How to customize the Text View – All Points in CBAS 20

As I said last month, the latest CBAS versions have new features that enhance the way you view your CBAS database. I talked about the new Dark Theme and how to select or deselect it. That feature was added in CBAS 19. Now in CBAS 20, there are new ways of formatting Text View\All Points in order to make the points easier to read, especially on a large flat-screen display.

You can choose to keep the standard 2 column format or add Activity View to a third column. Activity View is normally a separate View at the bottom of the Text View menu. Also in Configure Workstation, you can select the types of Alarms and Access Control activity you want to see in Activity View.

You can also increase the font size of the points and increase the width of the point name column. If you are increasing the font size to make it easier to read, you might need to increase the size of the point name column for the names to fit.

Also new in Text View, there is another column labeled Condition. In that column, if the point is Normal comm and not in alarm, then it will be blank. If it is Lost comm, then it will say Lost. It will say Alarm if in Alarm, Wire if in Wire Check, and Trouble if in Trouble. See the picture below which is an example of 2 columns with no Activity column, no increased font size, or point name column.

To make these changes, in CBAS 20 (Editor or Real Mode) go to the System menu then Configure Workstation. On that screen, click the All Points Setup button, which is shown as surrounded by a red box in the picture below.

Please note that any time you change something in the setup, then exit, you will be required to close and reopen CBAS for the change to take effect. 

If you uncheck the first box (Use Classic All Points 2 Column View), then check the second box, (Do NOT show Activity Column in All Points), then you will have the next 2 drop downs available. Without Activity Column, you have room to expand your Point Name Columns and increase your font. This is not possible in classic 2 Column View. In the setup below, the second box is checked and the name column\font size is expanded.

You can see that the font scale is +6 and the column size is +4. Here is what that looks like.

If you compare the last picture with the first picture in this article, you will see that there are fewer points displayed, but the point names, values and priorities are easier to read. If you are using a large wall mount monitor, play around with these settings until you get it looking just as you want.

Some things you should be aware of when looking at the new All Points Activity View. 

1) The same messages are displayed in both Regular and Column Activity View.  

2) Column Activity View does not load data from History like the regular Activity View.  You probably noticed that the first time you open regular Activity View it goes through history and displays old Activity.  Small Activity does not do that. If you go to Activity then back to All Points Activity it will show the old activity.  But if you just stay in Column Activity it shows Alarms that happened since CBAS was opened. 

3) You cannot click on anything in the Activity column like you can in Activity View.