Nuts and Volts - May 2014

the plot X and Y percentages to 80 and 80, which means

80% in both the X and Y directions for the plot area

(Figure 4). Now, there’s room on the right to place meters and other controls. Before we do this, let’s see how to change the background color from a dark red maroon to gold (Figure 5). Using the Object Editor, click on the Media/Color tab and select oBack, which stands for Object Background. Next, click on the gold.jpg from the drop-down list and drag it to the rectangular area as shown. This will change the color of the Object Area background to gold. The choices of colors and background jpgs run the gamut, so you can select whatever suits your fancy.

Adding Meters

So far, so good. Now, let’s add two horizontal meters.

Referring to Figure 6, click on the Object Editor toolbar icon and click on the Controls 2 tab. At the top, Next, click on the Duplicate button in the Object Editor as this will bring up another instance of a horizontal meter.

You can reposition both meters separately using the keyboard arrow keys. You can also make changes to the meter’s background colors by using the Object Editor for that meter; we’ve chosen blue for the top meter and green for the bottom one to distinguish them from one another.

Finally, you can add minimum and maximum alarm settings (the little red marks under the meter scale), as well. When the analog signals that the meters are linked to go above or below these settings, an audio alarm will sound. Plus, you can change the type of audio alarm to know which meter is responding.

We’re purposely leaving out a lot of the placement, positioning, and other details to avoid boring you, but if you want to know exactly how all of this is done, then view the videos at www.makerplot.com under Maker Videos ; Adding Meters.