Applies To:
  • CitectSCADA 4.xx, 5.xx, 5.50, 5.50 Service Pack A, 5.50 Service Pack B, 5.50 Service Pack C, 6.00, 6.00 Service Pack A, 6.10
  • CitectHMI 4.xx, 5.xx, 5.50, 5.50 Service Pack A, 5.50 Service Pack B, 5.50 Service Pack C, 6.00, 6.00 Service Pack A, 6.10
Summary:
The INI parameter [CtDraw.General] UseConfigurableKeywords was introduced as per KB Q3897, however if you set this parameter to 0, you cannot use the genie substitution strings 'DESC' or 'COMMENT'. If these are used, the substitution will not be performed. This can be seen by double-clicking the genie in Graphics Builder (the corresponding field will be empty).  

Solution:
The UseConfigurableKeyWords INI parameter can be taken as a contract to not use the words DESC and COMMENT as genie substitution strings. By enabling this option, all DESC and COMMENT substitutions are no longer displayed. Q3897 gives some background on this parameter, and Q3707 explains the history behind it.

This means that if your project uses DESC or COMMENT as substitution strings, these substitutions will not appear in graphics builder at design time.

Because this only occurs with upper-case DESC and COMMENT, the workaround is to change all instances of DESC to xxxx, where xxxx may, for example, be 'desc' (or any other 4 letter string) in all the .CTM files in your project directories. Note that the length of the replaced string must be the same (i.e. 4 characters for DESC and 7 characters for COMMENT).

In your CTM file, substitution strings such as %DESC% and %COMMENT% appear in two ways:
* Once between two % characters
* On their own

The ones between % characters change the actual substitution string, whereas the ones elsewhere in the file affect the runtime and design time appearance
of your system. For the substitution to work, the new string must be of the same length as the old and _all_ occurances of the old string must be replaced with the new string, however, they need not be of the same case. This means that you can replace the instances of %DESC% with %desc% and let occurances of the word DESC elsewhere in the file be. The consequence of this is that the runtime appearance of your system looks exactly the same, but it shows the missing DESC fields. It also means that you don't accidentally change other strings in the file which include DESC as a substring (eg: DESCRIBE).
 
Keywords:
Genies Tool Tips Description UseConfigurableKeywords ini parameter

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