OptoProducts Blog |
 
Blog Index | Subscribing
|
Specific to Opto 22 products, this Blog has the latest product scoop including new product announcements, software updates and upgrades, sneak peaks at new product developments, technical tips, support information, and much more.
|
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Animated symbols for PAC Display 8
I work as an illustrator here and once or twice a month I have the pleasure of presenting to our training class a
PAC Display demo that I created. The demonstration is primarily a photogenic HMI for print and on-screen marketing, and therefore it uses a lot of JPEG graphics. JPEGs, which are bitmapped graphics, were the best solution for the appearance I wanted within the time I had. Since then, I’ve been asked to get the same animation capabilities into the hands of our PAC Display developers.
I’ve created a new demonstration using the Built-in Symbol feature of PAC Display. Built-in Symbols are graphics created in PAC Display and exported to PAC Display’s SMB format. These are not to be confused with the Symbol Factory that we also provide with PAC Display. Symbol Factory is a library of images, whereas, built-in symbols are ones you create. The latter has the advantage of retaining the graphic dynamic attributes that animate them.
I created some gauges, pumps, and a mixer that now exist as ready-to-use symbols for PAC Display Basic version 8.0c or higher. Anyone can import one of these symbols and do a find and replace on the variable behind its graphic dynamic attributes. Because the graphics use the WMF format, instead of JPEG, they can be placed over any background. Though the WMF format has some image quality loss compared to JPEGs, this is mitigated by the flexibility of a transparent background.
You can download the complete PAC Display animation demo or just the Built-in Symbols. The complete demo includes the PAC Control strategy built to run on our PAC Simulator, the PAC Display project with the animation all ready to view in Runtime, and the built-in symbols. You will also need the PAC Simulator, if you do not have a SNAP PAC controller. All samples work with PAC Project Basic which is free.
Also available is a Opto 22 HMI Visio stencil library, which contains the graphics used to create the demo. You cannot edit these graphics in Visio, but you can embellish them (for example, placing rotated text on the face of a round gauge) and then drag the object or objects into PAC Display. (Note: to preserve the transparent background, you must drag and drop from Visio or Save As from Visio to WMF format and import WMF into PAC Display.)
John Garrett
Posted by jgarrett at 9:21 AM
| Comments (0)
Monday, October 15, 2007
New SNAP PAC System hardware & software products available
It's been super busy around here lately, but you'll be excited to hear (if you haven't already) that we've released a slew of new
SNAP PAC System components guaranteed to dazzle your eye, spark your intellect and, of course, help you get your automation projects done better, simpler, and faster. So with without further adieu, here's the new lineup of Opto 22 products:
PAC Project 8.1 - the latest version of our automation software suite for the SNAP PAC System, offers a full-featured integrated development environment that includes control programming, HMI development, OPC connectivity, and enterprise database integration software. New features found in PAC Project 8.1 include commands for frequency measurement, period measurement, analog and digital totalization, and loads of other distributed I/O functions. And naturally, we've also added support for our new hardware (listed below).
Read the PAC Project 8.1 press release.
The
SNAP-PAC-S2 - our newest S-series standalone programmable automation controller boasts four serial ports, all configurable for RS-232 or RS-485 communication, making it easier than ever for you to combine both Ethernet and serial distributed I/O in the same control system architecture. You can also use the serial ports for direct connection to weigh scales, RFID and barcode readers, and printers, or even for modem connections using PPP.
Read the SNAP PAC S2 press release.
And speaking of serial, the
SNAP-PAC-SB1 and
SNAP-PAC-SB2 are two new SNAP PAC Serial I/O brains that provide an RS-485 serial interface between our SNAP PAC S-series controllers and SNAP I/O modules. The great thing about these brains is that they're designed to coexist right alongside our Ethernet-based brains in any SNAP PAC System architecture. This gives you all kinds of new options for I/O network design, without having to worry about replicating control strategies or other hassles. The SB brains are ideal for new installations or for upgrading older serial
mistic SNAP I/O units. Read the
SNAP PAC Serial I/O Brains press release.
And finally, we have a trio of new SNAP analog input modules. The
SNAP-AIMA-8,
SNAP-AIV-8, and
SNAP-AICTD-8 represent our latest current, voltage, and temperature input modules, respectively. All of these modules are high-density 8-channel versions of existing modules, and they're used to connect to analog sensors, devices, and equipment in applications involving process control, monitoring, and data acquisition of temperature, pressure, flow, level, and other analog values. Field wiring to the SNAP-AIMA-8, SNAP-AIV-8, and SNAP-AICTD-8 terminates at the top of the module--which means higher density I/O without having to add extra racks, more modules, or external breakout boards. Read the
SNAP PAC High Density Analog Modules press release.
PAC Project 8.1, the SNAP-PAC-S2, and the new SNAP Serial brains complement the SNAP PAC System launched earlier this year with new serial network options previously only available using older Generation 2 PACs (the
SNAP-LCM4) and
B3000 I/O brains. Now you can use Ethernet and/or serial networks for your remote I/O, all using the same distributed, intelligent command set found in the open and documented
OptoMMP protocol.
Download the new PAC Project 8.1 Basic here.
Until next time...
David Crump
Posted by dcrump at 1:03 PM
| Comments (0)
Friday, September 15, 2006
Integrate your Allen-Bradley and Modbus systems with Opto 22 systems, for FREE
Well, maybe not exactly… But the integration kits ARE free. We’ve got both A-B and Modbus systems covered.
For Opto 22 controllers running ioProject software, check out these kits:
Or for Opto 22 controllers running legacy FactoryFloor software, use these kits instead:
Posted by jfemia at 1:30 PM
| Comments (0)
Cart
About Opto 22
Opto 22 Subscriptions
