Disappearing buttons

[tmead]

I've developed a screen set with some buttons that sit on top of LED indicators. Sometimes the buttons disappear when the LED changes state, and they re-appear when the mouse is waved over the top. Any ideas ?

Tim

[ger21]

The buttons need a transparent image, like this.

Be careful if using Screen4, as once you attach the image to the button, you can no longer see it, except when dragging it.
I always place the LED, then lock it in place, before placing the transparent button over it.

[tmead]

Thanks Ger,

The button is just an ordinary one, so no images are involved.

I can't remember if I placed the LED or button first in machscreen.

I'm sure I've seen a send bitmaps to back option somewhere or something - is that at all relevant ?

The reset button on the standard 1024 screenset has this arrangement, and that works well. Its frustrating that I don't know why !

Tim

[DaveCVI]

Hi,
Machscreen has two ways to make a transparent button.

1) Image Button:
This is a button that uses an image file. I make my transparent buttons this way and point to a file that is the transparent image. This is the same technique that Gerry suggested.

2) Image Button Transp:
This is a built in type of transparent button in Machscreen. I think it uses and internal transparent image supplied by machscreen. I've had trouble with this - and one of the symptoms is like you described where the underlying LED shows up for a moment then goes away.

As all my MachStdMill buttons are the 1) approach, I never went back and figured out what was happening with 2).

If you are using 2), you might try 1) to see if the problem goes away for you.

Dave
 

[ger21]

It sounds like your trying to put an LED on top of a button. If so, that probably won't work at all, as you've discovered. The only way to get 100% consistent operation is to make the LED look like the button (two state LED) and use the transparent image as the actual button, on top of it.

I've found that any time I've tried to layer bitmaps, it doesn't work as expected, or even the same way every time. And when I've used "send bitmaps to back", I've ended up starting over, as the order seems to never be right again.

I use Screen4, though. Every time I try to use Machscreen, I run into problems. Since I'm more familiar with Screen4 and it's peculiarities, I just find it easier.

Good luck.

[Klaus1311]

Hi,

this is a Mach3 issue. Mach3 is displaying the elements in a certain order, first buttons, then LED’s. Meaning,  if a button is on top of a LED, you see the button the window is displayed the first time. If the LED-state changes, the button isn't refreshed and disappears. Overlapping Bitmaps are handled different,  they are shown in the order they are stored in the set-file.

Gerry
I'm always anxious to make MachScreen as user friendly as possible. What peculiarities you think would be use full in MachScreen?   If you have any idea or suggestions, please let me know.

Klaus

[tmead]

Thanks Klaus, that sort of explains it. We have a standard button on top of an LED, so that the led shows as a ring around the button. This is similar to the arrangement of the reset button on the 1024 screen set. The problem we have is that when the LED changes state it covers up the button until the mouse pointer is waved over the top, and then the button is redrawn.

However - the reset button on the 1024 screen set uses a button which is placed on top of two status LEDs. This arrangement works all the time, although any mods to it are a bit unpredictable ! What I'm after is a button/LED combo that performs in the same way !

Tim