Panel Creator is an app that allows designing Ampio glass touch panels to navigate system functionalities.
The Panel Creator app facilitates the management of multiple projects. There are options to create a project from scratch or to open a saved project by uploading a PDF file.
Each project can be edited, deleted, duplicated or saved to a PDF file from the Main Menu. The use of functionalities that cause irreversible changes is protected by alerts.
Panel editor contains an editor section and a preview section. The editor section has a tab menu with the main panel configuration options which appear on the panel in the preview section. There are also: a top bar with the panel’s name form, a bottom bar which shows the chosen model, color and has a scale control panel including the full screen view and a side bar with additional options for project management. Some of the sidebar options depend on the selected tab.
There are all AMPIO customisable panel models available in the models tab. Each model has a short description and a link to the AMPIO website with additional information.
Different panel colours are available in the colours tab. It is also possible to choose a different type of glass for some models - more information is available in the option’s tooltip.
The icons tab contains categorised icons provided by AMPIO.
Icons can be placed on the panel by dragging and dropping them in one of the specific fields, that get highlighted when hovering over them with a selected icon. Each field consists of a place for a full-size icon and an status light above.
Fields also have a flash animation which can be turned off in the sidebar.
An icon can be dropped at one of four places in each field:
When the mouse cursor with the icon hovers over the right place,the highlight turns green. The fields for split icons get highlighted when the mouse cursor hovers close enough to them.
Click to enlarge and open in a new tab.
Because of possible issues with illumination a warning window pops up when the status icon is used. Warning windows can be hidden, but when warnings occur a show/hide warning button is displayed at the bottom of the sidebar.
While the icons tab is selected, the sidebar contains additional functionalities: for all icons and also only for selected one (disabled until the icon is selected).
For easier work with the editor available icons may be added to Favourites by clicking on them. Favourite icons are marked with a star sign and grouped into the “Favourite” section at the top of the categories list.
The “Favourite” category also provides an overview of favourite icons from other projects open on a computer.
The “Custom” category provides the possibility to customise a project with personalized icons by uploading them from the computer’s hard drive. There is also an option to copy custom icons from other projects open on the computer, similarly to Favourite icons.
There is an option to add two captions for each panel’s field - under and above the icon. Five different fonts are available. Captions can have a maximum length of 16 characters, but if they are longer than 9 characters a warning is displayed. There is also a warning about using different fonts in one project.
While the titles tab is selected, the sidebar contains functionality of hiding borders, turning on/off captions above icons (disabled by default), deleting all captions and choosing selected font for all captions.
Creating frames is an option that can be used to group icons added to a panel. Frames with straight and rounded corners are available. While the frames tab is selected, clickable fields are backlit and plus signs are displayed when the mouse cursor hovers over the field to add it to the created frame. Plus signs also appear on each field that will be added to the frame being created as a result of a click (the frame must always be rectangular and must not cross the display). Similarly for deleting fields from the created frame - minus signs show which fields will be excluded.
Created frame is green. If a single frame is created, it only surrounds one icon, making it smaller. If the frame is larger (width of at least 2 columns or height of 2 rows), it surrounds the whole field, and it is possible to add a frame title by using the “Add a title” button. Five fonts are available, the maximum length of the title is 16 characters. The finished frame must be confirmed with the “CONFIRM” button - it will appear on the panel in the icons' colour. Each of the confirmed frames parameters appears on the list at the bottom of the frames editor section. If a list item is hovered over, the frame will be highlighted in red. There is also an option to remove the frame by clicking on the X button.
There are the following warnings displayed: too long frame’s title, different frame’s fonts, frame intersecting the caption above the icon. While the frame tab is selected, the sidebar contains additional functionalities such as unification of frames corner’s type, unification of frames title’s font, showing/hiding field backlight, showing/hiding titles border, deleting created frames and deleting all confirmed frames. There are also tooltips explaining why certain functions are not available.
While working with the editor, the option to activate the visualisation mode is available in the sidebar at any time. Editing of icons, titles and frames is only possible in edit mode.
