Advanced Mode

Advanced Mode lets you create custom icons and attributes for supported integrated systems to build new asset visuals and states in Designer.

Setup

See each individual integrated system for more info on configuration. Systems that have access to Advanced Mode are:
  • Genetec Security Center
  • Harding DXL
  • IPFusion OPC
  • IPFusion PLC Devices
  • IPFusion SNMP
  • IPFusion Workstations
  • Senstar Network Manager

Asset Types

Asset Type Settings

In Advanced Mode for an integrated system, custom asset types are created on the Configuration page. These settings define the asset's visuals based on different conditions and determine how its icon appears. Once created, the icons can be dragged from the Toolbox onto a Map.

By default, there are three elements which are automatically created for a custom asset:
  • Selected — This element shows when the asset is currently selected to provide visual feedback for the Runtime operator.
  • No Communication — This element shows when Runtime cannot get status for the asset's status tag. This element cannot be deleted.
  • Masked — This element shows when the asset's true state has been masked over.
Note: Default elements will automatically be logged and appear in the Activity Report.
Note: Each asset type is automatically grouped by asset type in the Project Explorer once added to a Map.

You can see how to create asset types here.

Asset Type Settings

Property Description
Asset Type ID The unique identifier of the asset type.
Asset Type Name The name of the asset type.
Background Color The background color of the asset.
Caption Color Select Edit Caption Colors to configure the color settings of the asset.
Caption blinks when asset is in Alarm Check this option to have the caption text blink when the asset is in an alarmed status. If caption text flashing is also enabled, this will override it and the text will blink instead.
Icon Size The size of the asset.
Note: When Scale Elements with Icon Size is enabled, all elements in the icon scale proportionally when the asset icon size changes. When disabled, elements keep their original size and are not affected by asset icon size changes.

Edit Caption Colors

  1. To configure the color of the caption on the icon, click on the Edit Caption Colors button.
  2. Click Add and create a new Caption Mode. Fill in the chart according to the different fields:
    Property Description
    Bind Caption Color to Highest Priority Alarm Text Color When enabled, the caption color is determined by the highest-priority active alarm type across all currently visible layers. The asset's caption will use the Text Color of the alarm as defined in Alarm Management. Active alarms will override any expressions defined below regardless of priority.
    Priority The priority of the color expression. A lower number indicates a higher priority (1 is highest, 99 is lowest).
    Note: If multiple expressions are true in Runtime, the higher priority color will display.
    Friendly Name A name used to identify or describe the expression.
    Color The color that the caption will show in Runtime.
    Flash Color A checkbox that determines whether the Flash Color is used.
    Expression The expression that must evaluate to true for the specified color to be displayed.
    Note: If the expression is blank, it will always evaluate to true.
  3. After creating the Caption Mode, adjust its priority using the arrows to set its placement.

  4. Find the new Caption Mode under Caption in the Properties grid.

Alarms

Each element can optionally be bound to an alarm. The alarm is triggered when the element is visible. These settings are located under Selected Element Properties:

Property Description
Alarm Type The type of alarm which is fired when this element becomes visible.
Note: This will only take effect if Bind to Alarm is checked.
Bind to Alarm Check this to bind this element to an alarm when it is visible.
Note: When not checked, the values in Alarm Type and Is Latched will be ignored.
Is Latched Check this so that the Runtime operator must acknowledge and reset the alarm before it is cleared from the asset.
Note: When enabled, the alarm remains active and the element stays visible even if its visibility expression evaluates to false. The operator must acknowledge and reset the alarm before it clears. When disabled, the element always follows its visibility expression.

Appearance

An element can have its appearance modified for how it is displayed on the asset icon.

Property Description
Fill Color The color which fills the shape/symbol.
Flash Fill Color If Flash is enabled, the symbol will flash between its default Color and this one.
Line Color The color of the shape outline.
Flash Line Color If Flash is enabled, the symbol's outline will flash between its default Color and this one.
Text Color The color of the text.
Flash Text Color If Flash is enabled, the text will flash between its default Color and this one.
Is Bound to Alarm Colors When enabled, the symbol or text will use the color scheme defined by its associated alarm.
Note: This can only be enabled if Bind to Alarm is checked.
Is Flash Enabled When enabled, the symbol, image, or text will alternate between its default color and the Flash settings to create a flashing effect.
Note: When Bind to Alarm is checked, Is Flash Enabled is always true. While the alarm is unacknowledged, the layer flashes using its configured flash colors/images. Once the alarm is acknowledged, the layer remains visible and stops flashing.

Identification

Elements have three main identifiers:

Property Description
Friendly Name A name you can define to easily identify this element. This is the name which appears in both the Elements pane and in Workflow browsers.
ID The unique identifier for this element.
Note: ID is read only.
Logging Description The description of the element that will be written to the activity log if Include in Activity Log is checked.

Element Layout

The general layout of a specific element can be configured in its settings.

Property Description
Height The height of this element in pixels.
Width The width of this element in pixels.
X The X position of the left of the element.
Y The Y position of the top of the element.

Settings

These properties depend on the element type you select, but the following are consistent across all elements:

Property Description
Choose [Element] Select an element type based on the following options:
  • Image → Opens the resource picker to change the default image
    • Image Flash → Opens the resource picker to change the flashing image. When enabled, the element will alternate between the default image and the selected flash image whenever the element is in an alarm state.
  • SVG → Opens the file explorer to import a new SVG path
  • Symbol → Opens the Choose Symbol menu to change to a different symbol
Include in Activity Log The reporting logs show all of the visible elements in the status string for the asset. Check this box to include the symbol while visible.
Note: Checking the Include in Activity Log box will write the element's Logging Description to the Activity Log. If the Logging Description is left blank, the Friendly Name will be used instead.
Visibility Expression Editor The Visibility Expression Editor allows for the configuration of logical expressions.
Visibility Expression Text The text representation of the configured Visibility Expression.

Add an Element

When creating a custom asset type, the elements which are displayed can be any of the below types. Multiple elements of varying types can be added to a single asset type. They can each have their visibility changed separately to indicate status to the Runtime operator. See the Element Visibility section for further information.

Element Type Options Description
Image

 Choose Image — Select an image resource from the project to be displayed within this element.
Note: Choose Image Flash is available for elements that are images.
An image resource to be displayed on the asset icon.
Text

 Text — The text to be displayed. Some text to be displayed on the asset icon.
SVG (Advanced)

 SVG File — The file to import from the File Explorer. This imports the path data from an SVG file, allowing the fill color to be modified in Designer.
Note: The SVG does not use or create a resource file because Designer ingests and updates the path data directly.
 An SVG file to be displayed on the asset icon.
Symbol (Recommended)

 Select a symbol to be displayed from the symbols included in Designer. A symbol to be displayed on the asset icon.
Note: Expressions that are deemed invalid will cause the element to be highlighted with a red error icon. Additionally, a red X icon will appear beside the Visibility Expression Text until the Expression is fixed to help avoid a potential misconfiguration.

Element Visibility

Each element added to an asset type can be set to visible/invisible based on a set of conditions. For more information, go to the Visibility Expression Editor page.

Asset Events

Asset events are events used to trigger Workflow actions on an asset level. For more information about Workflows, see the Workflows section.

Element Changed

Triggered when the elements on an asset update. Only one trigger will fire for Element Changed even if multiple elements are changed at once.

Note: The trigger will not fire when:
  • An element is defined with no visibility expression.
  • An element is defined with a visibility expression that yields to false at startup.
  • Asset has no elements at all.

Status Word Changed

Triggered when the PLC Status Word changes regardless of whether it creates an element change.