Hello,
Ignition beginner here, working on a machine control Edge HMI project for a building component saw.
Here's what I am trying to accomplish:
-
Import data to Ignition from a text file on the hard drive. This data contains machine setup information for jobs. The text file has no line breaks, no separators of any kind. It has to be parsed out into rows (row = setup info for one part), and each row gets split into about 29 individual tags (columns), mostly integers and a few strings. Typically there will be 10 to 30 rows.
-
The operator needs to be able to essentially select a row, and use the data in that row to set up the machine. I think I basically need to indirectly reference the row data based on a row index, and copy that data to the machine operating variables.
-
The data is each row contains dimensions and angles for a part to be cut. I want to to generate a basic 2D geometric shape based on these dimensions, as a visual for the operator.
-
I want to be able to display a scrollable list of these visuals, so the operator can easily choose the part he needs.
What I need help with for now:
-
What's the best way to store this "part setup data", in order to be able to easily reference it by row index and view/use it? The columns never change, but the number of rows will change depending on how many parts are in the setup file.
-
I'm thinking that I need to make a template with a Paintable Canvas for my visual, and then use a template repeater to display a list of these visuals for all the parts (rows) extracted from my setup file. Does this sound reasonable?
What I've already figured out:
I've gotten the scripting done for loading a setup file via a file browser, load the file contents into a String tag in Ignition, split it into rows, and extract the columns for each row.
Hopefully this makes some sense!
Here is a snippet of a sample setup file that I'll be loading into Ignition.
Here's roughly what I want my part visualization's to look like. The numbers shown here for the angles and lengths come from the rows in the part setup files, and will be used to generate the shape via Paintable Canvas, hopefully.
