The commands of the Properties menu can either be applied to selected items or saved as presets for all subsequent operations.

If you have selected one or more items, the commands refer only to changes to the selected items. The selected presets remain unchanged. If no element is selected, use the commands to change the default. The attributes of the preset are applied to all subsequent drawing operations.

The following attributes are used when drawing each element: 

• Style
• Color
• Texture
• Fill
• Font   

Style

The command calls a selection of different line types. The line thickness (1-32 pixels) can also be selected for the line type “Solid”.

For the Invisible line type, the lines in the editor are dotted in red in the line color.

Color

The command calls a color palette with base colors. Define Colors >>expands the dialog box with a color spectrum in which you can define colors yourself. Add Color adds the self-defined color to the palette and allows you to select the base colors at the click of a mouse. The selected color is applied along with the set line style to represent the element boundaries.

Texture

This command offers a selection of available fill patterns. The dialog box displays the combination of the selected fill pattern with the set fill color.

For the Transparent fill pattern, the fill color is hatched in the color red.

Fill

As with “Properties| Line Color” a dialog box appears to select the fill color. Here, too, you can define your own colors. The selected color is applied to the fill of elements along with the set fill pattern.

Font

This command calls a list of all available fonts. A font size can be selected for each font. In addition, the options can be set bold, italic, underlined and crossed out. The font and size you choose appear in the Monitor Fixer, and are applied to text elements along with the pen color you set.

Graphics

In order to be able to operate input/output fields via on-screen keyboard, the following configurations are required in the editor:

If the “Activate on-screen keyboard” check mark is set, the on-screen keyboard is activated in the sequence as soon as the system variable “System:Edit” is “True” and the input/output field receives the focus.

Format Strings

The output of values in text and input/output fields can be formatted by format strings, e.g. with a unit of measurement or with leading zeros. A format string is displayed via the menu item “Properties| graphic” in the Edit Graphic window.

Please note: Depending on the data type of the variables that are used in the dynamics dialog with the text or one/output field, different format settings are allowed in the format string. VisXpert cannot verify the syntax of the specified format string.

Attention: Invalid information in the format string can lead to undefined system states! A format string passed to the string formatting routines can contain two types of elements:

• simple characters
• formatting instructions.

Simple characters are copied to the resulting string without modification, e.g. a unit of measure appended to the output value. Formatting statements are always preceded by the character ‘%’. They are edited one at a time to format the output value. Format statement syntax:
[Sign]”%”[Alignment][width][“.”Prec]Type[Char]

Prameters in square brackets are optional, but the order must be followed. The formatting statement starts with the “%” character and ends with the type.Characters before the % character and after the type specification are copied into the resulting string.Characters: Any strings, e.g. “°C”%: Start of formatting statement   

Allingment

• “+”: Numeric output with sign (positive and negative). The output value is always displayed with sign (positive and negative sign)
• “-“: Value is displayed left-aligned
• “0” value is filled left-aligned with zeros. The output is filled left-aligned with leading zeros. Width:The width specifier specifies the minimum number of characters thatthe output value contains, including signs and any “simple” characters. Specifying the alignment specifiers “-” and “0” is only useful if a width specifier is also specified as Width. If the output value contains fewer characters than the width specified, the output string is filled with blank characters on the right when the output string is left-aligned, and left-aligned with the character “0” if displayed with leading zeros. If the value contains more characters than is specified in Width, all characters are still output

Width:

Minimum number of characters that are output

Precision:

Precision, is introduced with “.”. For integer values, the precision specifier specifies the minimum number of digits that are represented. Contains fewer digits than “. Prec”, the rest is filled left-aligned with zeros.

For floating-point values, the precision specifier specifies the number of decimal places that are represented. If the precision specifier is not specified, the default value of 6 applies to the type “e” or “E” to the type “f” of 2 decimal places.

Type:

output type of the resulting string. Permitted are:

• “e” Scientific edition (e.g. “0.123e+123”)
• “E” Scientific edition (e.g. “0.123E+123”)
• “f” floating-point number
• “ld” integer with sign
• “lu” integer without sign
• “lx” hexadecimal output with small letters
• “lX” hexadecimal output with large letters
• “s” string output

When output as a hexadecimal number, you can choose whether the letters should be displayed
small (“lx”) or large (“lX”). For example, the value of the linked variables is 1234.

• %ld €: 1234 € Integer with attached “€
• “€%ld: €1234 integer with leading “€”%+
• 7ld + 1234 unsigned integer, 7 characters
• %+7.5ld + 01234 integer with sign, 7 characters and 5 digits
• %-7ld€ 1234 € Integer left-aligned with attached “€”, total 7 characters
• %.4f 4 decimal places
• %07ld 0001234 integer with leading zeros, 7 characters
• %2ld 1234 specified width less than numberof characters
• %lx 4d2 Hex number with small letters
• %lX 4D2 Hex number with large letters The value of the linked variable is -1234.
• %lu 4294966062 integer is interpreted without sign.

When output in the scientific representation exponential form, you can choose whether the exponent should be represented with a small “e” or with a large “E”. For example, the value of the linked variable is 1234.56.
Display in exponential form

• %e 1.234560e+03 Standard representation
• %+e +1.234560e+03 Representation with pos. Sign
• %-15e°C 1.234560e+03 °C left-aligned, min. 15 characters
• %-15.2e°C 1.23e+03 °C left-aligned, min. 15 characters 2 decimal places
  %010.2e°C 001.23E+03°C leading zeros, min. 10 characters and 2 decimal places Representation as floating point number
• %10.2f°C min. 10 characters and 2 decimal places

When Output as String representation, any existing “simple” characters are copied to the string in any case.

• %s€ String€ String variable and simple characters are copied together
• %10s€ String€ right-aligned, min. 10 characters
• %-10s€ String € left-aligned, min. 10 characters
• %5.5€ String€ min. 5 characters, of which max. 5 from thevariable

Escape Sequences

For the representation of the “%” character in the output string, the statement “%%” must be used in the format string, because the simple “%” character indicates that a formatting statement follows. Permissible parameters for variable type “integer”