Building a Dashboard
A Dashboard is a free-form canvas of Widgets. You place them where you want, size them, and configure what each one reads or writes. There is no fixed grid and no template — a Dashboard for a single-button station and one for a full commissioning panel are built the same way.
Create a Dashboard
- Open the Dashboard Editor.
- Open the Dashboard selector and choose New Dashboard.
- Give it a name.
The selector also lets you search, duplicate, delete, import and export Dashboards. Protected Dashboards are marked in the list — see Dashboard settings.
Add Widgets
Right-click (or long-press on a touch screen) anywhere on the canvas to open the Widget selector. Widgets are grouped the same way as in the reference:
| Category | Contains |
|---|---|
| Robot State | Read-only displays — pose, joint angles, I/O, payload, messages, Variables, the 3D model |
| Robot Control | Everything that commands the Robot — jogging, brakes, payload, setting a Variable, buttons |
| Flow Control | Selecting, running, pausing and stopping Flows |
| Misc | An embedded web page and a CSV download |
Some Widgets are marked (Beta) and only appear when the Robot's update channel is set to Beta — see System settings.
Arrange and size
Drag a Widget to move it; drag its edge to resize. Position and size are stored per Widget, so a Dashboard looks the same every time it opens and on every device that opens it.
Because the Dashboard Viewer does not re-flow the layout, build for the screen the operator will actually use. A layout designed on a wide desktop will be cut off on a small panel — open the Dashboard in the Dashboard Viewer on the target device before you call it done.
Configure a Widget
Each Widget has its own settings, opened from the Widget itself. Common ones:
- Name — the headline shown above the Widget.
- Hide headline — drop the headline for a tighter layout, available on most Widgets.
- Background color / Border color — on some display Widgets, useful for grouping related Widgets visually or flagging a critical one.
What else a Widget offers depends entirely on the Widget. The Widget reference covers each one.
Save
Saving writes the Dashboard to the Robot. It becomes immediately available in the Dashboard Viewer — there is no separate publish step.
Import and export
A Dashboard exports to a single JSON file, which you can import onto another Robot.
A Dashboard references Variables, Flows and I/O by identity. Importing it onto a Robot that does not have those Variables leaves the affected Widgets unbound, and they will not work until you point them at something that exists. Import the Variables the Dashboard depends on first, then the Dashboard.
Designing for operators
The point of a Dashboard is that an operator never has to open the Flow Editor. A few habits that pay off:
- Show state before controls. An operator needs to know what the Robot is doing before they are offered a button that changes it.
- Expose only the Variables that concern them. The Set Variable Widget can be restricted to Variables carrying particular tags.
- Keep a Stop Widget visible. It is not a substitute for the physical emergency stop, but it should never require scrolling.
- Protect Dashboards that can move the Robot. Jogging, Free Motion and Set Outputs belong on a Dashboard that requires a login.