- Recipes -
Recipes are mainly used as a means to send profile data to instruments via the comms. Although recipes in general can be used for many other tasks such as, screen configuration, permanent data storage etc.
There are 3 possible recipe types per drawing. The recipes themselves are unique but are classed as type 1, 2 or 3. What this means is that you can control upto 3 different recipes on the same drawing.
Recipes belong to the drawing they were created on. This means two different drawings can both make use (independently) of recipes 1, 2 or 3. Therefore, if you save a recipe called myrecipe.rcp on drawing1.sid and then switch to drawing2.sid and call up the recipe selector (see below) you will find that myrecipe.rcp does not exist because it is unique to drawing1.sid.
Recipes can be simply constructed. The first thing to do is decide which tags are going to be sent out to instruments. Then for each of these displayed screen tags select the recipe you want them to belong to. (see picture below) If required a level can also be applied to each tag. The level controls the order in which the data is sent to the instrument. Any tag given a level of 1 will have the highest priority and will be sent first, followed by level 2, 3, 4, 5 etc, upto level 99. Level 5 is the default. If a level of 0 (zero) is entered the data for this tag will not be sent.
There is also a useful feature called GLOBAL. When a recipe is saved with this box checked it makes the recipe global. What this does is to allow a recipe to be loaded and sent out to instruments from any drawing not just from the drawing it was created on. This feature relys on the same tags being used on all participating drawings.
There is also a send-to feature available to level 3 (manager) users that allows a recipe to be sent to more than one instrument at a time. To use this feature the addresses must first be setup (see below).
The recipe setup from the tag setup dialog
This picture shows the recipe selection section of the tag setup dialog. This is how you add tag data to the recipe of your choice.
This dialog is called from a button objects ‘setup button’ being pressed. The ‘setup button’ only appears when then button object is set to Show Recipe x Control Panel. Where x is either a recipe 1,2 or 3 type.
Send Recipe name to
Select the tag (previously
defined) that will receive the name of the successfully sent recipe.
Send Downloaded date to
Select the tag (previously
defined) that will receive the date of the successfully sent recipe.
Send Downloaded time to
Select the tag (previously
defined) that will receive the time of the successfully sent recipe.
Don’t send Invisible tags
If checked any recipe nominated
tags that are hidden at the time will not be sent.
Allow SendTo Action
Shows the SendTo button on the
Recipe Selector (see dialog pictured below) if checked.
Allow Delete Action
Shows the Delete button on the
Recipe Selector (see dialog pictured below) if checked and the login
level is greater than operator.
Allow Save Action
Shows the Save button on the
Recipe Selector (see dialog pictured below) if checked and the login
level is greater than operator.
Alternate Recipe Directory
This feature allows you to have
alternate recipe directories. This means you can insert/remove/rename
sub-directories of the current recipes directory. It allows you to
load/save/delete recipes that have the same name etc.
This is the recipe section dialog (shown with all the above recipe action setup options enabled). Used to Select, Save, Send or Delete recipes.
When recipes fail to export.
A message box asking if you wish
to retry sending the data that failed or cancel the retry.
1. If retry is pressed DM will
attempt to re-send the data. If it fails again the retry message box
will again appear.
2. If cancel is selected another
message box will appear offering more options.
Single recipe export or (Send)
When using the Send feature to
export a recipe to a single instrument/destination, DM will prompt
the user on any failure as mentioned above.
When the more options message box
appears the following choices are available.
1. Ok. used to skip the current
data that has failed to be sent.
2. Cancel, used to abort the export.
Multiple recipe export or (SendTo)
When using the SendTo feature to
export a recipe to more than one instrument/destination, DM will now
prompt the user on any failure as mentioned above.
When the more options message box
appears the following choices are available.
1. Yes. used to skip the current
data that has failed to be sent.
2. No, used to skip the current
instrument/destination. No further data will be sent here.
3. Cancel, used to abort the export.
The recipe send-to address setup dialog allows users to assign virtual names to instrument addresses. This dialog if found from the Addr
item on the logger menu. The names assigned here will then appear in the send-to selection dialog (shown below). This will then allow you to select a recipe to send-to a group of instruments in one easy action.
SendTo Address Setup Rename Dialog
This dialog is called when one of the ‘address setup dialog’ address positions are double-clicked. This dialog allows the virtual address to be renamed. You must also say which recipes the virtual address name is valid for (i.e. the recipes types that this instrument will accept). If you no longer want the virtual address name to appear in the send-to dialog box, simply leave the name blank and continue to save as normal. Next time you open this dialog the default name will have been reinstated.
This picture shows the recipe send-to selection dialog. This is where you select the previously setup virtual instrument addresses to send your recipes to. You can send recipes to one or all the available virtual addresses.