Flexible Animation Builder

Release 5

The Flexible Animation Builder (FAB) of WinFACT for the first time allows the convenient design of simple as well as complex process visualizations, animations and user interfaces for the block oriented simulation system BORIS without any programming. To realize such projects it is no longer necessary to program User DLLs before.

The Flexible Animation Builder is a powerful tool for the interactive, direct design, which offers the following graphical elements:

Lines and polylines
Circles, ellipses, rectangles and rounded resp. shaded rectangles
Triangles and parallelograms (rotating)
y-t- and x-y-graphics
Tables with several columns
Bitmaps and Windows metafiles
Bitmap status displays and bitmap sequences (animated bitmaps)
Video for Windows files (AVI files)
Sound support (WAV files)
Static texts and text messages
Time and date fields
Numerical output fields
Horizontal and vertical bar graphs, progress bars, thermometers
LED displays (round or rectangular) and LCD panels
Analog instruments (scalable)
Switches and buttons (alternatively with text and/or graphic) as well as bitmap buttons and button groups
Buttons for special functions (e. g. for the control of the simulation)
Edit fields
Check boxes
Horizontal and vertical sliders
Horizontal and vertical pipes (animated)
Tank systems (animated)
Valves, hydraulic cylinders, pumps and motors (animated)

All graphic and control elements can be combined with each other in any way. The possibility to link most properties of the elements (e. g. position or size) with single block in- or outputs allows the realization of any static and dynamic visualization. Furthermore it is possible to switch on or off single elements independently.

The FAB kernel is a DLL of the BORIS User DLL standard. Therefore the FAB can be used as a tool within BORIS as well as a completely independent stand-alone process visualization for other applications (e. g. user programmed applications). To visualize outputs of his own program or to generate inputs for his own program in an easy and convenient way the user only has to integrate the corresponding interface functions of the FAB DLL in his program.

Compared with version 4 the release 5 offers the following improvements and add-ons:

Optional window manager for a comfortable management of several FAB visualization windows at runtime
Management of keyboard commands (allows the triggering of events via keypress)
Input controlled showing and hiding of the visualization window
Selection and editing of element groups (via -resp. -key or by a selection rectangle via mouse within the visualization window)
Optimized window management in the design mode (via the context menu of the visualization window)
Extended selection of graphic and control elements
Modified configuration dialog with separated element and property tables
Controllable element colors and fill patterns
Changeable element sequence via drag & drop
Insertion of new elements at any position via drag & drop
Copying and pasting of elements
Optional design grid within the visualization window
Selecting and moving of elements with the mouse (drag & drop) in both operation modes
Special buttons for simulation control (e. g. print etc.)
Via button click visualization windows of variable size and control windows
Integrable online help
Use of constants
I/O control windows
Bitmap libraries (standard and user defined)

Application samples

The following animations show some applications of the FAB module. To display the original graphics (most of them animated) click on the magnifying glass symbol within the corresponding preview graphic. Also the user interfaces of our automatic control compact models were created by using the Flexible Animation Builder.