Using the Workspace Window

The workspace document components are displayed within the workspace window---a window normally docked on the left side of the application's client area (see Figure 4.1). To view the workspace window, select the Workspace item from the View menu. It may sometimes be useful to hide the workspace window to provide more room on the screen to view a schema document. To hide the workspace window, select the Workspace item from the View menu (or click on the window's close button). Notice that the Workspace item on the View menu toggles the visible state of the workspace window (when the window is visible, the menu item is checked, otherwise it is unchecked). The visible state of the workspace window can also be toggled with the toolbar menu button: .

(a)(b)
The Workspace Window, Including (a) the File-View tab and (b) the Network-View tab.

Note: Hiding the workspace window does not close a workspace document---a workspace is still active while the workspace window is hidden.

The workspace window is always displayed on top of other windows in the Schema Viewer application. By default, it is docked on the left side of the screen. But it can be positioned (and resized) anywhere on the screen---it can be docked at the top, bottom, left side or right side of the client area or it can be floating anywhere on your computer screen (even outside of the application's client area). If the workspace window is docked and you wish to position it elsewhere, click on the window handle (two raised lines adjacent to the close button) and drag it to the desired location. To resize the workspace window while it is docked, click the right mouse button on the inner edge of the window and drag it to the desired location. When the workspace window is floating, you can resize it as you would any other window.

The workspace window is used to manage a collection of controller schemas and controller communication networks. The workspace window has two sections: the Files section and the Networks section. A sample workspace window is shown above---(a) displays the workspace with the Files section active, and (b) displays the workspace with the Networks section active. The files section lists all the hardware interface files, schema documents, HMI documents, and OPC server configuration files that are part of the workspace. To activate the files section, click on the Files tab. The networks section of the workspace window lists all the communication networks that the workspace manages. To activate the networks section, click on the Networks tab.