C-more Symbol Factory demo mode: select symbols from a bitmap control

Why does Symbol Factory open in demo mode when C-more is licensed?

Because the license rides with the editor: the bundled Symbol Factory library is licensed for use inside C-more, and the standalone window you launched has no license file of its own to find.

The programming software carries the full library, vector art that scales up and down cleanly. Open the library window by itself and it behaves like an unlicensed copy: a demo banner, the missing-license pop-up, and a one-symbol-per-category selection cap. Meanwhile the editor opens projects, edits screens and transfers to the panel without a complaint. A healthy editor plus a complaining library window is the signature of the launch path. Reinstalling C-more with the keycode entered brings both back exactly as they were, which is why the reinstall is the wrong lever here.

Why does it let you pick only the first symbol in each group?

That one-symbol limit is the demo behavior of the standalone window, and it clears as soon as you select the same symbols through a bitmap control in the project: same library, different door.

The cap and the missing-license pop-up are two faces of the same state. Read the symptoms together:

• The library window, opened on its own, shows demo mode and a pop-up that it cannot find the license file. You are on the standalone route. Close it and use the bitmap control below.
• Only the first symbol in each category is selectable. Same demo behavior in the same window. Same fix: select from inside the project.
• The C-more editor opens, edits and transfers normally. The install is licensed and the editor is healthy. Skip the reinstall.
• Symbols are capped inside the editor too, or the installer was run with no keycode. That points at a demo install of the editor itself. Older C-more installers ask for a keycode at setup, and a blank keycode installs the demo. Reinstall with the keycode, or move to a current release.

How do you get to Symbol Factory from inside C-more?

Insert a bitmap object or a bitmap button on the screen, open its image settings, and click the SYMBOL button: the full library opens from there, all 80 categories and more than 4,000 symbols, with no demo limit.

1. Open the project and the screen that gets the graphic.
2. Drag a bitmap object or a bitmap button from the object list onto the screen.
3. Open the control's settings and find the image area. A bitmap button has an off bitmap and an on bitmap, and each carries a SYMBOL button.
4. Click SYMBOL for the state you are filling. The symbol browser opens with the complete set.
5. Pick the category, pick the symbol, apply it to that state.
6. Save the project.

A second documented door leads to the same library: a bitmap button also exposes Symbol under Read From, and the animation bitmap object offers Disk, Symbol or Clipboard in its Read From row for the selected state row.

Which bitmap setting does the picked symbol go into?

A state: a bitmap button carries an off bitmap and an on bitmap, and the symbol lands in the one whose SYMBOL button you clicked; a multi-state animation object instead puts it in the Read From row you selected.

A pump button gets an idle symbol on the off bitmap and a running symbol on the on bitmap. A plain bitmap object holds a single image. An animation object stacks states in rows, and Read From decides each row's source: Disk for a file on the drive, Symbol for the library, Clipboard for a pasted image. C-more uses BMP images for its buttons, dynamic, multi-state and animated items, so every pick lands in that format. Decide what each state should show before you draw it; the sequencing side is covered under standalone display animation without PLC logic.

What does a worked example with pump and valve buttons look like?

Eight controls, two states each, sixteen symbols: a clean-water panel with 4 pump buttons and 4 valve buttons needs 16 images, and the demo window would hand you 2 of them, one first pick per category, before the bitmap route hands you all 16.

Insert the 8 bitmap buttons, then fill both states of each through its SYMBOL buttons. The count is 8 buttons × 2 states = 16 selections. On the standalone route you would land 2 usable images, the first symbol of the pump category and the first of the valve category, leaving 14 of 16 blocked. Through the buttons, all 16 select.

The library depth matters here: more than 4,000 symbols across 80 categories averages about 50 symbols per category (4,000 ÷ 80 = 50), so an alternate pump style or a different valve body is there to find.

Size each symbol against its label. The operator reads the panel from about 10 ft. At 20 ft of viewing distance per inch of capital height, the fast-reading figure, the label capitals need 10 ft ÷ 20 ft per inch = 0.5 in on the panel. The symbols are vector art, so scale the pump to sit beside the 0.5 in label and it stays clean at any size.

How do you check the symbols before you transfer the project?

Toggle both states of every bitmap button in the editor or its test mode, then save, close and reopen the project: a selection that survives the save-and-reopen cycle is in the project, not in a scratch copy.

• Toggle each button between off and on; both images should match the state.
• For an animation object, step through every row.
• Save, close, reopen; every symbol should still be in place.
• After the transfer, spot-check one pump and one valve on the panel in both states.

One safety note: if the symbol doubles as a run or alarm indicator, verify the on state on the live panel before the shift relies on it.

When is it really a licensing problem?

When the limits follow you into the editor: if symbol selection is capped inside the project too, or the install never had its keycode entered, treat it as a license state and cure it with licensing, not with more reinstalls.

For an older release, the cure is a reinstall with the keycode entered. For a fresh start, current C-more EA9 editor releases download free from AutomationDirect and skip the keycode question. Demo limits in automation tools are license states, and licensing is the cure: a CODESYS library that stops after 30 minutes until licensed shows the same pattern in another package. If the SYMBOL button inside a bitmap control also reports a license error, capture the exact message and the click path, add the software version, and hand all of it to AutomationDirect support. That is a license fault, and the access route will not clear it.

Recommendation: with an editor that opens, edits and transfers normally and a library window in demo mode, spend no time reinstalling. Insert a bitmap object or a bitmap button, click the SYMBOL button in its off bitmap or on bitmap setting, and select from there. Reinstall only when the cap shows inside the editor itself.

And if the panel's real job turns out to be numbers the whole floor reads from across the aisle, that screen is a different job; live factory data display: signage or dashboard lays out the split.

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