BHD - Generic Display

The Generic Display can be configured to present values, alphabetically, numerically and/or alphanumerically, for virtually every item (parameter) used in QINSy. In this section the main focus is on dredging parameters.

On this page:

Create the Display	Open Layout Editor	A Note on Properties	A Note on Item Translation

Selecting Items to Display - Click on an icon below. Icons in the first column take you to the main page of that category.
In this example many more items are selected than would be the case in a real world situation.
Pink table cells are not described, either because they are trivial or because they are not applicable to Backhoe dredging operation.

Please refer to Help pages, and to Generic Layout Editor in the Knowledge Base for an explanation of each and every parameter.

The Generic Display acts as a replacement for the Alphanumerical Display, which will be phased out

All information is shown in alphabetic, alphanumeric, and/or numeric format. The layout is entirely configurable in terms of: position; font; font style, size and color; units; formats; operators; translations.
User configured settings of a generic display are stored in an *.xml file saved in the \Settings\Display folder of the current project.

Create the Display

Take the following steps in order to create an Generic display.

Go to Options in the menu bar of the Controller and select Displays,

or click on the Displays icon

. This opens the Display Manager.

Click on

to open the Add Display dialog:

Select Type 'Generic Display' and enter a Title name.

Pressing OK opens an empty Generic Display dialog.

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Open Layout Editor

In the empty dialog click on the

to open the Layout Editor.

The Generic Layout Editor can also be started from the lower pane of the Console.

The window has 7 tabs on the left side for setting parameters. Each tab has multiple options as depicted above.
Each of these options has a slightly different dialog to the right. But in general they all have items to select along with their properties, sub items and their properties.
Which items to select for display depends upon the particular application and upon user preference.

The following example should be sufficient to illustrate the principles. It is not likely that all the items selected in the example would be used in the real world.

Typically a new display opens with the Overview Display page open.

Make selections and enter parameter values for General Layout Information and Display Specific Settings.

Refer to General Layout Information for an explanation of these parameters.
Refer to Display Specific Settings for an explanation of all parameters including color source and how each is affected when changing to night palette.

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A Note on Item Properties

The following dialog box, or something very similar, is shown for many sub-items.

For help with some of these parameters refer to: Formats, Operator, Generic Item Value, Text Format and Right-click Menu.

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Translation

Clicking on the Properties - Translation browse button

of an item opens a page where the input field can be translated to an output field.
This can be useful if for example RTK status range = 14 to 19 and as a user this should all be represented as RTK STATUS.
Another option is to transform an ID number into a vessel name or vice versa.

Use Add to create a translator. In the input field type the exact string as it is received. In the output string type the exact string as it should be displayed.

Important: note that if a combination of an Operator and Translator is used, the Translator should appear at the end. Otherwise a different result is output.

Translation functionalities:

Value when there is no data: The value entered here is displayed when the item has no data at all. Select the Item or Sub Item, and select the Translation property.
For example: When a sensor has no output, there is also no data update in the Generic Display. When the maximum age of the data is passed, it is preferable to have a display of, for example, '—' instead of repeating the last update value repeatedly.
REPLACE / BY keyword
Special TRANSLATION Input Property: "REPLACE".
The Output field expects format xBYy. This means that all existing 'x' characters will be replaced by character 'y'.
For example:
If you want to output a gyro heading value of 45.12° with a comma as decimal separator, use Translation property:
Input: REPLACE
Output: .BY,
The results will be 45,12°
Multiple REPLACE keywords are supported in the Translation property, i.e. use keyword REPLACE1, REPLACE2......REPLACE10.

Keyword 'REPLACE' and 'BY' must be in capitals.
All characters (inclusive SPACES) in front of keyword 'BY' will be replaced by the characters (inclusive SPACES) after keyword 'BY'.

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Return to BHD - Online Displays.