Designing Panel Pages
15
TPDesign3 Touch Panel Program
Designing Panel Pages
This section allows you to quickly create a project, page, button, and then download the project to a
touch panel via AXlink. The project file programs consist of individual pages (screens) containing
jumps to other pages, links to popup pages, or control commands for devices.
Defining your Preferences
Before beginning the development of any project, you
must first define
the panel preferences that
will govern the touch panel project. Three preferences take precedence in the TPDesign3 project
unless altered by dialog boxes such as:
Panel Properties
,
Page Color
, and
Button Colors
Schemes
. Refer to the previous sections covering these dialog boxes for more detailed information
about the hierarchy of each dialog's properties in relation to
Edit: Preferences
.
The Preferences tabs (FIG. 4) show the defaults associated with the TPDesign3 project file. Any
time a change is made to any of these tabs, the change is stored with the project file. Color changes
in the Buttons Colors Scheme dialog box, takes precedent over the color values in the Default
Colors tab, as long as the TPDesign3 session (program) is active. When the session is closed, any
new buttons retain the properties of the Default Colors tab.
To set up application preferences:
1.
Select Preferences from the Edit drop-down menu. The Preferences dialog boxes appear
(FIG. 4).
The Applications tab focuses on the Panel Explorer (open/closed).
2.
Under Panel Explorer, select or deselect the desired options associated with the Panel Explorer
dialog box.
3.
Click Snap to Grid to set an invisible grid for alignment purposes. Then select the width
between the invisible gridlines (2, 4, 8, or 16 pixels). When the project is begun, objects on the
page will snap to the grid when the Snap To Grid button is selected from the Main Toolbar and
applied to a button. This settings works in conjunction with the Snap to Grid button in the Edit
drop-down menu. Refer to the Snap To Grid information on page 9 for more information.
4.
Click on any of the desired options in the Miscellaneous section of the Application tab.
FIG. 4
(Panel) Preferences dialog boxes
