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DeltaV Live Layout Setup

Hi Everyone,

does any one know how I can fit every existing display to a new layout. I know, it is possible to select layout frame on each display settings. Is it possible to set up that for whole project?

• DeltaV#Live

KoBriZo

• 23 Apr 2021 4:46 PM
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1 Reply

• Andre Dicaire

  

  • 23 Apr 2021 7:56 PM

  You do not need to make your displays the size of your display frames. In fact, you really don't want to. Unlike Operate, Live does not care about Pixel size or resolution. In operate, pictures would be stretched and "deformed" if the picture did not match the display area allocated in Operate. Not so in Live. Live does not stretch your pictures. It will fill the Display Frame to the max in either X or Y direction and then "letter box" the remaining area on top /bottom or sides, depending on which dimension maxed out.
  
  What is important is to create you displays with the same aspect ratio as the layout Display frame display area. And to keep your display frames relatively consistent in aspect ration. Aspect ratio is king, but with the letter boxing, everything need not be exactly the same. You can achieve and overall aesthetic of the layout even if it has Display areas slightly different in aspect ratio, or are different on different layouts.
  
  Let's start with your layout. The "size" of the layout can be defined to match the physical size of your monitor. When you do this, a square dimensioned to 1 inch in Graphics Studio will appear as a 1 inch square on the screen, as long as the Display has the same dimensions as the Display frame area size. That's all fine and good, but is irrelevant. You may have monitors of different size on different consoles, or a wall display, or on a tablet. You don't want to build displays for every size monitor, and you don't have to.
  
  Let's talk about the layout. The "size" can be set to anything and as long as it is the same aspect ratio as your monitor, it will fill the monitor, which is what you want. The size will affect the height of the menu bar and the Navigation Bars. By design, these bars are about a half inch in height relative the height of the Layout when you set the layout size to match the physical monitor. On a 53 inch monitor with a 53 inch layout file, these bars will be a half inch. But if the monitor is placed 10 feet away on a wall, a half inch is too small to read. To make these bars bigger, you use a layout with a smaller size. In fact if you want a 53 inch monitor to have the same relative size bars as a 23 inch monitor, you would use a 23 inch layout on the 53 inch physical monitor. You adjust the size of the menu and navigation bars through the size of the Layout. I don't know if this will change in v15, but in v14, this is how you can make these bars bigger. You cannot affect just one. Both are a function of the Layout size.
  
  On a larger 53 inch 4K monitor, you might have a layout with four Display Areas in a quad 2x2 format and use a single wider Alarm Banner across the bottom, or use two Display frames to use the same Alarm banners you use on HD monitors. You want to create the layout based on relative size, and the actual size of the display area will be based on the layout size, which you set based on the best size of the Menu and Nav bars. You can adjust the Display areas to have your desired Aspect Ratio for your L1, L2 and L3 displays. If needed, you can adjust the Alarm Banner Display areas to be taller or add a display area as filler. You are free to use more than 4 display areas of different sizes. I have a 4K layout with one main display frame for my L2 displays, and several L3 displays and Trend Displays in smaller Display frames. I made sure the display frame aspect ratios are consistent.
  
  Now that you have your layout, how big should your displays be? Well this should be set based on the size of the GEMS your have in your Library. GEMs will appear on displays in proportion to the display size. if the display is too small, your GEMS are too big and you find yourself resizing everything. Many of the OOB GEMS cannot be resized because they have hardcoded sizing properties. Making the display larger causes the GEMS to appear smaller. So the size of your displays has nothing to do with the size of the Layouts. But you do want the Aspect Ratio to match so you maximize the display area your display covers, and minimize letterboxing.
  
  I suggest you look at your primary Operator Station layouts and set your display size to match the target Display frame it will be called up in. Then, lock the Aspect Ratio of this display. Now add some GEMS and make sure the they are a good size for this display. If the GEMS appear too big, or too small, change the display size by adjusting the height or width. The other dimension will adjust automatically with Lock Aspect Ration selected.
  
  Now, think about Overview displays, L2 area displays, L3 Unit displays. They may all have the same aspect ratio, but you might want to have the GEMS be 10% bigger on the L3 and 10% smaller on the L1. Simply make the L3 size 10% smaller and L1 10% bigger and your GEMS will follow.
  
  Because the Live displays are Vector based, they will draw into the physical area of the monitors to fill the Display areas the are called up in. The configured size of the Layout can be different and the displays don't care. You can use a 53 inch Layout on a 15 inch monitor. The menu and navigation bars will be very thin and next to useless, but your displays will look the same.
  
  As for the letter boxing, make sure you set the display Frame background color to use the same Display Back ground standard color. this will hider any letter boxing and as long as your aspect ratios are close, your displays will appear nicely, with no distortion and sharp connected corners.
  
  One more thing: Contextual displays also have a size. How big they appear on a screen is based on how "big" the layout file is. The OOB objects and displays were designed around the typical HD monitors available today. Make sure you are happy with the default behavior of these pop up displays relative to your layout size.

  Andre Dicaire

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