Trilog 6.21 Printing of I/O Tables

[garysdickinson]

Will there be an option to reduce the font size (or use a fixed pitch font) when printing I/O tables?  

Long, but legal, names do not fit into the columns and overlap with the next column.

Example, "F1Key_EDGE" as a Input name will print across both the Inputs and Outputs column.

[support]

Thank you for your feedback. We will send the suggestion to the software development team for consideration for future release.

Meanwhile, you can affect the font size used in the program and the print out by changing the following line in the language file "en_language.txt":

fontIncrement   -2

In the above the font size used is shrunk by two points and would fit better into the printed table. Once you have printed the I/O table you can change back the fontIncrement to 0 or 1 for bigger font display on the TRiLOGI software.

[garysdickinson]

Thanks,
However "fontIncrment" had no effect on printing (nor anything else in the TL program.  I tried values of 6, 4, 2, 0, -2, -4 and  -6 and found no changes in appearance.  You might let your software team know that "fontIncrement" has not be implemented.

I found that I could change the font used by the TL program by modifying some of the other lines in the en_language.txt file:

sanSerifFontName   SansSerif
monospacedFontName   Monospaced
dialogFontName   Dialog
menuFontName   Dialog
functionmenuFontName   Monospaced
menuItemFontName   monospaced
labelFontName   Arial
labelNarrowFontName   Arial Narrow
commentFontName   Arial

It would be nice to be able to use a mono spaced font such as Courier New for comments in the ladder logic and for custom functions.  I am an old C++ programmer and try to make my code marginally readable. It is nearly imposible to format code using ASCII " " (space, 0x20) when working with non-monospaced fonts.  

Example code:


IF (E > 0)
  ClrIO Heat       ' Tank is above set point so no heat needed
  IF (E > 9)
    SetIO Cool       ' Turn on coolers at .1 above set point   
    IF (E > 300)
      SetIO TooHotErr ' Tank is way too hot
    ENDIF
  ENDIF
ELSE
  ClrIO Cool      ' Tank is at or below set point no cooling needed
  IF (E < -9)
    SetIO Heat      ' Turn on heaters at .1 below set point
    IF (E < -300)
      SetIO TooColdErr   ' Tank is way too cold
    ENDIF
  ENDIF
ENDIF

[support]

It should work. But you need to quite TRiLOGI program and restart for the new font size to take effect.

Make sure that you are editing the "en_language.txt" and not the "es_language.txt". The latter file is for Spanish Language.

When I tried it, I see that the custom function is printed using a fixed spaced font. However, the ladder logic comments are not printed with fixed space fonts.

[garysdickinson]

Thanks for the help.  I see that the custom functions are mono-spaced fonts. I see that the ladder logic comments use variable-pitched fonts.

I have restarted the TRiLOGI program after modifing the "en_language.txt" file, but still see no change in how the I/O Tables are printed.

I am editing the "en_language.txt" file, however I have two of them:

c:\program files\TRiLOGI\TL6\en_language.txt
c:\program files\TRiLOGI\TL6\public\en_language.txt

I have been editing BOTH versions to see if either one has any affect.

How about providing an option to output the I/O tables as a simple "CSV" formatted text file.  This could then be easily reformatted using EXCEL or WORD.

Gary D.

[support]

I am guessing - did you some how change the format of the fontIncrement field?

It should be

fontIncrement   -2

There is a <tab> right after the "fontIncrement" and then followed by a number. You must NOT  replace the <tab> character with space.

If it is working properly, you will see the font size change on the TRiLOGI menu the moment the program  start.

[garysdickinson]

The <tab> is still in the file.  

fontIncrement  -2 has no effect on the printing of the I/O tables.

If you label any Input, Output, Relay ... using more than 9 uppercase characters, the label will not print within the column width.
"12345678" prints within the "Inputs" column
"1234567890"  prints across both the "Inputs" and "Outputs" column.

I am unable to duplicate the behavior that you see for the"fontIncrement" parameter.  We must not be describing the same "elephant".

As you have evolved the programming logic to support longer label names, it would have been nice to have updated the printing routines to accommodate labels longer than 8 characters.


Thanks for your kind consideration.

Gary D

[support]

Thank you for your feedback. We certainly would look into updating the printing routine especially the I/O table. An export function to text file as per your suggestion would be a nice addition and this has already been submitted for consideration.