Specifications

PICED FAQ

Page 50

Note that if a PC Interface is being used as the connection to C-Bus, the PC will require at least

one spare RS232 serial port. If a CNI is being used as the connection to C-Bus, an Ethernet card

will be required.

Processor Usage

For colour C-Touch projects, the more demanding the requirements of the Project, the more of the

Colour C-Touch processor time will be used. The main requirements for the processor are the

Page graphics and the Logic Engine.

There are several factors which do cause more processor time to be used :

Having a Clock, Monitor or animated Image on a Page will cause the Page to be re-drawn more

often

Stretched Images take much longer to draw than un-stretched ones. Use the Re-scale Images

function to automatically re-scale images for you.

Alpha Blended images and images with Shadows take much longer to draw than regular images

A lot of components on a page

Large polygons with many sides or 3D ellipses, round rectangle and capsule components.

Having a lot of Scenes. These all need to be checked each time a C-Bus group level changes.

Having lots of logic can use a significant amount of processing, especially if written in an

inefficient way.

Page transitions (in particular the "fade" transitions) can slow down the performance

Logging requires additional processing

The log can be used to show how much of the processor is being used.

1.4.6 Options Have Gone

Problem

When various actions are performed, several options were presented. These options have gone.

Solution

On many of the forms which request an input from the user (for example, confirming the deletion

of something), there is a check box labelled "don't ask me again". If you select this option then you

will not see this form again.

To get these confirmation forms back, select the

Options | Enable Error Messages

menu item.

1.4.7 File Versions

Problem 1

Can an old version of a PICED file be opened with a new version of the PICED software ?

Solution 1

Yes. All versions of PICED can read all old versions of files.

When the PICED file is saved, it will be saved as the new version.

This means that this file may

not be able to be loaded by old versions of the PICED software.

PICED version 3.3 or later will warn you if you try to load a file which was created with a newer

(incompatible) file version.