Crestron Tutorial: Starting A Crestron Touch Panel Project
Before you start designing your touch panel, it may be a good idea to check out my Graphic Design for Touch Panels Tutorial. After I have drawn out my logical diagram, I like to start programming my touch screen first in Crestron Vision Tools Pro-e (VtPro-e). This way, I can map out the functionality that will suggest certain programming requirements when it comes to do the real programming in Crestron SIMPL Windows.
I will now go step-by-step through the process of creating a single button on a Crestron CT-1550 touch screen panel.
Step 1
After you open Crestron Vision Tools Pro-e, simply select FILE + NEW + PROJECT to open an new project. There is a tool bar button for adding a new project if you prefer. CNTL + N is the short cut key to open a new project.
You will be prompted to enter a name for the new project...
Step 2 (roll-over image)
You will see the following window:
Take a little time here - it is well worth it. This is where you enter a name and path for your project. For this tutorial, "I entered My first project".
You must also specify which type of Crestron touch panel you plan to use for the VtPro-e Touch Panel project. This setting affects how the design interface looks and what features are available to you at design time. The Description window will be auotmatically filled-in by VtPro-e for you.
When you are satisfied with your entries, click on the CREATE button.
Step 3
You can now add your first page to your project. To add a new page to your Crestron Vision Tools Pro-e project, just select FILE + NEW + Page to create an new in your project. There is a tool bar button for adding new pages to your project if you prefer. Unfortunately, there is no windows short cut key.
You will be prompted to enter a new page name. It is very important to use logical and descriptive names. Following a naming convention is also very useful. For this tutorial, I entered "Main" as the page name.
Step 4
Your Vision Tools Pro-e screen should look like this:
Step 5
You must mark a page in your project as the First page to appear when the Crestron touch panel powers-up. To do this, we must "mark a page as first". To do this, right click over the page that you wish to appear first. Select "Mark Page as First" and you are done. (See screen grab below) The icon for the page will now have a number "1" on it. You can only have one first page per project.
Changing page properties