Topic: DMD0293

Using the Trend View

Once a Trend View has been created and it's display options have been configured, the Trend will begin collecting data for each of the controller elements on each of the panes and displaying that data in graphical form in the Trend View.

 

Refer to the Trend View to the right and notice some things to be aware of when using Trend Views:

 

Discrete points, integer values and real values are placed in separate panes.

 

Variables are graphed using solid horizontal lines.

 

Constants are graphed using dotted horizontal lines.

 

Red vertical lines indicate a loss of communication, and blue vertical lines indicate communication is re-established.

 

 

 

The Crosshair Cursor

The crosshair cursor  is displayed anytime the mouse cursor moves over any of the panes in a Trend View. The crosshair provides a visual reference when comparing values displayed on the Panes of a Trend.

 

If there are multiple Panes in the Trend View, the vertical bar of the crosshair will extend through all of them.

 

Note: the crosshair cursor can be disabled in the Trend View Options.

Using the Crosshair Zoom In / Out

Using the CTRL key and the scroll wheel on the mouse will put the Trend View into Historical Mode and zoom into or out of the area under the center of the crosshair as follows:
 

  • ctrl + scrolling upward will zoom into the area by decreasing the Time Scale
     

  • ctrl + scrolling downward will zoom out of the area by increasing the Time Scale

 
Using the Crosshair to Snapshot Data

Left-clicking the mouse will take a snapshot of all the values on all of the Panes on the Trend at the time where the cross hair was located, then present that data on the snapshot dialog.

 

Clicking the Copy Contents to Clipboard button will copy the data displayed on the snapshot dialog to the Windows clipboard, which can then be pasted into any other Windows application for further processing.

Trend View Options - opens the Trend View Options dialog to specify the controller elements that will be included in the Trend and to choose how those elements will be displayed on the Trend.

 

Toggle Historical Mode - stops the real-time (live) update of the trend displays, and adds a scroll bar to the bottom of the trend panel that allows the user to scroll backwards in time through all of the data that is currently stored for each of the data points on the displays. The data gathering for each data point on the trend displays will continue while the Trend View is in historical mode.

 

When the Trend View is in historical mode the Tab name will have the word [HISTORICAL] added to it.

 

Clicking the button again will re-enable the real-time (live) update of the trend displays, and the trend graphs will be updated with all of the data that was gathered while the displays were in historical mode.

 

Export Range - is used to export the values that are currently stored for each data point on the trend. All of the accumulated data points, or only the data points between two user-selected time stamps can be exported.

 

File Name - selects the name of the file in which to store the export data. The default file name will be \Do-more Designer\Projects\Trend View 1.txt. The filename and destination folder can be changed by clicking the "Browse ..." button and navigating the resulting File Open dialog.

 

Append to File - specifies whether to append the export data to the file, saving the existing contents of the file, or to over-write the existing contents in the specified file. This option will be enabled automatically any time the specified file already exists.

 

Delimiter - designates what character will be used to separate the individual elements on each exported line of data. The default is a comma between each element on a line.

 

  • SPACE - insert a space between each element
     

  • TAB - insert a tab between each element
     

  • COMMA - insert a comma between each element (default)

 

Enclose in Quotes - designates which elements need to be enclosed in double-quotes

 

  • Date/Time - enclose both the Date and the Time in double quotes, for example: "2010/9/3","09:36:43.456",Heat_PID.PV,0.35
     

  • Element - enclose only the Element in double quotes, for example: 2010/9/3,09:36:43.456,"Heat_PID.PV",0.35
     

  • Value - enclose only the Value in double quotes, for example: 2010/9/3,09:36:43.456,Heat_PID.PV,"0.35"

 

Prefer Nicknames to Element Names - if the elements being exported have nicknames assigned to them, the nicknames will be in the export file instead of the element. For example, if C13 has the nickname "Low Low Alarm", the exported lines for this data point would be "2010/9/1","12:02:54.819","Low Low Alarm","off"

 

Specify decimal places for floating point data - enabling this selection and selecting one of the values from the list (0 - 10) will export all floating point numbers with the selected number of decimal places.

 

Select Time Range - designates how much data to export, this can be either all of the data accumulated since the Trend View was opened, or a range specified by a start time and an end time.

 

Start Time - specifies the beginning of the data to export

 

  • Earliest Data - start exporting from the beginning of when the Trend View started accumulating the data points
     

  • User Selected Time - start exporting data from the time specified by using the scroll bar to move the trend to the desired time and left-click on the trend to set the time. The left-click will place a vertical bar on the trend with a 'S' at the top denoting the start time.
     

  • Select Again - will remove the current Starting Time and allow the selection of a different Starting Time

 

Ending Time - specifies the end of the data to export

 

  • Latest Data - export all of the data the Trend View has accumulated since it was opened
     

  • User Selected Time - stop exporting data at a time specified by using the scroll bar to move the trend to the desired time and left-click on the trend to set the time. The left-click will place a vertical bar on the trend with an 'E' at the top denoting the ending time.
     

  • Select Again - will remove the current Ending Time and allow the selection of a different Ending Time

 

Confirm Selections - will display the range of data points to export to the file.

 

  • click Back to return to the previous dialog to change the export options
     

  • click Finish to perform the export operation
     

  • click Cancel to abort the export operation

 

 

 

Below is a sample of what the exported data will look like with the default export options:

 

2012/06/05,13:52:37.047,Heat_PID.PV,0.35

2012/06/05,15:48:02.160,Heat_PID.SP,0.62

2012/06/05,13:35:23.088,Heat_PID.Bias,0.035

2012/06/05,13:39:19.472,Heat_PID.Output,0.73

2012/06/05,12:02:54.819,C10,off

2012/06/05,12:02:54.819,C11,off

2012/06/05,12:02:54.819,C12,off

2012/06/05,12:02:54.819,C13,off

 

Synchronize with Other Trend Views or PID Views - is used to synchronize the time frame and the starting time stamp of multiple PID Views and/or Trend Views so that all synchronized views will display the same start time and the same amount of time.

 

Click the Sync button to display a list of the available PID Views and Trend Views. Select the Views from the list that are to be synchronized with the current view then click the Synchronize button.

 

Begin Recording - click this button to begin the recording session, The button face will change to a black square and the word [RECORDING] will be displayed in the dialog's tab. Clicking this button again will stop the recording, and a 'Save As' dialog will prompt you for the filename in which to save the recorded data.

 

Pause Recording - stops recording data while the button is depressed. The button will appear depressed and the word [RECORDING - PAUSED] will be displayed in the dialog's tab. Click the button again to continue recording data, or click the cancel button to stop the recording session completely.

 

Time Scale - sets the overall amount of time to be displayed in the all of the Panes.

 

 

 

The Time Scale can be set to the following;

  • 500ms

  • 1 Second

  • 5 Seconds

  • 10 Seconds

  • 20 Seconds

  • 30 Seconds

  • 45 Seconds

  • 1 Minute (the default)

  • 2 Minutes

  • 5 Minutes

  • 7 Minutes

  • 10 Minutes

  • 30 Minutes

  • 1 Hour

 

The Time scale value is set by the following methods:

 

  • left-clicking on the Time Scale icon at the desired interval location
     

  • left-clicking on the Time Scale icon at the desired interval location then use the arrow keys or the scroll wheel to decrease or increase the Time Scale value
     

  • left-click and hold the slider, then drag it left (to decrease) or right (to increase) the Time Scale value

 

See Also:

 
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