Systems and methods for ease of graphical display configuration design in a process control plant

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11243677-B2
Application number	US-201816117326-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 30, 2018
Priority date	Oct 2, 2017
Publication date	Feb 8, 2022
Grant date	Feb 8, 2022

Abstract

A graphical display configuration system of a process control system provides features within the configuration environment that allow a user to create, define, edit, and easily preview the runtime appearance and/or runtime behavior of graphical elements and/or graphical displays in-line with the configuration workflow of the user, without having to compile and/or download draft graphical configurations into the operating environment of a process plant supported by the process control system, and/or without requiring specialized scripts to be implemented within the operating environment of the process plant. Previews of runtime appearances and/or runtime behaviors of draft configurations of graphical elements and/or graphical displays (that are eventually to be executed within the operating environment of the process control system) are able to generated and presented exclusively within the configuration environment, e.g., for testing and/or verification.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A graphical configuration system for a process plant, the graphical configuration system comprising:
a graphical configuration application executing in a configuration environment of the process plant, the graphical configuration application having a user interface via which a draft of a configuration of a display view is presented, the draft of the configuration of the display view including one or more graphical elements,
a first graphical element object defining a configuration of a first graphical element of the one or more graphical elements, the first graphical element being a graphic;
a second graphical element object defining a configuration of a second graphical element of the one or more graphical elements, the second graphical element being an animation;
the first graphical element object is defined to reference the second graphical element object;
at least one of an appearance or a behavior of the first graphical element during runtime is defined by the second graphical element object referenced by the first graphical element object;
the display view configuration defining respective links between one or more graphical elements included on the display view and one or more control elements included in an operating environment of the process plant so that, upon download and execution of the display view at a user interface device included in the operating environment of the process plant, respective indications of one or more values that are generated by the one or more control elements while executing in the operating environment of the process plant to control the process are presented and repeatedly updated at the executing display view; and
the graphical configuration application providing, on the user interface, a preview user control that, when activated prior to a publication of the configuration of the display view:
causes a preview of the draft of the configuration of the display view to be generated and simultaneously presented on the user interface in conjunction with the presentation, on the user interface, of the draft of the configuration of the display view, the preview depicting at least one of a runtime appearance or a runtime behavior of the one or more graphical elements included in the draft of the configuration of the display view and depicting respective graphical handles of the at least one of the one or more graphical elements, the at least one of the runtime appearance or the runtime behavior of the one or more graphical elements dynamically responsive to changes in the one or more values generated by the one or more control elements that are included in the operating environment of the process plant and to which the one or more graphical elements are linked, and the at least one of the runtime appearance or the runtime behavior of the one or more graphical elements including a runtime behavior of a draft of the configuration of the animation of the graphic; and
causes the presentation of the preview of the draft of the configuration of the display view to be continuously updated responsive to on-canvas editing of the draft of the configuration of the display view as at least a portion of the draft of the configuration of the display view is being graphically defined by a user manipulating or moving the respective graphical handles of the at least one of the one or more graphical elements via the user interface of the graphical configuration application,

wherein publications of display view configurations are allowed to be provided to the operating environment of the process control system, and wherein drafts of the configuration of display view are prohibited from being provided to the operating environment of the process control system.

2. The graphical configuration system of claim 1 , wherein:
the graphical configuration application further provides, at the user interface of the graphical configuration application, a publish user control that, when activated, publishes the configuration of the display view to thereby generate a particular publication of the configuration of display view; and
the preview of the draft of the configuration of the display view within the configuration environment is generated without accessing any published configuration of the display view.

3. The graphical configuration system of claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more graphical elements further include a text box and at least one of a datalink or a hyperlink; and
the preview of the draft of the configuration of the display view depicts a runtime appearance of a draft of a configuration of the text box, the runtime appearance of the draft of the configuration of the text box including content, obtained via the at least one of the datalink or the hyperlink, presented in-line with static text indicated by the draft of the configuration of the text box.

4. The graphical configuration system of claim 1 , wherein the at least the portion of the draft of the configuration of the display view is a first portion of the display view configuration, and wherein:
the second graphical element object includes an animation conversion function object configured to generate at least a second portion of the draft of the configuration of the animation, the animation conversion function object including one or more inputs defining one or more triggering conditions, a logic definition that is applied to the one or more inputs, and an output indicating whether or not the at least the second portion of the animation is to be applied based upon a result of the logic definition applied to the one or more inputs; and the preview of the draft of the configuration of the display view depicting a runtime behavior of the draft of the configuration of the animation of the graphic based on the output of the animation conversion function object that is included in the second graphical element object referenced by the first graphical element object.

5. The graphical configuration system of claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more graphical elements further comprise an operator interaction, the operator interaction being an operator interaction user control; and
the preview of the draft of the configuration of the display view including the one or more graphical elements is an interactive preview that receives an indication of an activation, via the user interface of the graphical configuration application, of the operator interaction user control, and depicts a respective runtime appearance and/or a respective runtime behavior of a draft of a configuration of the one or more graphical elements responsive to the activation of the operator interaction user control.

6. The graphical configuration system of claim 1 , wherein:
a draft of a configuration of the one or more graphical elements is included in the draft of the configuration of the display view;
the draft of the configuration of the display view includes a plurality of operator interactions configured into a subset of a set of graphical elements, each operator interaction included in the plurality of operator interactions being a respective user control configured into a respective graphical element of the subset;
the preview of the draft of the configuration of the display view includes the set of graphical elements; and
the graphical configuration application further provides, on the user interface, a show interactions user control that, when activated, distinguishes the subset of graphical elements into which the plurality of operator interactions are respectively configured from other graphical elements of the set of graphical elements depicted by the preview of the draft of the configuration of the display view.

7. The graphical configuration system of claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more graphical elements

Assignees

• Fisher Rosemount Systems Inc

Inventors

• Strinden Daniel R
• Naidoo Julian K
• Scott Cindy A
• Sanchez Adrian A
• Fadul Camilo
• Uy Cristopher Ian Sarmiento
• Havekost Robert B
• Hammack Stephen G
• Sullivan Matthew Joseph

Classifications

• G05B19/409 Primary

  characterised by using manual data input [MDI] or by using control panel, e.g. controlling functions with the panel; characterised by control panel details or by setting parameters (G05B19/408, G05B19/4093 take precedence) · CPC title

• G05B19/4185

  characterised by the network communication · CPC title

• G05B19/41835

  characterised by program execution · CPC title

• G05B2219/32128

  Gui graphical user interface · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title