Guide / Widgets

HMI widget reference

Operator screens in Industrial UI are built from 31 widgets. This page shows what each of them displays or controls, what you can set up and where it fits on a real screen.

What all widgets share

In the editor, pick a widget in the Toolbox and place it on the screen, then drag it into position and resize it. To connect it to data, select a tag in the Tag Browser and click Bind in the properties panel. Every widget also has:

When a value stops updating — the device went offline, for example — the widget is marked on the screen, so an operator never mistakes old data for live data. In the editor, widgets bound to a tag that no longer exists are flagged as well.

Values and text

Display
Shows the value of a tag with the number of decimals set on the tag. Use it for: counters, setpoints, any number that needs no decoration.
Display+
A value with a unit (°C, bar, m³/h…) and four optional limits: warning and alarm, low and high. Beyond a limit the value turns orange or red. Use it for: temperatures, pressures and flows an operator should notice without reading every number.
State Text (Multi-Text)
Turns a numeric state into words and colour, from a list like 0:Stop:gray, 1:Run:#00ff88, 2:Fault:red. Use it for: the state of a machine, a drive's status word, the step of a sequence.
Text
A fixed label, not bound to a tag. Use it for: titles, units, names of plant sections.
Number Input
A field where the operator types a number that is written to the tag; Min and Max limit what is accepted. Use it for: setpoints, batch sizes, timer presets.
A list of named choices, like 0:Stop, 1:Manual, 2:Auto. Picking one writes its number to the tag. Use it for: operating modes, recipe selection.
PIN
A masked field for a numeric code of up to four digits, written to a tag for your logic to check. Use it for: letting only staff who know the code start a machine or reset a counter.

Buttons and controls

Every control can invert its logic, for devices where 0 means “on”.

Switch
A pair of OFF and ON buttons that write 0 or 1. Use it for: commands where the operator should make a deliberate choice.
Toggle Switch
One switch that flips the tag between 0 and 1 and shows its state, in a colour of your choice. Use it for: lights, enable bits, auto/manual.
Push Button
A momentary button: 1 while pressed, 0 when released. Use it for: start and stop commands, jogging a motor, acknowledging a horn.
Hotkey Button
A push button that also reacts to a keyboard key you capture in the settings. Use it for: control from a keyboard or a USB control panel, fast actions without the mouse.
Slider
Sets a value between Min and Max by dragging. Use it for: drive speed, dimming, valve position in manual mode.

Lamps and indicators

Indicators light up when the tag is on; each can be inverted.

Lamp
A classic pilot light in green, red, white, blue or yellow. Use it for: run and fault lamps, just like on a control cabinet door.
LED Indicator and Halo Indicator
A compact LED and a softer glowing ring, in any colour. Use them for: dense status panels with many signals.
Warning Triangle
A warning sign that appears in the colour you choose. Use it for: drawing attention to a fault next to the equipment it concerns.

Bars, gauges and scales

Level Bar
Fills in proportion to the value between Min and Max, upwards or, inverted, downwards. Warning and alarm zones colour the fill orange or red. Use it for: tank levels, silo contents, load of a machine.
Gauge
A round dial between Min and Max with the same warning and alarm zones. Use it for: pressure, speed, power — values people are used to reading from a dial.
V-Scale
A vertical scale with ticks from Min to Max; the text can be flipped to the other side. It has no tag of its own. Place it next to a Level Bar to read the level in real units.

Charts

Live Chart
Draws the value as it changes, refreshed at the rate you set (from 100 ms), with Min, Max and line colour. Use it for: watching a control loop settle while you tune a PID.
History Chart
Shows the stored history of a tag, opening with a range from one minute to seven days. Use it for: yesterday's temperatures, the energy use of a week, finding when a fault started.

Process graphics

With these widgets you draw a mimic diagram of the plant that moves with the process.

Motor
A motor symbol that turns while the tag is on; the direction of rotation can be reversed. Use it for: pumps, fans, conveyors.
Pipe
A pipe section with animated flow while the tag is on, in any colour; the flow direction can be reversed. Use it for: showing where the medium is moving right now.
Joint
A connector for turns and branches of pipes; it has no tag. Use it with Pipe to draw complete pipelines.
Valve
A valve symbol that fills with colour when the tag is on — open. Use it for: shut-off valves, dampers, solenoid valves.

Images and camera

Image
A picture uploaded in PNG, JPEG or SVG. Use it for: a plant layout as the background of a screen, a logo, a photo of the machine.
State Image
Shows a different picture for each value of the tag — upload one image per state; the background can be transparent. Use it for: your own symbols of equipment, such as a gate drawn open, closed and moving.
IP Camera
A live MJPEG stream from a camera URL, with a user name and password if the camera needs them. Use it for: seeing the machine next to its values — a conveyor, a loading area, a tank hatch.

Alarms, PLC control, terminal

Alarm Log
The table of alarms with time, message and status — active or cleared — fifty per page with buttons for newer and older entries. Each alarm is acknowledged with its own button, and the log exports to CSV, the current page or everything. Put it on the main screen, or on a separate alarm screen in larger plants.
SoftPLC Control
RUN and STOP lights of a virtual controller and a button to start or stop it. Use it for: stopping the logic during maintenance without opening the editor.
Terminal
A command line of the computer running Industrial UI, right on the screen. It works only for users signed in to the editor. Use it for: service work on a remote machine. Keep a strong editor password: the terminal gives full access to the machine.

Example: a tank screen

A typical screen for a tank with a filling pump, built from the widgets above:

With Duplicate, the second and third tank take a minute each: copy the group and bind the new tags.

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