Adding a new page set

To add a new page set in the screen designer, press the ‘New XML…’ button. You will be asked for a filename. SDC uses a blank pageset template to start a new page. It copies this template into the filename of your choice, and then asks you if you want to reboot the device to enable the pageset. Answer yes to this question.

When the device has rebooted your blank pageset will be ready to be edited.

Importing and Exporting pages

If you right click on the page list, a pop-up menu appears with a few options. Two of these allow you to export and import the currently selected page. This can be useful if you want to move a page from one pageset to another:

  • Enable the source pageset (you will be asked to reboot the device when you enable it).
  • Export the page
  • Enable the target pageset
  • Import the page

The page you exported is stored in a file in the \exports folder on the device. It can be used more than once if you want to import it to multiple pagesets or the same page set multiple times.

Duplicating a page and changing the page order

Page order can be changed by moving the page up or down in the list, using the right click menu.

A page can be duplicated within the current pageset using the right click menu. You can use this instead of export/import if you only want to duplicate it within the current pageset rather than add to a different pageset.

Edit the Page Script

The right click menu also provides access to the optional page script. For further details on this see the Scripts Section

As in all places where a script is present, the page script can be stored either in a file on the device, or inline in the page script cell. To store it in a file, enter the filename into the page script cell (the filename must end in ‘.pas’) and then press the ellipsis to edit the script.

To put the script inline, press the ellipsis without entering a filename. The script will be stored in the cell itself.

Why the two options? Using a file is neater and preferred, plus you can use the same file for multiple pages. Storing the script inline is a bit simpler to manage but in reality the two options exist because inline came first in an earlier release, and files came after when I realised I needed to share the same script across multiple gauges / pages.

Add a new page

Use the add page button below the page list to add a new page. You can change the name of the page by editing the cell where it appears.

Delete a page

Right click to delete a page. The page that will be deleted is the currently selected one (not the one where the mouse pointer was when you right clicked).

A deleted page cannot be undone, but the pageset is not saved unless you press the save button, so rebooting the device will restore the pageset to the last saved version. This may or may not help depending upon how many edits you have made!

You cannot delete Page 0, the Always Page. Your first cluster page should always be page 1. See the always page explanation for further details.

Saving the pageset

To save the pageset, press the ‘Save on SDC As…’ button. You will be asked for a filename, with the default name being the one that you are using. You can change the filename if you want to duplicate the pageset entirely. This is recommended if you want to edit a pageset on the device and avoid screwing it up; just save under a new name and make your edits to that one, thus preserving the original.

The combo box top left allows you to choose which pageset the device should use. In order to set it, press the ‘Use selected XML’ button. The device will reboot and you will need to reconnect to it again when the network connection is restored. The list in the combo box comes from the list of XML files found in the \pagesxml folder on the SD card.

This combo box changes the pagefile= inifile entry

Setting the startup page

When a new pageset is first booted, the startup page is used to select which page to display first. Right click on the page list and choose “Set As Startup Page” to set the currently selected page as the startup page. The page name will have an asterisk put before it to indicate the startup page.

The system stores the last displayed page in a setting called “lastusedpage”. This setting can be found inside the ini file in the [settings] section. Thus once you have changed the page and executed a clean shutdown, or interacted with SDC using the screen editor and cause the ini file to be saved, then the next reboot will use the last displayed page rather than the startup page.

Another item on the right click menu is the carousel setting. This defines whether or not the page should be included in the “next page” or “previous page” sequence. You can toggle this setting for each page . A check mark next to the menu item shows the currently selected page is part of the carousel.

By default, all new pages are part of the carousel so you will need to turn off any you don’t want included (typically things like menu pages).