TFT View Design Basics

On the <device>/TFT Views page you define each TFT view that will be shown on a TFT display. You can decide what will be shown and how it will be shown for all elements in the view, as well as their size, color and arrangement.

TFT View page - View Options tab

You can create your views completely free and individual to completely fit all your needs. To create individual views, knowledge on TB8 configuration is required.

Here you find the elements of view creation and some useful hints.

All elements which you can use in the view are shown in the Available Elements list. You can drag elements from this list to the display preview View Presentation. The element is only dropped if it is completely located on the display preview. As long as it is not, the element is not shown.

To remove any element, select it and click the -icon above the display preview area or press the Del (Entf) button on your keyboard.

Elements can be moved in the display preview area with a left-click and hold on the element and moving the the mouse.

Elements can be changed in size in the lower right corner. If you left-click and hold on this area, you can change the size of the object by moving the mouse.

The size, Z-Position and position of all elements can be adjusted on the Element Configuration Tab. Position-X and Position-Y are always related to upper left corner. Width and Height always add or reduce size on the left and bottom side. With Top and Bottom you can navigate the element on the Z-axis.

Above the display preview, you find three zoom buttons to enlarge or reduce the size of the preview and to scale it to its original size. These settings are for a better clarity of the configuration process only, they do not affect the view on the TFT display.

To cut, copy and paste any view element, select the element you want and click above the display preview:

• to copy all selected elements.
• to cut all selected elements.
• to paste all selected elements.

To select multiple elements, hold Ctrl (Strg) key pressed and left-click on any element you want to select.

To resize an element, select it and hold Shift (⇑) key. Use the arrow-keys (← ↑ → ↓) to resize it stepwise. You can use this function with multiple elements selected.

To move an element, select it and hold Ctrl (Strg). Use the arrow-keys (← ↑ → ↓) to move it. You can use this function with multiple elements selected.

With TB8 you can design individual views for many purposes. But creating many views is a lot of work. Using custom colors and color schemes as well as copying and pasting elements from view to view can save you a lot of time. Also switching between views should follow some rules to keep it simple.

52/SX Default Configuration: Dark and Bright color schemes.

In the project tree, on the General page, select the Colors tab. There you can create up to 4 color schemes in addition to the default colors. Each color scheme can contain up to 60 colors.

You can preview the different color schemes in the view editor. Above the display preview area you find a Preview Color Schema dropdown menu.

The first 11 (15) colors of every scheme are always locked for system reference purposes. If you want to use one of these locked colors, we recommend creating a new color with the same value. This is useful to manipulate element colors centrally for a certain element type. Also it is useful if different color schemes (e.g. like a dark-scheme for night) are planned.

For changing the background color, change the color with the name Background. For more information on Colors page, see Colors.

Fonts can be adjusted when selecting the General page in the project tree and there, select the Fonts tab. Here, new fonts can be created. TFT Views can use the created fonts, but Bold or Italic values will be ignored. Only the font-size is relevant.

First 8 Fonts (TFT1…8) are fixed for system reference purposes. When using a specific font size for a specific group of elements, you can create a new font with another or the same size. In case of changing the size, you only have to adjust the font size of the created font on General page, Fonts tab and not on every single element. Also font-sizes differing from default values are possible.

Switching between views can always be realized using TFT Buttons or hardware keys with Key Function Show View. For fader views the Key Function Show Fader View works.

Switching between Master Views is easily done with TFT buttons or hardware keys and the key function Show View. To realize a simple menu, you can use multiple buttons with this function and copy them from page to page. If the current page is the page defined in a Show View key, the Key will be enlighted with the On color.

The Set Default View key function can manipulate a default view on a selected Central Display Group.

Access Views are only accessible if access is active. You can jump between access views using Show View keys with Follow Access active.

More information on Access Views.

Switching between Fader Views is easily done with TFT buttons or hardware keys and the key function Show Fader View. You can define the fader to act on and the view to set. Fader Views have no access views.

More information on Fader Views.