Creating Composite Displays
First, create the display that you want to use inside of a composite object. This display is referred to as the composite display. While any display (.rtv) file can be used as a composite display, there are some rules about constructing that display:

• Property names for composite objects cannot be used as variable names, in the Composite section this only includes rtvName and substitutions.
• Only public variables that are not mapped to data or substitutions will show up as properties on the composite object.
• Names of all public variables used for tabular data must have Data Type set to Tabular.
• Composite displays can use any object from the Object Palette, except the composite object.
• Nested composite objects are not supported.

Next, open new display and add a composite object. On the composite object, set the rtvName property to the name of the composite display you just created. NOTE: The rtvName property should be set before any other properties. Once you have set rtvName, all public unmapped variables in the composite display will show up as properties on the composite object. Like any other property, you can attach those properties to data or set them to static values. NOTE: If you do not want a variable to be exposed as a property, mark it as private.

For example, you can create a display (.rtv) file with two meters that are attached to two public variables: value1 and value2. When you enter the name of that display (.rtv) file in the rtvName property of the composite object, then value1 and value2 will show up in the Composite section of the Object Properties list. These properties can be set to static data or attached to data to drive the values in the composite display. When the composite object is used in an Object Grid, these properties will also show up in the iconProperties dialog, which allows you to assign them to either values or data columns. NOTE: Composite objects used in Object Grids must have their bgOpaqueFlag property selected.

Using Interaction Properties

The specified drillDownTarget or command for objects in the composite display will take precedence over the drillDownTarget or command set on the composite object when it is instanced directly in a display. When the composite object is used in an Object Grid, the specified drillDownTarget or command for objects in the composite display will take precedence over the drillDownTarget or command set on the Object Grid.

For example, let's say you have a composite display with an object that drills down to display A and you set a drillDownTarget on the composite object to display B. When you click on the composite object, if you click directly on the object that drills down to display A, then display A is opened. If you click anywhere else in the composite display, then display B is opened.

A similar thing happens when you use that composite object in an Object Grid. However, in this case, you can't set a drillDownTarget on the composite object, you can only set the drillDownTarget on the Object Grid. So, let's say you set the Object Grid to drill down to display B. Again when you click directly on the object in the composite display that drills down to A, display A is opened. When you click anywhere else in the composite or in the Object Grid, display B is opened.

Commands
To assign a command, right-click in the Property Value field of the command property and select Define Command. Commands can be set up to execute when you click on an object or automatically execute the command when the value of an object reaches a specified threshold. See Building Displays>Define/Execute Command for information on how to set up commands.

Drill Down Displays
To specify a drill down display, double click on the drillDownTarget property. Any display (.rtv) file can be targeted as a drill down. Once a drill down target has been set, double-click to activate the drill down. Drill down displays can be activated in the same window or opened in a separate window. This allows you to build a customizable hierarchy of displays.

Background Properties

Property Name	Description
bgBorderColor	Select the  button and choose a color from the palette to set the color of the edge on the background rectangle. This property is only applicable if bgBorderFlag is selected.
bgBorderFlag	If selected, a border is drawn around the background rectangle,
bgColor	Select the  button and choose a color from the palette to set the background color.
bgEdgeWidth	Set the width of the 3D edge on the background rectangle. This property is only available if the bgStyle selected is 3D Rectangle.
bgGradientColor2	Select the  button and choose a color for the second color in the gradient. Default is white. NOTE: The bgColor property sets the first color in the gradient.
bgGradientMode	Display a gradient in the background rectangle. Select from the following options:     None No gradient   Diagonal Edge Gradient is drawn at a 45 degree angle from the top left to the bottom right corner of the object.   Diagonal Center Gradient is drawn at a 45 degree angle from the center to the top left and the bottom right corners of the object.   Horizontal Edge Gradient is drawn horizontally from the top to the bottom of the object.   Horizontal Center Gradient is drawn horizontally from the center to the top and bottom of the object.   Vertical Edge Gradient is drawn vertically from the left to the right of the object.   Vertical Center Gradient is drawn vertically from the center to the left and right of the object.
bgOpaqueFlag	When a composite object is used in an Object Grid, the bgOpaqueFlag property must be selected. If deselected, then objects inside a composite that is clipped by the edge of the Object Grid may be drawn outside the Object Grid. NOTE: In order to avoid showing a border around each composite object in the Object Grid, select Edit>Model Properties and deselect the bgBorderFlag.
bgRaisedFlag	Reverses the direction of the gradient, as well as that of the 3D edge if the bgStyle selected is 3D Rectangle.
bgRoundness	Set the arc length of the rounded corners. This property is only available if the bgStyle selected is Round Rectangle. NOTE: The value of bgRoundness cannot exceed half the value of the objWidth or the objHeight. If bgRoundness does exceed that value, then half (of the smaller of the two values) of objWidth or objHeight will be used instead. For example if objWidth is 100 and objHeight is 50, then the value of bgRoundness cannot exceed 25. If it does, then half the value of objHeight (25) will be used instead.
bgShadowFlag	Select to display a drop shadow on the background rectangle.
bgStyle	Choose one of  the following three options from the drop down menu:   Rectangle Select to display a background rectangle. 3D Rectangle Select to display a 3D edge on the background rectangle. If selected, use bgEdgeWidth to set the width of the 3D edge. Round Rectangle Select to display a background rectangle with rounded edges. If selected, use bgRoundness to set the arc length of the rounded corners.
bgVisFlag	Select to display the background rectangle.
borderPixels	Set the amount of space (in pixels) between the object and the border.

Composite Properties
There are two standard properties in the Composite section: rtvName and substitutions. Once you have set the rtvName property, the composite display will show up in your composite object and all of the public variables from the composite display that are not mapped to data or substitutions will be added as Composite properties.

Property Name	Description
resizeMode	Specify how the composite object is resized. There are two modes: Size to Display: The size of the composite object is determined by the size of the display it contains. The composite object cannot be resized. This is the default setting. The dock and anchor properties should not be used in this mode. Layout: The composite object can be resized. Objects in the composite display are situated according to their anchor and dock properties. The dock and anchor properties can be set on the composite object so that it resizes during a window resize if the window resize mode is also set to Layout. If the window resize mode for the display containing the composite object is set to Scale, the composite object performs a scale instead of a layout.
rtvName	Specify the name of the display (.rtv) file to show in your object. This display is referred to as the composite display. See Creating Composite Displays for details.
substitutions	Specify the substitutions for the composite display. NOTE: The composite display also inherits substitutions from the display that contains the composite object.  Substitutions are optional and must use the following syntax: $subname:subvalue $subname2:subvalue2 If a substitution value contains a single quote, it must be escaped using a / : $filter:Plant=/'Dallas/' If a substitution value contains a space, it must be enclosed in single quotes. Do not escape these single quotes: $subname:subvalue $subname2:'sub value 2' A substitution string cannot contain the following: : | . tab space , ; = < > ' " & / \ { } [ ] ( )

Historian Properties

Property Name	Description
historyTableName	Specify name of table in your history database in which to store tabular data. See Configuring the Historian for information.
historyTableRowNameFlag	If selected, data from the row name field will be stored in the first column of the table specified in historyTableName.

Interaction Properties

Property Name	Description
command	Assign a command. See Building Displays>Define/Execute Command for information.
commandCloseWindowOnSuccess	If selected, the window that initiates a system command will automatically close when the system command is executed successfully. This property only applies to system commands. With data source commands, the window is closed whether or not the command is executed successfully. For multiple commands, this property is applied to each command individually. Therefore if the first command in the multiple command sequence succeeds, the window will close before the rest of the commands are executed. NOTE: The commandCloseWindowOnSuccess property is not supported in the Display Server.
commandConfirm	If selected, the command confirmation dialog is enabled. Use the commandConfirmText property to write your own text for the confirmation dialog, otherwise text from the command property will be used. For multiple commands, if you Confirm the execution then all individual commands will be executed in sequence with no further confirmation. If the you Cancel the execution, none of the commands in the sequence will executed.
commandConfirmText	Enter command confirmation text directly in the Property Value field or select the  button to open the Edit commandConfirmText dialog. If commandConfirmText is not specified, then text from the command property will be used.
drillDownTarget	Name of display (.rtv) file targeted as a drill down. See Building Displays>Drill Down Displays for information.

Label Properties

Property Name	Description
label	Edit label text directly in the Property Value field or select the  button to open the Edit Label dialog.
labelMinTabWidth	Specify minimum width of the label tab. This property is only applies if labelTextAlignY is set to TabTop.
labelTextAlignX	Select x-axis position of label text from the drop down menu.
labelTextAlignY	Select y-axis position of label text from the drop down menu. Outside Top Position label well above the background rectangle. Top Position label just above the background rectangle. Title Top Position label along the top line of the background rectangle. Tab Top Position label tab just above the background rectangle. Height and width of the tab is dependent on the height and width of the text. Use the labelMinTabWidth property to specify a minimum tab width. Inside Top Position label inside the top of the background rectangle.
labelTextColor	Select the  button and choose a color from the palette to set the label text color.
labelTextFont	Select font style of label text from the drop down menu.
labelTextHeight	Set the height of the label text in pixels.

Object Properties

Property Name	Description
anchor	Specify where to anchor an object in the display. NOTE: If an object has the dock property set, the anchor property will be ignored. The anchor property is only applied when the dimensions of the display are modified, either by editing Background Properties or resizing the window in Layout mode Select None, or one or more the following options: None Object not anchored. This is the default. Top Anchor top of object at top of display. Left Anchor left side of object at left of display. Bottom Anchor bottom of object at bottom of display. Right Anchor right side of object at right of display. When a display is resized, the number of pixels between an anchored object and the specified location remain constant. If an object is anchored on opposite sides (i.e. Top and Bottom or Left and Right), the object will be stretched to fill the available space. NOTE: If the Resize Mode is set to Scale and an object is anchored on opposite sides, then the object with be moved rather than stretched to fill the available space.
dock	Specify the docking location of an object in the display. NOTE: An object should not be docked if the Resize Mode is set to Scale. Select from the following options: None Object is not docked. This is the default. Top Dock object at top of display. Left Dock object at left of display. Bottom Dock object at bottom of display. Right Dock object at right of display. Fill Dock object in available space remaining in the display after all docked objects are positioned. If the dimensions of the display are modified, either by editing Background Properties or resizing the window in Layout mode, the properties (objX, objY, objWidth and objHeight) of docked objects will automatically adapt to match the new size of the display. When multiple objects are docked to the same side of the display, the first object is docked against the side of the display, the next object is docked against the edge of the first object, and so on. When objects are docked to multiple sides of the display, the order in which objects were added to the display controls docking position. For example, let's say the first object added to the display is docked at the Top and the second object is docked at the Left. Consequently, the first object will fill the entire width of the display and the second object will fill the left side of the display from the bottom of the first object to the bottom of the display. Objects in a display have the dock property set to Fill, are laid out across a grid in the available space remaining after all docked objects are positioned. By default, the grid has one row and as many columns as there are objects in the display. You can modify the grid in the Background Properties dialog. Once an object is docked, there are some limitations on how that object can be modified. Docked objects cannot be dragged or repositioned using objX and objY properties. Docked objects cannot be resized using the objWidth or objHeight properties. To resize you must drag on the resize handle. Docked objects can only be resized toward the center of the display (e.g. If an object is docked at the Top, only its height can be increased by dragging down toward the center of the display). Docked objects set to Fill cannot be resized at all. Docked objects cannot be moved using Align. Non-docked objects can be aligned against a docked object, but a docked object will not move to align against another object. Docked objects are ignored by Distribute.
objHeight	This property is read only. It shows the height in pixels of the composite object which is set by the height of the composite display.
objName	Name given to facilitate object management via the Object List dialog. Select Tools>Object List.
objWidth	This property is read only. It shows the width in pixels of the composite object which is set by the width of the composite display.
objX	Set the x position of the object.
objY	Set the y position of the object.
styleClass	Enter the style class name for this object as defined in your style sheet. If not specified, the object class name is used. NOTE: The value entered must not contain spaces and cannot start with rtv-.
transparencyPercent	Sets the transparency of the object. This property only applies to the background of the composite object.
visFlag	Set the visibility of the object.