HMI & SCADA Display Standards

[redfootballfish@btopenworld.com]

I'm reviewing the appearance of our HMIs/SCADA particularly the use of colour, ie background / alarm colours / pipes etc... Is there an Industry standard for graphical displays? It seems to be such a subjective matter, I'd appreciate any opinions you experts may have.

[GerryM]

ISA 5.5 is for the process industries. That is the only one that I know of, and it really has no major recommendations anyway. They seem to stick with the same colors as the NFPA 79. Red for emergency, yellow for caution, green for safe, etc. They simply state using well defined color combinations so that lettering, symbols, etc. are well defined, easy to see, and not cluttered. http://www.isa.org/Template.cfm?Section=Sh...;Productid=2644

[PdL]

Although regarding alarms and signal states I try to comply to this standard, I also try to design a monitoring system with colour schemes that are friendly to the eye. I imagine the operators or engineers on duty that have to work with them, sometimes 24/7, being waked up by an alarm and have to use the system with their sleepy eyes. I try to avoid awful contrasting background colours but tend to use soft tone coulours. Light grey instead of black, light blue instead of blue, off white instead of white etc. I get a lot of positive response from people that have worked before with those conventional colour schemes. Also on this subject you can think out of the box

[rajsiyer]

Hi friend... They must be easy on the eye is an important consideration.. In all my SCADA screens, I've prepared a very dark background,with alarm situations automatically bringing very visible red symbols and blinks to the front.. ABOVE ALL YOUR SCADA MUST BE INTUTIVE TO USE. All the popular HMIs, use a set of ISA symbols and there is a Symbol-Factory library made by Reichard's Software (with many dumb as well as Active-X objects) which surfaces across many well made SCADA packages. This is arguably the most visible SCADA object collection in the world. It is contained in InTouch, Intellution, Cimplicity and SCADA PORTAL. Just in case you are having some control-automation related software on your pc.. just conduct a *.bmp search on your PC and you will be amazed at what it manages to catch. You can then gather up the useful stuff and make a little activeX library of your own. Very many PLC ladder editors, help menus, brochures, web pages etc.. etc.. carry a lot of useful symbols which usually doesn't catch our eye. But waiting for the search to get over (more than an hour!) and going through the trash is what is painful. But once done.. it is a valuable collection. Regards.. Raj S. Iyer Edited October 10, 2006 by rajsiyer

[PdL]

Of course I agree an alarm can not go unnoticed. But this doesn't mean you must have all kinds of blinking lamps, buttons and stuff like a pin ball machine. But it all strongly depends on the type of application. What does any alarm mean in your application. The general alarm of most of our applications are sent to a central alarm panel, so an audible and visible general alarm on our installation will be raised anyway. Then the operators come have a look and a alarm icon on the plant mimic and a blinking text alarm in the alarm list is all they see. When acknowledged nothing blinks anymore. And you're right - better a good copy/mod than a bad creation

[TheTeck.Com]

What about making MrPLC HMI gallary from each member, so every member can add his own HMI screens snapshoot, then we can keep on developing this screens and symboles.

[booatoavn]

It is great idea. I also faced the same issue last times. I had designed graphic page for a electrical control system. At the beginning customer wants that, the line changes to red when it is not energized and changes to green when it is energized. Later on they want red is energized and green is not energized. I am very happy If you can share your experience on this issue. Cheers,