Scaling composite shapes for a graphical human-machine interface

• US 8,881,039 B2
• Filed: 05/05/2009
• Issued: 11/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Hammack, Stephen G., Campney, Bruce H., Gilbert, Stephen C., Sanchez, Adrian A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): DUONG, HIEN LUONGVAN
• Application Number:
  US12/435,573
• Publication Number:
  US 20100235767A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,009 Days
• Field of Search: 715/764
• US Class Current: 715/764
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/04 Context-preserving transformations, e.g. by using an importance map panospheric to cylindrical image transformations G06T3/12

Abstract

Parameters associated with sub-elements of a composite shape may determine how the sub-element is scaled during resizing of the composite shape. A graphical display editor may use the scaling parameters to calculate various scaling factors that are then applied to the sub-elements of each composite shape during resizing. The editor may apply the scaling parameters to the sub-elements for resizing in one or more axes (e.g., the length, width, and height or X, Y, and Z axes, etc.) to adjust the composite shape for a particular graphical display. The editor may apply the scaling parameters directly to each sub-element to prevent any distortion of those sub-elements. The configured scaling parameters may then be linked to the composite shape so that, at runtime, the parameters are applied to the composite shape and its sub-elements. The scaling parameters may be applied to both composite shapes and animations associated with the composite shapes.

Claims

1. A computer program comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for scaling composite shapes for an operator display in a process control system for use in a process plant, the method comprising:

displaying a composite shape that graphically illustrates an entity within the process plant, the composite shape including a sub-element having an unscaled parameter and a scaling parameter, wherein each scaling parameter includes values that each correspond to a dimension of the sub-element and define a resizing behavior of a corresponding sub-element;

resizing the composite shape and the composite shape sub-element in one or more dimensions;

calculating a scaling factor for each resized dimension of the composite shape, wherein the scaling factor for each resized dimension of the composite shape is a ratio between the unscaled parameter of the sub-element corresponding to the resized dimension of the composite shape and the resized dimension of the composite shape;

determining the resizing behavior for the sub-element based on the values of the sub-element scaling parameter; and

applying the calculated scaling factor to each sub-element unscaled parameter according to the determined resizing behavior, wherein each resizing behavior determines how the calculated scaling factor is applied directly to each sub-element to prevent distortion of the sub-element resulting from resizing the composite shape and the sub-element in one or more dimensions, and the unscaled parameter corresponds to the resized dimension.

2. The program of claim 1, wherein displaying the composite shape includes displaying the sub-element within a scaling canvas.

3. The program of claim 2, wherein resizing the composite shape in one or more dimensions includes resizing the scaling canvas that contains the sub-element.

4. The program of claim 3, wherein the class includes a Canvas class.

5. The program of claim 2, wherein the scaling canvas includes an extension of a Windows Presentation Foundation class.

6. The program of claim 1, wherein each scaling parameter controls a scaling behavior of a corresponding sub-element.

7. The program of claim 1, wherein the unscaled parameter includes one or more of a font size, an edge width, a corner radius, a width, a height, and a position.

8. The program of claim 1, wherein the unscaled parameter includes a baseline value for applying the scaling parameter.

9. The program of claim 1, wherein the scaling canvas includes the one or more scaling parameters.

10. The program of claim 1, further comprising, at configuration time, configuring each composite shape and scaling parameter and, at runtime, binding each configured composite shape to a configured scaling parameter.

11. The program of claim 1, wherein resizing the composite shape in one or more dimensions occurs at one or more of a configuration time and a runtime.

12. The program of claim 1, wherein calculating the scaling factor for each resized dimension occurs at one or more of a configuration time and a runtime.

13. The program of claim 1, wherein applying one or more scaling factors to each unscaled parameter occurs at one or more of a configuration time and a runtime.

14. A graphic display editor for use in a process plant to resize a composite shape that represents one or more of an operation and an entity within the process plant, the graphic display editor comprising:

a memory and a processor;

a library of composite shapes stored in the memory, wherein each of the composite shapes includes a different visual representation of a physical or a logical entity within the process control plant, a sub-element having an unscaled parameter, and a scaling parameter;

a graphically based editor canvas routine including instructions stored in the memory for execution by the processor that enable a user to define an executable graphic display, wherein a first instruction places indications of one or more composite graphic objects from the library of composite graphic objects onto an edit canvas to define a manner in which visual representations of the composite graphic objects will be displayed on a display device to a user during execution of the graphic display, and a second instruction controls a scale behavior of each of the component objects of the composite graphic object;

a scaling canvas routine including instructions stored in the memory for execution by the processor to associate a scaling parameter with a sub-element of a composite shape, wherein each sub-element of the composite shape is contained within a scaling canvas object and each scaling parameter includes values that each correspond to a dimension of the sub-element and define a scaling behavior of a sub-element associated with the composite shape; and

a composite shape resizing routine including instructions stored in the memory for execution by the processor to;

modify one or more dimensions of the composite shape and the composite shape sub-element within the editor canvas,

calculate a scaling factor for each modified dimension of the composite shape, wherein the scaling factor for each modified dimension of the composite shape is a ratio between the unscaled parameter of the sub-element corresponding to the modified dimension of the composite shape and the modified dimension of the composite shape,

determine the scaling behavior for the sub-element based on the values of the sub-element scaling parameter, and

apply the calculated scaling factor to each sub-element unscaled parameter of the composite shape according to the associated scaling parameter, wherein each determined scaling behavior determines how the calculated scaling factor is directly applied to each sub-element to prevent distortion of the sub-element resulting from modification of one or more dimensions of the composite shape and the composite shape sub-element within the editor canvas, and the unscaled parameter corresponds to the modified dimension.

15. The graphic display object of claim 14, wherein the scaling canvas object includes the scaling parameters.

16. The graphic display editor of claim 14, wherein the scaling behavior of each of the sub-elements defines a degree to which the modification is applied to a corresponding dimension of a sub-element.

17. The graphic display editor of claim 14, wherein the scaling parameter includes one or more of a text font, a sub-element border thickness, a position of the sub-element within the composite shape, a size of the sub-element, and a corner radius of the sub-element.

18. The graphic display editor of claim 14, wherein the scaling parameter eliminates distortion of the sub-element upon execution of the composite shape resizing routine.

19. The graphic display editor of claim 14, wherein the scaling parameter enables a text box sub-element of the composite shape to remain a consistent font size and position relative to another sub-element of the composite shape during execution of the composite shape resizing routine.

20. The graphic display editor of claim 14, wherein the scaling parameter enables a sub-element border thickness of the composite shape to remain a consistent thickness and position relative to another sub-element of the composite shape during execution of the composite shape resizing routine.

21. The graphic display editor of claim 14, wherein the composite shape resizing routine includes a further instruction to enable the scaling canvas object to calculate a scaling factor that includes a ratio of one or more resized dimensions of the scaling canvas to one or more corresponding unscaled parameters.

22. The graphic display editor of claim 21, wherein the corresponding unscaled parameters include original parameters of the composite shape including one or more of a text object font size, a sub-element edge width, a sub-element corner radius, a sub-element width, a sub-element height, and a sub-element position relative to other sub-elements of the composite shape.

23. The graphic display editor of claim 21, wherein the composite shape resizing routine includes further instructions to enable the scaling canvas object to apply the scaling factor to one or more dimensions of one or more sub-elements of the composite shape and each of the sub-elements includes one or more scaling parameters.

24. A computer system for use in a process control plant including a memory for storing computer-executable instructions, a processor for executing the instructions, and a display for displaying composite shapes in a graphical representation of the process control plant, each composite shape representing one or more of an operation and an entity within the process plant, the system comprising:

a database including composite shapes each having a sub-element within a scaling canvas object, wherein each sub-element includes an unscaled parameter and a scaling parameter; and

a graphical human-machine interface for displaying the graphical representation of the process plant, the interface including a composite shape resizing module having computer-executable instructions for;

configuring, at configuration time, a composite shape and a scaling parameter corresponding to a sub-element of the composite shape and, at runtime, binding the configured composite shape to the configured scaling parameter, wherein the configured scaling parameter includes values that each correspond to a dimension of the sub-element and define a resizing behavior of the sub-element of the composite shape;

displaying a resized scaling canvas object of the composite shape, the resized scaling canvas object including one or more changed dimensions of the sub-element of the composite shape;

calculating a scaling factor for each changed dimension of the resized scaling canvas object, wherein the scaling factor includes a ratio of one or more changed dimensions of the scaling canvas object to one or more corresponding unscaled parameters of the sub-elements;

determining the resizing behavior for the sub-element based on the values of the sub-element scaling parameter; and

applying the calculated scaling factor to each sub-element unscaled parameter according to the determined resizing behavior, wherein each resizing behavior determines how the calculated scaling factor is applied directly to each sub-element to prevent distortion of the sub-element resulting the one or more changed dimensions of the sub-element of the composite shape, and the unscaled parameter corresponds to the changed dimension.

25. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the scaling canvas object includes an extension of a Windows Presentation Foundation Canvas class.

26. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the composite shape resizing module further includes computer-executable instructions for controlling a scaling behavior of a corresponding sub-element of the composite shape using the scaling parameter.

27. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the unscaled parameter includes a baseline value corresponding to one or more dimensions of each sub-element.

28. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the scaling parameter corresponds to one or more of a text object font size, a sub-element edge width, a sub-element corner radius, a sub-element width, a sub-element height, and a sub-element position relative to one or more other sub-elements of the composite shape.

29. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the composite shape resizing module includes computer-executable instructions for applying the scaling factor at one or more of a configuration time and a runtime.

30. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the scaling canvas object includes the scaling parameter.

31. The computer system of claim 24, wherein a sub-element of the scaling canvas object includes the scaling parameter.

32. The computer system of claim 24, wherein the sub-elements of the composite shapes include the one or more scaling parameters.

33. The computer system of claim 24, wherein displaying the resized scaling canvas object of the composite shape occurs at one or more of a configuration time and a runtime.

34. The computer program of claim 24, wherein calculating the scaling factor for each changed dimension occurs at one or more of a configuration time and a runtime.

35. The computer program of claim 24, wherein applying the calculated scaling factor to each sub-element unscaled parameter occurs at one or more of a configuration time and a runtime.