Global objects and global object displays
Global objects let you link the appearance and behavior of a graphic object to multiple copies of that object in the same application. When you make changes to the original object, the copies are changed as well.
Global objects are created on global object displays. You create global object displays in the
Global Objects
folder, the same way you create standard displays in the Displays
folder. All of the objects and groups of objects on a global object display are global objects.Global object displays are saved with the extension .ggfx. The default path is
C:\Users\Public\Documents\RSView Enterprise\SE\HMI projects\<HMI project name>\Global Objects
.When you copy a global object onto a standard display from the
Displays
folder, the copy becomes a reference object. The original global object on the global object display is its base object. Changes made to the base object will be reflected in the reference objects linked to it the next time the displays containing the reference objects are opened or refreshed by closing and reopening.A reference object will also be refreshed with information from its base object when a change is made to the reference object that requires it to retrieve information from the base object.
At runtime, when a standard display that contains reference objects is run, the global object display (or displays) that contains the corresponding base objects, is loaded in the background. If any changes have been made to the base objects, the reference objects will be updated.
- All FactoryTalk View graphic objects can be global objects except ActiveX controls, and OLE objects. These objects are unavailable from the Objects menu and Graphics toolbar when you are editing a global object display. Also, picture objects that have been imported into a display but not converted to the FactoryTalk View graphic format, cannot become global objects. When you add a standard display containing any of these objects into theGlobal Objectsfolder, all objects of these types will be deleted. Also, picture objects that have been imported into a global object display but not converted to the FactoryTalk View graphic format, will not be deleted but cannot become global objects.
- When a global object display is open in the Graphics editor, the words Global Objects appear after the name on the title bar.
- A standard display created in the Displays folder, has the word Display in the title bar, and a library display created in the Libraries folder, has the word Library in the title bar.
- You can copy a global object onto any number of displays, or multiple times onto a single display.
- Reference objects can only be linked to base objects within the same HMI server in a network distributed application, or within the same application, for a local station application or a network station application.
- If theLinkBaseObjectproperty for a reference object, points to a base object that no longer exists or is unavailable, the reference object is replaced by a red X on a white background.
- A global object display cannot be displayed in the FactoryTalk View SE Client.
- You cannot convert objects on a global object display to wallpaper.
- A global object display can contain up to a total of 3000 connections, whether they originate from the expressions or the tags.
- Each expression associated with an object is counted as one connection regardless of the number of tags in the expression.
- Each animation of an object (except the Touch animation) is counted as one connection.
- Each connection in the Connections property of an object that is linked to a tag is counted as one connection.
- Each pen configured in a Trend object is counted as one connection.
- Duplicate references of the same expression or tag connection are counted as the additional connections. For example, one display can contain up to 3000 numeric inputs, even if all numeric input objects refer to the same tag.
- Tags associated with embedded variables do not count towards the limit.
Provide Feedback