Pop-up issue

[DSimpson]

We have a system where, after a downtime event, a pop-up appears on the operators screen for him to add the reason for the downtime event etc. The issue however is, that if the operator is controlling the system, ie operating a part of the plant via using the mouse to control the operator inputs at the same time, and then the pop-up appears, the operator loses control of the function he was operating and has to clear the pop-up to get back to the screen to continue his operation. During this time, the operation continues in what the operator was doing at the time, ie slewing a conveyor in a certain direction and therefore creating a scenario where the movement continues and the operator is not in control.

My question is how can i delay the pop-up if the operator is using the mouse at the time.

[AdamWoodlandToo]

How is the pop-up generated? I'm guessing using the global script and receiving a user notification, which triggers some VBScript with a Form object with text and input? The Form object in VBScript is modal and nothing you can do about it natively.

Can you share what the customer functional requirements are? Maybe someone else has done similar and may have a workable solution.

One crazy idea is to instead run some code locally on the machine, but then there are permissions issues connecting back into Geo SCADA. Maybe the VBScript could trigger some Python code that does some UI, if you have Geo SCADA 2025.

[BevanWeiss]

Hopefully the example you gave (crane slewing) is not actually being done through the SCADA system, at least here in Australia that would have some serious issues with non-compliance against the likes of AS1418.1... and given that Australia borrowed a lot from ISO 4306 I would expect similar requirements around positive operator action being required to both initiate and sustain movement of the crane elsewhere in the world.

So you might want to rethink the current implementation of your 'slewing' controls.

That said, the whole 'OnMouseDown' = SET, 'OnMouseUp' = RESET logic should be ok assuming the button doesn't lose focus.

The simplest way to do what you want, is probably to have a Registry value which is 'InhibitPopups' which is SET in the OnMouseDown event (BEFORE you set the field control), and is RESET in the OnMouseUp event.

And your popup simply isn't shown if the 'InhibitPopups' Registry value is currently set.

You could have the OnMouseUp also check if there is a pending Downtime which needs a response to, and if there is, to display the Downtime Reason popup.  You could use the Registry values for that also (i.e. if you were to display the Downtime Popup, but the InhibitPopups was SET, then you SET PendingDowntime instead...).

I'd suggest that forcing the Downtime Reason popup is probably not a great plan.  You're likely better to instead display an alarm if there is a Downtime that needs to be qualified, and to have the Alarm View of that alarm be the Downtime Reason popup.

[DSimpson]

Thank you, great response.

The slew control and the whole citect system was created prior to our site works by .a.n.other.