FBlockManager
Short Help
The FBlockManager program is a tool to handle various MOST function block simulations. Its primary use case is the Rest Bus Simulation at Robert Bosch Car Multimedia GmbH, Germany.
The FBlockManager program is a so–called portable application and does not need to be installed on a target system. You simply copy the program and all its components from one system to another.
If you start the FBlockManager program the first time you need to import at least one FBlock simulation. To do this open menu File and select menu item Import. Within the opened sub–menu you can decide either to import one or more file(s) by selecting menu item File(s) or to import the content of a complete folder by selecting menu item Folder. In both cases a dialog box comes up where you can move to the import’s source location.
After importing one or more FBlock simulation programs a project will be created for you internally. To save this project open menu File and choose menu item Save. Thereafter a save file dialog box comes up where you can choose you project’s location and file name. Click button Save to make your project persistent.
To load an existing project open menu File and select Open menu item afterwards. In the shown dialog box move to the project’s location, select one of the listed project names and click button Open.
The FBlockManager program is designed as a self–explaining application and therefore it should not be too hard to understand almost all of its features by itself. But some of the features are not “visible” at the first glance. Hence, those features will be explained right here.
The FBlockManager program provides two context menus, one within the tree view and one within the message pane, the so–called Report Sink. To open such a context menu simply click the right mouse button inside one of these panes. Note that all context menus are also available from within the program’s main menu.
To mark tree view items as “selected” it will be necessary to press and hold the keyboard’s CTRL key. Afterwards click each unselected tree view item which you want to select. Every of the selected items will be displayed in bold font.
To unselect an already selected item press and hold the keyboard’s CTRL key and click one of the selected items. Unselected items will be displayed in normal font.
It is possible to reorganize the tree view’s item order. This could be very helpful if for example the start–up order of the configured FBlock simulations is important. To change the location of a single item press and hold the keyboard’s CTRL key. Now focus the item to be moved with the mouse cursor and press and hold the left mouse button. Then move with the mouse along the other items and drop it on its new location by releasing the left mouse button.
It is also possible to open an existing FBlockManager project (*.fblock) via Drag & Drop. To do this, select such a project file in the Windows Explorer using the mouse and press and hold the left mouse button. Then move the mouse with the glued file onto the FBlockManager application and drop it by releasing the left mouse button. Note that only one single project file can be opened via Drag & Drop action!
Double clicks on a single tree view item perform the tree view’s default action, which is initially set to “Show/Hide UI”. This means if the double clicked item’s user interface is currently visible it will be hidden and the other way round.
Furthermore, it is possible to adapt the pre–configured double click action by modifying the program settings. To change the program settings open the Settings dialog box which is available via menu Tools menu item Settings. Inside the Application Settings dialog box navigate to the combo box next to “Double Click Action” and choose an appropriated double click behavior.
Printing all the messages from within the message pane, the so–called Report Sink, into a log–file is also possible. But note logging is disabled by default! To enable the logging mechanism open the FBlockManager’s application settings dialog and click the button Logging. Now check the option “Write all Report Sink messages into an external log file”. Logging will be switched on immediately after saving all changes. However, keep in mind that all other changes within this dialog box will take place only after restarting the FBlockManager application!
Choose the path and the name of the logging file to be used. The default logging folder is the folder where the FBlockManager’s executable is located. To select a different location click the button next to the edit box and choose the path and the name of the new log–file. After closing that dialog the edit control contains the name of the new file and the file’s folder is visible through the edit box’s tool tip.
Use this option to ensure the existence of the output folder. But pay attention, you have to have sufficient access rights to create sub–folders within the chosen base directory! Otherwise the sub–folder will not be created and the logging fails in general. By default this option is unchecked.
Use this option to ensure that an already existing log–file will be overwritten during the FBlockManager’s start–up. If this option is not set then an existing log–file will be renamed instead. To rename the old log–file the format <filename>_<date>_<time>.<ext> is used. Overwriting of existing files at start–up is disabled by default.
Use this option to enable timestamps for each log–file entry. Such timestamps are printed with the date in ISO format (yyyy–mm–dd). Furthermore, the time part uses milliseconds. Timestamps are enabled by default.
Use this option to enable the entry type labels. Entry type labels are very useful to distinguish between messages, warnings and errors. But be aware, if this option is unchecked you will not be able to recognize which logging entry is a message, which is a warning and which entry contains an error! Using the labels is enabled by default.
With the FBlockManager’s application settings you can adjust the program’s look and feel as well as its general behavior. All available application settings are grouped so that there purpose becomes clearer.
Adapt the number of the last opened projects which should be available within the sub–menu Recent Projects of the File menu. If you want an unlimited number of most recently used projects then use a count of zero. By default the number of MRU projects is limited to four.
If you want to delete the list of last used projects then select the option “Clear list of recently used projects”. This option is disabled as long as no MRU project is available.
Use option “Clear last used project file name” to remove the file name of last opened project from the configuration. Be aware, if you removed the last project’s file name an auto–load last project will not longer work! This option is disabled as long as no project has been saved.
Use option “Clear last used file import path” to delete the path of last imported files from the configuration. Thereafter, the file import path will be set to the folder where the FBlockManager’s executable is located. This option is disabled as long as no file was imported.
Use option “Clear last used folder imported path” to delete the path of last imported folder from the configuration. Thereafter, the folder import path will be set to the folder where the FBlockManager’s executable is located. This option is disabled as long as no folder was imported.
Use option “Open last project automatically” to load last available project file automatically at FBlockManager’s start–up. Automated project loading is switched off by default.
Use option “Connect all FBlocks automatically” to force an automatic connection of each loaded FBlock simulation while FBlockManager’s start–up. This option will overwrite the individual connection state of every single simulation program. By default FBlock simulations will not be connected automatically.
Use option “Double Click Action” to adjust the behavior if you double click an item within the project tree. You can either choose “Show/Hide UI” to toggle the simulation’s visibility or “Connect/Disconnect” to toggle a simulation’s connection state. Furthermore, no double click action is also possible. Show or hide the simulation’s user interface is selected by default.
Use option “Message Limitation” to restrict the number of messages to be displayed on the Report Sink. To disable this limitation set value of option “Message Limitation” to 0 (zero). An amount of 1,000,000 messages is used as the default limitation.
Be aware, if you change the value of “Message Limitation” to a value less than the current amount all leading message entries will be removed from the Report Sink! On the other hand, messages which are written to the log file remain untouched.
Yes, it is possible to modify the foreground color and the background color too of each area of the FBlockManager’s main window independently. To do this click one of the color buttons, select a different color and then click button Preview to inspect the new lock and feel. All color changes will be taken over after clicking button Save. By default the foreground color is set to Black and the background color is set to White.
Before ongoing with explanations we have to clarify some important things! All available options inside this settings group affect the Windows Registry! And therefore, you have to ensure appropriated access rights to modify the Windows Registry. Furthermore, it is very important to know that the movement of the FBlockManager application after making changes within this group may result in an unexpected behavior of Windows!
Use option “Associate project files with…” to enable loading of FBlockManager project files (*.fblock) via double clicking them from within the Windows Explorer. By default this option is not set.
Use option “Put a shortcut to…” to add an icon to the FBlockManager application to you personal desktop. A desktop icon is not created by default.
Use option “Add the FBlockManager to…” to create an entry within the Windows Explorer’s Send To menu. This might be redundant because of the ability to register project files with double clicks but someone probably likes the Send To menu. By default no entry is available within the Windows Explorer’s Send To menu.
Of course, FBlockManager projects also have settings which can be changed. These setting are intended to be used as a kind of project documentation and therefore it is possible to put additional information like the author’s name, a remark, the division and a longer description into every single project file. To modify the settings for the currently loaded project open sub–menu Options which is available within the menu Tools. In the dialog box Project Settings special attention is given to the default of the author’s name because the user’s logon name is used. Furthermore, date and time of the project will be changed when the file is saved to the disk.
The FBlockManager is also able to process various command line arguments. But most of them are used for initialization. Therefore, it is a good idea to discuss only those which will be necessary to fulfill the daily work.
Usually the FBlockManager is started without any arguments. But sometimes it would be very helpful to start this application with different settings to bypass the current configuration. In this case the FBlockManager’s executable is always called in following order!
fblock.manager.exe <project> [options]
Attention: If you want to open an FBlock project file via command line you have to ensure that this parameter is the very first entry in the list of arguments! Otherwise the FBlockManager will report an error.
The very first command line parameter you are able to handover to the FBlockManager is the name of a project file to be loaded. Thereby this statement should consist of the full qualified path to an FBlockManager’s project file. Additionally, it is also possible to provide only a relative path statement. See following examples to clarify what is meant.
fblock.manager.exe C:\RBS\Simulations\rbs_default.fblock
fblock.manager.exe ..\MyProjects\rbs_all_simus.fblock
Note if you provide a project file name without the path statement the FBlockManager will try to find that file within current directory! Furthermore keep in mind that a usage of this command line argument will cover the FBlockManager’s auto–load handler for the last loaded project.
This section contains a list of additional command line parameters which optionally can be used along with the FBlockManager application.
This parameter should be used to avoid the user interfaces of each FBlock simulation from being displayed. The default value of this parameter is OFF which means that each user interface will be shown or hidden depending on last saved project settings. An example of starting the FBlockManager application with this option is shown in the following snipped.
fblock.manager.exe <project> /hide
Along with logging two command line arguments are supported by the FBlockManager. The first one defines path and name of the file to be used for logging outputs and the second one might be used to ensure that an existing log–file with the same name will be overwritten.
This parameter instructs the FBlockManager to take the given log–file instead of a possibly pre–configured one. To start the FBlockManager application with such a logging file use this option as shown in the following snipped.
fblock.manager.exe /logfile <filename>
Thereby the statement <filename> should consist of the full qualified path to the used log–file. Additionally, it is also possible to provide only a relative path statement. See following examples to clarify what is meant.
fblock.manager.exe /logfile C:\RBS\Logging\rbs_logging.log
fblock.manager.exe /logfile ..\MyProjects\rbs_logging.log
Note if you provide a log–file name without the path statement the FBlockManager will create that file within current directory! Furthermore keep in mind that a usage of this command line argument will cover the FBlockManager’s currently adjusted logging settings.
Hint: The usage of this command line argument will automatically enable logging!
This parameter is only available along with parameter /logfile and instructs the FBlockManager application to overwrite an already existing log–file. To allow such a destructive operation start the FBlockManager as shown in the following snipped.
fblock.manager.exe /logfile <filename> /overwrite
On the other hand, if you leave out this parameter the FBlockManager will rename an existing file to keep track about previous loggings. Furthermore keep in mind that a usage of this command line argument will cover the FBlockManager’s currently adjusted logging settings.
Along with application shutdown two command line arguments are supported by the FBlockManager. The first one enables the shutdown mode and the second one might be used to avoid the saving of made project changes.
This parameter instructs the FBlockManager to shutdown an already running application instance. To shutdown a running FBlockManager application use this option as shown in the following snipped.
fblock.manager.exe /shutdown
This parameter is only available along with parameter /shutdown and instructs the FBlockManager application to discard possibly made project changes. To allow the FBlockManager to avoid saving of made changed, use this option as shown in the following snipped.
fblock.manager.exe /shutdown /nosave
On the other hand, if you leave out this parameter the FBlockManager will only execute the save operation if the currently loaded project has a valid project file name and its settings has been change after last saving.
To be continued…