Mini Plate; The Mini Plate Attributes Window - Crown AMB-5 User Manual

IQ–MSD Turbo 1.4 Advanced IQ System Software

4.13 Mini Plate

A Mini Plate Container is a specialized container object that is used to create a popup panel called a mini plate. You
can use mini plates for a wide variety of purposes. They can be used to create an on-line help system. They can
be used to provide hidden controls. For example, a System Button labelled "Advanced" could open a mini plate
to reveal controls that you don't want displayed on the graphics plate until needed. Mini plates are opened and
closed with System Button objects and they are saved along with the graphics plates to dataframe files. Once a
mini plate has been created, it is available to all graphics plates in the dataframe file. To place a Mini Plate
Container on a graphics plate, choose Mini Plate from the Toolbox. The Mini Plate Attributes window (Figure
4.38) will then open so you can configure it. Its attributes are described below:
Background: Sets the background color of the Mini Plate Container object.
Fig. 4.38 The Mini Plate Attributes Window
PCX File name: Sets the file name of an image that will be displayed in the background of the Mini Plate
Container. The ability to display an image in the background of the mini plate is a very useful feature. It can display
your company logo. It can have a picture of a control panel that you complete by adding objects.
Only PCX bitmap files are supported and you will have to use a third-party paint or graphics program to create
the PCX file. If you use this feature, we recommend that the image have a color depth no higher than the one you
are using for the graphics plate (see also Section 3.2). For example, if your graphics plate is set to use 256 colors,
we recommend that the internal palette of the PCX image also have no more than 256 colors. It sometimes works
best if the image has an internal palette with fewer colors. For example, use a 16-color PCX with a 256-color
graphics plate. This sometimes gives Turbo a better chance of matching the colors correctly in your image.
If you decide to use a PCX image, you must keep a copy of the PCX file in the same directory as Turbo. The PCX
file, itself, is only linked to— not embedded into the container. Whenever the mini plate is displayed, Turbo
searches for the PCX file so it can read it and display it in the container. If you ever decide to distribute copies of
your custom dataframe file to others, you will need to include copies of all PCX files that are used.
Border: Determines whether or not the border of the Mini Plate Container will be visible when a PCX picture
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