to spend time counting bit locations or typing in individual stage numbers. I always leave space between stage numbers to allow for changes. It would also be great if you clicked on the stage number and it would take you to that stage in the ladder. Maybe make it a floating applet?  I know a picture is worth at least 2.5 words but this mock up is along the line of what I would like to see. (See the attachment.)

[franji1]

Cool idea.

I think if we prompted you for "max stages per row", defaulting to 8 (multiples of 8 would be best for this octal numbering system), then you would get something like

Code:

.S0  S1   S2                  S7
S10 S11  S12 S13 S14 S15 S16 S17
S20          S23         S26

[ATU]

Franji,

I don't want to see the stage bits that are not used. All I care about are the stages that are actually in the ladder. Its keeps the grid small and shows the users only what they need. The applet would use the cross reference to build the grid. Although you don't show the unused bits, why have all that wasted space?  Make a grid of buttons, as small as possible and let it float on top of the ladder or dock it. That's the problem with the watch window in this use, too much information is displayed, if I want to get a condensed view of the stage VS bits. Otherwise I would have to look at the cross reference and create a watch window with individual stage bits. THis is ok for a small program but when you have a 100 or so stages, its time consuming and not easy to view at a glance. I made the example to show what I would like to see. Those stages shown are the only ones in the program.  Kind of a merges the watch window with the cross reference. Also clicking on them takes you to that stage in the program. A shortcut method to quickly jump to different sections of your program.

[franji1]

I was only trying to help find a specific stage.  I left holes where there stages were not used.  If we pack them in, then you have to "find" the stage (no method to the matrix).  Probably we would add an option to display it either way.  If you've ever selected "Usage Mode" of your XRef View, you'll get an idea of what I was proposing.

[ATU]

That it is a good idea to have both. During debug, I am primarily only interested in those stages that are "ON " so having it compacted makes those stages easier to find.  However, I can see your point during development where that would be useful and a quick look tells you the stages availible for use. Adding  automatic scroll bars and allowing the user to expand or restrict the size of the applet would be helpful too.