Show/hide pins on DFBs to be able to create more generic/dynamic DFBs without loads of unused pins displaying in the code

[dnordenberg1]

Unlike many other PLC programming software, Control Expert does not allow you to create your own dynamically sized blocks. For example in Codesys/Machine Expert you can add and remove pins you want/don't want.

This would be beneficial when for example creating highly generic and advanced function blocks with many "optional" features. Because of being unable to hide unused pins I have ended up with many "variants" of blocks which has code duplications because they share the same basic functionality but have different "optionals" and this is because I simply don't want huge function blocks displaying in the code with maybe 10+ unused pins. Being able to hide those dynamically would help much.

You could then also create for example a extendable/enhanced MOVE DFB with In0, In1, In2 and so on manually created and you could simply hide unused pins to create the behaviour of a extendable move and maybe satisfy the wish in https://community.se.com/t5/Modicon-Ideas-new-features/Control-Expert-Make-MOVE-function-extendable/...

[dnordenberg1]

It might also be handy to have some kind of way to tell if a pin is connected/used. You might want to assign "optional" inputs pins a certain value or execute a slightly different segment of code depending on if it is connected/used or not. I imagine something like a function IsConnected(pin_name) returning true/false.

[duanemach]

Inside a DFB, the instruction IS_PAR_CON tells you if a pin is connected to the DFB @dnordenberg1