Running Vdraw

This chapter instructs you in how to use Vdraw to create a control display window for the furnace application and connect it to the Vsystem database. You will also learn how to create control tools, which dynamically connect control display windows to the database.

Getting Ready to Start Vdraw

Verifying the Database

Use the Db_access utility to verify your database definition. Enter the following command:

db_access tutor::*

and make sure that your list of channels and values is displayed.

Terms You Need to Know

This section prepares you for using Vdraw with instructions on basic window and mouse terms.

Window Terms

This tutorial uses the terms "drawing windows" and "active windows" when describing Vdraw operations. Drawing windows (also called "inactive") are windows in which you graphically create and modify control display windows.

Active windows are drawing windows that link to the real-time database and display the "live" data in the system. You can monitor and control this data through these active control display windows.

Graphics and text placed in control display windows are referred to as "objects."

Mouse Terms

You can operate the mouse buttons in the following ways:

Click means to press and release the mouse button, producing a "click" sound. Unless otherwise indicated, you click the mouse button only once for each clicking procedure, as opposed to double-click.
Select means to click the mouse button while the mouse pointer is positioned on a referenced object.
Drag refers to the act of pressing a mouse button while at the same time moving the mouse in a desired direction until the selected object you are moving, or the selection rectangle, is where you want it.
Double-click means to click the mouse button twice quickly without moving the mouse.
Press means to use the mouse button to push down (click on) a button in an active control display or to use your finger to push down a keyboard key.

Left Mouse Button

Use the left mouse button to select drawing tools from the Vdraw Toolbox and to control drawing and editing objects in the drawing windows. Select the Pointer tool in the Toolbox, use the mouse to move the Pointer tool to an object, and then click the left mouse button to select the object for editing. Click the left mouse button once again to deselect the object.

You can also press the left mouse button and drag the mouse pointer around objects, creating a selection rectangle within whose boundaries all objects are selected. Additionally, you can select a drawing tool or control tool in the Toolbox, then click and drag the mouse to draw a corresponding object.

For this tutorial, when you are instructed to press or click a mouse button, the left mouse button is assumed unless otherwise specified.

	Tip If you have the Pointer tool selected, you can press the CTRL key and the left mouse button together to continue selecting additional drawing objects in the control display window. The boundaries of the selection rectangle extend to include the additional objects selected.

Middle Mouse Button (Optional)

Regardless of which tool is selected in the Vdraw Toolbox, you can click the middle mouse button to select objects for editing, and then continue to add additional objects for editing. With the middle mouse button pressed, you can also drag the mouse pointer around any objects you want to add to the selected object. The boundaries of the selection rectangle extend to include the additional objects. You can select as many additional objects as you want to include in the edit.

Right Mouse Button

To display a pop-up menu, place the mouse pointer within a control display window and click the right mouse button. If you have an object selected when you click the right mouse button, the pop-up editing menu for that object appears. If you have no object selected in the control display window, the right mouse button click displays the pop-up drawing mode menu (if the control display window is inactive) or the active mode menu (if the control display window is active).