Pipe Animations, Yes or No??

[mburtis]

You can't even say c r a p on this software? Yeesh.

 

[padees]

You can say frikin junk tho. About the same.

 

[padees]

I like to do animations if the opportunity exists, It's quite a bit of fun developing the screens and seeing how it works.

You can just say screw you to whatever hierarchy is dictating, but that depends on other factors, which primarily pivot on your approach.

It's a thought process, think about it.

 

[cardosocea]

This is where the high performance hmi shines to me. Build the screens around trends and slider indicators that give the operator the true information about the process not just the raw data and then make them go to other screens to see trends and alarm limits.

I worked for a company that took this stuff seriously back all the way in 2008... it was there I learnt most about high performance graphics and they weren't shy about spending thousands in psychologists to nail down what was best, including the shade of blue most relaxing to humans to paint the walls with.

One control they had on their dashboard was the levelling button, once you hit your steady state, press the button and all the dials and bargraphs would show the value centered. It still showed you the alarm limits in different colours and trailing value so you could assess the direction of the value. All you had to care was whether the line was off centered, nothing else. Very few operators, even after being taught, would use it... but then again they were also forced to write down in paper all the readings at every 5 minutes or so.

 

[JesperMP]

Aircraft is an interesting point you bring though. For starters it's the same device being controlled, whilst DCS and SCADAs control anything from river locks all teh way to nuclear power plants, that vairability means a lot more people got involved in the deveopment and specification. But more interestingly, you also don't see a P&ID of the hydraulic system of the aircraft with animated lines. Then I imagine there's an element of reliability, a lamp is still more reliable and easy to replace than a screen. And let's not get started on approvals and versioning/obsolescence.

They animate valve positions and show various states with green and red colors:

How does the AIRBUS FUEL SYSTEM work? Explained by CAPTAIN JOE

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youtu.be

 

[parky]

It's modern tech, like has been said, in the old days a few mechanical guages in your car but with the ECU & it's computing power & a display you can now see what only the mechs could see or more, I do believe there is a place for animations they are intuitive, give the operator information at a glance but they must be designed in mind of the operator & what he needs to see at a glance not blind him with silly animations like valves actually moving, one good animation that goes against this is packs moving along a conveyor, just a green belt or motor symbol only tells the operator the belt is moving, some sort of simple shift register showing the product is on the belt is a good idea, does not have to be complicated just shows the production state at that time.
As for the colours, I have had so many different requests for company standards for example one company will use Grey for stopped (disabled), cyan for enabled but on running Red for running ? Flashing amber for alarm, the reason for red was that it's moving so dangerous oh. well each to it's own.

 

[John Morris]

We design and fabricate a Solution system to keep the dust down and prevent fires in our process. This includes mixing and delivery. Rather then using arrows and colored pipes, we use flowmeters and pressure transducers. Plus we read and display the amperage of the motors so the operators can understand it is underload. We do highlight the motor being used with a green box around the motor and with in, the hertz setting and the amperage display. With in the architecture of the pipe would be the flow or pressure depending on which side of the pump. Same type of architecture for the mixing side, using time and GPM.

 

[JaxGTO]

I like to use the 3D pipes and then animate a line on top to show the flow path.

 

[durallymax]

I don't do animated pipes, but I also don't live by ISA101 as gospel either. The standard has merit, but I believe context is important and the context of ISA is large scale processes with dedicated operators whose only job is staring at a wall of SCADA monitors. In that case, ISA101 hits the marks.

That said, there are a couple things in ISA101 that I never deviate from. Analog indicator bars are one, those things just make sense. I tend to work in industries where someone may glance at the HMI a total of 5 minutes per day and it can be any number of operators with any level of competence. The ISA101 type indicator bar means anyone can interpret any reading as good or bad (and how close to good or bad) with ease. It can also be implemented in nearly any HMI software (some more difficult than others).

Designing screens in a hierarchical nature is another I stick to. Two reasons really, it's more intuitive for the user and it maps to predefined structures in the PLC reducing dev time. Not all HMIs lend themselves to this, C-More being one as they update pop-ups whether they are called or not so now your hierarchy needs to become separate screens to prevent lag.

Color is where I will start to deviate from ISA101. In our main industry, operators are quickly glancing at things and often want a little more indication than dark gray vs white to indicate something is running. They may only interact with the HMI for one week out of the year. A limited amount of color can help in these applications. Also bearing in mind, these are small processes. I trend towards muted colors that can still be distinguished given the environmental conditions.

All of that said, it is fun to set up an animated line program and have it working flawless. But it is a pain to maintain and wastes a lot of dev time for little benefit IME.