i-TRiLOGI's ladder logic editor window lies between the main menu bar
along the top of the screen and the help message line along the bottom of the screen. The
cursor will appear in the window whenever you are in the logic editor. The ladder logic
editor comprises two modes: the browse mode and the circuit
editing mode. We shall explain the operation of both modes
You are normally in the browser mode when you start up the program. The
browse mode allows you to manipulate the whole ladder logic circuit as a single entity:
you can view any circuit, make copies of it, move it to another location or delete it
entirely. Each complete ladder logic "circuit" is given a circuit number. You
should see a small red color marker showing you the currently selected circuit. The
circuit number of the selected circuit is shown on the upper status line as
"Circuit # xxx ".
Since i-TRiLOGI Version 6 runs under windowing environment, all
usual mouse action applies. You can grab the vertical scroll bar to scroll to your desired
circuit and click on it to select it. Double click on a circuit
enters the Circuit Editing Mode which will be described later.
The functions of various keys in the browse mode are explained below:
<Spacebar> - Allows you to enter circuit
editing mode for the currently selected circuit. If the selected circuit is a
comment circuit, the comment editor will be opened automatically.
<F1> - Activates the context-sensitive help
function to display on-line help.
<F2> - Opens the I/O Table to create the I/O
Label Names
<F3> - Turns ON/OFF display of the I/O type
and the physical I/O number for ladder logic contacts on the screen (The physical I/O
number is now linked to the labelname). All ladder logic contact symbols are normally
identified by their label names. However, you can also display an optional small
literal to indicate the I/O types and number. e.g. i1=input 1, o12=output 12, r25= relay
25, t1= timer 1 and c5=counter 5.
<F5> - Refreshes the display. If for some
reason the screen is garbled by incomplete circuit display, you can just press the
<F5> key to redraw the screen.
<F7> - Opens any custom function. If the
currently selected circuit contains a custom function, then it will be opened for
editing. Otherwise i-TRiLOGI will ask you to select a custom function # from a menu.
<F8> - Compiles the i-TRiLOGI program to show
the compilation statistics.
<F9> - Runs the simulator without resetting
any I/O.
<Ctrl-F9> - Resets all I/Os and then runs the
simulator.
<Ctrl-F8> - Resets all I/Os except inputs
and then runs the simulator.
<Up>/<Dn><PgUp> and <PgDn>
keys - Use the up/down cursor keys to move the marker to other circuits and the
"Circuit #" display at the upper status line will simultaneously reflect the
change. If you attempt to venture beyond the screen, the logic editor screen will scroll.
The <PgUp> and <PgDn> keys can be used to scroll one page at a time.
Although most of the time you will probably be navigating the ladder
circuit diagram using the scroll bar or cursor keys to find the circuit that you are
looking for, there exist several short cuts to enable you to quickly jump to specific
circuits in the program. E.g. If you select "Goto" from the "Edit"
menu, you will be prompted by a “Goto Circuit” window to enter the circuit
number to jump to immediately. You can also call up the “Goto Circuit” window by
pressing <Ctrl-G> key anytime.
If you have a large ladder program with multiple
rungs of circuits, then you will find the “Bookmark” feature very useful for
quickly jumping from one circuit to another. The bookmarks appear as blue button along the
top of the i-TRiLOGI editor windows: 
You can define up to five bookmarks by clicking on 
,
each bookmark corresponds to a specific circuit #. By default all 5 bookmark points to
circuit #1. Once you have defined the circuit # for a bookmark, then when you click on the
bookmark button the editor instantly jumps to the pre-defined circuit number.
When you click on , the following window will appear
You can select the bookmark No. either from the choice box or by
clicking on the blue bookmarks 
, 
Then enter or edit the circuit # to associate with
the selected bookmark. You can optionally enter/edit a description for the bookmark to
help you recall the purpose of that section of ladder circuit which the bookmark is
associated with. Then click the 
button to update the circuit # and description at
the corresponding bookmark location.
NEW! In i-Trilogi version 6.2 and later the bookmark you have created
will be displayed in the corresponding ladder circuits. New programs created will set all
the bookmarks to a default value of 0 so that no bookmarks are displayed until they
have been manually created.
NEW! In i-Trilogi version 6.2 and later there is a feature that allows
you to immediately go the last circuit that was selected. This is implemented by clicking
on the 
button that is located beside the bookmark buttons,
which are described above. Whether you move to a new circuit by using the "Goto
Circuit" command or a bookmark or just by clicking on a circuit with the mouse, the
"Last" button will remember your last circuit position. This also allows you to
easily switch back and forth between two circuits an unlimited number of times because if
you don't select a new circuit after pressing the "Last" key, you will go back
to the circuit you came from.
Note: The bookmark definitions are saved along with the program body into the
“.PC6” file, which means that the bookmark that you defined for a particular
program can be recalled later when you open its “.PC6” file.
Comments are specific remarks used by a programmer to explain various
characteristics of a program segment and are ignored by the compiler. i-TRiLOGI Version 6
allows comments to be freely inserted between circuits. Execute this command and the
Comment Editor will be opened. The comment editor allows you to enter any text you like
that best describe the working of the circuit. All standard text editing keys, including
cut and paste are applicable to the Comment Editor. When you have finished editing the
comments, click "OK" to accept the changes and to close the comment window or
click abort to cancel the changes and close the comment window. Alternatively, you can
press the <ESC> key to accept the changes and close the comment window.
Once a comment has been created, it is assigned a circuit number and is
treated like any other circuits. You can edit it by pressing the <spacebar> when you
are in Browse mode, alternatively, you can move it around, copy it to another destination
or delete it entirely using commands in the "Circuit" menu.
This command enables you to insert a new circuit just before the
currently selected circuit. The current circuit number will be increased by one while the
new circuit will assume the current circuit number. You will be placed in the circuit
editing mode for immediate circuit creation.
You can rearrange the order of the circuits by using this command.
Select the circuit you wish to move and execute the "Move Circuit"
command, then select a destination circuit location and press <Enter>. The selected
circuit will be moved to the new location before the destination circuit.
Note that if you wish to move a block of circuits to a new location,
you may find it more productive to use the "Cut Circuit" and "Paste
Circuit" commands in the "Edit" menu.
Execute this to add a new circuit to the ladder logic program. This new
addition will be positioned immediately after the last circuit in the entire program.
This command allows you to delete the one or more circuits. You will be
prompted to enter the range of circuits that you wish to delete. Please
note that you can't UNDO a delete circuit operation.
You can remove a number of circuits from the current ladder program and
store them temporarily in the clipboard for pasting into another part of the present
ladder program or into another file altogther. In other words, it lets you move a block of
circuits from one part of the ladder program to another part or into another file. Please note that you can't UNDO a Cut Circuit operation. However,
if you do make a mistake you can always paste it back in its original position.
You can copy a block of circuits from the current ladder program
and store them into the clipboard for pasting into another part of the present ladder
program or into another ladder program file altogther.
When you execute this command, the block of ladder circuit which
you "Cut" or "Copy" into the clipboard will be pasted just before the
currently selected circuit. The current circuit number will be adjusted to reflect the
change.
The Find command allows you to quickly locate a ladder logic circuit
that contains a particular label name. The Find command can also be used to search for a
keyword in a TBASIC program. When this command is executed, you will be further prompted
to select the option of searching for a ladder logic label or a text in a Custom Function.
Use this command to move towards a specific circuit number. The
"Goto" command is particularly useful if your program contains many circuits,
and it is inconvenient to search for a particular circuit using the mouse or the cursor
keys.
i-TRiLOGI comes with a smart editor which allows you to insert or
delete a single element within a circuit easily. The editor interprets your circuit
immediately upon entry and prevents you from creating illegal circuit connections. The
functions of various keys in the circuit editing mode are detailed below. You know that
you are in the circuit editing mode when a row of ladder logic icons appears along the
upper status line next to the circuit number and a yellow color highlight bar appears and
you can move it to select an element in the ladder circuit, as shown below:
Left Click - When you click on an element using
a the left mouse button, the element is selected and highlighted by the yellow
color highlight bar.
Right Click - When you click on an element
using the right mouse button, you are allowed to directly edit the label name of the
element. This can be a convenient feature if you need to change one or two characters in
the name only. However, if the element is a custom function [dCusFn], or [CusFn], then the
custom function editor will be opened for you to edit the function directly.
Insert Ladder Element - You create the ladder
circuit element simply by moving the mouse pointer to the icon and pressing either the
left or the right mouse button to insert a ladder logic element to the currently highted
element. The following is a description of the functions of each icon. A yellow color
highlight bar will appear which you can move to select an element in the ladder circuit.
When you click on an icon, for example, the 
. The icon will change to bright
yellow color to show you the element type that you are creating. At the same time, an I/O
table should appear on the screen with a light beige-color background. The I/O table acts
like a pop-up menu for you to pick any of the pre-defined label name for this contact.
This saves you a lot of typing and at the same time eliminates typo errors that could
result in a compilation failure. You should spend a few minutes to follow the "Ladder Logic Programming Tutorial" on the steps needed
to create a ladder program.
As mentioned previously, the ladder editor is intelligent and will only
accept an action that can result in the creation of a correct ladder element. Otherwise it
will simply beep and ignore the command.
If you have wrongly inserted or deleted an element and wish to undo the
mistake, you can either select "Undo" from the "Edit" menu or press
<Ctrl-Z> key to undo the last step. The undo buffer stores the last 10 editing
steps. You can also choose to abort all the operations on the current circuit by selecting
"Abort Edit Circuit" to abort all changes made to the current circuit.
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Users of existing TRiLOGI version 3.x or 4.x who are familiar with creating ladder
programs using the keyboard will be delighted to know that they can still create their
ladder programs using the keyboard. The keyboard actions are described below:
Left/Right/Up/Down cursor keys
The cursor keys are for moving the highlight bar from one element to another in
their four respective directions. You can only move in a direction which will end up with
an element.
<ESC>
Press <ESC> key to end the circuit editing mode and return to the browse mode of
the logic editor.
<Enter>
When you are done with editing the current circuit, hit <Enter> to proceed to the
next circuit.
<SHIFT> (or <TAB>)
If you observe the highlight bar carefully, you will notice a dark green color square
at the right end of the highlight. This indicates the insertion location where a series
contact will be attached. You can change the insertion location to the left or the
right of the highlight bar by pressing the <SHIFT> key. (Note: prior to
Version 5.32 only the <TAB> key was used for this purpose, but <TAB> key does
not work on JRE 1.4.x so we added the <SHIFT> key to achieve this action).
The position of the insertion point has no effect when you connect a parallel contact
to the highlighted element. The left terminal of the element will always be connected to
the left side of the parallel branch.
<0> to <9> , </> & <E> keys
Pressing the key <0> to <9> and </> is equivalent to clicking
on the icon shown in the table. The equivalent keyboard number is shown as a small numeral
at the lower right corner of the icon. The </> key is the quickest way of converting
a normally-open contact to a normally-closed one (and vice versa).
Pressing the <E> key when a contact or coil is selected allows you to edit the
label name directly. Note that it is the user's responsibility to ensure that the label is
valid.
