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dave

FT View - ActiveX - PDF File

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Hi - Using Panelview touchscreen with Compactlogix plc and programming with FactoryTalk View Studio 6.00. I want to have a button on one of my screens which will open a pdf file, ideally full screen. I see that ActiveX is listed under objects and that Adobe PDF Reader is listed in its drop down box. Can anyone guide me on how to make a button launch it and where do I tell it the filename and path? I only need to view a single file with some means to close Adobe after and return to the normal hmi application. Many thanks as always for any help/advice!

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I poked around at this for a few hours last week before turning to the PV+6 User Manual (it's specific to the PV+6 firmware and hardware, Publication 2711P-UM006A) and finding it very well explained there. To launch a PDF file for viewing in FTView ME 6.x, use the Program Launcher ActiveX to launch the Foxit Reader application and point it at the PDF file you want to open. The PV+6 does not have Adobe Acrobat Reader. You can create String tags that have the path to Foxit (Storage Card/Bin/Foxit Reader) and the path to the PDF file itself (I put mine on the CF card root directory, which is "Storage Card2", or you can place these Path strings into the Expression editor for the Program Launcher's Connections. There are a handful of command line options for opening Foxit Reader. I found that if I allowed the user to use the File-> Open option that you could get into a state where Foxit wouldn't select or close (I was using a PV+1500 with Touch only), so I'd disable that. The main problem I have with launching Foxit is that you need to close it by touching the [X] in the upper right corner, which can be pretty small. I'm going to experiment with launching it almost-full-size so that I can touch my FTView ME application again to get back to FTView. With a keyboard, you'd just have to Alt-Tab, but with a touchscreen like a PV+ you don't have that option. You can use a Tag connection to close the PDF reader or swap focus, so I am considering putting a hardware pushbutton adjacent to the screen that's labeled "HELP".

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Thanks Ken, I've downloaded the manual and see the part about the PDF reader. I seem to be stuck at trying to configure the Program Launcher. I located the file and followed the help instructions to place an ActiveX object on screen, browse for the .ocx file and register it. As soon as I do that and click OK it vanishes. I need to set its connections to the PDF file location, don't I? Should it now appear in the ActiveX dropdown box as a selectable device? I'm floundering a bit here. Once I've found it, how do I make a pushbutton trigger it? Use an internal tag and toggle it with a normal button? Sorry to be a pain.

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When you insert an ActiveX object into a Display, it should look like a blank gray pushbutton. You should be able to double-click or right-click to select Properties and get to the Connections tab. ActiveX objects don't have a Label and seem to always be On Top, so I think I'm going to make it transparent, disable touch, and then trigger it with an ordinary Pushbutton that sets the same trigger tag that I set up in Connections. For testing I just treat it like a pushbutton and click on it. I didn't have to register the ActiveX for the Program Launcher on my desktop PC (XPSP2 in a VMware instance) or install it on the PV+ (which was running 6.10 by the time I got to testing this, though I was running 6.0 runtimes on it because my FTView Studio was 6.0). The challenge in testing this is that the Foxit Reader executable is in a different path on my PC versus the PanelView, and so is the PDF file. I've been doing my tests exclusively on the PanelView terminal.

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Hi, dave. I am using another professional 3rd party PDF reader instead of Adobe's PDF products. I wonder whether there are some Adobe's PDF processors can help with it? You can also google it and select one whose way of processing is simple and fast to help you with the related work. It will be better if it is totally manual and can be customized by users according to our own favors. Remember to check its free trial package first if possible. I hope you success. Good luck. Best regards, Arron

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Knowledge base 562226 has a good downloadable example of what you are trying to do. The knowledge base article is about the web browser active x, but the download example has a button to open a locally stored .pdf. However, I believe you must have a PV+ 6 with "enhanced features" to use these active x controls. Your HMI part# would have a 9 at the end if it has the enhanced features. Hope this helps.

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Hello everyone, How to insert the .ocx file into Factory Talk View studio, because i'm trying to insert the ocx file from cognex camera to show the image in my screen but i don't know the place to insert it and so i dont see the activeX of camera on list.

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Ken Roach, I just got Foxit to run on a PanelView and display a PDF file. I too find that Foxit seems to lock-up when I try to use the File / Open menu items. You mentioned about disabling those items, but I have not been able to find how to do it on my own. I thought maybe some switch in the Tag string but I can't find such a switch. Can you help? Thank you. Edited by Molded Fiberglass

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