Create symbol indicators

Symbol indicators work well for showing the state of a process or operation at a glance. For example, you might create a symbol indicator with a picture of a pump and set up the states so that the pump changes colors to show the state:

  • red if there’s a problem
  • green if everything’s okay
  • yellow if there’s a warning
  • gray if the pump is not in use

You can assign unique attributes (such as color, blink, and so on) to every state, but the monochrome graphic image you assign to the indicator is used for all states.

You configure the state values of the symbol indicator. Then, at run time, the object displays the state whose value matches the Indicator connection value at the data source.

Tip:

If the value of the Indicator connection does not match any of the configured state values for the symbol indicator, the error state is shown.

To create a symbol indicator

  1. In the Graphics Display editor, select Indicator > Symbol from the Objects menu.
  2. Drag the mouse to position and draw a rectangle the general size and location you want the indicator to be.
  3. From the Image Browser, select a monochrome image to be shown on the object.

    When you assign a bitmap image to this object, the size changes to the size of the image plus the borders you configure, if any.

  4. Double-click the indicator to open its Properties dialog box.
  5. In the Properties dialog box, specify the indicator's appearance, and its tags.

    Tip:

    • The symbol indicator supports only monochrome bitmap images.
    • Before you can place an image in a display, you must import the image into your project.

See also

Set up general properties for a symbol indicator

Set up states for a symbol indicator

Set up connections for the symbol indicator

How the symbol indicator works at run time

Causes of run-time errors for the symbol indicator

Keywords: indicator