Editing an automation

View of the automation editor The automation editor is made of the following elements:

Add generators
A list of buttons to add generators in the current automation. It also contain a button to summon the script manager dialog, because the user can create custom generators by using scripts.
Global settings
Defines the initial value generated by the automation, and the sampling rate (“Step”, in seconds).
Controls
Buttons to control the execution of the automation.
Value
A real-time visualization of the current value of the automation.

Global settings

Initial value

The Init field is a floating point value that specifies the initial value of the automation.

Sampling rate

The Step is a value in seconds, which defines the duration between two updates of the value generated by the automation. The smaller the step is, the higher the refresh rate of the value.

Loop

The Loop toggle button determines, when the automation ends, if it should restarts automatically from the beginning.

Adding a generator

A generator is added into the automation by clicking on the appropriate button in the Add generators panel. Each button represents a class of generator.

The user can add his/her own custom generators by creating scripts. Clicking on the ... button will summon the Script Dialog.

The new generator is always added at the end of the list.

A generator looks like this: A generator Every generator contains an icon on the left, some buttons and settings on the right. It may contain additional settings in the middle (the editable value of A in the abova example), which are specific to each type of generator.

Duration of generators

Each generator is executed for a determined amount of time, called duration, and then the automation goes on with the next generator in the list. The duration is configured by typing the desired number of seconds (decimal values are supported, but check that the Step value of the automation has sufficient granularity) in the Duration input box of each generator in the list.

Changing the order of execution

The generators are executed one after the other, starting from the top of the list and finishing at the bottom.

The order of execution of the generators can be changed by swapping them, using the Up and Down buttons. Clicking on Up will swap the current generator with the one directly above. Clinking on Down will swap the current generator with the one directly below.

Deleting a generator

Clicking on the Delete button will remove a generator from the current automation.

Controls

Start and stop

An automation can be started by clicking on the Play button. Then it can be paused by clicking on the Pause button, and resumed by clicking on the Play button again.

The automation will stop on its own when the last generator is ended (unless the Loop option enabled). But it can be stopped at any time by clicking on the Stop button

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Loop

When an automation starts, it executes each generator one by one during the specified amount of time. When the execution of the last generator is finished, the automation ends, and the generated value is no more updated, unless the Loop option is enabled.

If the Loop option is enabled, then the execution of the automation continues infinitely by restarting the whole generators sequence.

Notes

Generators

Check the following pages for a description of the built-in generators:

Bindings

Check this page to learn how to associate an automation to registers/coils.