[AHA-123] Perspective Workstation and multiple instances on one monitor

Hello,

I have a customer that wants to use the Windows 11 tiling feature on a large screen 4k TV to display four Perspective views at once. I was hoping to be able to use the Perspective Workstation application for this. However, each instance that we load through that app creates a new session.

I was hoping to modify the workstation.json config file to support this, but it doesn't seem to work. Ultimately what I'm looking to do is to launch four instances of the main view for tiling, and another view to put on a different monitor (visible outside of the operator's room).

This is similar to the person requesting support for Ultrawide monitors here:
Perspective Multi Monitor on Ultrawide - Ignition - Inductive Automation Forum

Creating a new view with all four windows is just not an option for us right now as it would require too much project rework. What I ended up doing was using Edge to install the main view as an application and they can launch the four of those as needed.

Is there some way to achieve this with the Perspective Workstation application?

Can you explain further? It looks like you'd just need a view with four embedded views (not "windows" - that's a Vision term). That wouldn't take any significant effort. Is there some other consideration?

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If you want each screen to have its own page navigation in Workstation, you must use separate sessions (Workstation doesn't do tabs). If you use a browser, you can open four windows from one session.

Yes, I'm aware that windows are a Vision concept. I misspoke.

Well, I can open up four views, but I don't know how the menu would control each of those independently. They don't need just four fixed views; they need four instances of the entire SCADA project running as they are typically changing at least two of those views.

Yes, this is why I ended up using a Progressive Web App (PWA) so I'm ultimately just running four browser windows in a tiled configuration. It works well, but I'm wondering why can't I do this using Perspective Workstation? Each time I run the system from Perspective Workstation, it consumes another session. If we had unlimited sessions, this wouldn't be a problem.

If I could "trick" Windows into thinking this one monitor was four separate monitors, the Perspective Workstation would let me configure it as it does with multiple monitors right now.

If using Xubuntu or other linux distribution offering XFCE, you can use modern xrandr --setmonitor to create virtual desktops to which you can target Perspective Workstation.

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Correct me if I am wrong here, but you are trying to use five sessions on a gateway that has only got a license for one?

I presume that's a yes.

I think you'll have to rework your perspective project to use embedded views in each quadrant of the screen. I remember digging into this once for a customer who was thinking of going to Perspective and using 4 "virtual" monitors, but we ended up doing Vision instead, so it wasn't an issue, but I was able to do something like this using embedded views if I recall when I tested it.

Would you call opening up five Perspective tabs using five licenses?

Our license has two sessions available and opening up multiple browser windows/tabs only counts as one session. Opening multiple Perspective views using the multi-monitor support in Perspective Workstation only counts as one session as well.

Right, as expected. They share authentication cookies, so it is just one session.

If you open a private tab in a browser, it will get a new set of cookies, and therefore will be a new session.

Bottom line: I don't know if you will succeed in Windows. A possibility exists in Linux.

I'm actually not sure from a licensing side of things what they count, but each browser from a programming perspective is a new session I believe (I could be wrong)

Thanks Michael, I agree that would probably be a good solution. It's not viable for me right now so I'm good with the PWA approach.

This is something we are looking into for Workstation. There is no ETA or anything yet, but its on our radar.

Thanks,
Jonathan C

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I haven't tested...consider this a brainstorm...
Wondering if you could install a few virtual displays, then use existing PW config to load a different page per 'display'. If the application does open all desired windows, dragging & docking them all on a single monitor might prove difficult.

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I haven't used one, but there are some virtual splitters you could try, here's one.

Monitor Splitting • Features • DisplayFusion by Binary Fortress Software.

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Perhaps a bit overkill, but I can’t recommend this monitor enough - not only is it a docking station replacement, it can also be configured as 1,2,3 or 4 separate displays. Even has KVM and PiP functionality.

I’ve probably purchased ~15 of them so far across control rooms (replaced 20 displays with 5 of these), overhead displays, personal office/home…

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