I wasn't able to get a Stage view, so I don't know if that's operator error or if DMD doesn't have one. I'll do my best to recall what I though could be better.
You are correct, there currently is no Stage view in Do-more Designer.
This view has been "on the shelf" since Designer 1.0. We would also like it to be an editor, not just a "view" of any "stage" ladder program (which is what DL does). Most likely, it would become its own "language" (ST or FBD or ?). Possibly, you would probably be able to "view" it in "LD", but not be able to "edit" in "LD".
A more orthodox vertical flow of control vs. DL's horizontal.
Having all the stages in one large ladder window seems less intuitive than just displaying the contents of of one stage that you click on or navigate to in the overview.
Showing the jumps/transitions inside the stage ladder vs segregated at least a little bit seems less clear. Also, I can't remember if they showed on the stage view. Would prefer similar treatment. If you set the cursor on a transition, have just that transition in it's own window.
So layout would be part of the project - you basically lay it out how you like it. Not sure if we would have an "import" mechanism from LD to SG language. All this is TBD, but these are definitely desirable features.
Can't remember how or if the DL Stage view handled divergences and convergences, iirc that may have been one of the things that didn't work well. I'm old, bad memory.
DL has "Stage block" instructions, that were like large MLS/MLR for Stage. These showed up as boxes in Stage View. Not sure how they showed the dependent stages.
Lighting up active stages seemed like it worked optimally. Maybe for converging stages, light up the transition tick as well as or instead of the stage square if that stage is done and waiting on the others to converge.
Yeah, with an actual SG language, things like this would "just work", since "transitions" would be a thing. Probably the non-stage "convergence" condition could be displayed in a yellow highlight (vs. cyan, which would be the full "convergence" transition color whose status includes the converging stage status also?).
Currently, Designer's Project Browser with Status ON, expanding a Stage Program code block to its SG level does a pretty good job of showing the "high level" stage flow. As you stated, Designer Ladder Status also shows Stage status on the power rail.
Bottom line was that, for me at least, the stage view was less intuitive at showing overall flow of control though the program than the industry standard-ish.
Yes, agreed. That's why going the route of making it a "language" that is both viewable and editable will make it be much more intuitive (vs trying to make it "view only" via "reverse generate" a SFC-like flow from any kind of stage Ladder code).
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