GDD Release Notes v2.0.1.10, Mikrokontrolery, Programy, Graphics Display Designer v2.0.1.10
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Release Notes for Microchip Graphics Display Designer (GDD) v2.0.1.10
Microchip Technology Inc. 2011
February 25, 2011
Table of Contents
1.
What is a Graphics Display Designer (GDD)?
2.
Installing/Uninstalling GDD
3.
How to get started?
4.
What’s New/Updated in v2.0.1.10
5.
What was New/Updated in previous version v2.0.1.9
6.
Known Behaviors
7.
Known Issues
8.
Known Feature Improvement Requests
9.
Customer Support
1. What is a Graphics Display Designer (GDD)?
The Graphics Display Designer (GDD) is an MPLAB IDE plug-in that provides you with
a quick and easy way of creating graphical user interface (GUI) screens for embedded
applications on Microchip microcontrollers. The GDD is a visual design tool created for
use with the Microchip Graphics Library. GDD is a time saving tool. End users are still
required to learn how to use the Microchip Graphics Library to fully create an end
application. This can be accomplished by reviewing a number of available application
notes found on
www.microchip.com/graphics
. This GDD version (v2.0.1.10) requires
Microchip Graphics Library v2.11 or newer.
2. Installing/Uninstalling GDD
To obtain the latest version of the GDD, you can download it from the Microchip web
site, at
www.microchip.com/GDD
.
This version of GDD supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.
Please see the notes in section 5.2 for instructions on upgrading to GDD v2.0.1.10.
If upgrading from GDD v2.0.0.9c, please make sure to review important notes in section
2.1 below also.
Once the GDD package is downloaded, first unzip the downloaded zip file.
Un install any existing previous version of GDD.
Note
: make sure that the GDD installation folder is empty, typically this is
\Program Files\Microchip\MPLAB IDE\Tools\GDD
Then run the installer file
Graphics Display Designer v[xyz] Installer.msi
.
Install the GDD in MPLAB IDE’s Tools directory, typically this is:
Program
Files\Microchip\MPLAB IDE\Tools
.
No shortcuts are created in the Windows Start menu.
To uninstall GDD, select ‘Add or Remove Programs’ in the Control Panel, and select
‘Graphics Display Designer’.
2.1 Important Notes if upgrading from GDD v2.0.0.9c:
- GDD v2.0.0.9c projects are not compatible with GDD v2.0.1.9 or later. It’s
possible to port the project up manually if the following steps are followed.
- Save GOLScheme.xml to a different location first before uninstalling GDD
version 2.0.0.9c, this can typically be found at the following path:
C:\Program
Files\Microchip\MPLAB IDE\Tools\GDD\XML\GOLScheme.xml.
This
step is necessary to preserve any custom schemes that were created.
- Uninstall any previous version of GDD, select ‘Add or Remove Programs’ in the
Control Panel, and select ‘Graphics Display Designer’.
- Review the updated tutorials. Create a new GDD project with blank screens that
have the same screen names as previous project. Then manually copy over all
gds files from the old project to the new project. All gds files are now saved in the
‘GDD_Resource’ folder relative to where the MPLAB project and GDD project
files are saved. Also make sure to copy any graphics resources such as fonts
and images to the ‘GDD_Resource’ folder. Remember to copy the
GOLScheme.xml that was saved in a previous step to the ‘GDD_Resource’
folder also.
- When opening the GDS file, GDD may complain that ‘File you are trying to open
is created by different version.’ To avoid this, open each gds file in notepad, and
change the version value from 2.0.0.9 to 2.0.1.9 or later as appropriate.
3. How to get started?
The following software must be installed on your PC to use the GDD plug-in:
•
MPLAB IDE v8.50 or greater must be installed.
•
The GDD application must be installed on your PC.
•
If you have not already installed the Microchip Graphics Library, you can
download it from the Microchip web site, at
www.microchip.com/MAL
. This GDD
version (
v2.0.1.10
) requires Microchip Graphics Library
v2.11
or newer. If the
older v2.10 of graphics library is used with v2.0.1.10 of GDD, the ‘Picture widget’
and ‘Bitmap support’ on any widget is known not to work, there may be other
undesirable effects.
•
The MPLAB C Compiler for PIC24 and dsPIC MCUs or the MPLAB C Compiler
for PIC32 MCUs must be installed in order to compile MPLAB C project.
Once the software is installed, the GDD plug-in can be accessed through the MPLAB
IDE.
To get started, review the included GDD help file, hlpGDD.chm. This can be accessed
by:
•
Launch MPLAB IDE
•
From the MPLAB menu, select: Tools > Graphics Display Designer, note that if
opening GDD without an MPLAB project, a warning message will be displayed,
ignore this for now.
•
Then select: Graphics Display Designer > Help
Figure 1 shows the chapters available in the help file.
Figure 1: GDD Help File
To evaluate and learn how to use GDD, follow the steps as described in the tutorial
section in the help file. It’s important to read through both the overview and tutorial
sections. Existing GDD users should re-review the help file and tutorials because how
the GDD works has changed.
4. What’s New/Updated in v2.0.1.10
The following Features/improvements are done in this version
1. Combo Boxes used to select from drop down list under Properties are modified
to reject all keyboard inputs. Only mouse inputs are enabled to avoid inconsistent
user experience.
2. Image on a widget can now be removed by opening the image selection dialog
box of the widget and clicking the cancel button. Picture widget is the only
exception as this would defy the purpose of the picture widget.
3. Texts on the widgets appear as they are being typed in the properties. Make sure
to press enter to commit the text to the widget.
4. Up/Down Key for Numeric Properties (such as left, right, top and bottom co
ordinates) now function as increment/decrement keys. This will help the user in
positioning the GOL/GPL controls conveniently.
5. Up/down keys can be used while editing a property without causing undesirable
property selection shifts
.
The changing values are also reflected on the GDD
screen
6. Empty lines can now be correctly inserted to a static text by pressing
CTRL+ENTER
7. Inability to use a round dial widget for the first time (under certain conditions) is
fixed.
The following Bugs were fixed in this version
1. The limit on the number of images that could be used in the GDD is increased.
a. There is a system (PC) limitation on the length of arguments that can be
passed on to the “Graphics Resource Converter” tool (distributes
separately with Microchip Applications Library) for Font and bitmap
conversion.
b. A larger buffer is now used; this results in increase of arguments length.
c. Shortening the bitmap file names will fit in more files into the arguments
buffer, and thus into the project.
d. Alternate methods to overcome this problem are in work.
2. The position of round dial widget is properly saved and will not change when the
screens are navigated in GDD.
3. Round dial can be rotated in the preview mode of GDD.
4. Changing the radius of a Circle/Round dial will not change the center co-
ordinates.
5. The number of characters accepted by the static text widget is
not
limited to 17
characters.
6. Primitive layer shapes are now drawn on the GOL objects. Hence primitive
shapes can be drawn on the Window widget.
a. This will result in all GPL objects to always appear on the top of GOL
Objects.
7. Boundary checking is done to ensure Round dial widget doesn't exceed screen
bounds.
8. While importing the demo template, replace confirmation is asked only if required
thereby reducing the number of pop-ups.
9. The ‘meter type’ of ‘meter widget’ is properly saved and restored when the
screens are navigated in GDD.
10. A new GDD project is automatically saved after it is created.
5. What was New/Updated in previous version v2.0.1.9
5.1 The following Features were added in the version 2.0.1.9
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