This Labs posting is functional, but has many bugs. We wanted to be able to show the new capabilities in time for comments to be incorporated. Much work remains on speed optimizations and memory leak detection. Therefore, PLEASE LIMIT YOUR SYSTEMS TO THE SIZE OF A SMALL RESIDENTIAL SYSTEM, and perhaps 4 touchscreens that you generate pages for.
DO NOT SAVE YOUR SYSTEM in 1.21 IF YOU WANT TO RE-OPEN IT IN 1.12. MAKE A COPY.
Crestron Studio™ is Crestron's advanced programming application with the following features:
Screen Designers for Smart Graphics projects and for MLX-3 type list based screens
Screen Designer/Programming Designer integration.
Ability to import Smart Graphics™ VTPro projects.
Custom Macro style programming dialog for events, keypads, touch screens. Includes global macros, variable editor, scheduler, as well as assigning device commands, conditionals, delays, etc. Visual callout programming dialog in Touch Screen Designer.
Automated page and program generation if desired, with touch screen pages completely redesigned and based on Smart Graphics
Programming Designer full functionality, with ability to import SIMPL Windows™ programs
Finish View: Build, upload, Network Setup Wizard. Device configuration via equivalent of SIMPL Programming tree/Network Device tree
Ability to combine generated programs and SIMPL programs
Full content of Device and Crestron databases is imported and available. Device Updates are also available for beta devices.
Faceplate Designer
The following sections are available in the release notes:
Smart Graphics™ Controls 2.00.13 or later is recommended.
The following are needed ONLY if you intend to import modules/programs/VTZ files into Crestron Studio:
SIMPL Windows™ 4.01.10 or later: You MUST use this version to save/compile any modules/programs.
VTPro™ 5.01.15.04 or later: You MUST use this version to compile Smart Graphics™ projects into a VTZ for import. Version 5.2 fixes additional bugs.
New Features
New Features for 1.21:
Totally new Smart Graphics pages and custom modules for a system composed of Media Zones and Lighting Zones.
Automatic page and program generation. IF YOU REGENERATE PAGES OR GENERATE OR BUILD PAGES FOR MORE THAN ONE TOUCHSCREEN,save and close Studio, then reopen. Working on memory issues. IF you have more than one touchscreen with generated pages, clicking on Design & Program is very slow.
Pages can be modified manually after generation.
Can have visual page generation without programming in manual systems
Page Generation Assistant is available to enable precise control of page generation
Page templates are for Smart Graphics touch screens. Templates are shipped for TSW-750, -550, -1050, Crestron App for iPad. Will soon have others. Only one Media Player object will be generated into a touch screen project. This is by design - the pages are shared.
Source Routing View: Specify audio/video paths through system. Switching will automatically configure the devices.
Users cannot currently create templates, but support is planned for a later version
Known issue: An 'Out of system memory' error can occur if pages are auto-generated or regenerated for several touch screens in a single project.
Known issue: Reopening the Designer for the MLX-3 will throw a harmless but annoying exception if faceplates were being shown when the project was last closed. Make the faceplates not visible. You might need to close and open the Designer again.
Known issue: Crestron App rotation is in progress and will require a Smart Graphics release..
Screen Designer for programming MLX-3 remotes.
In order to see this Designer, YOU MUST INSTALL THE BETA PACKAGE (Remotes and Gateways) FIRST. THEN ADD AN MLX-3 to your program and do a right click.
Adding a page to the display also adds its programming symbol automatically.
The page displays are not quite WYSIWYG yet. Icon display is missing from Home Page. Some programming signals are missing from the Thermostat page unless you use Programming Editor through System Designer.
Automatic program generation will be supported prior to full release. Meanwhile, you can program the MLX-3 with Programming Editor. Programming through Programming Designer works.
Known Issue: Re-ordering of items in an MLX-3 list can be done from Items in Property Grid but not yet in the Property Data Grid. Delete is still problematic.
Known issue: Persisted (sticky) buttons are not yet implemented for MLX-3.
Known issue: May be issues with selecting MLX-3 signals in Programming Editor. Just re-try.
Touch Screen Designer: Click Assign for join numbers
Notes on current system limitations for automatic program generation:
Audio/video switching must use SWAMP, SWAMP-E, DM-MD6x6 for now. For the 6x6, audio will not switch for HDMI output 1.
Receivers and displays are limited to the following rules:
(a) Only 1 zone/output is supported.
(b) Breakaway of audio and video signals is not supported.
(c) No device feedback is supported; commands will only be sent from the program to the device.
(d) The device should be off when the program starts in order to remain synchronized.
(e) The following triggers are available from the program to the device: Power On, Power Off, Power Off Confirmation, Volume Up, Volume Down, Mute Toggle, Input selection (10 different inputs)
“Do not disturb” has no effect.
There is currently no mechanism that indicates which items in the source sharing list are disabled for selection on a touch screen.
Icons are currently unavailable for the following touch screen lists: Home screen, Source selection, Active sources
There is no method currently implemented that will allow a user to set sources for alternate video endpoints on the touch screen.
Media module commands, feedback items, and parameters may have missing or inaccurate descriptions.
New Features for 1.12:
Support for Smart Graphics™ version 2.00.xx Controls. Note that Crestron App rotation is not supported in this version - it will require a later release of the Smart Graphics Controls.
Installation of .NET 4.5, for bug fixes.
Bugs Fixed
Bugs Fixed for 1.21:
A variety of stability improvements.
Bugs Fixed for 1.12:
Programming Designer:
DMPS-300 module programming fixes.
Jump-To Programming Designer re-opens same symbol instead of new copy.
Faceplate Designer:
Bug fixes to exactly match Crestron Engraver.
Included Data
The included data represents data equivalent to Device Database 51.05.005 and Crestron Database 41.01.01. Beta packages are available with data up through 9/3/2013.
All data packages, including Discontinued packages, have been updated on the standard Crestron Staging site.
Known Issues
Crestron Studio™
If you are running 64-bit Windows™ 7 versions, about twice as much memory is now available to the application for use. There are warnings that will caution you when memory usage is getting too high, so that you may take precautions like closing Designers and saving your program.
You must run as administrator for now, due to some issues with the Microsoft signing dll, capicom.dll, which will be fixed soon. Toolbox 2.34.065 removes its own requirement to run as administrator.
If you encounter an exception during program generation, save your system, close CS. Then re-start CS and try again. Data about your exception will be uploaded to a Crestron server, so that we may better understand and fix bugs.
There are a few PCs where SQL Express™ does not immediately begin running, causing the install to appear to fail. Restarting the PC will usually start SQL.
The SQL instance used by Studio may not install properly on some 32-bit machines.Tech support has a batch file that will fix this. It will be incorporated into the install in the next release.
Studio is unresponsive at times if the Smart Graphics(TM) Control "RSS feed" is used. Depending on your network connections, it may cause problems.
Studio is unresponsive sometimes on some PCs when waking up from sleep or hibernate mode. Researching this.
Installs under Windows™ 8 may not succeed the first time. Wait for .NET Framework™ and SQL to install, as initiated by our install. Then run our install again.
SQL installation will fail if the computer name and the user's login name are identical. Setting up the PC this way goes against stated Microsoft policy. Workaround: change the computer name.
Program Designer
Bacnet does not work on MC3 or CP3
SIMPL+ Editor keystrokes show a noticeable delay when Touch Screen Designer is open, and to a much lesser extent if other designers are open. For optimal performance, close Touch Screen Designer, or for even better performance, restart Crestron Studio and run only the SIMPL+ Editor. ™
If you edit a user module and perform a “SaveAs” to a different name, and you will need to first close Crestron Studio™ before being able to edit the original module again.
If you close a symbol while still editting a signal without hitting Enter, there will be an exception but nothing bad will happen. You can keep going.
System Designer
XPanel 2.0 (Web) does not upload properly through Crestron Studio. You must use the "Mobility" dialog through Toolbox.
System Requirements
Supported Operating Systems:
Windows™ 7, 32 or 64 bit platforms supported when installed and run on an account with administrative privileges and XP Compatibility mode turned OFF. We recommend 64-bit platforms because additional memory is available to the Crestron Studio application. DirectX™ 9 must be supported by the video drivers.
Has been tested running on VMWare™ virtual machines.
Preliminary testing has been done on Windows 8.
Recommended PC Configuration:
i7 processor with 8GB RAM
Trademarks:
SQL Express, DirectX, .NET Framework, Windows 7 and Windows 8 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
VMWare is a trademark of VMWare Inc.
Crestron Studio, Crestron App, SIMPL Windows, VTPro, SystemBuilder, and D3 Pro are trademarks of Crestron Electronics Inc.
Crestron Electronics, Inc. Rockleigh, NJ 07647 Tel: 800.237.2041/ 201.767.3400
