Displaying contents of a modeless dialog box during execution of a SKILL script

Call hiFlush() after the hiDisplayAppDBox()

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the tip. 

I have tried hiFlush() after hiDisplayAppDBox(), but it had no effect. 

I have also tried ipcSleep() after hiDisplayAppDBox(), in an attempt to stop the script enough to display the Dbox.

No progress.  Any other ideas?

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the tip. 

I have tried hiFlush() after hiDisplayAppDBox(), but it had no effect. 

I have also tried ipcSleep() after hiDisplayAppDBox(), in an attempt to stop the script enough to display the Dbox.

No progress.  Any other ideas?

Well, the hiFlush worked for me - I tried it. Note that the UI won't refresh if you then move windows around and the code is executing.

Which IC subversion are you using (Help->About in the CIW will tell you)? This may be important...

Andrew.

Running Cadence version IC6.1.7.500.23 here.

...that's IC6.1.7-64b.500.23

I have cut down the script to literally only the dialog box and still see the same behavior, so it isn't related to anything else in the SKILL code.

Note that without the ipcSleep(), or in a very short script, the delay in populating the dialog box may not be noticeable.

It could appear that the dialog box is immediately populated with its text, but really the script has completed first.

procedure(run_DBox()
  let((InfoDBox)
    hiDisplayAppDBox(
      ?name InfoDBox=gensym('InfoDBox)
      ?dboxBanner "Banner text here"
      ?dboxText "Dialog Box text here."
      ?dialogType hicMessageDialog
      ?dialogStyle 'modeless
     ?buttonLayout 'Close
     ?buttons "Close"
      ); dbox

    hiFlush()
    printf("Done.....\n")
    ipcSleep(2)
    ;;hiDBoxCancel(symeval(InfoDBox))  ; commented out option to remove DBox at end of script
  ); let
); procedure run_DBox

I switched back to the same IC617 version you're using and see the problem. The first time I ran it, it was OK, but after that I see the delay. In IC618 (ISR10), I don't see the issue - this might be a consequence of a newer Qt version being used under the hood in IC618. I checked with the base release of IC618 too, and it's fine there.

Since IC618 was released over 18 months ago and IC617 is no longer supported, perhaps you  could move to IC618?

Andrew

Thanks for the sanity check Andrew.

Unfortunately our corporate CAD group has not moved to IC618 yet, so we are behind the adoption curve....but on the bright side, we aren't using 6.1.4 (!).

Any suggestions for an alternative approach in IC617?

I am just attempting to put a message in front of a script user while the script runs.

Printing to the CIW is not helpful, as many people don't watch the CIW, and besides a CIW message is quickly buried by the transcript generated.

- James

Hi James,

Not sure there's much you can do - other than maybe using a progress box instead. Even then it misbehaves if you just display the progress box, but it seems if you set the progress immediately after displaying it, it then works:

procedure(run_DBox()
  let((InfoDBox)
    hiDisplayProgressBox(
      ?name InfoDBox=gensym('InfoDBox)
      ?banner "Banner text here"
      ?text "Dialog Box text here."
      ); dbox

    hiSetProgress(symeval(InfoDBox) 0)
    printf("Done.....\n")
    ipcSleep(2)
    ;;hiDBoxCancel(symeval(InfoDBox))  ; commented out option to remove DBox at end of script
  ); let
); procedure run_DBox

You could then potentially update the progress during the code?

Andrew

Thanks Andrew, the progress box worked.

Its only quirk in v6.1.7 is that I had to set its progress twice to get the text to display.

The initial hiSetProgress() gave me a blank progress box.

The second hiSetProgress() displayed the text.

This is easy enough to initialize with zero, then update the progress to 1.

It's a good workaround.

At least on the upside, the progress box does not have to be cancelled, since it has an autoclose feature.