Navigation in Graphics

The Graphics Viewer allows you to display dynamic graphics of your building control system. Within System Manager, you can navigate the System Browser tree to select objects you want to display in the Graphics Viewer.

By clicking on elements on a graphic, you can navigate to different system objects referenced by those elements. You can also show the referenced object’s properties in the Contextual Pane without manually selecting an object in the System Browser.

NOTE: System Browser displays only the objects in the system that you have access to, based on your user profile and privileges.

To understand how navigation works in the Graphics Viewer, see the following:

Primary Selection and Secondary Selection

A primary selection in System Browser is when you select a graphic or an object in the tree that is associated with a graphic. The Graphics Viewer displays the representative graphic object in the Default tab of the Primary pane, and the object’s properties display in the Contextual pane.

A secondary selection is when you select an object on the graphic which contains one or more referenced objects. The referenced objects become the secondary selection and properties display in the Contextual pane. The primary selection, however, remains the same in System Browser.

Object Properties Displayed in the Contextual Pane

The object and graphic name display according to your Display selection in System Browser.

The object properties displayed in the Contextual pane change according to the selection, as follows:

  • Single Select – Displays the object properties in the Contextual pane.
  • Multi-Select – Selecting multiple graphical items on a graphic (CTRL + Click) or, when a graphical object (elements or Symbols) references multiple objects.

For more information on what displays when you select one or more objects, see Multiple-Object Commanding.

Types of Navigation in Graphics

There are three types of navigation in the Graphics Viewer:

Default Navigation

When you double-click a graphical element, System Browser selects the object and the Graphics Viewer displays the graphics associated to the selected object including graphics of its ancestors.

When multiple objects are referenced in a graphical element, System Browser selects the objects. However, the Graphics Viewer does not display because you can only have one primary selection in order to display the graphic.

Navigation does not apply in the Secondary pane. Instead, when you select an element or Symbol in the secondary pane the Contextual pane displays the selected object properties.

NOTE: The Downward navigation feature, see topic below, overrides the default navigation.

Upward Navigation in Graphics

When you are in Operating mode, you can navigate through a selected node’s related items and all the graphical items of its ancestors in the System Browser tree.

Ancestors follow a child-parent-grandparent model. In System Browser, when an object is selected, the hierarchy flows up the tree. If the selected object and any of its ancestors have a related graphic item, including graphic templates, the associated graphic object displays in the Primary pane. You can scroll through the graphics via the and buttons on the toolbar.

In Engineering mode, only the related items of the selected node are available for navigation. Graphics are not available for any of the ancestors, which means you cannot edit any inherited graphic templates or graphics in the subpoint in Engineering mode. The first related item automatically opens in Engineering mode in the Graphics Editor tab. Additionally, graphical items belonging to ancestors are not listed in the Contextual pane under Related Items.

Downward Navigation

If enabled, downward navigation overrides the default navigation logic in System Browser. When you double-click on an element on a graphic, the primary selection in System Browser changes to the referenced object’s first child object node that has a graphic associated with it.

If the referenced object does not exist in the current System Browser view and the first child object node does not have a related graphic item, the primary selection does not change and there is no navigation.

An exception to the downward navigation logic occurs when the object’s related item is a graphic link or viewport. In this case, the default navigation logic is enforced.

Default Profile

When a user’s profile is set to the Default.LDL profile, the downward navigation is disabled by default.

Enabling Downward Navigation

To enable downward navigation, the user’s profile must be configured for it.

User Profile Path: GMSProjects\[Project Name]\profiles\[User’s Profile]

Property: EnableDownwardNavigation

  • If True – Downward navigation is enabled.
  • If False – Downward navigation is disabled.

NOTE: If the property is missing or removed from the user’s profile, contact your local IT to add the property to their profile.