3D screens
Build the plant as a three-dimensional scene: place objects in the 3D editor, define floors and views, draw the objects with the Standard or Realistic model; in Live, the operator rotates the scene, zooms in and sees tag values in the scene.
What is a 3D screen
A 3D screen (scene) is a three-dimensional screen in which objects stand on a floor measured in meters. The tag binding, animation and event logic of 2D screens applies unchanged; the difference is that the objects come from the 3D library and the screen is navigated with a camera.
For a new 3D screen, select Add›New 3D screen; the screen appears in the project tree under 3D Scenes. The ground of the new screen is 30 × 20 m. To create a scene from an existing 2D screen, there is the Convert page to 3D feature.
3D editor
While a 3D screen tab is active, the scene appears in the middle, a single-row toolbar at the top, the cards on the right (selected from the icon strip at the far right: 3D Library, Scene, Views) and the Inspector at the bottom. The toolbar from left to right: the active floor selector (Ground or the floor name), Add floor; snap and snap step, alignment guide, prevent overlap, snap to rail / plate (panel); drop to surface, rotate 15° left / right; focus on selection, fit whole scene, return to start view; ground grid and grid square (meters); on the right the Preview buttons (▶ Running, Design, ⚠ Fault) and the ambient light selector. To make everything fit, the text labels of the selectors are hidden; hovering over a button or selector shows its description.
12345- Toolbar — floor, snap, guide, overlap, rotation, view, grid, preview, environment.
- Icon strip — the 3D Library, Scene and Views cards.
- Handles — Rotate (drag right / left, 5° steps), Raise (up / down), Scale (right / left).
- Placement model — a newly placed object comes as Standard or Realistic.
- Inspector — properties of the selected object; each property is connected to a tag from the Dynamic column.
Placing objects
In the 3D Library, the objects are in the same groups as in the 2D library; the Search 3D objects... box filters by name and group. Click an object and then click the ground in the scene, or drag the object and drop it; double-clicking places the object at the center of the view. The right-click menu offers Add to scene (center). The Placement model switch at the top of the library (two buttons: Standard / Realistic) determines which model a new object gets and is stored in the Studio settings. This switch does not change the model of the objects already in the scene.
Mouse and keyboard
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| To select | Click the object; Shift or Ctrl for multiple selection; objects can also be selected from the Scene list on the right. |
| Moving | Drag the object (on the ground or on top of a floor). Alt temporarily disables snapping, the alignment guide and the collision check. |
| Precise moving | The arrow keys move by the snap step, Shift+arrow by 4 times that, and Ctrl+arrow by 1 cm; Page Up / Page Down raises / lowers. |
| Rotating | Q / E 15° to the left / right; or the rotate handle (5° steps, Shift 15°, Alt free). |
| Raising, scaling | The raise and scale handles above the selection; or the Layout category of the Inspector. |
| Rotating the scene | Drag on an empty spot. |
| Panning and zooming | Middle button or Shift + drag. The wheel zooms toward the point under the cursor; it does not stop at the nearest point but keeps moving in that direction (you pass through floors and walls). |
| Looking around and walking through | Hold down the right mouse button and drag: the camera turns in place. While the right button is held down, W A S D move, Q / E move down / up, Shift speeds up; right button + wheel changes the navigation speed. |
| Navigation mode | G or the navigation button on the toolbar: the left button also looks around, and the keys work without the right button. Esc exits the mode. |
| Pivot point | Double-click an object, a floor or the ground: the clicked point becomes the center of rotation. |
| View | F focuses on the selection, Ctrl+0 fits the whole scene, Home returns to the initial view. |
| Editing | Ctrl+C / X / V / D / A, Delete; Esc clears the selection or exits the placement tool. |
The alignment guide snaps the object being moved to the edge or center line of another object; the collision check prevents one object from entering another object. Both are switched on and off with buttons on the toolbar. A locked object cannot be selected or moved in the scene; select it from the Scene list.
Snap to rail / plate (on by default) snaps the devices of the Panel Components group to a DIN rail, mounting plate, door or MCC compartment when the cursor is in front of it; when the panel, plate or rail is moved, its contents move with it. Details: Panel components and DIN rail snapping.
Floors, views, environment
- Floors. + Add floor on the + Add floor tab adds a platform the size of the ground 4 m above the highest floor. The Floor selector in the toolbar determines the floor on which a new object is placed; the floors above it are shown transparent. The name, height, size, thickness, columns and railing, and transparency of a floor are edited in the Inspector; the transparency is also applied in Live.
- Views. On the Views tab, + Save current view gives a name to the current position of the camera. Home view is the opening view of the screen in Live. Saved views appear in Live as buttons below the scene; the Go to 3D view function can also be connected to an event.
- Environment and ground. In the screen properties, the Scene class provides the Ambient light (Day, Evening, Night, Studio), Shadows, Background color and Ground grid; the Ground class determines the ground size (preset sizes from 10 × 8 m to 80 × 50 m) and the grid square (5 cm – 10 m).
- Preview. The Preview buttons on the toolbar select the state of the scene in the editor: Running shows all equipment as running, Design shows the values you have set, and Fault shows all equipment in a fault state. The design values do not change.
Standard and Realistic model
Most objects in the 3D library have two models: Standard is the plain model of the library; Realistic is a detailed, remodeled version of the same object (with parts such as flanges, bolts, feet and a nameplate). The model is the Model property in the Appearance category of the object; it cannot be bound to a tag and does not change while running. Because the objects share the same properties, the object does not move from its position when the model is changed.
You can change the model in three places: the Model property of the object; the right-click menu for selected objects or Edit›Model; and, for the whole screen, the Switch to Realistic model / Switch to Realistic model buttons in the Switch to Standard model category of the screen properties. The operation is undone in a single step (Ctrl+Z). In this version, 520 of the 534 3D objects have a Realistic model; the remaining 14 (such as basic shapes) intentionally have a single model, and they have no Model property. If an object has no Realistic model, it carries a Standard badge in the library and Standard is used even if Realistic is selected.
3D screen in Live
- Navigation. Dragging with the left button rotates the scene, the middle button or Shift + drag pans it, dragging with the right button turns the camera in place (looks around), and the wheel zooms in to the point the cursor indicates. On a touch screen, one finger rotates, two fingers pan, and pinching zooms in.
- Navigation cube. Clicking a face of the cube at the top right shows the scene from that direction, and dragging the cube rotates the scene; the two buttons next to it are Isometric view and Fit whole scene.
- Camera setting. In the screen properties, the Camera class: Free (the operator rotates / zooms in), Automatic tour (the scene rotates by itself; it stops for a few seconds when the operator touches it), Fixed (saved views only). Frame rate is 60, 30 or 15 frames / s; a lower value puts less load on the processor of a weak computer.
- Environment selector. The Day, Evening, Night and Studio buttons on the right, below the navigation cube, change the ambient light; the selected one is highlighted. Until a selection is made, the Ambient light set in Studio is used. The operator's selection does not change the project; it is stored per project on this computer and applies to all 3D scenes of the project. For this reason, if different environments were set for the scenes in Studio, the difference is no longer visible once the operator makes a selection. In browser monitoring, the selection is stored in that browser. The selector is not shown on a TV screen, in print, while the alarm's go-to-object card is open, or when the scene is shown in a small area (smaller than 460 × 340 pixels).
- Tag values. The bound properties of objects are applied in Live in the same way as in 2D; if the object is on a floor, the @y binding drives the height above the floor.
- Events. 3D objects have the events On load, click, on press / on release, on right-button press / release, and on object change; there are no focus and key events. The key events of the screen also work in a 3D screen. If the Operable setting in the screen properties (Security class) is off, object events and ready-made behaviors do not run; the scene can still be navigated.
1- Environment selector — Day, Evening, Night, Studio; the selection is stored on this computer.