Here’s Why I Love Altia Design 11

Although Altia just released our new GUI editor, Altia Design 11, as a company insider I have been able to use the new release for quite a while. And I LOVE it.

Why you ask? Here’s just a few reasons.

  1. The dockable / movable panes (navigator, control code editor, etc.) enable me to customize my HMI development environment for maximum productivity.
  2. The new control code editor is a huge leap forward for creating control code, debugging it in place, troubleshooting issues for designs that I didn’t create, etc.
  3. The accessibility that the new code generation dialog brings with respect to target documentation is excellent. I can access an installed target’s release notes and overview documentation directly. This saves me time from having to wade through the start menu and finding docs buried 3-5 levels deep, especially when you have umpteen different targets installed. Woot!
  4. Speaking of code generation, I can now set the canvas size in the editor. What this allows me to do is to avoid having to manually select items or manually change the size of the editor window to match a desired target screen size. Double woot! Avoiding manual steps equals awesomeness because it means less room for human error and makes builds easily reproducible across different developer / designer / customer PCs.
  5. Overall, the controls and tools needed to create a new HMI from scratch are far more intuitive than previous versions of the editor. This new tool enables me to wade in to customer’s designs and not have to worry about accidentally screwing something up because the editor does something in an opaque or non-obvious way (like using the wrong deck object, etc.).

Ultimately, I am loving Altia Design 11 because it saves me time. Saving time means I can get more done, faster.

All these things make me a happy user!

 

 

 

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