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HMI FORGEDocsv1.11.0
Getting started/Your first screen

Your first screen

Build a working operator screen from an empty document, and run it.

The editor with a finished first screen: a program dropdown above a Program control showing Start, Hold, Reset and Abort.

You can create a functional screen with program selection, start, hold/pause, reset and abort in just a few steps.

Steps

Section titled “Steps”
  1. Open the HMI Forge Editor via Menu > Plugins > HMI Forge > Editor
  2. Click the Documents dropdown menu in the top left to open up the Documents List
  3. Create a new document by pressing the New button at the bottom right of the screen
  4. The new document opens with a Properties Panel on the right. Optionally give the document a name and choose portrait, landscape or a custom page size (see Page size below). You can also select a built-in theme further down the inspector.
  5. Add a Program control component from the palette at the bottom of the screen
  6. Add a Dropdown by hitting the Dropdown button on the controls palette at the bottom of the screen
  7. Open the properties panel on the right
  8. For Tag, pick active_program — it is under System values, and needs no tag of your own
  9. Select “TP Programs” to automatically populate the dropdown with the current list of TP Programs on the robot
  10. Preview the working HMI with the Preview button in the top right
  11. Go back to the editor with the Edit button in the top right
  12. Save your HMI with the Save button

Page size

Section titled “Page size”

A document is drawn at a fixed size, chosen in the Inspector’s Document tab:

  • Portrait — 798 × 1094, and Landscape — 1278 × 614. These are FANUC’s standard tablet, measured on the device. Mount it to match the one you pick.
  • Custom — a width and height you enter, for a custom tablet resolution.

Measuring a custom size

Section titled “Measuring a custom size”

Do not take the numbers from a spec sheet. What a document has to fit is the area FANUC’s frame gives the HMI, which is smaller than the panel’s resolution and is not published anywhere.

There is a Use this screen button when Custom is selected which fills in the width and height based on the current screen size.

Controls that fall off the page

Section titled “Controls that fall off the page”

A control outside the page is clipped at runtime. Validate reports these under PAGE.

Running it on the robot

Section titled “Running it on the robot”

Documents are stored on the controller as soon as they are saved, so there is no separate deploy step. All you have to do is open the runtime.

  1. Menu > Plugins > HMI Forge > Runtime
  2. The HMI will display if you only have one saved HMI. Otherwise select the one you just created.

Before handing the device to operators, consider locking the editor so screens can be run but not changed.

Section titled “Related”
  • Program control — Start, Hold, Reset and Abort as one control, with no tags to declare.
  • Dropdown — bind option values to a tag on select.
  • Tags — naming the signals a control reads and writes.
  • System values — active_program and the other values available without declaring a tag.
  • Themes — changing the look of every screen at once.
  • Backup & restore — getting a document onto a second controller.