Topic: DMD0219
Ladder Views
In the image below, the area outlined in red is the section of the Do-more Designer programming software known as the View List and the View Display area. The View List will contain a tabbed entry for each of the different views that are open. The Ladder views are one type of views that will appear in this section. Ladder views are used to display the ladder logic within each of the code blocks that exist in a project.
Each code block (Program, Task, etc.) in a Do-more Designer project will be displayed in it's own tabbed ladder view, meaning that any time a code-block is opened for viewing, there will be a tab - with the code-block's name in the tab - created in the view list. Note: the order of the tabs within the view list can be changed by clicking on a tab and dragging it left or right to the desired location.
Navigating within a Ladder View
Scrolling forward and backward through a Ladder View can be done with the Up arrow and Down Arrow keys, the Page Up and Page Down keys, with the Drag Bar that is located on the far right edge of the Ladder view, or with the scroll wheel on the mouse.
Navigating within the individual rungs in the Ladder view is done with the cursor keys (up, down, left, right) which will move the cursor one program element in the direction of the cursor key.
The Find Element or Instruction utility can be used to search through the current code block or through all the code blocks of the currently open project for a particular program element or a particular type of instruction.
The Go To Address or Rung Number utility can be used to move the cursor to the specified location in the specified code block.
Ladder
View Display Options
The Ladder tab of the Options dialog sets the display options for Ladder Views. The Options dialog can be invoked by clicking the Options button on the Offline toolbar, or a right-click in the Ladder view and selecting Options from the right-click menu.
Apply Options to: - specifies which Ladder Views the option changes will be applied to (multiple options can be selected)
Current View - option changes will be applied ONLY to the Ladder View that was active when the Options dialog was opened
All Open Views - if the Ladder Views for multiple code blocks are open, this option will be available. The same option changes will be applied to all of the open Ladder views.
New Views - the option changes will also be applied to Ladder Views that are opened in subsequent programming sessions.
Number rungs ... - specifies how rungs are numbered
by Address - all of the rungs in the Ladder View are numbered with the address of the first program element on that rung.
by Rung - all of the rungs in the Ladder View are numbered sequentially, beginning at 1.
Popup Tooltips - enables / disables the pop-up tooltips that are displayed when the mouse cursor hovers over specific areas of the Ladder View
Comments [Cmt] - this tooltip is displayed when the mouse cursor hovers over the empty space just above each rung
Cross Reference [Xref] - this tooltip displays the cross reference information for the memory location use when the mouse cursor hovers over any memory element in the Ladder View.
Instruction Help [?] - this tooltip displays information from the Help topic for the instruction under the cursor when the mouse cursor hovers over any program element (contact, coil, box, etc.) in the Ladder View.
Documentation - specifies which pieces of project documentation to display in the Ladder View
Elements - displays the memory locations used in the instructions
Nicknames - displays the Nicknames assigned to the memory locations used in the instructions
Extra Info - displays the Wiring Info assigned to the memory locations used in the instructions
Descriptions - displays the Descriptions assigned to the memory locations used in the instructions
Comments - displays all of the Rung Comments for the code block
Lengthy Instructions ... - for instructions that have a variable number of rows (e.g. INIT - Initialize Data, RAMPSOAK - Ramp/Soak Profile, etc.), this option allows the programmer to control how much screen real-estate and the number of printed pages that is consumed by these instructions.
Display Short Summary - select this option to display the smallest amount of information that is practical, typically this will be the first couple of rows and the last couple rows in the instruction.
Display All Details - select this option to always display every row of these instructions, regardless of the amount of screen real estate or number of printed pages that is required.
Misc. Options - additional display options that are available
3D Tokens - enables or disables the three dimensional effects that applied to program elements when they are displayed in the Ladder view.
Show Trend Status - enables and disables the inclusion of a mini-trend and the bottom of instructions that support them (e.g. ALHILO - High/Low Alarm, PID - Closed Loop Controller, etc.)
Abbreviate Stage Names (Use S0 over $Main.S0) - in instructions that reference stage numbers, this option specifies whether to always display fully-qualified Stage numbers, that is, the Program name and the stage number, or to only display the Stage number.
Themes
...
The Select Visual Theme dialog is used to select from a list of predefined display configurations that control how the toolbars, buttons, menu items, etc. are displayed. The Select Visual Theme dialog is invoked through the View-> Themes ... selection of by clicking the Themes button on the View toolbar.
Select a Theme from the list by and click the OK button to start using it and close the dialog, or click the Apply button to start using the theme but leave the dialog open, or click Cancel to close the dialog without changing the current theme.
Color Setup
...
The color setup dialog is used to configure custom colors for various program elements. The Color Setup dialog is invoked through the View-> Menu selection of by clicking the Colors button on the View toolbar.
The program elements that can have their colors configured are::
Normal Background - color for unmodified items
Uncompiled Background - color for items which are modified and uncompiled
Unsaved to Disk Background - color for items which are modified and unsaved to disk
Unsaved to PLC background - color for items which are modified and unsaved to the PLC
Disabled background - color for views which are disabled
Selected background - color for items which are selected
Status background - background color for active elements
Status foreground - Foreground color for active elements
Comment - color for rung comments
Description - color for program element descriptions
Extra Info - color for program element extra info
Nickname - color for program element nicknames
Element - color for program elements
Token - color for tokens and wires
Block Cursor - color for the cursor when in Edit Mode
Box Background - background color for box instructions
Status Value Background - background color for program elements when Status is ON
To change the color of an item, position the cursor on the item to be changed, and select the desired color for the color palette. The sample in the lower right of the dialog shows how the foreground and background colors will look in the views.
Click the OK button save any changes made to the color configuration and exit the dialog.
Click the Cancel button to exit the dialog without saving any changes made to the color configuration.
Click the Apply button save any changes made to the color configuration and exit the dialog.
Click the Defaults button to reset all of the colors back to their installation defaults.
Click the Monochrome to set all of the colors to black and gray on a white background. This may be useful on monochrome LCD displays or for black and white print-outs.
Split Screen Bar
There may be times when the programmer
wants to view more than one part of the same code-block at the same time.
Do-more Designer has a split screen
feature that allows the programmer to split the program, horizontally,
into two panes.
In the image to the right, the Split Screen bar is located in the right-hand corner of the Ladder View.
To split the screen, position the mouse cursor over
the Split Screen bar, then press and hold the left mouse button. When
the cursor changes to a parallel bar move it down to bring the split screen
into view and size the screen to your convenience.
Each pane of the Ladder View can now be navigated separately to view different rungs of the same code block.
This image has the screen split into two equal sections. Note: the F6 key will switch focus between the two split panes.
To remove the split screen press and hold the left mouse button over the split screen bar. When the cursor changes to a parallel bar appears, move the split screen bar back to the top of the edge of the view.
Cascade and Tile Horizontal / Vertical
The default layout for the Ladder views is using tabbed views, but Do-more Designer allows for three alternate arrangements, they are: Cascaded, Tiled Horizontally, and Tiled Vertically. The arrangements are invoked by selecting them under the Windows menu, or by clicking the Cascade, Tile Horz., or Tile Vert. buttons on the Window toolbar.
These arrangements place the currently open Ladder
views into separate windows that are contained within the Ladder display
area. These individual windows can now be independently resized, maximized,
minimized, and placed anywhere within the bounds of the Ladder display
area. These alternate arrangements can be especially useful when multiple
code-blocks need to be viewed at the same time.
To return to the tabbed dialog arrangement, maximize any of the tiled windows. Doing so will also enable the 'minimize / restore / close' icons in the upper-right corner of the main Do-more Designer programming window. The restore icon will transition from the tabbed view back to the cascade/tiled arrangement.
Selecting Window -> New Window (or clicking the New Window button on the Window toolbar) will create a second view of the active view. This allows the programmer to open multiple views of the same code-block that can be used to display different parts of the same code-block at the same time. The different views can be independently managed as to Edit Mode or Display Mode, Status ON or Status OFF, etc. Note: If you change the contents in one view, all other views containing the same ladder logic will reflect those changes.
Selecting Window->
Default Layout will return Do-more
Designers Programming software to the factory default layout.
This will re-Dock all dockable
Click Yes to restore the default layout, or click No to retain the existing layout.
Ladder View Information in the Status Bar
Project Differences - provides visual cues when changes have been made to the System Configuration, the Program or the Documentation sections of a project but have not been saved to the Disk or to the controller.
S (System Configuration)
P (Program)
D (Documentation)
A normal background color for any of the three indicates that the Disk version and the controller version of the System Configuration, the Program, and the Documentation are in sync.
If the current session is OFFLINE, the three indicators will have a green background whenever that section has not been saved to Disk.
If the current session is ONLINE, the three indicators will have a green background whenever that section has not been saved to Disk, or a cyan background if the section has not been saved to the controller, or a half-green / half-cyan background if the changes have not been saved to the Disk and the controller. In the image above, the System Configuration is up to date (normal background), the Program has been changed but not written to disk (green background), and the Documentation has been changed and the changes have not been saved to either the Disk or the controller. Note: hovering the mouse cursor over the Project Differences section will invoke a popup message that contains a textual description of the state of the indicators.
Program Usage - the number to the left of the slash is the total amount of program memory used by the code-blocks in the project, and the number to the right of the slash is the total amount of program memory available.
Clicking within the Program Usage section will open the System Information utility that displays the total amount of storage space that is being used and available (including program, documentation, and configuration memory).
Cursor Location - displays the current location of the edit cursor as follows:
the current code-block name
the rung number
the row number
the column number - OUT is displayed if the cursor is in the output column
Using the Cross Reference Tooltip
Hover the mouse over any element reference in any instruction in the Ladder view and the cursor text will change to "Xref" and a Popup Tooltip containing the cross reference information for that memory element will appear. All of the text in the popup are hyper-links (as you move the mouse cursor over them they are underlined) that can be used to navigate through the cross reference information.
Address references in the current code-block are first, and are only the address number. Address reference in other code-blocks are listed with the code-block name and the address, separated by the '@' symbol. Click on any of the address references in the list to go to that specific usage of the memory location.
The current address reference is displayed in bold.
Used IDs: - lists the previous 2 and next 2 elements of the same address type that are also used in the project, the element in question will have asterisks
As Input: - lists the addresses
where the element is used as an input to an instruction.
As In/Out: - lists the addresses where the element is used as an input to and instruction AND an output from that same instruction.
As Output: - lists the addresses where the element is used as an output from an instruction.
< Prev (Ctrl-) - move the cursor to the previous location where the element is used
Next (Ctrl+) > - move the cursor to the next location where the element is used
Click the box to the left of Don't show this again. to prevent the Cross Reference tooltip from being displayed when the mouse hovers over elements in the instructions.
Popup Instruction Help
Hover the mouse cursor over the name or description
of an instruction for one second and the cursor text will change to "?"
and a popup containing some of the text from the Help topic for that instruction
will appear.
Clicking anywhere within the borders of the popup will invoke the full version of the Help topic for that instruction.
Multi-scan Instruction Flag Help
For instructions that have them, hover the mouse
cursor over the colored triangle in the upper left corner the instruction
for one second and the cursor text will change to "?" and a
popup containing a short description of what the colored flags mean.
Clicking anywhere within the borders of the popup will invoke the full version of the Multi-scan flag Help topic.
Zoom in / Zoom Out
The amount of information displayed in a Ladder View
can be changed by specifying the Zoom level. Each Ladder View can have
a different Zoom level. The Zoom level a view is selected through the
drop-down menu on the Offline Toolbar. The programmer can select a Zoom
level of 35%, 55%, 65%, 75%, 85%, 100% (the default), 125%, 150%, 175%,
200% and 225%.
Zooming out (by selecting a smaller zoom level) will display more the ladder logic in the view by making the size of the programming elements and the font size of the rung comments in the current view smaller. More information is displayed, but it is often harder to read individual elements of the program. At the largest zoom levels some of the information cannot be displayed at all.
Zooming in (by selecting a larger zoom level) will display less of the ladder logic in the view by making the size of the programming elements and the font size of the rung comments in the current view larger. Less information is displayed, but the information is generally easier to read.
See Also:
Ladder Views