We recommend that each Mimic you design is:
- Easy to understand—Information should be clear, easy to read, and structured in a logical way. Users should be able to easily understand the purpose of the Mimic and be able to obtain the information they require.
- Easy to interact with—Operators will be able to function more quickly and efficiently if the interactive parts of each Mimic (controls, navigation features and so on) are clearly labelled.
- Aesthetically pleasing—the Mimic should not be cluttered with too much information and should use a color scheme that is complimentary to the information and objects being displayed.
- Designed to be efficient—Mimics with excessive amounts of the following objects can cause slow performance:
- Transparent or semi-transparent objects
- Polylines (in particular, where lots of separate lines are used where a single segmented line or curved line could be used to create the same effect)
- Objects with gradient shading
- Embedded objects, especially Mimics
- Objects with the Fast Update feature enabled (the Fast Update feature should be used sparingly).
- Designed to make use of the default Mimic Properties—If you need to create multiple Mimics that require objects with the same settings, you will be able to save time and effort by using the Mimic Properties settings. The Mimic Properties settings allow you to define default settings for a single Mimic that you are configuring, or for every Mimic that you configure on your client.
The default settings can reduce your workload, especially if you need to configure several Mimics to contain objects that have the same attributes. For example, if you are configuring 6 Mimics and each of these Mimics needs text boxes that use the same coloring, font, size and so on, it is quicker to define the text box settings once as default settings than to configure them individually. Once you have defined the required settings as the default settings, every text box that you add will already have the required settings in place (as it will have the default settings automatically).
For more information on applying default settings to a single Mimic or every new Mimic that you configure on your client, see Configuring the Mimic Properties.
- Designed to make use of Group Templates and Group Instances—If you need to create multiple Mimics that contain the same type of information, you may benefit from using the Group Template and Group Instances features. By using Group Templates and Group Instances, you may be able to significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to configure and maintain the Mimics.
When you create a Mimic in a Group Template, copies of that Mimic are automatically added to the Group Instances that are 'children' of the Group Template. The Mimics in the Group Instances are exactly the same as the Mimic in the Group Template, and any changes you make to the Mimic in the Group Template are inherited by the Mimics in the Group Instances. By default, you cannot edit any of the features of the Mimics in the Group Instances. However, by using parameter items and the Property Override features, you can configure a Mimic in a Group Template so that some of its properties can be edited in the Group Instance versions.
Parameter items allow you to store values (strings, links, doubles and so on) that can be used as the source of an animation on a Mimic. This means that you can create animations on a Mimic in a Group Template that obtain their source values from the parameter items that are stored in the Group Template. The Group Instances that are associated with the Group Template automatically contain copies of the parameter items. By using the Property Override feature on the parameter items in the Group Template, you can allow the values of the parameter items to be reconfigured within each Group Instance. You can then change the source values within each Group Instance as required. The Mimics in the Group Instances will retain the overall look of the Mimic in the Group Template, but can have different values as the source of the animations as required. This reduces the amount of time and effort required to configure Mimics, as you can design one 'master' Mimic that is used throughout the system. You can then change the values of the parameters in the Group Instances so that each Group Instance version of the Mimic displays different information.
Example:
A Group Template is created along with two Group Instances named 'West' and 'East' respectively. The 'West' and 'East' Group Instances are associated with the Group Template and so inherit their configuration and items from the Group Template.
A Mimic is configured in a Group Template. The Mimic contains a text box that displays the name of a site: 'Main Site'. The text box is animated by a parameter item that stores the text string 'Main Site'. By default, the Group Instance versions of the Mimic also display 'Main Site' in the text box.
The Property Override feature of the Group Template item is used to enable overrides on the string property of the parameter item. This means that users can configure a new string for the Group Instance versions of the parameter item.
In the 'West' Group Instance, a user accesses the Form for the parameter item and changes the String value from 'Main Site' to 'Western Site'. The Mimic in the 'West' Group Instance changes—its text box now displays 'Western Site'. The Mimic in the 'East' Group Instance and in the Group Template both still display 'Main Site'.
In the 'East' Group Instance, the string value of the parameter item is reconfigured to be 'Eastern Site'. The Mimic in the 'East' Group Instance changes to display 'Eastern Site'. The Mimic in the Group Template still displays 'Main Site' and the Mimic in the 'West' Group Instance still displays 'Western Site'.
A tank symbol is added to the Mimic in the Group Template. As the Group Instances are still associated with the Group Template, the tank is also added to the Mimics in the Group Instances. Only those properties that can be overridden for each Group Instance item can be different on the Group Instance versions of the Mimic (in this case, the string values of the parameters can be different).
NOTE: Parameter database items are different to Mimic parameters. Parameter database items store values that can be used to animate Mimic properties. Mimic parameters allow you to create embedded Mimics that vary according to the values associated with its parameters.
By taking these factors into account before you begin to design your Mimic, you can go on to create a Mimic that runs efficiently, and provides the functionality you require.
You should also consider:
- Using the symbol Mimics from the symbol library to reduce the amount of time it takes to create visually appealing Mimic objects (see Using the Symbol Library).
- How users will access the Mimic. A Mimic can be associated with a Default View, Alarm View, or Help View as well as being available as a database item and the ‘target’ display of hyperlinks.
For more information, please refer to the following sections:
- Default View: see Defining a Default View in the ClearSCADA Guide to Core Configuration
- Alarm View: see Defining an Item or Group’s Alarm Properties in the ClearSCADA Guide to Core Configuration
- Help View: see Specify a Help View in the ClearSCADA Guide to Core Configuration
- Hyperlinks.
When you have considered your design and are ready to begin the Mimic configuration, you will need to add objects to your Mimic (see Adding Objects to a Mimic), and you will need to edit them (see Mimic Editing Features).
Further Information
For more information on Group Templates, Group Instances, and Property Overrides, see Group Templates and Group Instances in the ClearSCADA Guide to Core Configuration.