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Author Topic: Hard to read Element Name in Status Mode while running  (Read 2047 times)

LWgreys

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Hard to read Element Name in Status Mode while running
« on: April 17, 2018, 08:41:49 PM »
The element names while running are hard to read not unless you zoom to 150% or greater. If you could move the element names just to the left of the yellow box, shown in RED in the picture below, with the status then the text could be larger for the element name and the status indicator.
If you are using a laptop computer, most of the time I shrink the display so more runs can be watched. But if you shrink the display to 75% or lower the element names vanish from the display.

Can this be fixed?


franji1

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Re: Hard to read Element Name in Status Mode while running
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2018, 09:45:58 AM »
We realize the tradeoffs of text size vs. screen real estate.  It's hard to find the perfect balance across all resolutions and monitors.  I have seen monitors that the text is crisp and readable at 100%.  I have seen other monitors where the status element text is not very good.  I've even seen both at the same time on PCs with multiple monitors (not all monitors are equal).

Zooming is the first "work around", as you have figured out, but this also zooms everything else, which is not always good.

One other possibility is for you to tweak your DmDesignerx_x.ini file's font setting.  By default, it is set to Arial 10.  You may try Arial 11.  That is a 10% bump on the point size, which may render better with your system at 100% or even 125%.

In Designer's Launch Pad's Application's pane, look for your version's DmDesignerx_x.ini "app" (e.g. DmDesigner2_2.ini for 2.2).  Run that.  It will open it up in Notepad.  Look for the [Fonts] section.  You want to tweak the Workspace Font entry:
Workspace Font=Arial:11


Save your INI file and close Notepad.  Then shut down Designer and re-launch to check it out.  You can try 12, or even 9 but at 125% zoom (you can tweak the default zoom in Ladder Options).  This just gives you different "detent" on the actual font sizes (Designer utilizes tenths of a point, e.g. 125% of 11 point font base results in 13.7pt)

LWgreys

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Re: Hard to read Element Name in Status Mode while running
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2018, 12:25:54 AM »
Well that really did not help. Tried editing the DmDesigner2_2.ini in the windows directory directly because the batch file opens the file in the wrong directory. But I did final edit the right file with NotePad++ which is an excellent text editor. The NotePad replacement. I changed the font size and that was like zooming in every thing. Not good. Tried changing the Status Font and the same not good.
I was thinking of if you were to move the element name to a different position like in the pic below, then all the text would be the same font size.

BobO

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Re: Hard to read Element Name in Status Mode while running
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2018, 06:29:24 AM »
It's a great idea. The problem is space. The worst case element name is 22 characters, plus the worst case number value, 11 or more. That breaks everything.

DirectSoft actually replaced the element with the status value, and the way we do it in DmD was a creative way to get both things in the same space, without breaking the displays. When we go to 32 character tag names, we're probably just gonna have to bite the bullet and rethink some stuff.
"It has recently come to our attention that users spend 95% of their time using 5% of the available features. That might be relevant." -BobO