HMI overview

The HMI for your project is composed of mimics. Mimics are easily and quickly developed to form menus, overviews, process diagrams, trend viewers and so on. They may be linked together, using animations, mainly link open and link close, thus allowing navigating across views, usually in a hierarchical way.

Each mimic is contained within a window of which the properties are individually selected including the size and position on the screen, the ability to move or re-size the window and the access level.

Operational modes

Mimics may be displayed in a number of modes selected from Mode toolbar.

• Run. In run mode, the animated properties of drawing elements in the mimic are updated in real time. It is not possible to change the properties of any drawing in the mimic or its support window.
• Test. Test is a sub-mode of run and is only operational when run mode is selected. In test mode, the variables used in any animations are disconnected from their source and may have their real time value manually forced.
• Design. In Design mode, the properties of drawing elements do not update in real time. Drawing elements may be added, modified and deleted and the support window modified. This is the mode of operation used whilst developing a mimic.

The HMI is based on the Microsoft Document View architecture that allows you to have several instances of the same mimic open simultaneously. Each instance is contained within its own support window. For example, you could have one instance open in Design mode and another in Run mode.

The Mode toolbar

The Mode toolbar is used to switch a window and the mimic it contains between Design and Run modes and to zoom in and out.

	Switch the selected view of the mimic to Design mode.
	Switch the selected view of the mimic to Run mode.
	Switch all mimics to Design mode.
	Switch all mimics to Run mode.
	Switch the selected view of the mimic to Reference mode 1.
	Switch the selected view of the mimic to Reference mode 2.
	Switch the selected view of the mimic to Test mode.
	Clicking on the Zoom In tool will change the cursor to a magnifying glass with a plus sign in the center. If you then click on an opened mimic, the view of it will zoom in (its physical size on the screen will get larger). You may zoom in to a maximum of 6400 % of the original size. To de-select the Zoom In mode, click on the tool again.
	Clicking on the Zoom Out tool will change the cursor to a magnifying glass with a minus sign in the center. If you then click on an opened mimic the view of it will zoom out. (Its physical size on the screen will get smaller) The maximum zoom out is 2% - that is the mimic is displayed on the screen one fiftieth of its normal size. To de-select the Zoom Out mode, click on the tool again.
	Return the selected mimic to normal size (1:1).
	Clicking on the Zoom Area tool will change the cursor to a magnifying glass. You can then click and drag a band to zoom into a specific area of a mimic. The zoomed mimic may open in the same or a different window depending on the configuration selected in Configure.Options.Magnifying Glass Mode. To de-select the Zoom Area mode, click on the tool again.
	Close any windows opened as the result of using the Zoom Area tool. The original copy of the window remains open.

Designing a Mimic Hierarchy

The mimic hierarchy determines the way in which a user navigates around the project at runtime. As a user will normally not have access to the development tools which open mimics, consideration must be given as to how mimics are linked together. A typical hierarchy might contain:

• Main menu
• Sub-menus
• Plant wide overview
• Process diagrams
• Management information
• Diagnostic displays
• Trend displays
• Alarm displays
• Log list displays

The mimic hierarchy may be designed so that the mimics available at any time are dependent on the access rights of the current user.

Mimics for Web and Mobile Applications

Mimics and symbols to be viewed in the web and / or mobile applications, such as WebVue and SnapVue, are also developed and tested using the desktop HMI workspace. In the web and mobile applications they can only be viewed in run mode.

Functionality and behavior differences exist for mimics used in the desktop HMI workspace compared to their usage in a Web or Mobile application. See the Functionality Checklist topic in the WebVue book for further information.