Monday, November 22, 2010

New PE 1.3 Features: GUI Editor Improvements

Project Editor 1.3 contains many new time-saving improvements for the GUI Editor. See below for an outline of the new features:

Click/Drag selection rectangle - to select multiple items

Multi-Level Undo-Redo -(ctrl-z, ctrl-y, or use Edit menu, 20 levels of undo-redo)

Alignment Tools – Select multiple items, right click-Align- choose top, bottom, left, or right

Alignment Helper – When the grid is turned off, drag an item around and any time one side of the item is aligned with a peer, a highlight line will pop up

Z-Ordering – Right click -> Order to send items forward, back, to front, or to back. Also use ctrl-up, ctrl-down for forward and back in the order, or ctrl-shift-up,ctrl-shift-down to send all the way to front or back. This allows unlimited GUI item layering with transparency.

Button re-sizing – Select a button, drag sides or corners to resize

Paste item properties to other items - Example, re-size a button, then copy it, select a group of buttons, and right-click paste-size to apply new size to all selected buttons. Also, copy a label, then select other labels and paste the font, size, etc to the others.

Button press/hold for all button action types, not just IR. Example, drag a serial device’s volume control onto the press action. In the button properties, check “Repeat Action While Held”

Improved Grid snapping-snapping now based on only upper left corner, snaps while dragging, not waiting until release.

“Live” label preview- Edit a button, watch the label text changes preview on the button image, or background if you are editing a background label

Command Tags- Each button can have a selected Command Tag. You can drag entire devices onto a GUI page to populate the entire page of button actions. We will be releasing an updated version of our templates with these tags already applied, but you can add/change button tags manually.

Here’s how it works. Open a GUI page for editing. Drag/drop a device onto the background. You will be prompted for which command types you want to drop onto that page (Volume, transport, etc). Make your selections and click OK.

Command matching will be attempted in the following order:

Factory codes key numbers against command tags key number

Factory codes key names against non-tagged buttons label text (uses variations like Vol Up, Volume +, etc)

Learned codes key names against command tag names (with variations)

Learned codes key names against non-tagged button label text (with variations)

We'll be doing more training webinars in the upcoming weeks to demonstrate the new features and more. If you haven't already, visit www.bitwisecontrols.com/training.php to sign up to be invited when the next training webinar is scheduled.


New PE 1.3 Features: Updated IR library

Project Editor 1.3 provides support for our updated BC4X1, which includes an updated on-board IR library, and improved IR learning capabilities.
The updated on-board IR library includes additional manufacturers and device types. The updated list of included device types is:

- TV

- TV-DVD Combo

- TV-VCR-DVD Combo

- Projector

- Cable/Satellite STB

- Cable/Satellite-DVR STB

- Video Accessory

- Digital Media Receiver

- IPTV

- Media Center Controller

- VCR/PVR

- DVD

- Blu-Ray

- HD-DVD

- DVD/DVR Combo

- DVD/VCR Combo

- Audio Video Receiver

- HTIB (“Home Theater in a Box”)

- Amplifier

- Audio Accessory

- CD

- MP3 Docking Station

- HD Radio

- Satellite Radio

- Home Automation

See the included pack-in sheet with new BC4X1's for important information about working with the updated BC4X1 in new and existing Project Editor project files.

Project Editor 1.3 Released

BitWise Controls has released Project Editor 1.3, which includes a number of exciting new features.
This new version includes support for our updated BC4X1 hardware, which provides an updated on-board IR library and lots of improvements and time-saving features for the GUI Editor. You can obtain the new version by clicking Help->About-> Get Update in Project Editor, or by visiting our downloads page.