TPDesign 4 Panel Conversion External Button Bug

Joe Hebert

When you do a ?Save as Different Panel Type? all External Button channel codes are set to ?None? on the converted panel file including both the Global External button codes and any External Buttons that were set to override the global settings.

I have a TP4 file created for an MVP-8400 and some pages used the global settings, some pages had unique channel codes for the external buttons, and some pages had a combination of both. When I converted it to an MVP-7500 all the external button codes were wiped out on the 7500.

The only way I know how to fix it for now is to reassign every external button on every page.

I am using the latest and greatest version of TPDesign 4 (2.3.1 build 353.)

Thanks,
Joe

[Deleted User]

To quote my reponse to this in another thread (http://www.amxforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=118):

Just to give some insight, this behavior was intentional. Back in the days of G3 touch panels, most panels that had external buttons had "non-specific" buttons. What I mean by this, is that there were no cursor control buttons like on the MVPs, just a column of buttons on the left of the screen and one on the right. So, when TPDesign4 did panel-to-panel conversion, it simply preserved as many external buttons as were common between the panel types.

The external buttons on G4 panels changed our thinking a little bit, as the first panels to have these were the MVPs and the NXD-CV7. The MVP's have 4 "non-specific" buttons on the left, with no button LEDs; and 5 cursor style buttons on the right. The NXD-CV7 has six "non-specific" buttons, three on either side of the setup/sensor button, and all with LEDs tied to them for feedback purposes. So, as you can see, taking the functions from an MVP's external buttons and assigning them to a NDX-CV7's, or vice-versa, would not make sense. In fact, it would probably require as much work changing the copied settings as it would to just re-setup the external buttons.

All that being said, it is certainly a good suggestion that we recognize that the MVP-8400 and MVP-7500 share the same external button configuration and allow their settings to be carried over on a panel type conversion. We will add it to our TPDesign4 feature request list.

The good news is that an upcoming release of TPDesign4 will address this and all other known issues with external controls.

Joe Hebert

Hi Rob,

I apologize for posting an issue that is similar to what was talked about earlier. I try to keep up with the board and read every post but I?ll blame my age on this one. I don?t always recall what was said yesterday let alone 3 months ago.

Will this new release also take care of the external buttons when copying pages within the same panel? I expressed the problems that I encountered here: http://www.amxforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=287 There was no response so I?m not sure if it was read.

I look forward to the next release of TPDesign 4. Thanks for listening.

Cheers,
Joe

[Deleted User]

Originally posted by Joe Hebert
Will this new release also take care of the external buttons when copying pages within the same panel? I expressed the problems that I encountered here: http://www.amxforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=287 There was no response so I?m not sure if it was read.

From what we were able to reproduce, yes, the problems with copying and pasting, within the same panel, pages that contain overridden external button configurations have been addressed.

Joe Hebert

Cool. Thanks, Rob. Would you care to share what new toys we?ll have to play with when the next revision is released?

Joe