Applies To:
  • CitectSCADA 2.00, 2.01, 3.00
Summary:
If you have a very complex drawing it can take Citect longer to draw that page than if the page was a single bitmap image. This will occur as you can have an unlimited number of objects, while a bitmap is limited to the size of the screen. To improve the time of display, you can convert all the objects on your screen into a bitmap. This method may improve the background display rate by as much as 5 times (the exact improvement will depend on the complexity of the page - normally the more complex the page the better the improvement).

If you don't want to convert all you objects into a single bitmap, you may find it better to convert parts of your page into bitmaps. If you have the same image on the page many times, put the bitmap into a library and link to it - this will save disk storage and so make the page load faster. For example, if your page has lots of pumps or valves displayed as objects, it is far better to convert the pump into a small bitmap object and place it in a library. 

Solution:
Fast Runtime Display in version 3.xx does all of this for you automatically, however if you have a previous version of Citect you will need to use the following procedure:

To convert your object based screen into a bitmap use the following procedure:

  1. Backup your project or save the pages you are to convert into other pages. You should have a backup for two reasons, (1) if you make a mistake during the conversion you may destroy the page and (2) having a copy of the page as objects allows you to edit the page as objects. Once the page is a bitmap you can only edit the background using the bitmap editor.
  2. If you have any library objects that are used on this page and have animation, you must cut their links. If you don't cut the links the animation will be lost when you convert the page. You should also cut the link to the template so that any animation on the template will not be lost.
  3. Draw a rectangle the size of the page, so it covers the entire page. The rectangle should be the background colour of the page, (later you will disable the background colour). Send the rectangle to the back, ie below all existing objects. It is very important that the size of the rectangle is the same as the page. If Citect runtime sees a bitmap that is within 10 pixel's of the size of the screen, it will assume that you are using this method and will display it in a faster mode. This mode does not allow transparent colours in the bitmap, so it is much faster to display.
  4. From View menu, uncheck the Show Animation, so that all animation is hidden. You must do this so the animation will not be converted into a bitmap.
  5. From Edit menu, check the Break lock mode. This will allow you to select all objects including templates to be converted.
  6. Using Edit menu, Select All Then from the Tools menu use Convert to Bitmap to convert all the objects into a big bitmap.
  7. From the Tools menu select page attributes and set the background colour to transparent. This will stop Citect runtime from first drawing the background colour into the page. This background colour is not needed as the bitmap will cover the entire page.
  8. Save the page and run Citect to test improvements.

If, when the page is displayed, you first see the background colour flash up then the image you have not set the background colour to transparent. If the display still seems slow, check that the bitmap is the size of the page, you may do this by selecting the bitmap in Draw, the size is shown in the tool bar. Check the size against the page attributes. 
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