PyVCP

Place your PyVCP XML file describing the panel in the same directory where your INI file is. Say we we want to display the current spindle speed using a Bar widget. Place the following in a file called spindle.xml:

Here we’ve made a panel with a Label and a Bar widget, specified that the HAL pin connected to the Bar should be named spindle-speed, and set the maximum value of the bar to 5000 (see widget reference below for all options). To make AXIS aware of this file, and call it at start up, we need to specify the following in the [DISPLAY] section of the INI file:

If the panel should appear at the bottom of the AXIS user interface then we need to specify the following in the [DISPLAY] section of the INI file:

Anything other than BOTTOM or omitting this variable will place the PYVCP panel at the right.

To make our widget actually display the spindle-speed it needs to be hooked up to the appropriate HAL signal. A HAL file that will be run once AXIS and PyVCP have started can be specified in the [HAL] section of the INI file:

This change will run the HAL commands specified in spindle_to_pyvcp.hal. In our example the contents could look like this:

assuming that a signal called spindle-rpm-filtered already exists. Note that when running together with AXIS, all PyVCP panel widget HAL pins have names that start with pyvcp., all PyVCP embedded tab widget HAL pins start with the name specified as EMBED_TAB_NAME converted to lower case.

This is what the newly created PyVCP panel should look like in AXIS. The sim/lathe configuration is already configured this way.

Each widget is described briefly, followed by the markup used, and a screen shot. All tags inside the main widget tag are optional.

At the present time, both a tag-based and an attribute-based syntax are supported. For instance, the following XML fragments are treated identically:

and

When the attribute-based syntax is used, the following rules are used to turn the attributes value into a Python value:

When the tag-based syntax is used, the text within the tag is always evaluated as a Python expression.

The examples below show a mix of formats.

To add a comment use the xml syntax for a comment.

Edit the XML file with a text editor. In most cases you can right click on the file and select open with text editor or similar.

Colors can be specified using the X11 rgb colors by name gray75 or hex #0000ff. A complete list is located here https://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html.

Common Colors (colors with numbers indicate shades of that color)

HAL pins provide a means to connect the widget to something. Once you create a HAL pin for your widget you can connect it to another HAL pin with a net command in a .hal file. For more information on the net command see the HAL Commands section.

A label is a way to add text to your panel.

The label has an optional disable pin that is created when you add <disable_pin>True</disable_pin>.

The above code produced this example:

An extension of the text label.

Selectable text label, can display up to 6 label legends when associated bit pin is activated.

Attach each legend pin to a signal and get a descriptive label when the signal is TRUE.

If more than one legend pin is TRUE, the highest numbered TRUE legend will be displayed.

If a disable pin is created with <disable_pin>True</disable_pin> and that pin is set to true the label changes to a grayed out state.

The above example would create the following pins.

If you have more than one multilabel the pins created would increment the number like this pyvcp.multilabel.1.legend1.

A LED is used to indicate the status of a bit halpin. The LED color will be on_color when the halpin is true, and off_color otherwise.

The above code produced this example:

This is a variant of the led widget.

The above code produced this example. Also showing a vertical box with relief.

A button is used to control a BIT pin. The pin will be set True when the button is pressed and held down, and will be set False when the button is released. Buttons can use the following optional options.

A text button controls a bit halpin. The halpin is false until the button is pressed then it is true. The button is a momentary button.

The text button has an optional disable pin that is created when you add <disable_pin>True</disable_pin>.

The above code produced this example:

A checkbutton controls a bit halpin. The halpin will be set True when the button is checked, and false when the button is unchecked. The checkbutton is a toggle type button. The checkbuttons may be set initially as TRUE or FALSE the initval field A pin called changepin is also created automatically, which can toggle the Checkbutton via HAL, if the value linked is changed, to update the display remotely.

The above code produced this example:

The coolant checkbutton is checked.
Notice the extra spaces in the "Chips" text to keep the checkbuttons aligned.

A radiobutton will set one of the halpins true. The other pins are set false. The initval field may be set to choose the default selection when the panel displays. Only one radio button may be set to TRUE (1) or only the highest number pin set TRUE will have that value.

The above code produced this example:

Note that the HAL pins in the example above will be named my-radio.one, my-radio.two, and my-radio.three. In the image above, one is the selected value. Use the tag <orient>HORIZONTAL</orient> to display horizontally.

Number displays can use the following formatting options

The number widget displays the value of a float signal.

The above code produced this example:

The s32 number widget displays the value of a s32 number. The syntax is the same as number except the name which is <s32>. Make sure the width is wide enough to cover the largest number you expect to use.

The above code produced this example:

The u32 number widget displays the value of a u32 number. The syntax is the same as number except the name which is <u32>.

A bar widget displays the value of a FLOAT signal both graphically using a bar display and numerically. The color of the bar can be set as one color throughout its range (default using fillcolor) or set to change color, dependent upon the value of the halpin (range1, range2 range3 must all be set, if you only want 2 ranges, set 2 of them to the same color).

The above code produced this example:

Meter displays the value of a FLOAT signal using a traditional dial indicator.

The above code produced this example:

A spinbox controls a FLOAT pin. You increase or decrease the value of the pin by either pressing on the arrows, or pointing at the spinbox and rolling your mouse-wheel. If the param_pin field is set TRUE(1), a pin will be created that can be used to set the spinbox to an initial value and to remotely alter its value without HID input.

The above code produced this example:

A scale controls a float or a s32 pin. You increase or decrease the value of the pin be either dragging the slider, or pointing at the scale and rolling your mouse-wheel. The halpin will have both -f and -i added to it to form the float and s32 pins. Width is the width of the slider in vertical and the height of the slider in horizontal orientation. If the param_pin field is set TRUE(1), a pin will be created that can be used to set the spinbox to an initial value and to remotely alter its value without HID input.

The above code produced this example:

The Dial outputs a HAL float and reacts to both mouse wheel and dragging. Double left click to increase the resolution and double right click to reduce the resolution by one digit. The output is capped by the min and max values. The <cpr> is how many tick marks are on the outside of the ring (beware of high numbers). If the param_pin field is set TRUE(1), a pin will be created that can be used to set the spinbox to an initial value and to remotely alter its value without HID input.

The above code produced this example:

Jogwheel mimics a real jogwheel by outputting a FLOAT pin which counts up or down as the wheel is turned, either by dragging in a circular motion, or by rolling the mouse-wheel.

Optional tags: * <text>"My Text"</text> displays text * <bgcolor>"grey"</bgcolor> <fillcolor>"green"</fillcolor> background & active colors * <scale_pin>1</scale_pin> creates scale text and a FLOAT.scale pin to display jog scale * <clear_pin>1</clear_pin> creates DRO and a BIT.reset pin to reset DRO. Needs scale_pin for scaled DRO. Shift+click resets DRO also

The above code produced this example:

Image displays use only .gif image format. All of the images must be the same size. The images must be in the same directory as your INI file (or in the current directory if running from the command line with halrun/halcmd).

The image_bit toggles between two images by setting the halpin to true or false.

This example was produced from the above code. Using the two image files fwd.gif and rev.gif. FWD is displayed when selectimage is false and REV is displayed when selectimage is true.

The image_u32 is the same as image_bit, except you have essentially an unlimited number of images and you select the image by setting the halpin to a integer value with 0 for the first image in the images list and 1 for the second image, etc.

The above code produced the following example by adding the stb.gif image.

Notice that the default is the min even though it is set higher than max unless there is a negative min.

Containers are widgets that contain other widgets. Containers are used to group other widgets.

Container borders are specified with two tags used together. The <relief> tag specifies the type of border and the <bd> specifies the width of the border.

The above code produced this example:

Container fill are specified with the <boxfill fill=""/> tag. Valid entries are none, x, y and both. The x fill is a horizontal fill and the y fill is a vertical fill

Container anchors are specified with the <boxanchor anchor=""/> tag. The anchor specifies where to position each slave in its parcel. Valid entries are center, n, s, e, w, for center, north, south, east and west. Combinations like sw, se, nw and ne are also valid.

Container expand is specified with the boolean <boxexpand expand=""/> tag. Valid entries are "yes", "no".

Use an Hbox when you want to stack widgets horizontally next to each other.

The above code produced this example:

Inside an Hbox, you can use the <boxfill fill=""/>, <boxanchor anchor=""/>, and <boxexpand expand=""/> tags to choose how items in the box behave when the window is re-sized. The default is fill="y", anchor="center", expand="yes" for an Hbox.

Use a Vbox when you want to stack widgets vertically on top of each other.

The above code produced this example:

Inside a Vbox, you can use the <boxfill fill=""/>, <boxanchor anchor=""/>, and <boxexpand expand=""/> tags to choose how items in the box behave when the window is re-sized. The default is fill="x", anchor="center", expand="yes" for a Vbox.

A labelframe is a frame with a groove and a label at the upper-left corner.

The above code produced this example:

A table is a container that allows layout in a grid of rows and columns. Each row is started by a <tablerow/> tag. A contained widget may span rows or columns through the use of the <tablespan rows= cols=/> tag. The sides of the cells to which the contained widgets "stick" may be set through the use of the <tablesticky sticky=/> tag. A table expands on its flexible rows and columns.

The above code produced this example:

A tabbed interface can save quite a bit of space.

The above code produced this example showing each tab selected.