Saved analysis window sizes

[Watzlavick, Robert L]

I’m getting some complaints from our customers with IADS 6.2 that their analysis windows sizes are changing when they move the pfConfig across desktops.  In our control room, all the monitors are set for 1280x1024 but at their desks, the users have a variety of resolutions and increasingly, they’re getting widescreen monitors with their new PCs.  I just did a test where I saved an AW at 1280x1024, exited IADS, then changed the resolution of the display to 1600x1200.  When I re-launched IADS and reloaded that saved config, it did in fact come up quite a bit bigger than 1280x1024, not the full 1600x1200, but maybe 1500x1200 or something like that.  It doesn’t seem to matter whether I maximize the window before saving or not.  The problem is that when they re-save it at their desks and we load it back into the control room, sometimes their controls are rearranged such that things don’t look correct (according to the users) and resizing messes things up.   I don’t remember IADS always behaving that way – is this new for 6.2?  

 

Thanks,

-Bob

[Adam Chant]

To add to that train of thought..
How difficult would it be to have IADS lock in a display size and/or
aspect ratio no matter what the size of the client display is.
Default would be 'sized to fit' but if we add something in a property
bag or window properties it would lock the size and/or aspect ratio no
matter what the user does.

-Adam Chant



Watzlavick, Robert L wrote:
> I�m getting some complaints from our customers with IADS 6.2 that their

> analysis windows sizes are changing when they move the pfConfig across
> desktops. In our control room, all the monitors are set for 1280x1024
> but at their desks, the users have a variety of resolutions and

> increasingly, they�re getting widescreen monitors with their new PCs. I

> just did a test where I saved an AW at 1280x1024, exited IADS, then
> changed the resolution of the display to 1600x1200. When I re-launched
> IADS and reloaded that saved config, it did in fact come up quite a bit
> bigger than 1280x1024, not the full 1600x1200, but maybe 1500x1200 or

> something like that. It doesn�t seem to matter whether I maximize the

> window before saving or not. The problem is that when they re-save it
> at their desks and we load it back into the control room, sometimes

> their controls are rearranged such that things don�t look correct
> (according to the users) and resizing messes things up. I don�t
> remember IADS always behaving that way � is this new for 6.2?
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> -Bob
>
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[James Bretz]

Hi Bob,

>I'm getting some complaints from our customers with IADS 6.2 that their
>analysis windows sizes are changing when they move
> the pfConfig across desktops. In our control room, all the monitors are
> set for 1280x1024 but at their desks, the users have a
> variety of resolutions and increasingly, they're getting widescreen
> monitors with their new PCs.

A 4:3 to 4:3 transition shouldn't be too bad, but yes there can be some
slight issues (especially with fixed sized text fonts). The 16:9 vs 4:3,
sounds like trouble. There's most likely going to be a number of issues
transfering back and forth. Thanx for the heads up. We might have to have
them limit their AW size to 4:3 ratio somehow.

> I just did a test where I saved an
> AW at 1280x1024, exited IADS, then changed the resolution of the display
> to 1600x1200. When I re-launched IADS and
> reloaded that saved config, it did in fact come up quite a bit bigger than
> 1280x1024, not the full 1600x1200, but maybe
> 1500x1200 or something like that. It doesn't seem to matter whether I
> maximize the window before saving or not. The
> problem is that when they re-save it at their desks and we load it back
> into the control room, sometimes their controls are
> rearranged such that things don't look correct (according to the users)
> and resizing messes things up. I don't remember IADS

> always behaving that way - is this new for 6.2?

By default, when a desktop is loaded on a different resolution than it was
saved, the AnalysisWindows will attempt to resize. I think this has been
around since 5.3.2 or before. The rule is "resize to AW to take up the same
relative size on the new desktop but strictly maintain the orginal aspect
ratio". This was a feature requested by the F-22 engineers for the same
situation as you mentioned above. There are limitations especially with
fixed size fonts/text. If anyone is interested, this auto-resize feature can
be disabled if need be via a command line option "/noAutoResizeAws" on the
client.

I doubt it's been modified at all for 6.2, but we'll certain test this out.
It should have "auto resized" the Aw while maintaining the aspect ratio at
whatever it was originally saved (i.e. 4:3 or 16:9 etc). Using that logic,
the AW saved full screen on a 1280x1024 (aspect ratio = 1.25) should have
been resized to on a 1600x1200 desktop (aspect ratio = 1.33) to 1500x1200.
Sound familiar? Looks like it's doing what it was programmed to do... Not
sure if that's the desired results though. I guess the challenge would be to
pick two resolutions with the same aspect ratio. Is that even possible?

I feel trouble ahead with the 16:9 to 4:3 crossover. The problem is that the
user will see the new "real estate" on the 16:9 monitor and they will "build
to suite" and cram the whole AW full of items. When this Aw is taken to the
control room is will then be resized (most likely downsized) to fit the
control room. This is going to cause problems. If it were 4:3 to 4:3 then we
might have a chance (autoresizing fonts, etc).

What is the resolution in the control room anyway?
Jim

[James Bretz]

Hi Adam,

>To add to that train of thought..
>How difficult would it be to have IADS lock in a display size and/or
>aspect ratio no matter what the size of the client display is.
>Default would be 'sized to fit' but if we add something in a property
>bag or window properties it would lock the size and/or aspect ratio no
>matter what the user does.

At this point the AutoResize does maintain the aspect ratio, so in theory
this shouldn't be the problem (but there may be some issues to resolve with
text). Don't forget you can turn that behavior off with a command line
setting.

Beyond this autoresize issue, Iads doesn't prohibit the user from overriding
this ratio/size through editing. So if you have users mixing resolutions
between the control room and their desktop, we still have a problem. Are you
talking about possibly locking the user resizing of the AW to a specific
size or aspect ratio? That might work, but I think there still would be
problems.

I think the best bet is for us all to sit down and figure out just what
scenerios are failing. I can then go back and see if there's anything that
can be done for the next release to alleviate the pain.

Here's one to start: Bringing a 16:9 AW to a 4:3 control room is most likely
going to resize the Aw to a point where some displays look bad. Another
shady item is: Changing aspect ratios between control room and desktop.

Let me know if you have any other ideas/comments,
Jim

[Watzlavick, Robert L]

Jim,
Thanks for the explanation. The behavior you mention seems to match what I've seen now that I think about it. Lots of users are getting 16:9 monitors at their desks but there's no reason they can't have some self-discipline and not resize their existing 4:3 screens to fill the widescreen monitors. I think it would be nice though to have an option to fix an AW at a certain size. I need to do some research to see what the different control rooms are using for our program. When we started a few years ago, we all agreed on 1280x1024 to make it easier to move screens back and forth.

Thanks!
-Bob

[James Bretz]

Bob,

> Thanks for the explanation. The behavior you mention seems to match what
> I've
> seen now that I think about it. Lots of users are getting 16:9 monitors
> at their desks
> but there's no reason they can't have some self-discipline and not resize
> their
> existing 4:3 screens to fill the widescreen monitors. I think it would be
> nice though
> to have an option to fix an AW at a certain size. I need to do some
> research to see
> what the different control rooms are using for our program. When we
> started a few
> years ago, we all agreed on 1280x1024 to make it easier to move screens
> back and
> forth.

Ok. Just make sure that the "corruption" is only occurring on a 16:9 to 4:3
transitions for now. If it's any other resolution change let me know and
we'll test for issue (using your config). Speaking of which, we did have a
text resize corruption issue, but it was fixed for 6.5. Let's hope this was
the issue.

I'll add a request to our database to preset the AW size (i.e. target
desktop size),
Jim