JP5806061B2 - Programmable display support device, program thereof, and operation screen batch change support method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a support device for a programmable display, and more particularly to a support function for creating / changing an operation screen of a display.

  Currently, as a system related to a PLC (programmable controller), a PLC main body that controls various devices to be controlled (transmission of control signals, collection of various state data, etc.), a programmable display connected to the PLC main body, and this programmable A PLC system having a support device connected to a display is known.

  On the programmable display, display components (switches, etc.) for the user to give arbitrary instructions to the PLC main unit, and display components (lamps, numerical displays) for displaying various status data collected by the PLC main unit. A screen (referred to as an operation screen) on which are displayed. Usually, a plurality of types of operation screens are prepared. For example, a user switches to a desired operation screen and is monitored / controlled by the various display components on the currently displayed operation screen ( The switch is operated by the user, and the numerical display is visually recognized).

  Such an operation screen is arbitrarily created in the support device and downloaded to the programmable display. The support device has a function for supporting a programmer or the like to create / change a desired operation screen.

  Further, for example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a control display device that can collectively change the color tone and design of a setting screen displayed in an offline mode. Thereby, the administrator who operates the control display device in the offline mode can customize the display of the setting screen according to his / her preference and necessity.

  The programmable display of the cited document 1 can change the color tone and theme of all setting screens collectively according to the operation of the administrator, or can actually set the setting items that can be set according to the operation of the administrator. The setting items to be displayed can be changed.

JP 2006-134095 A

  Here, for example, in paragraph 0007 of the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, “the offline mode mainly includes characters for specifying setting items, setting contents, and the like. Compared to the display screen (for example, the shape of the device according to the external appearance of the device), the types are greatly limited. " The display screen is different from the operation screen.

  Further, in paragraph 0088 of the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, for example, in the invention of Patent Document 1, the range of changing the color tone / theme is limited to the setting screen displayed in the offline mode. It is explained that changing the theme does not affect the normal operation screen.

  For example, in paragraph 0061 of Patent Document 1, the color tone of the setting screen is controlled by controlling the background color and the character color (character color) in the setting screen, and the background color and the character color are changed. It is described that the data shown is stored as color tone data.

  Here, as is well known, the above “normal operation screen” (hereinafter referred to as “operation screen”) in a programmable display is generally a switch, button, lamp, meter display, or graph display. In many cases, images of various screen components such as numerical displays are arranged on the screen. These switches, buttons, lamps, meter displays, graph displays, numerical displays, etc. are referred to as item types. Normally, various types of screen parts are prepared for each item type (created and stored in advance). For example, there are various types of switches even if they are referred to as switches, and this also applies to lamps and numerical displays, and such a classification is referred to as “part type”. For example, when there is a “part type” of switch A, switch B, and switch C regarding the switch, the difference between switch A, switch B, and switch C is basically the shape or / and function. Basically, it is only necessary to prepare an image for each “component type”. In the above example, three types of component images need only be prepared for the switch. Then, when the user creates an arbitrary operation screen, if the screen component “switch A” is selected and arranged at an arbitrary position on the screen, the component image of the switch A is arranged at this arrangement position. Become.

  However, at present, for example, the component image corresponding to “switch A” is not limited to one type as described above, and a plurality of types are often prepared. In particular, there are many cases where a plurality of types are prepared according to the theme and color. In this way, screen components (or only the component images may be prepared) are prepared for each ““ component type ”+ theme / color”, so that there are many types of screen components.

  The various screen components (its functions, image data, etc.) are created in advance and stored in the storage unit (hard disk, etc.) of the “support device”. When an arbitrary user creates an arbitrary operation screen in the “support device”, one or more arbitrary screen components are selected from the various screen components stored in advance, and an arbitrary screen on the operation screen is selected. The work to arrange at the position will be performed.

  As described above, the image data of each screen component mainly includes a shape (figure), a theme, a color, and the like. The theme means, for example, metallic tone, real tone, woodgrain tone, and monochrome. Even if the shapes (graphics) are the same, if the theme, color, etc. are different, they are handled as different screen components, and each screen component is prepared and stored in advance. That is, as described above, a screen component is prepared for each ““ component type ”+ theme / color”.

In other words, there are a plurality (large number) of screen parts having the same shape and function but different themes and colors.
In this way, in the case of the operation screen of the programmable display, the color tone / theme can be changed by simply changing the background color or changing the character color uniformly as in the setting screen, for example, when the color is taken as an example. However, it is necessary to replace each screen component arranged on the above-described operation screen with a screen component corresponding to a specified color tone.

  The screen data of the operation screen basically includes various screen components arranged on the operation screen and data related to the arrangement thereof. That is, for each screen component arranged on the screen, the screen data of the operation screen is composed of the position coordinates of the screen component, processing function, item type (or component type), bitmap file name, and the like. .

  The image data files of the various screen parts are given arbitrary file names in advance (may be decided arbitrarily by the creator, etc.), and this is the bitmap file name (screen part image file). Name).

  Here, there is a case where it is desired to change the operation screen so as to unify the atmosphere. For example, there is a case where it is desired to unify the overall metallic tone. Here, in general, several types of operation screens (several tens of types; more than 100 types are possible) are created. This is, for example, an accumulation of what was appropriately created as needed during years of operation. Further, when the operation screen, which is the operation / display screen, is created according to each control target, the number of operation screens increases as the number of control targets increases.

  In this way, there are cases where it is desired to unify all of the plurality of (many) operation screens that have already been created, for example, in a metallic style. The reason is, for example, the fashion (the metallic style is popular recently). In such a case, for example, in the near future, there is a possibility that a wood grain tone will become popular. In that case, this time, it will be necessary to unify the wood grain.

  Alternatively, for example, when the operation target device by the programmable display is a manufacturing apparatus that manufactures some product, for example, the operation screen of the programmable display related to the manufacture of the product A is all unified in a metallic style, and the product B is manufactured. It is also possible to unify all the operation screens of the programmable display in a wood grain. Thus, for example, even when two programmable displays related to the manufacture of these products A and B are arranged at a location close to each other and the contents of the operation screen are similar to each other, the worker can maintain the atmosphere of the screen. Since it can be easily grasped which product A / product B is the programmable display by (metallic tone or woodgrain tone), it is possible to reduce the possibility of some mistakes.

  Here, as described above, each operation screen is composed of a plurality of screen components arranged on the operation screen. Therefore, in the above example, all the existing operation screens are all displayed on the operation screen. The theme of the image of the screen parts will be changed to a metallic tone.

However, conventionally, such a change operation is very time-consuming.
That is, conventionally, for each operation screen, it is necessary to change the theme, color, etc. of the screen component for every screen component on the operation screen. For example, as described above, even if the color is simply different, it is handled as a separate part, and therefore the bitmap file name is naturally different. For example, in the example of the switch already described, there are three types of switches (switch A, switch B, switch C) having different shapes and functions as described above, and a screen corresponding to the theme, color, etc. for each of these switches. Parts are created and stored in advance.

  In this example, for example, when it is desired to unify the above, for example, when it is desired to unify in “real-tone blue”, if the switch A is arranged at an arbitrary position on an arbitrary operation screen, the above-mentioned There is no change in the position coordinates, processing function, item type, etc., but the bitmap file name is changed to the image file name of the image whose shape etc. is switch A and “real and blue” Must be.

  Therefore, conventionally, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, after the user designates an arbitrary screen component (for example, one related to the switch A) by the mouse operation or the like (if the component type is the same) For example, when “change parts” is instructed, a list of images of various screen parts created and stored in advance is displayed as shown in FIG. 6A, and the user can select from the list display. For example, when the above-mentioned “image having a shape such as switch A and“ real blue ”” is found and selected, the screen components on the operation screen are selected as shown in FIG. 6B. It is designed to be replaced with a part.

  Although not shown in the figure, if there are a switch B and a lamp D on the operation screen, the user can perform substantially the same operation as the designation / instruction / selection operation related to the switch A. By doing this, the screen parts of “images whose shape etc. is switch B and“ realistic blue ”” and “images whose shape etc. are lamp D and“ realistic blue ”” are displayed. , Each will be replaced.

  As shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6B, when there are a plurality of screen parts having the same part type on the operation screen, the plurality of screen parts can be collectively designated to collectively The selected screen part can be replaced.

The list may be displayed only for screen components having the same item type as the item type of the designated screen component (for example, a list of switches is displayed).
When the above-described user's work is performed for all screen parts on the operation screen, the same work is performed for all other operation screens, so that all the screen parts of all the operation screens are “real-tone”. It becomes possible to unify to “blue”.

However, since the above-described operation is performed, particularly when the number of existing operation screens is large, it is very time-consuming.
Also, unlike the setting screen, which only requires changing the background color or changing the text color uniformly, in the case of the operation screen, changing the shape, theme, color, etc. changes the bitmap file name. You may consider it to mean. Therefore, in other words, the theme, color, etc. cannot be changed as instructed unless the screen parts (its bitmap file name) corresponding to the designated shape, theme, color, etc. are known. That is, even if it is going to apply the method of the said patent document 1 to an operation screen, it cannot do.

  An object of the present invention is a support device that supports creation / change work of an operation screen of a programmable display, and themes / colors of all screen components on each screen are uniformly the same for a plurality of existing operation screens. When changing, the user simply specifies the desired theme / color, determines the image file name after changing all screen parts, and changes the image file name, so that all of the existing operation screens can be changed. The object is to provide a programmable display support device or the like that can change the theme / color of screen parts to the same one.

  The support device of the programmable display of the present invention is a support device that supports creation / change work of an operation screen in which one or more screen parts to be displayed on the programmable display are arranged, and for each theme in advance, Theme corresponding base name storage means storing the base name of the image file of each screen component corresponding to the theme, and if any theme / color is specified, each screen component constituting the existing operation screen In addition, the image file name of the screen component is obtained by referring to the component arrangement information related to the screen component, a part of the image file name is extracted as a search word, and the theme correspondence is performed using the extracted search word Image file name determination means for acquiring the base name corresponding to the specified theme relating to the screen component by searching the base name storage means, and each screen For each screen part to be processed, a symbol corresponding to the specified color is obtained for the base name corresponding to the specified theme obtained by the image file name determination unit. By adding, an image file name corresponding to the designated theme / color is generated, and the image file name in the component arrangement information relating to the processing target screen component is replaced with the generated image file name File name changing means.

  According to the support device for a programmable display of the present invention, the support device supports the creation / change operation of the operation screen of the programmable display, and themes of all screen parts on each screen for a plurality of existing operation screens / When changing the color to the same one, the user simply specifies the desired theme / color, determines the image file name after changing all the screen parts, and changes the image file name. The theme / color of all screen parts of a plurality of operation screens can be changed to the same one.

It is a schematic block diagram of the whole PLC system which concerns on the assistance apparatus of this example. (A) is a screen and (b) is an example of component arrangement information. It is an example of a base name table corresponding to a theme. (A), (c) is an example of an operation screen creation / editing screen (before and after change), and (b) is an example of a batch change designation screen. It is an example of an operation screen creation / edit screen and is a diagram showing a state before change. (A) is a list display selection screen, (b) is an example of an operation screen creation / editing screen, and shows a state after change.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of the entire PLC system according to the support device of the present example.
The illustrated PLC system includes a PLC main body 3, a programmable display 2 connected to the PLC main body 3, and a support device 1 connected to the programmable display 2.

The PLC main body 3 controls various devices to be controlled (not shown) (control signal transmission, collection of various state data, etc.).
The programmable display 2 displays the above-described “operation screen” in which various screen components are arranged at arbitrary coordinate positions on the screen. As described above, this is because the user collects screen components (switches and the like) for giving an arbitrary instruction to the PLC main unit 3 and the PLC main unit 3 collected from a control target device (not shown). An operation screen is displayed in which screen components (lamps, numerical display units, etc.) for displaying various state data are arranged at arbitrary positions. In general, a plurality of types of operation screens are registered. For example, the operation screen is switched to the operation screen desired by the user by the user's operation, and the user can operate the switch and the lamp / The numerical display is visually recognized.

  The operation screen created and held in the support device 1 is downloaded to the programmable display 2 in accordance with a user instruction or the like at any time. Further, there is a case where the support screen 1 is changed / updated with respect to the operation screen that has already been created and downloaded to the programmable display device 2, and this method is mainly used in such a situation, particularly in a plurality of (many). With respect to the existing operation screen, when the images of all the screen components on all the operation screens are uniformly changed to have the same theme / color, the user's work load can be greatly reduced. Note that this is an example, and as will be described later, all existing operation screens are not necessarily processing targets (they are the same theme / color).

  As already described in the background art and problems, the screen data of each operation screen is composed of information related to a plurality of screen components (items) arranged on the screen. For example, it is assumed that there are a screen A, a screen B, and a screen C as shown in FIG. As shown in the drawing, arbitrary screen components (items such as switches and lamps) are arranged at arbitrary positions on each screen. As shown in the figure, there are a plurality of types of screen parts for each item type (for example, for each switch and lamp). This is because the screen components (images) differ not only when the component type (shape / function, etc.) is different, but also due to differences in color, theme, etc. Become.

  As already described, the theme is, for example, metallic tone, real tone, woodgrain tone, monochrome, or the like. Thus, the theme may be regarded as meaning, for example, “design”.

The screen data of the operation screen has, for example, component arrangement information shown in FIG. 2B for each screen component arranged on each operation screen.
The component arrangement information 20 shown in FIG. 2B includes an item type 21, coordinates 22, functions 23, pattern number 24, bitmap file name 25, and the like.

  Item type 21 is the item type of the screen component. The item type is, for example, a switch or a lamp. The coordinates 22 are, for example, XY coordinate data indicating the position coordinates on the screen where the screen component (item) is arranged. The function 23 is a function of the screen component (a function related to ON / OFF if it is a switch, for example, a function that switches between ON and OFF each time it is pressed, or ON only while the user continues to press it. Is stored). The number of patterns 24 is not specifically described. In addition, for example, there may be information on the component type.

The bitmap file name 25 is the file name (bitmap file name) of the image data of the screen component.
Here, even if the bitmap file name 25 is changed in the component arrangement information 20, the processing function of the screen component does not change (only the appearance changes). In other words, if you want to change the appearance (theme or color) of the screen parts on the operation screen without changing the function or position, acquire the changed screen parts and place them on the operation screen. Even if the process (replaces the screen component before the change) is not performed, it is only necessary to change the bitmap file name 25 of the existing component arrangement information 20. In this example, this point is used for the process of collectively changing the theme / color of the screen parts.

  The screen data described above is created by the support device 1 and downloaded to the programmable display 2 and stored in the storage unit (memory) on the programmable display 2 side, but may remain on the support device 1 side ( If it is not left, it will be obtained by uploading from the programmable display 2 whenever necessary). The support device 1 has a function for supporting an arbitrary operation screen creation work by the user, a function for supporting correction / change work of a created (downloaded) operation screen, and the like (both are existing general functions). Yes, explanation is omitted).

  The support device 1 further has various functions shown in FIG. 1 in addition to the existing various functions. That is, the support apparatus 1 includes various functional units such as a theme-corresponding base name storage unit 11, an image file name determination unit 12, and an image file name change unit 13.

  In terms of hardware, the support device 1 is, for example, a general general-purpose computer (such as a personal computer or a server device), and has a configuration of a general computer device although not particularly illustrated. That is, the computer device that implements the support device 1 includes, for example, a CPU / MPU, a hard disk, a storage unit such as a memory, a display unit such as a display, an operation unit such as a keyboard / mouse, various input / output interfaces, a communication function unit, etc. None of them are shown).

  The storage unit stores various screen components, screen data of each operation screen (consisting of the component arrangement information 20 and the like), and the like. It is assumed that the screen data file of each operation screen is given an arbitrary file name (referred to as an operation screen name) by the creator when the operation screen is created. The storage unit may store a list of operation screen names of all operation screens stored in the storage unit. And the uniform change process of the theme / color which will be described later by the various function units 11 to 13 refers to such a list of operation screen names, for example, sequentially acquires the operation screen names from the beginning of the list, The screen data of the operation screens indicated by these operation screen names may be sequentially processed. As a result, when the later-described theme / color change processing for processing the screen data of the operation screen indicated by the last operation screen name in the list is completed, the screen data of all the operation screens (all items thereof) are stored. , It will be unified to a predetermined theme / color. The predetermined theme / color is, for example, a theme / color arbitrarily designated by the user, but is not limited to this example.

  In addition, a predetermined application program is stored in the storage unit in advance. The CPU / MPU (not shown) reads out and executes the application program, so that various function units such as the theme-corresponding base name storage unit 11, the image file name determination unit 12, and the image file name change unit 13, for example, Processing functions to be described later are realized.

The theme-corresponding base name storage unit 11 stores an image file name (bitmap file name) corresponding to the theme or a part thereof for each theme in advance.
Here, in order to make the explanation easy to understand, a specific example of an image file name (bitmap file name) is shown below. Here, the switches A, B, and C shown in the conventional problem are taken as an example.

-List of bitmap file names according to theme and color for switch A:
Red with real tone; sw11R
Blue in real tone; sw11B
Yellow with real tone; sw11Y
Wood grain beige; sw12BJ
Dark brown with wood grain; sw12BB
Metallic tone; sw13
-For switch B, list of bitmap file names according to theme and color:
Realistic red color; sw21R
Realistic blue color; sw21B
Yellow with real tone; sw21Y
Wood grain beige; sw22BJ
Dark brown with wood grain; sw22BB
Metallic tone; sw23
-List of bitmap file names according to theme and color for switch C:
Red with real tone; sw31R
Realistic blue color; sw31B
Real-like yellow; sw31Y
Wood grain beige color; sw32BJ
Dark brown with wood grain; sw32BB
Metallic tone; sw33
In the present description, it is assumed that there is no division by color in the case of metallic tone as in the above example, but actually there are color divisions such as “white” and “black” in the metallic tone. However, depending on the theme, there may be cases where there is no color classification, and in order to show that this method can be applied even when there is no color classification, in this description there is no color classification in the metallic tone. Will be described.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the theme corresponding base name table stored in the theme corresponding base name storage unit 11.
In the theme-corresponding base name table 30 in the illustrated example, for each theme, there is an image file name (bitmap file name) corresponding to the theme or a part thereof (both are referred to as a base name). Stored.

  For example, when the theme is metallic tone, the corresponding image file names are sw13 for switch A, sw23 for switch B, and sw33 for switch C in the above specific example. Is registered as the base name of each screen component corresponding to. Further, for example, the lamp is not shown in the above specific example, but here, Lp13 and Lp23 are image file names of images whose theme is metallic in relation to the lamp, as shown in the example of FIG. This is directly registered as the base name.

  On the other hand, for example, as shown in the above specific example, the real tone and the wood grain tone are further classified by colors (for example, “real tone red”). With regard to such a real tone and woodgrain tone, a part of the image file name (bitmap file name) corresponding to the theme (other than the portion corresponding to the color) is included in the theme corresponding base name table 30. Is stored as That is, in the case of the above specific example, for switch A, for example, sw11R, sw11B, sw11Y, etc. are real tones, and sw11, which is a part (other than the part corresponding to the color; it can be said that it is a common part) The base name is registered in the table 30 as shown. Similarly, sw21 for switch B and sw31 for switch C are registered in the table 30 as the base name.

  If the image file name (bitmap file name) according to the present method is classified by color, a symbol indicating the color is added to the end of the file name. Here, R is given for red, B is given for blue, and Y is given for yellow. Thus, as shown in the above specific example, the file names of images whose color is red, for example, are sw11R, sw21R, sw31R, etc., regardless of the shape or theme of the switch, and all are suffixed with 'R'. File name.

Although not shown in particular, the correspondence between each color and the symbol is registered in advance, and in the above example, “R” is registered for “red”.
Further, as shown in the above specific example, the file names of the images related to the switch A, for example, all have the upper three characters “sw1”. In other words, the character string common to all the file names of the images related to the switch A is “sw1”. From this, for each screen component on the screen, a part of the image file name (upper N characters; N is an arbitrary integer and set in advance) is extracted as a search word, and the extracted search The theme corresponding base name storage unit 11 is searched using a word. Thus, for each screen component on the screen, the base name corresponding to the theme arbitrarily designated by the user or the like can be acquired for the screen component. In addition, although it demonstrates as what is set to N = 3 here, it is not restricted to this example.

  As a result, if the user designates a uniform change to “real and red”, the image file name determination unit 12 and the image file name change unit 13 perform, for example, all existing operation screens (all of them). Will be changed to a “realistic red” image.

  For example, as described above, all existing operation screens are sequentially processed by referring to the “list”, and all screen components on the screen are sequentially processed for each operation screen. Processing to change the bitmap file name 24 of the screen component to be processed into a bitmap file name corresponding to the theme / color (for example, “realistic red”) designated by the user or the like regarding the screen component. By repeating the above, for example, all the existing operation screens (all the screen parts) are uniformly changed to the theme / color (for example, “red in real tone”) specified by the user or the like. become.

Hereinafter, processing for changing the bitmap file name 24 of the screen component to be processed to one according to user designation will be described.
First, the image file name determination unit 12 refers to the component arrangement information 20 of the screen component to be processed, and acquires the upper three characters from the bitmap file name 24. For example, if the bitmap file name 24 is sw13, 'sw1', which is the upper three characters, is acquired as a search word from the above.

  Subsequently, the image file name determination unit 12 acquires a base name corresponding to the designated theme (real style in this example) with reference to the theme corresponding base name table. In the case of this example (real tone), sw11, sw21, sw31, etc. are acquired. Among them, the one corresponding to the obtained search word “sw1”, that is, the one having the upper three characters “sw1” is only sw11, so sw11 is selected as the corresponding base name.

  The image file name changing unit 13 assigns a symbol corresponding to the designated color (R in this example because it is red) to the corresponding base name (sw11 in this example) selected by the image file name determining unit 12. Thus, the image file name after the change (sw11R in this example) is generated, and this is stored (overwritten) in the bitmap file name 24 of the component arrangement information 20 of the screen component to be processed.

  For example, as described above, the bitmap file name 24 of the component arrangement information 20 of the screen component to be processed is automatically changed to the file name (sw11R in this example) corresponding to the designated theme / color. It will be. By executing this for all screen parts of all operation screens, the theme / color of all screen parts of all operation screens is automatically unified to the specified theme / color. Become.

  The “theme / color” means “theme and color” or “theme or color”, but “theme or color” may mean “theme only”. This is because there is a possibility that there is no color classification, such as “metallic tone” in the above example (assumed as described above). In other words, in this assumption, when the user designates “metallic tone”, no color is designated. In such a case, the base name corresponding to the specified theme becomes the image file name after the change as it is. Then, the image file name after the change is stored (overwritten) in the bitmap file name 24 of the component arrangement information 20 of the processing target screen component.

  Here, FIGS. 4A and 4C are examples of the operation screen creation / editing screen (before and after change), and FIG. 4B is an example of the batch change designation screen. These are displayed on the display of the support apparatus 1.

FIG. 4A is an example of an existing operation screen, and there are a plurality (in some cases, a large number) as described above, but only two operation screens are shown in the figure for simplicity.
Each existing operation screen that is an operation screen that has been created and accumulated in the past is consistent within the operation screen (themes and colors of all screen parts on the operation screen are the same), There may be various types of operation screens such as those that are not uniform (in the extreme case, the theme and color of each screen component on the operation screen are different).

  Regardless of whether or not to display the plurality of existing operation screens, when the user performs a predetermined operation, for example, a batch change designation screen shown in FIG. 4B is displayed. On this batch change designation screen, the user can arbitrarily designate a desired theme / color or the like.

  When the user makes such designation, the above-described processing corresponding to the user-designated content is realized by the theme corresponding base name storage unit 11, the image file name determination unit 12, the image file name change unit 13, and the like. As a result, the display content of each of the existing operation screens shown in FIG. 4A becomes, for example, the state shown in FIG. That is, as shown in FIG. 4C, the images of all the screen components of all the existing operation screens have the theme / color specified by the user. That is, the theme / color of all the screen parts of all the operation screens is uniformly changed to the same one.

  In this way, this method is a support device that supports the creation / change operation of the operation screen of the programmable display, and all the screen parts on the screen for all the existing operation screens are uniformly the same theme. When changing to / color, the user simply specifies the desired theme / color, and all the existing operation screens are determined by determining the image file name after changing all screen parts and changing the image file name. All screen parts can be changed to the same theme / color.

  Especially when there are a large number of existing operation screens, all screen parts of all operation screens can be unified to a desired theme / color without requiring user trouble as in the past. Can be unified (for example, unified in a metallic style as a whole).

  However, the present invention is not limited to the example embodiments described above. For example, instead of “all screen parts of all operation screens can be unified to a desired theme / color”, “all screen parts of all operation screens specified by the user are It is also possible to unify the colors. For this purpose, for example, a list of all operation screen names (the above-described operation screen names) is displayed, and an operation screen selection screen (not shown) that allows the user to select one or more desired operation screen names is displayed on the support device 1. It may be displayed above.

  Alternatively, for example, instead of “all screen parts of all operation screens can be unified to a desired theme / color”, “stored in the programmable display 2 currently connected to the support device 1” All screen parts of all the operation screens that have been set can be unified with a desired theme / color ”. In this case, the support apparatus 1 first sends a predetermined request to the programmable display 2 connected to the self apparatus. In response to this request, the programmable display device 2 returns the operation screen names (operation screen name list) of all the operation screens stored in the own device to the support device 1. As a result, the support apparatus 1 performs a process of unifying all the operation screens included in the operation screen name list into a desired theme / color based on the returned operation screen name list. Then, the operation screen after the unification process is downloaded to the programmable display device 2 and updated.

  Alternatively, instead of “All screen parts of all operation screens can be unified to a desired theme / color”, “All screen parts of all operation screens can be set for each item type. “Themes / colors can be unified.” In other words, for example, the user can specify a theme / color for each item type, such as metallic for item type = “switch” and “real red for item type =“ lamp ”. You may do it. The process for unifying the theme / color for each item type in accordance with this designation may be substantially the same as the above-described example of the embodiment.

The support device 1 and its various functional units 11 to 13 can be described as follows, for example.
First, the support device 1 is a computer device that supports a creation / change operation of an operation screen in which one or more screen parts to be displayed on a programmable display are arranged.

The theme-corresponding base name storage unit 11 stores in advance the base name of the image file of each screen component corresponding to the theme for each theme.
When an arbitrary theme / color is specified, the image file name determination unit 12 refers to the component arrangement information related to the screen component for each screen component constituting the existing operation screen, and displays the image file of the screen component. A name is acquired, a part of the image file name is extracted as a search word, and the specified base name storage unit 11 is searched using the extracted search word, thereby specifying the specified for the screen component. Get the base name corresponding to the theme.

  The image file name changing unit 13 sequentially processes each of the screen components, and for each screen component to be processed, for the base name corresponding to the specified theme acquired by the image file name determination unit 12. By adding a symbol corresponding to the specified color, an image file name corresponding to the specified theme / color is generated, and the image file name in the component arrangement information related to the screen component to be processed is The generated image file name is replaced.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Support apparatus 2 Programmable display 3 PLC main body 11 Theme corresponding base name memory | storage part 12 Image file name determination part 13 Image file name change part 20 Component arrangement information 21 Item classification 22 Coordinate 23 Function 24 Number of patterns 25 Bitmap file name 30 Theme Supported base name table

Claims (8)

A support device that supports creation / change work of an operation screen in which one or more screen parts are arranged to be displayed on a programmable display,
For each theme in advance, a theme corresponding base name storage means in which the base name of the image file of each screen component corresponding to the theme is stored;
When an arbitrary theme / color is specified, an image file name of the screen component is obtained for each screen component constituting the existing operation screen by referring to component arrangement information related to the screen component, and the image extracting a portion of the file name as a search word, by searching the theme corresponding base name storage means using a search word and the specified theme that the extracted, the specified theme related to the screen component and the image file name determining means for obtaining the corresponding be behenate over path name,
The screen parts constituting the existing operation screen are set as processing targets, and each screen part to be processed corresponds to the specified theme related to the screen parts acquired by the image file name determination unit. against behenate over path name, if there is designation of the color by adding symbols corresponding to the color that is the specified, generates an image file name corresponding to the specified theme / color, Image file name changing means for replacing the image file name in the component arrangement information relating to the processing target screen component with the generated image file name ;
The search word is obtained by extracting the top N characters (N; integer) of the image file name of the acquired screen part, and the base name corresponding to the specified theme related to the screen part is A programmable display support device, wherein the upper N characters match the search word . The existing operation screen is a plurality of operation screens created and stored in the past, and the operation screen is configured for all of the plurality of operation screens by the image file name determination unit and the image file name change unit. The image file name generation process corresponding to the specified theme / color and the process of replacing the image file name in the component arrangement information with the generated image file name are performed for all screen components. The support apparatus of the programmable display of Claim 1 to do . The image file name changing unit generates the base name obtained by the image file name determining unit as it is when the arbitrary theme / color designation is only a theme designation and no color designation. 3. The programmable display device support according to claim 1, wherein the image file name in the component arrangement information relating to the processing target screen component is replaced with the generated image file name as an image file name. apparatus. The component arrangement information, for each screen part constituting the operation screen, arranged coordinates on the operating screen, function and, any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that comprising said image file name The support apparatus of the programmable display as described in any one of. The theme programmable display support apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it is designed. 6. The programmable display support apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the theme is metallic tone, real tone, woodgrain tone, or monochrome. A computer of a support device that supports creation / change work of an operation screen in which one or more screen parts are arranged to be displayed on a programmable display,
For each theme in advance, a theme corresponding base name storage means in which the base name of the image file of each screen component corresponding to the theme is stored;
When an arbitrary theme / color is specified, an image file name of the screen component is obtained for each screen component constituting the existing operation screen by referring to component arrangement information related to the screen component, and the image Top N characters in the file name; extracts (N integer) as a search word, by searching the theme corresponding base name storage means using a search word and the specified theme that the extracted, according to the screen component and image file name determining means for acquiring the base name of its top N characters match the search word as a behenate over path name to correspond to the specified theme,
The screen parts constituting the existing operation screen are set as processing targets, and each screen part to be processed corresponds to the specified theme related to the screen parts acquired by the image file name determination unit. against behenate over path name, if there is designation of the color by adding symbols corresponding to the color that is the specified, generates an image file name corresponding to the specified theme / color, Image file name changing means for replacing the image file name in the component arrangement information relating to the processing target screen component with the generated image file name;
Program to function as. In a computer, a method for supporting creation / change work of an operation screen of a programmable display,
For each theme, the base name of the image file of each screen component corresponding to the theme is stored in the storage unit in advance.
When an arbitrary theme / color is specified, every time a screen part that is a target of processing is selected for all screen parts constituting the existing operation screen, the component placement information related to the screen part is referred to Obtain the image file name of the screen part, extract the top N characters (N; integer) of the image file name as a search word,
By searching the storage unit by using the extract out the search word with the specified theme, the top N characters the search word as a behenate over path name to correspond to the specified theme related to the screen component Get the base name that matches
If the color is specified, a symbol corresponding to the specified color is added to the acquired base name to generate an image file name corresponding to the specified theme / color. ,
An operation screen batch change support method, wherein the image file name in the component arrangement information relating to the processing target screen component is replaced with the generated image file name.