CODESYS Depictor Editor (licensed)

When working in the 3D view, buttons for the following commands are available in the toolbar of the CODESYS main window:

	Add pose: A pose is added below the selected entry in the tree. Definition: A pose shows the translation of its child node relative to their parent node. For example, all child nodes should be moved seven units relative to the parent node.
	Add element: An element is added below the selected entry in the tree. Definition: An element in the CODESYS Depictor contains the actual 3D geometry of a Depictor object. The 3D geometry can originate from a file, or it can reference an existing Depictor object.
	Get camera position from render view and add it to the camera positions of Depictor. Corresponds to the command Get camera position.
	Set the camera position selected in Depictor to the camera position of the 3D view: Corresponds to the command Set camera position. The representation in 3D view changes accordingly.
	Create screenshot: The default Save as dialog opens. You can save the current 3D view to a JPG file.
	Show pose connections: All elements are drawn as a wire model in the 3D view. The connections between the poses are displayed as green cylinders. The thickness of the cylinders is defined in the Depictor options.

The commands Add pose and Add element are available in the context menu of the objects in the Tree view.

The figure shows the editor view for the Properties (1) of a pose with sample values.

Example 1. Example of a combined transformation with structure DepictorFrame

TYPE DepictorFrame :
STRUCT
        X : LREAL;
        Y : LREAL;
        Z : LREAL;
        Yaw : LREAL;
        Pitch : LREAL;
        Roll : LREAL;
END_STRUCT
END_TYPE

PROGRAM PLC_PRG
VAR
        rCount : LREAL;
        depFram : DepictorBase.DepictorFrame;
END_VAR

rCount := rCount + 0.01;
depFram.X := COS(rCount)*4;
depFram.Y := SIN(rCount)*4;
depFram.Z := COS(rCount) * SIN(rCount) * 4;
depFram.Yaw := rCount*4;
depFram.Pitch := rCount*8;
depFram.Roll := rCount*12;

Entry in the editor: configuration table Transformations of the pose, type Combined, column Variable/Value: PLC_PRG.depFram

See the following images for the configuration of a combined transformation above the structure (left) and the equivalent configuration above the individual parameters for translation and rotation (right):

Example 2. Example of displaying a transformation of type "Connection"

The CODESYS Depictor should display the movements of a telescopic cylinder. The movement in space and the change in the length of the cylinder should be adapted automatically to the current position of two points in space. For this purpose, you use the transformation type "Connection" for the cylinder pose and specify both spatial points and a direction vector. Then the constantly required translation for the cylinder is calculated automatically by CODESYS Depictor.

You create a "Cylinder" element below a pose in the Tree of the Depictor object (1).

The element is then a Depictor reference from a library.

Configure the Cylinder element in the Properties view (2) as follows:

In the Basic tab (2), set the transformation (3):

In the Appearance tab (4), set the color (5):

Then configure the pose for Cylinder in the Properties/Transformations view (3) as follows:

Control a movement of the Depictor object by means of the application program

Application, PLC_PRG

PROGRAM PLC_PRG
VAR
        lrRun : LREAL;

        lrX1 : LREAL := 0;
        lrY1 : LREAL;
        lrZ1 : LREAL;

        lrX2 : LREAL := 2;
        lrY2 : LREAL;
        lrZ2 : LREAL;

END_VAR

lrRun := lrRun + 0.01;

lrX1 := COS(lrRun)*2;
lrX2 := SIN(lrRun)*2 + 2;

lrY1 := SIN(lrRun*2)*3;
lrY2 := COS(lrRun*2)*3;

lrZ1 := COS(lrRun/2);
lrZ2 := SIN(lrRun/2);

The Properties editor (1) for a Depictor element consists of the tabs Basic and Appearance. For elements that are not Depictor references, there is also the Material tab.

Basic tab (2):

Define the geometry source and set additional X/Y/Z-transformations for the element. If the element originates from a Depictor reference that defined an interface, then you can perform the assignment of the Interface variables (9) in a table. For more information, see the description of the CODESYS Depictor Viewers.

Appearance tab (1):

Visibility (2): Visible/Expression (3): The element is visible when the specified Boolean variable or Expression of the application or of the Depictor object is TRUE.

Color (4): Recolor expression (5): The element is recolored entirely with the color specified here. Neither textures are used, nor known colors from referenced CODESYS Depictor objects. To specify the color, you can provide an application variable of type STRING (example: Application.PLC_PRG.strCol) or the exact color value (example: 16#FFFF8040). To open the default dialog for color selection, click the button after the input field. Note: Recoloring does not affect elements below published poses.

Material tab (1):

This tab is available only for elements that are not inserted as Depictor references.

Material number (2): Designates a material in the model

The following material properties can be modified here:

You can create an interface for Depictor objects that are located in the POU pool of the project. When you open this kind of object in the CODESYS Depictor Editor, another Interface view is available, by default hidden as a tab on the left edge of the editor. It contains the Depictor declaration editor.

Declare input variables for the Depictor object, as is usual for function blocks in CODESYS. Every variable declared in the interface is available within the Depictor object, for example to be linked to transformations of poses. When you reference the Depictor object in an element in the tree (Depictor Ref.), the variables are listed in the Interface variables section of the properties editor. You can populate them there with values or expressions for the use case.

Example 3. Example

A Depictor object named "Belt" is created in the POU pool of the project and the interface is defined as follows:

VAR_INPUT
        Belt: Conveyor;
        lrSize: LREAL;
END_VAR

When referencing the "Belt" object in a Depictor element, you can populate the variables with values or application variables in the properties editor (1) in the section Interface variables (2):

The Camera view has two sections: Camera Positions and Camera Properties:

Section 'Camera Positions'

The camera positions that are used in the 3D view of a CODESYS Depictor object are saved listed according to the object. A position can be applied from the 3D view into the dialog, as well as from the dialog into the view. Using implicit variables, you can access the camera positions in the IEC code.

A camera position is defined by:

The context menu of a selected camera position contains the following commands, in addition to the standard commands (delete, cut, paste, and copy).

Access to camera positions from the IEC code:

If version 1.0.1.0 or higher of the library DepictorBase is linked in your project, then every CODESYS Depictor object automatically generates a GVL <name of Depictor object> with the Camera variable.

The Camera variable contains the subcomponents Position of type DepictorBase.DepictorCameraPosition and xUsePosition of type BOOL. Depending on the individual configuration of the Depictor object, Camera may also contain an array pCameraPositions of type ARRAY ... OF DepictorBase.DepictorCameraPosition. This array describes defined camera positions of the object. The number of camera positions in the array is defined by the variable uiNumberOfCameraPosition of type UINT.

Using these implicit variables, you can control the camera with the IEC code. When creating the code, use the function "List Components" for getting access to the subcomponents of <Depictor object>.Camera. The positional information from the IEC code are use only if you set xUsePosition to TRUE, Then direct interaction is no longer possible in the 3D view. The is indicated by a red frame around the view.

The library receives both the InterpolateCameraPosition function block and the DepictorCameraPosition structure for defining a camera position,. This block is used for interpolating to a new DepictorCameraPosition within the defined time. This allows animated camera motion as soon as a new position is set.

Section 'Scene Background'

Section Camera Properties

In the lighting view, you can configure multiple light sources for lighting a scene in the 3D view. Each light source is shown as a node in the table with its properties below it.

For this, also see below: Example of the 3D view, bird's eye view, and lighting configuration.

The context menu of a light source node contains the following commands, in addition to the standard commands (delete, cut, paste, and copy).

The Bird's eye view provides an overview of the current scene in the 3D view. The camera is shown as a gray cylindrical object and the light sources as yellow conical objects.

For this, also see below: Example of the 3D view, bird's eye view, and lighting configuration.

As in the 3D view, you can move the mouse to change the viewing angles of the entire scene. However, the camera position always remains on the Z-axis of the scene. Zooming only changes the distance from the camera to the center.

When you select the Show the light radius in the bird's eye view option in the Lighting view for a light source, the lighted area is displayed as a yellow circle.

See the example in the following image for a pose in the bird's eye view (1) and in the 3D view (2). By configuring the lighting view (3), the scene also gets three light sources (5) that can be seen as yellow objects in the bird's eye view. The radii (4) of the light sources are displayed as yellow overlapping circles around the object in the bird’s eye view. The camera is shown as a gray conical object in the bird’s eye view. The shadowed circular area with the arrow axis in the 3D view is also in the bird's eye view, and the object is also drawn as a frame model. This helps to detect the current viewing direction of the camera on the object in both views.