HMI recipe column width: fix clipped tag names

Where the column width setting lives

Open the recipe object in the project editor and look through its properties for a column width or column size list. What identifies the right list is that it carries one width entry per column of the recipe table: recipe name, tag name, value, and any other field your screen shows. That list is where the size of each column is determined, so it is the first place to look when a name clips. Making the object larger or smaller on the screen is a different edit and leaves the per-column settings as they are.

A panel-side column resize is not a function of this kind of object. The settings travel with the project, so the new widths reach the screen on the next project download, the one that blacks the screen while it runs.

Symptoms and what each points to

• Longest names clip, short names display fully. The tag column's setting sits below the longest label the display must show. Because the setting is per column, the short names were never the test.
• The layout looks complete in the editor and clips on the panel. You judged it at a different pixel size from the panel's. Judge it on the panel, at its real resolution from the datasheet.
• Names that displayed fine start clipping after a font change. The character cell grew wider and the column settings stayed put, so every name now needs more pixels than its setting covers.
• The object got wider but the name column did not. The widths live in per-column settings inside the object, so resizing the object's border leaves the name column where it was.

Checks before you change anything

1. Record every current column setting from the object's properties. If a change has to go back, you want the original numbers on paper, not in memory.
2. Write down the longest tag name the display must show, straight from the PLC tag list, and count its characters.
3. Read the font's character cell width from the editor's font dialog, in pixels per character.
4. Note the object's drawn width in pixels and the panel's resolution from its datasheet.
5. Mark the columns operators must read at the same time as the name. Those set the minimum widths you protect while the tag column grows.
6. Rows are configured separately from columns. If new recipes also need more rows, check the recipe table row limit before you commit the layout.

Example: fitting an 18 character tag name on an 800 x 480 panel

Inputs, with where each comes from:

• Panel resolution: 800 x 480 px, from the panel datasheet. The example uses a common small HMI size; take your own panel's figure from its datasheet.
• Recipe object drawn width: 480 px, measured on the screen in the project editor.
• Column settings, read from the object's properties: recipe name 120 px, tag name 140 px, value 90 px, units 50 px.
• Longest tag name: MIX_LINE3_SPEED_SP, 18 characters, taken from the PLC tag list.
• Character cell width: 8 px per character for the small built-in font, read from the editor's font dialog. A larger font moves every figure that follows.

The rule in words: the tag column setting must cover the longest name plus a two character margin at the column border, and all column settings together must stay inside the object's drawn width. It is the same character budget that keeps alarm history text readable, applied to a recipe table.

The arithmetic:

1. The three fixed columns occupy 120 + 90 + 50 = 260 px.
2. Space left for the tag column inside the 480 px object: 480 - 260 = 220 px.
3. Width the name needs: (18 + 2) characters x 8 px per character = 20 x 8 = 160 px.
4. The current setting is 140 px, 20 px short of the 160 px the name needs. That shortfall is the clipping on the screen.
5. Set the tag column to 160 px, or 170 px to keep slack. Both sit inside the 220 px available, so the recipe name, value and units columns keep their widths.
6. Fit on the screen: the 480 px object on the 800 px wide panel leaves 320 px for everything else, unchanged.

Result: the tag-name column setting moves from 140 px to 160 px and the longest name displays in full.

Decision: with 160 px required against 220 px available, the widening fits without touching another column and without renaming anything. The deciding threshold is the available width. If the name had needed more than 220 px, full one-line display would call for a wider object, another column reduced to its own minimum, or a two-line label, and the choice between those three comes from which column operators can afford to lose.

Apply the fix and verify at the panel

1. Enter the new width for the tag-name column in the object's properties. Change one column at a time so you know which edit moved what.
2. Compile and transfer the project through your site's normal controlled process. The widths are project settings, so the running screen picks them up at the download.
3. At the panel, open the recipe display and load the recipe that carries the longest names.
4. Read each column across several rows: full tag names, with recipe name, value and units still legible at operator viewing distance.
5. Run one real recipe selection the way operators do. If a value column became hard to read, roll the width back and enlarge the object instead.

Two line tag labels

Column width and line wrapping are separate behaviours, and a wider column is a different feature from a wrapped one. Look through the same object properties for a multiline or text wrap control on the label. If your installed editor lists one, enable it on a copy of the screen, transfer, and confirm at the panel that a long name wraps without covering the row below. If the properties list no such control, keep the labels on one line and cover the width with the column setting or a larger object. For a confirmed answer about your editor and panel versions, put the question to the panel vendor's support.

When shortening tag names is the right move

Renaming is the temporary restore for the shift where operators cannot tell recipes apart and the line cannot wait. Use a consistent, approved abbreviation set and keep the mapping with the recipe documentation, so the person selecting a recipe can resolve the full identifier. If your editor lets a recipe entry carry display text separate from the tag name, abbreviate there and leave the tag itself untouched. Leave controller tag names alone: a controller tag name carries references in the PLC program and on other screens, and renaming it to fit one column moves the problem to a place you will meet later. Enter the column-width fix in the project source the same week.

The decision

Recommendation: Fix the width in the recipe object's per-column setting before any tag name is touched. Set the tag column to the longest name plus two character cells at the font the panel runs, keep the column sum inside the object's drawn width, and confirm the result on the panel at its real resolution, 800 x 480 on a small panel. Shorten names only as a controlled temporary measure when recipes become hard to tell apart, with the abbreviation map kept beside the recipe sheet.

Questions