KHarms
Oct 20, 2009, 08:57 PM
There are some less known features in HCA that you might want to use. Here are a few.
HCA – Properties, “Design Pane” tab.
On this tab is a very useful option: Check out the option that says “When showing device names in the design pane, suffix the name with the primary address”. If you enable this option then in the design pane – the left pane – the devices names appears with extra text at the end. That text is the device’s primary address like “B7” for X10, “01.72.54” for Insteon, or “012” for UPB.
HCA – Properties, “Display Pane” tab.
On this tab are checkboxes options you can enable so that when you hover the mouse over a display pane icon you can show various things in a popup tip. This can be very helpful for programs so you can see what element it is current executing. If the program is delaying you get to see what time the delay expires.
Visual Scheduler alternative views.
When you have the Visual Scheduler open in the display pane, you can right-click on the background and select from three views: The time bar view, a simulation view, and a list view. The simulation view shows what happens to the schedule in time order. Right click on the simulation view background and you can select how far in the future to run the simulation. The “List” view can be handy when you have a large schedule. Rather than show the schedule graphically you can show the schedule as a series of rows, where each row represents one schedule entry. This view is “live” in that you can double-click on the entry to edit it. You can also use the list sorting – click on the column headers – to sort the schedule by column.
More to come…
HCA – Properties, “Design Pane” tab.
On this tab is a very useful option: Check out the option that says “When showing device names in the design pane, suffix the name with the primary address”. If you enable this option then in the design pane – the left pane – the devices names appears with extra text at the end. That text is the device’s primary address like “B7” for X10, “01.72.54” for Insteon, or “012” for UPB.
HCA – Properties, “Display Pane” tab.
On this tab are checkboxes options you can enable so that when you hover the mouse over a display pane icon you can show various things in a popup tip. This can be very helpful for programs so you can see what element it is current executing. If the program is delaying you get to see what time the delay expires.
Visual Scheduler alternative views.
When you have the Visual Scheduler open in the display pane, you can right-click on the background and select from three views: The time bar view, a simulation view, and a list view. The simulation view shows what happens to the schedule in time order. Right click on the simulation view background and you can select how far in the future to run the simulation. The “List” view can be handy when you have a large schedule. Rather than show the schedule graphically you can show the schedule as a series of rows, where each row represents one schedule entry. This view is “live” in that you can double-click on the entry to edit it. You can also use the list sorting – click on the column headers – to sort the schedule by column.
More to come…