Languages

HMI Forge puts some text on a screen that a document’s author never writes: the confirmation before a button acts, the number keypad, alarm severities, the progress and result of a controller backup, and the message shown when an action fails. A language pack translates that text.

Everything the author writes — label text, button captions, alarm messages, screen names — is already theirs to write in any language. A pack covers only the parts they cannot edit.

What a pack covers

A pack translates what an operator reads while running a screen:

• the confirm-before-acting dialog, and the prompt shown when starting a program means aborting the one already running
• the number keypad
• the alarm banner and alarm history
• the controller backup, from the confirmation through to its summary
• the message and the tap cue on a failure notification, including the ones the controller itself reports — a pressed E-STOP, the teach pendant switch left on, a program that is not loaded
• the banner shown when a screen was built in a newer version than the runtime can draw

It deliberately does not cover:

• the editor, which stays English
• the event log and diagnostics, which stay English so they can be read by whoever supports the cell. A failure raises a translated notification and an English log entry.
• loading and choosing documents

Setting a document’s language

The language belongs to the document, not the controller. A cell running two languages runs two documents, and each opens in its own on the same robot.

1. Open the Inspector, then the Document tab.
2. Choose a language under Language.

The list shows the packs installed on this controller. English is always available and needs no pack.

Preview shows the change straight away.

Importing a pack

1. Put the .lng file on a USB stick and insert it in the pendant.
2. In the Document tab, press Import language pack.
3. Pick the file and give it a code — this is what the Language list shows.

A file named hmi_de.lng suggests de; any other name has to be given a code. A file that is not a language pack is rejected and nothing is installed.

Packs are stored on the controller, so every document on it can use them, and they are included in a backup.

Writing a pack

A pack is a JSON file: a flat object of key to translated text, UTF-8 encoded.

Start from the English catalog: hmi_en.lng. It holds every key this version uses, with the English text as the value — translate the values and leave the keys alone.

{
  "modal.cancel": "Abbrechen",
  "confirm.body": "Sind Sie sicher?",
  "backup.done.title": "Sicherung abgeschlossen",
  "backup.done.body": "Ordner: {folder}. Kopierte Dateien: {copied}."
}

Name it hmi_<code>.lng, where <code> is two to eight letters or digits.

Placeholders in braces are substituted at runtime and must survive translation: {folder} and {copied} above are filled in with a real folder name and count. A placeholder can move anywhere in the sentence, but a name that is changed or dropped will appear on screen as written.

A pack does not have to be complete. Any key it omits falls back to English, so a partial translation shows the strings it has and English for the rest.

A pack does not have to be current. When an update adds text, an existing pack keeps working — the new strings appear in English until the pack is revised. Keys a pack contains that HMI Forge no longer uses are ignored.

Backups

Every installed pack is written to the stick by a Documents-panel backup as hmi_<code>.lng, and restored from one. All of them travel, whether or not a document currently uses them.

A pack on a backup stick is an ordinary pack file — it can be imported by hand onto another controller.

Related

• Backup & restore — what a backup contains.
• USB import & export — file types and the USB stick requirements.