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Item properties

Item Properties show where an Item comes from and how plintz reads it. You see them in a dialog, and an Administrator can override a Stored Signal's.

Viewing an Item's properties

Click ⓘ on an Item's row in the Details Pane. The dialog is titled Item Properties of and the Item's name. Close it with × or Escape. Anyone who can open the Analysis can view them, including with Read access.

A Stored Signal

  • Datasource, Data ID and Description identify it.
  • A table has a row for each of four properties, described below.

The four properties are:

  • Interpolation Method: Step, Linear or PILinear. It says how the Signal is drawn between Samples. A Stored Signal is never Discrete: only a Calculated Signal is, with toDiscrete().
  • Maximum Interpolation: the largest gap between two consecutive Samples that is still interpolated. A wider gap shows as a gap.
  • Unit of Measure
  • Uncertainty Lag: how far before now the Signal's Uncertain Data begins. Its override is the Signal's Uncertainty Override.

Each row has the Value that applies, its Source and an Override. The Source column is the value the Datasource gave at Indexing, or plintz's default if it gave none: Step, a Maximum Interpolation of 40 hours, and no unit. For the Uncertainty Lag, it is the Datasource's. The Override is empty unless an Administrator set one, and then the Value is the Override.

Durations are shown as days, hours, minutes and seconds, such as 4m, 1h and 1d 16h.

A Calculated Item

  • Type: Calculated Signal, Calculated Condition or Calculated Scalar.
  • Formula, as it was written.
  • Each $variable, with the name of the Item it is bound to.

Item Usages

Below the properties, Item Usages lists the Calculated Items whose Formulas reference the Item, each with its kind and its Analysis. Use this list to see which Calculated Items depend on an Item before you change it or move it to the Trash.

  • A Calculated Item that uses it only through another one isn't listed. It is listed for that other one.
  • Only Calculated Items in Analyses you can open are listed, so there may be others you can't see.
  • Calculated Items in the Trash are listed too, marked as such.

Changing properties

Stored Signals

A Stored Signal's properties come from its Datasource. If the Datasource lacks one or has it wrong, an Administrator overrides it. An override replaces the Value for everyone, in every Analysis, because it changes the Signal itself. That is why only Administrators, whom the deployment names, can set one. For anyone else, the dialog shows the properties without letting you change them, and says so.

To override a property:

  1. Tick Override in its row, and give the value. (For the Uncertainty Lag, this sets the Uncertainty Override.) For the Interpolation Method, choose Step, Linear or PILinear. For the Maximum Interpolation and the Uncertainty Lag, give a number of seconds, zero or more. For the Unit of Measure, give a unit as setUnits() takes it, or leave it empty for no unit.
  2. Click Save. All the rows are saved together.

To clear an override, untick Override and click Save. The Value goes back to the Source. Indexing keeps overrides while it updates the Source values.

After Save, the Details Pane and the trend show the change at once, on the Signal and on every Calculated Item that depends on it. plintz rejects an override, and tells you why, when:

  • it isn't valid, such as an unknown unit (Invalid unit '…') or a negative number of seconds;
  • a Calculated Item that depends on the Signal would then fail, for example because its new unit no longer adds to another input's. plintz names the Calculated Item if you can open its Analysis.

A longer Uncertainty Lag keeps more of the recent data out of plintz's cache, so more of it is read from the Datasource each time.

To change how a Signal is drawn or its unit in one Analysis only, create a Calculated Signal instead, such as $signal.setUnits('ft') or $signal.setMaxInterpolation(2h).toLinear(). See Formulas and Calculated Items.

Calculated Items

Change a Calculated Item's Formula and variables in the Formula editor with ƒ. See Formulas and Calculated Items. You can't change its name.

Name and description

A Stored Signal's name and description come from its Datasource. plintz does not change them.