Display Screens in DewesoftX

Course overview

This course teaches how to design effective, intuitive visual measurement interfaces in DewesoftX, guiding you through both pre-defined and fully custom display setups. You’ll begin by understanding Display and Widget fundamentals and exploring pre-configured screen layouts—such as Scope, Recorder, FFT, Power, and GPS—that serve as starting points for customization.

Next, you’ll dive into Design Mode, where you’ll experiment with adding instruments: digital meters, analog bars, scopes, X-Y recorders, FFT/analyzers, and advanced visuals like vector scopes, Campbell plots, heat maps, and embedded video  . You’ll also master widget interactions—moving, resizing, grouping, copying/pasting properties, and deleting—ensuring streamlined layouts for any measurement scenario.

A key component is channel-to-widget mapping: using the Channel Selector to assign, reassign, and reorder channels within widgets—supporting multi-channel displays and grouped visualizations  . You’ll also configure each widget’s appearance, time axes (single vs. multiple), transparency, update settings, cursors, alarms, and thresholds to sharpen your displays’ clarity and usability.

Finally, the course covers managing multiple display screens via the Display Manager—adding or importing screens from other setups, renaming, duplicating, rebuilding to defaults, and organizing sub-displays—providing a professional multi-screen measurement environment.

Upon completion, you’ll be able to build, customize, and manage DewesoftX display screens tailored to any test or analysis need—enhancing clarity, interactivity, and insight during data acquisition and review.

Choosing the right instrument for each data input is the key to understanding and reviewing your measurements.

The primary goal of the Dewesoft design mode is to create a clear and intelligible appearance of acquired and calculated data in different instruments called display widgets. 

DewesoftX software allows setting up different display screens in the acquisition section in the measure label.

You can set up different display widgets for each input. For example digital meter, time recorder, FFT analyzer, etc. You can arrange them freely on the screen canvas and in front of any graphic in your system to have a simple, but efficient overview of your signals and the entire measurement.

All controls can be combined in one single screen or we can build several screens for a specific part of the measurement. DewesoftX has few pre-defined displays but these screens can be altered and their own specific displays can be created with a different appearance.

This chapter describes how to simply add or define a measurement display inside DewesoftX software.

All pre-defined displays can be adapted to meet the user requirements and to have a simple and efficient overview of your signals and the entire measurement.

The pre-defined display is an excellent starting point to create your own display with different appearances of acquired signals. Here is the list of available pre-defined displays:

When creating a new setup, there are only a few displays that are added. These are the Recorder, Scope, and Custom display.

Additional predefined displays can be added by selecting the Displays icon. We type the name and select an icon.

A new predefined display can be added by choosing from display templates. 

 Here all the standard displays named above are shown.

These screens can be altered to meet the user's requirements and arranged freely in front of any graphic in your system to have a simple and efficient overview of your signals and measurement.

Here you can find some tips on how to customize the measurement screen.

When you press the Design button from the menu bar design mode is selected and you are allowed to create your own display - the appearance of channels data on the screen.

After you press the Widget button, next to the Design button, the 'Add instrument' toolbar will appear.

After you press the Widget button again, the instrument toolbar disappears.

All pre-defined displays can be adapted to your own requirements with:

• Shown predefined standard instruments for selected pre-defined display (and for all used channels) on the lower right part of this screen

• Control properties and Design tool button on the upper left part of this screen to enter Design mode - Add instruments for this type of display with the Widget button on the toolbar

•  Instrument setting on the middle left part of this screen

•  Assigning channels to new instruments with channels selector on the right part of this screen

•  Using additional screen edit function on the design toolbar of this screen and Displays menu edit display option

• Instrument appearance setting: position, size, grouping,...

Here you will learn how to add and arrange the widgets according to your requirements.

To add a widget to your display, after selecting the widget button just click on the desired icon on the toolbar, described at Instruments setup. The design mode for that instrument will be automatically enabled.

List of all avilable display widgest in DewesoftX

[ADD WIDGET SECTION/TABLE]

Every time when you click on the widget icon, a new widget will be added at the left-top corner of the widget area.

You can add a widget according to your requirements. Due to the flexibility of the Dewesoft X display screens, you can arrange the widgets according to your requirements with nearly no limitation.

In this chapter are shown the possibilities and instructions on how to assign channels to the instruments

As a standard, channels will be automatically assigned to new visual controls. But usually, you don't want these channels to be in the new instrument and you want to reassign another channel.

Make sure that the new visual control is still selected - this is indicated by a white box around the selected visual control. If it is not selected, click on it once more. Then click on any input from the Channel selector on the right side of the screen to assign this channel to the new instrument.

Some instruments like the Recorder, Scope, and FFT allow more than one channel to be assigned to them.

To reassign any instrument from one channel to another, first click the instrument to select it, then unclick the currently selected channel from the Channel selector (depending on instrument type, it will display unassigned or simply remove the channel), then click on any other channel from the Channel list.

You can have the same channel assigned to multiple instruments if desired.

Here you will learn how to assign channels to chosen widgets and add math in the analyze menu.

DewesoftX offers a very powerful and flexible Channel selector. It can display the available channels as already known in a channel list or in a grouped form.

Channel selector offers the following capability:

• Channel (list) view/Group view: A different view on all used channel selector

• Select/deselect channels: Assign or reassign channels to widgets

Channel (list) view / group view

When you select the Group view, channels will be grouped according to their source. We will have groups for analog input (AI), counters (CNT), Math, and other math modules. We can see the channels by expanding the group simply by clicking on them.

Another view of the channels is the channel list view. Here the channels will be listed in alphabetical order regardless of their source.

Selecting and deselecting channels

The channels, which are shown on the currently selected widget can be selected by clicking on the channel. If the channel is already on the widget, it will be marked, and clicking on it will remove it from the widget.

There are several other ways to assign a channel to a widget. We can drag and drop the channel to the widget. When we click and hold the left mouse button, the channel will be selected and we can drag it over to any widget. We can drop it to any place that will add the channel to the display or we can drop it on the display's channel list to replace the channel. In the example below the CNT2/Angle will be replaced with the AI1/FFT block count.

In Design mode, we can drag and drop the channel to an empty place on the display. This will add a new widget from the type currently selected on the Design bar and automatically assign the channel to it.

Searching for channels

Dewesoft X setups can easily have hundreds and even thousands of channels. To find channels we have added a feature to search for them by the name. If we enter the keyword in the Search field, Dewesoft X will look for channels with those keywords in the name (at any place) or the channels connected to the keyword (output channels of different math modules). We can cancel the search by pressing the X button on the right side of the search bar.

Additional settings in analyze mode

In the Analysis mode, the list is expanded and we can change the color of the channel, rename the channel or add any math from the channel selector:

• formula

• filtering (IIR, FIR, frequency-domain filter)

• time-domain analysis (integral, derivative, scope math, latch math, delay channel, ...)

• statistics (basic, array, classification)

• frequency domain analysis (FFT, STFT, octave, cepstrum)

• machinery diagnostics (CA, angle sensor math, envelope detection, tracking filter, ...)

• counting

• constant (from current value)

• PID control

• reference curve

• acoustics (weighting filters, RT60)

For example, when we want to add a filter to any channel, right-click on the channel and select Add Math -> Filter.

The filter window will be opened and the channel which was selected will be automatically chosen.

If the selected channel source is math, then we have an additional two options to edit the math function or to delete the math function.

When you have to display a dozen input channels with many display widgets, you must arrange them for clear appearance:

• position of the elements

• size of the elements

• define the transparency of the element

First, make sure that you have the desired display widget selected. To select it simply click on the widget. A white box will appear around whicj indicates the selection.

You can now move display widgets in two ways:

1. Drag the widget in place using your mouse or touchpad

2. Use the arrow keys to move it in the desired direction

If the element comes in conflict with other elements, you can bring the element in front of the other one or behind it; therefore right-click on the element and then select Bring to front or Send to back from the appearing menu list.

You can adjust the size of your display widget completely freely. Just grab one of the eight handles around the selected widget (the cursor will change to a double arrow) and drag the handler around.

The transparency can be set for each individual display widget. This can be particularly useful when you want to overlay one display widget over another.

To apply transparency first you need to select theTransparency checkbox in the widget properties sidebar and then select one of the five pre-defined values:

• Off

• 25%

• 50%

• 75%

• 100%

The following example should give you an impression of the transparency function. We have setup two digital meter widgets with different transparency setting to off (left) and 100% (right).

DewesoftX software allows you to define and manage several visual displays. A visual display is a canvas or a set of display widgets on a single display. In this section, we will see how you can define and manage different visual displays.

Full-screen mode

The active online visual display can be enlarged into the full-screen window by pressing Ctrl + F keyboard shortcut. To escape from this mode press the ESC or Ctrl + F on your keyboard.

Add a new visual display

Displays can be managed by clicking on the display icon.

 If we want to create a standard display, then we can choose it from the template list.

If we want to create a new empty visual display, then the Custom template must be chosen. We can add the display as the main display.

This will add a new display icon in the displays menu toolbar.

We can also add the display as a sub-display.

This will add a new display as a child of the currently selected visual display. The display icon will get a drop-down button to change the currently shown display.

We can change the name and icon inside the Display properties sidebar. The name of the displays can be changed by entering a new name in the Display name field. The icon of the display can be changed by setting one of the standard icons or by selecting any file when choosing the Custom item from the Icon dropdown and then selecting an image file.

We can also move the display left or right by choosing the Move up or Move down button.

Removing visual display

Selected display can be deleted with selecting Remove display option from the Manage displays menu.

DewesoftX offers a Design Control properties to create a complex view of all the acquired and calculated data on the online display screen.

With the Control properties you can create, arrange and group different elements within the display widget:

• Define the number of columns in a group

• Add and remove instruments to and from the group

• Adjust the transparency of widgets in the group

• Define Unified properties (different settings for each instrument)

• And in some cases, switch between a single and multi-axis.

Columns number and control number in a group

Placing each instrument individually on the display can take some time, especially when you have to display a dozen of channels. Creating widget groups simplifies this process. Widget groups are boxes with the same sort of visual display widgets.

In the Columns area, you can define how many columns of instruments should be allowed in a group. 

You can add and remove columns and controls by clicking on the plus or minus icon, or you can select a predefined number with an arrow button.

Unified properties

When you have a widget group all display widgets within a group have the same unified properties.

For example, all digital meters within an array are set to 50% transparency, showing the peak-peak value with a very slow (5s) average time.

You can disable unified properties by unchecking the Unified properties checkbox. This will allow different settings for each widget within the selected group.

In our example, you can now set e.g. AC RMS value for the first instrument, MIN for the second, AVE for the third, and -PK for the fourth.

DewesoftX offers a screen edit function to create an intelligible display of all channels data on the screen:

• Instruments appearance: Arrange elements - instruments with positioning, size, and define transparency.

• Common function: Copy, paste, and delete widgets.

• Additional controls: Illustrate your measurements with background images. Write text on the screens with formatted text elements. Draw lines and other shapes, connect different elements with the line element.

Copy and paste the existing group of display widgets

You can use the Copy function to create a new group or an element. For this to work, you need to have enabled the Design mode. The new elements will have exactly the same settings and can be edited as all others.

To copy the element, right-click on the element and select Copy to clipboard from the menu list. There you can copy the widget group as an image, or you can copy it as an active widget by choosing the option Widget group.

Move the mouse cursor to the desired position (must be on the screen canvas and outside the group), right-click the mouse button again, and select the Paste option. That's all - the new element is available with the same settings and applied channels.

Deleting display widgets

You may want to delete the display widgets from the visual display screen. To delete any widget, enable the Design mode and click on the sign on the upper right side of the widget frame, or click the delete button on a keyboard.

You can select two different time base types for multiple graphs on the X-axis:

• Single time axis

• Multiple time axes.

Single time axis

The advantage of the single time axis is to have more space to display the data.

Multiple time axis

The advantage of the multiple time axes is to make it easier to read time-related information.

Time axis type

You can show either absolute or relative time in the Time display option (in the case of the Vertical recorder in the vertical direction) for each graph. Click on any graph to select it and then use the selector to make your choice. The following options are available:

• Relative

• Absolute

• Absolute (time only)

• Absolute (day + time)

Relative time display

Elapsed time since recording or monitoring began.

Absolute time display

Current date and time; this format is compatible with the timing information according to UTC.

Absolute (time only) time display

Current time only.

Absolute (day + time) time display

Day in the year and current absolute time.

Grid resolution and ticks type

To make the analysis more comfortable, you can change the number of grid lines in the recorder display. This can be done either in the X or Y direction. You can change this by switching the Ticks type option to Divisions or either Step. 

The only difference is that the Step tick type have also minor ticks, not only major ones as the Divisions tick type has.

Depending on the range and signal, it may be more practical to change the number of grid lines in Y-axis ticks from 2 (default) to 8 - or remove them completely.

Display type option

If you have ever tried to display a high-dynamic signal with digital values, you know that you have to make some kind of statistic to get representative values. Therefore, all display widgets offer different display types, which can be selected from the Display type drop-down list (Different setups will give you a different number of display types):

• Average

• RMS

• AC RMS

• Min

• Max

• Peak-peak

• Actual

Update rate option

With the Average time drop-down list, you can define the update rate for the selected widget. As a standard, the values for the display type will be calculated Fast (0.1 s) over a period of 0.1 seconds, which also represents the internal minimum calculation period.

The acquisition system will still run at the selected dynamic sample rate and DewesoftX will acquire the data at full speed. Minimum, maximum, average, and RMS values will be calculated for the selected time interval, however, every data point will NOT be displayed on the widget and stored, but only the calculated values.

When From reduced rate mode is selected, the display widget will reduce the data continuously according to the static/reduced rate selected in the Static/Reduce rate drop-down list in the channel setup.

Upper & lower limit

You can set high and/or low alarm limits for each visual display widget. This will cause the display numbers and/or indicators to change their color when it is either above the high limit or below the low limit. Colors are changing according to the lower limit color setting (default Green) and upper color limit setting (default Red) and can be easily adjusted.

If you want to use alarm limits on a display widget you can enable it by checking the Use upper limit or Use lower limit check boxes. This will activate/deactivate high or low limit detection. If enabled, you can enter the alarm level and color for each.

For example, if we want to have the signal change to red when it rises above 330 deg or changes to yellow when it falls below 200 deg, we set this meter up accordingly (see picture above).

You can set a lower limit, upper limit, or both limits for each display widget that supports alarm limits. If you want to change the limit color simply click on the colored field next to the high or low limit field and choose the desired color from the appearing color selector window.

Minimum and maximum shown value

You can define a minimum and maximum shown value for the bar graph display widgets. This feature is very important for better scaling on the display. For example, if your angle measurement range is from 0° to 360°C. Just enter both values and the bar graph scaling will change immediately.

Run mode - time axis scaling

Use the plus and minus icons on the display widget to zoom in or zoom out on the time axis.

Clicking the minus icon will show more time across the graph. You can show the entire length of the recording, regardless of how long it is. Even days and days of recorded data can be shown here.

By unchecking the Single time axis - the multiple times axis, this control appears for each graph. The appearance and functionality of vertical time recorders are the same, except the time axis is vertical.

Y-axis scaling and auto-scaling

If you want to change the Y-axis for any input, the recorder widget offers two possibilities:

• Enter values

• Auto-scale

Enter values

You may enter the values by yourself - simply click on the number at both extremes and then type in a new number. This is possible when the cursor has the following appearance: A grey outlined box around the scale value indicates the selected channel.

Auto-scale

Move the cursor to the axis scale. If you have reached the auto scale area, the cursor changes to the following appearance: A gray outlined box around the scale value indicates the selected channel. Press the left mouse button to activate auto-scaling for this channel or press the right mouse button to undo auto-scaling. The auto-scaling function always calculates the minimum and maximum value of the currently displayed signal and uses these values for scaling. The scaling will be only updated when you press the left mouse button!

Additional auto-scale functions

DewesoftX offers additional auto-scale functions when you press keys together with the left or right mouse button. It only works in the area left of the graph, where the scale is shown. Here are possible auto-scale shortcuts:

If you move the mouse cursor over the signal, a white cross will appear, which will show the current position of the measurement cursor. As soon as you stop moving the mouse or trackball, the cursor will fix its position on the signal and move with time. The cursor readout is displayed above the graph and shows:

• X-axis information: The absolute or relative time at the cursor position, depending on the selected axis type.

• Y-axis information: The signal value at the cursor position, including units.

As one graph may contain up to four signals, the measurement cursor always tracks the nearest signal next to the current position.

Appearance and functionality of vertical instruments are the same, except:

• Y-axis information is the absolute or relative time at the cursor position

• X-axis information is the signal value at the cursor position

• the cursor readout is displayed below the graph