User-friendly environment

iX facilitates an integrated work flow where design and functionality, screens and projects are managed effectively within the same user-friendly environment from project start to finished application. In iX, no barriers exist between design and engineering. You create and configure HMI solutions in a streamlined user-friendly Windows environment with ribbon tabs, tooltips and an intuitive work approach.

Templates

iX supports working with templates, offering increased brand consistency with uniform corporate screens and objects. Time saving design, reuse and maintenance of a smaller number of templates instead of maintaining individual background screens contributes significantly to design efficiency.

 

 

 

 

Quick styles

iX offers easy styling of objects and screens with predefined quick styles offering a uniform appearance for different objects. Quick styles may affect object properties like shape fill and outline, drop shadow and bevel settings, etc. Define your own quick styles by modifying existing ones and adding them to the quick styles palette.

 

 

 

 

 

Styles

Styles are predefined graphical preferences in objects and help you create a uniform graphical standard in your applications. Styles advance your brand consistency and allow you to tailor the look of your application using one of the predefined styles. Combined with the quick styles it’s very easy to achieve a simple, yet structured working process with the overall design of your project.
 

 

 

Property grid

The properties of any screen or object can be viewed or edited in the property grid, containing all relevant properties of the object. Properties can be grouped in categories or sorted alphabetically with the controls in the upper right corner of the property window.

The Property Grid is available as a tab at the right-hand side of the desktop. The window is configured with autohide functions, and can also be activated/deactivated from the View tab. Its appearance can be managed just as other tools; as docked or floating windows.

Simulation

Off-line simulation enables you to carry out simulations in you application without connecting the controllers. Online simulation allows you to carry out real-time simulations in your application with live data from the connected controllers. Off- and online line simulations with or without live data from controllers provides safe and reliable means to test HMI applications.

Navigation manager

The navigation manager is used to manage screens and their relations with respect to project navigation in runtime. The navigation manager can be activated or deactivated from the view tab, and appears as a tab in the desktop area. The navigation manager provides an overview of all screens in the current project.

Object browser

With the iX object browser you have superior control of objects while designing screens for your HMI solution. iX places objects in a stacking order as you create them. The object browser enables you to rearrange the stacking order of objects on a screen, as well as lock/unlock and hide/unhide objects.

Multiple objects editing

iX supports multiple objects editing. This means that by selecting a group of objects, you can easily edit one or more common properties such as background color, font, security settings, tag, etc. for all selected objects at the same time.

Format painter tool

iX offers many clever editing tools. The format painter tool is one of them and can be used to copy formatted properties from one object to another. To apply formatting to another object, simply click on the object with the desired format and font properties, select the format painter tool and the mouse pointer changes to a paintbrush. Click on the object to format and the properties of the first object is applied to the selected object.

Multiple actions

iX offers the use of multiple actions, an easy way for a developer to configure a series of commands executed by a single trigger. If for example a button is pressed, a new value can be set to a tag, or the screen picture may change, and an unlimited number of actions can be linked to the same trigger event. The multiple actions command is the user-friendly way to establish a macro instead of using e.g. script code to perform the different actions.

 

Tag conditioned actions

iX offers the use of tag conditions, an easy way for a developer to configure a command based on the value or value range of a tag. When a tag value is within a specific range, an action like e.g. go to screen, load recipe, etc. is executed.

 

Multiple displays

In the design and engineering phase, iX provides you with multiple screens to present you with as large a working surface as possible. In operation, multiple screens offer a wide operational panorama, allowing operators to work in a number of screens simultaneously.

Debugging via MS

The debugging via MS function links to a user defined debugger e.g. MS Visual Studio 2010. Activate the link and the debugger automatically starts up with the relevant source files loaded.

 

Expressions

The Expressions feature makes it possible to connect an object to a tag, without using the tag value exactly as it is. Expressions enables the user to e.g. extract a bit from a tag, add a dynamic offset or gain, and use the value for a specific object action.

 

Auto translate

The Auto translate feature of iX allows developers to use Google Translate or MS Bing Translator to perform translation within the design tool.
 

 

Import/export

Incorporate or exchange tag lists, alarm definitions, multi languages in Excel data sheet format via the import/export function.

 

 

Import tags

Import and incorporate tag lists directly from e.g. Mitsubishi Electric, Siemens, Beckhoff and CoDeSys programming software.

 

More demo applications

When you come into contact with a new software tool it’s always difficult to find the right way to use it. iX V1.30 offer several demo applications to make the start-up easier. Use the extended demo project list to get inspiration for your own solutions. Choose an example, learn the functionality and design your own individual screen.

 

Template screens

iX supports working with templates, offering increased brand consistency with uniform corporate screens and objects. Benefit in using the comprehensive selection of new templates. Time saving design, reuse and maintenance of a smaller number of templates instead of maintaining individual background screens contribute significantly to design efficiency.

 

Improved help

Help files are standard in high-quality software solutions. They vary between plain text files and audio or video supported instructions. Use the improved help files in the iX Developer and watch the movie clips to understand the various functions easily. Embedded clips show how to use the extensive tools and objects.

 

Improved docking framework

Take advantage of the new window docking framework to improve project management. Create new horizontal windows and drag and drop screens/objects between visible windows.

 

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