Internet PLC Forum

General => Technical support => Topic started by: garysdickinson on October 23, 2014, 09:59:51 PM

Title: i-TRiLOGI V7.03 User interaface problems.
Post by: garysdickinson on October 23, 2014, 09:59:51 PM

I've encountered a bunch of issues with the user interface in V7.03

• Define Variable Names.  It is nearly impossible to delete a row in the table. Right clicking to get the pop up menu and selecting "Delete Row" does not seem to work.
• Cut, Delete Ladder logic commands that bring up the dialog that has the "From Circuit #" and "To Circuit #" boxes has problems if you change the "From Circuit #" to anything but the current Circuit number.  Odd things get deleted.  If you have to scroll down the ladder logic to verify a ladder logic line number the cut/delete commands will usually delete some random stuff. This is a very scary behavior.
• Ladder logic editor problems with the "Select a Sequencer" window.  If you press "enter" to confirm that you want the highlighted Sequencer 1..8 will insert a contact for SeqN:0 without bringing up the "Enter Step #(0-31) dialog.  The only way to get the "Enter Step # (0-31) dialog is to left click on the "select a Sequencer" window.
• On a ladder rung that ends with {dCustF} it is not possible to bring up the "Edit Label Name" dialog.  To change the name you either have to delete the {dCustF} terminator and enter a new one or you have to add a new one in parallel and delete the original.  The "Edit Label Name" dialog works for most other contacts and terminators.
• The "Edit" menu hints that Ctrl-X can be used as a short cut for Cut Circuit.  Ctrl-X seems to be ignored by the ladder logic editor.
• The use of the Delete key in the ladder logic editor (to delete a contact) affects the state of the text editor.  If you use the Delete key, then the text editor changes behavior to overwrite mode.  To fix this you have to press the "Insert" key while in the text editor (custom functions).  This is annoying and messy.
• If you use "Find & Replace I/O Labels" in the ladder logic, it will take you to the rung that contains the label. If you then attempt to scroll up or down in the ladder logic you are taken back to the first rung in the logic.  To keep this from happening after using the "Find" I click the "Circuit # nn" button and enter the circuit number that the is shown on the screen, now the screen allows me to scroll.

Just add 'em to the list.

Gary D.

Title: Re:i-TRiLOGI V7.03 User interaface problems.
Post by: support on October 24, 2014, 12:35:17 AM

We don't experience the problem you reported when i-TRiLOGI runs on JRE 1.4.2.

I recall in one of your earlier post:

http://www.triplc.com/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=2113

You are probably using JRE 1.7 to run the i-TRiLOGI. I suspect that there is compatibility problem with the JRE 1.7.

Try to go back to using JRE 1.4.2 to run the i-TRiLOGI and see if you have a different experience.

Current i-TRiLOGI are compiled using JDK for 1.4.2. I think the JRE 1.7 probably doesn't handle it too well.

In order to run i-TRiLOGI on JRE 1.7 I think they have to be compiled with newer JDK. But there may be other issues that we still do not know yet if we were to migrate to 1.7.

Java is supposed to compile once and run everywhere. Unfortunately in real life that ideal is never realized - a reason why we stick to the Java that we know that works best with i-TRiLOGI.

Title: Re:i-TRiLOGI V7.03 User interaface problems.
Post by: garysdickinson on October 24, 2014, 09:50:02 AM

Yes, you are correct, I was using Java 1.7  and the following problems are seem to go away if I go back to the old, unsupported Java 1.4.2 that doesn't work well with Win7 (64 bit):

• Define Variable Names.  It is nearly impossible to delete a row in the table. Right clicking to get the pop up menu and selecting "Delete Row" does not seem to work.
• Ladder logic editor problems with the "Select a Sequencer" window.  If you press "enter" to confirm that you want the highlighted Sequencer 1..8 will insert a contact for SeqN:0 without bringing up the "Enter Step #(0-31) dialog.  The only way to get the "Enter Step # (0-31) dialog is to left click on the "select a Sequencer" window.

However the following issues remain with JRE 1.4.2:

• Cut, Delete Ladder logic commands that bring up the dialog that has the "From Circuit #" and "To Circuit #" boxes has problems if you change the "From Circuit #" to anything but the current Circuit number.  Odd things get deleted.  If you have to scroll down the ladder logic to verify a ladder logic line number the cut/delete commands will usually delete some random stuff. This is a very scary behavior.
• On a ladder rung that ends with {dCustF} it is not possible to bring up the "Edit Label Name" dialog.  To change the name you either have to delete the {dCustF} terminator and enter a new one or you have to add a new one in parallel and delete the original.  The "Edit Label Name" dialog works for most other contacts and terminators.
• The "Edit" menu hints that Ctrl-X can be used as a short cut for "Cut Circuit".  Ctrl-X seems to be ignored by the ladder logic editor.
• The use of the Delete key in the ladder logic editor (to delete a contact) affects the state of the text editor.  If you use the Delete key, then the text editor changes behavior to overwrite mode.  To fix this you have to press the "Insert" key while in the text editor (custom functions).  This is annoying and messy.
• If you use "Find & Replace I/O Labels" in the ladder logic, it will take you to the rung that contains the label. If you then attempt to scroll up or down in the ladder logic you are taken back to the first rung in the logic.  To keep this from happening after using the "Find" I click the "Circuit # nn" button and enter the circuit number that the is shown on the screen, now the screen allows me to scroll.

The Cut circuit problem can be tested as follows:

• Create ladder logic that consists of 12-13 rungs.  I used comments that included the circuit number to see which rungs were actually cut.
• Size the i-TRiLOGI window so that the last of the ladder rungs is not visible without scrolling.
• Click on circuit #1 (the red triangle will be visible to the left of the rung.
• Edit->Cut Circuit   Now enter 4 for the "From Circuit #" and 5 for the "To Circuit #"
• Click on "Yes" to confirm the cuts

You will see that circuits 1 and 2 have been deleted (WRONG!).  If you go to the end of the file and enter Ctrl-V to "paste" the cut circuits back into the file you will see that circuits 4 and 5 are pasted back into the program.  I don't think that you can blame this on Java.  

The Cut Circuits mechanism only works correctly if you are positioned on the line that you wan to "Cut".  It appears that the first line deleted is determined by the position in the file and not the entry in the "From Circuit #" dialog.  The number of lines deleted appears to be a function of the difference between the "From " and "To " boxes.  The lines that are saved in the copy buffer for the "Cut Circuits" appears to be determined by the "From " and "To " boxes.

The inability to edit the label name of a {dCusF} is just irritating.  Since you have no problem with this, I must not be pushing the right buttons.  Can you tell me exactly which keys or mouse buttons I should be using to to edit the label name for a {dCusF} terminator?

The next three issues are just messy programming and and I can just continue to work around these behaviors.

Best Regards

Gary D.