During a chuteside job you can have one or more HUD (heads up displays) windows open, giving you information about the animal and the job as it progresses. In this video we show you how to customize a HUD and add it to a job definition.
Time: 10:32
When you're running a chuteside job, you'll notice there are several windows open. These include the main ones like the Scale Indicator, Subjob List, Subjob Detail, and Job Controller. But in addition to these, you might also have what we call Heads Up Display windows—or just HUDs for short. These HUDs can be quite handy as they provide information about the animals or the job in progress, which is helpful for the crew as they handle and treat cattle.
In this video, we're going to walk you through creating a new HUD and customizing it to display the specific information you need. To get started, open the Job Definitions window either through the Fusion Setup Assistant or from the Setup menu in the Fusion Admin area. From there, click on the Options button and select the Edit HUDs option. You'll see a list of all the HUDs that have been designed.
If you're just getting started, you'll see the built-in HUDs displayed in bold. You can't edit these, but you can make a duplicate and make adjustments from there if you'd like. Instead, let's create a brand new one by clicking the plus button. The HUD Editor window, especially the part outlined in blue, gives you a preview of how the HUD will look during the job. On the left side, you have the HUD Editor Palette window, which is where you configure the HUD elements.
Now, let's give your HUD a name. On the HUD tab, you can also adjust the size of the HUD window if needed. Alternatively, you can simply resize the HUD Editor window to your desired dimensions, which might be more straightforward. Next, head over to the Pages tab. HUDs can be designed with one or more pages. Some of them are customizable, like the one we're currently working on in the editor window, where you can add the specific data elements you want. Others are not customizable and are meant to display specific information. Let's go ahead and add a few pages to this HUD.
The Event Synopsis page keeps updating for each animal, giving the health crew a real-time view of what needs to be done with each animal in the squeeze. Many customers find it convenient to keep this page open, especially when they're dealing with large groups of cattle. It allows them to quickly glance at the screen and stay informed about the tasks at hand.
On the other hand, the Running Totals page provides a running count of the animals processed so far, along with their average and total weight. If your job involves specific sorting protocols that you've configured to be included in the running totals, you'll see their sort groups listed here too. You also have the option to reset each running total during the job if necessary.
For a quick overview of an animal's previous jobs, the Animal Job History page comes in handy. While you can always access the full history when needed, having this summary view helps you decide whether you need to delve into the detailed history or not.
Similarly, the Animal Movement History page is valuable when you want to track which pens or lots an animal has been in previously.
When it comes to treatments or pre-shipping chute runs, the Animal Withdrawal History page shines. It highlights any active withdrawals in red, ensuring you're aware of any restrictions.
Navigating between these pages is easy. You can use the blue arrows or the title bar as if you were in a real job. Alternatively, you can switch pages by selecting one in the Pages tab of the Palette window. And if you want to reorganize the pages, simply drag them around in the palette window. Lastly, you can rename each page by double-clicking its name.
Now, let's go back to the custom page and give it a more fitting name - "Treat Info". Next, we'll add some information to this page. To do that, navigate to the Object Library tab, where you'll find a list of all the data points that can be displayed. For this example, let's incorporate the animal's temperature, as recorded by a temperature probe. You can search for it by typing "temp" and you'll see "Temperature (Job)" in the list. By the way, you might notice that some data points have "Job" or "Record" appended to their names. If it says "Record," Fusion will display this data as it was known before the current job began. If it says "Job," it will show the data as it may have changed during the job.
Now, drag the Temperature data point onto your custom page. Fusion will place three objects on the page: a label, the temperature data point, and the units. In this case, we only want the data point, so let's remove the other two. To do this, first click somewhere else to deselect the objects. Then, click on the label and shift-click the units to select both. Right-click on them, and you'll see options like aligning objects or turning on a grid. Choose the delete option.
Back in the Palette window, go to the Page Objects tab and then select the temperature data point in the Editor window. The Palette window displays all the properties for the selected data point. Let's make a few changes: increase the font size to 48, make it bold, resize the data point to ensure it accommodates any data that might appear, and position it in the top right-hand corner.
Most of the object properties in the top half are probably familiar to you. Depending on the object selected, you'll see more or fewer options here, but adjusting font, size, color, etc., is typical for this kind of task. The Sample Data String field might need some clarification. The Editor window will show the contents of that field in the object. For example, if you know that temperatures could go as high as 9999.9 degrees, you'd enter that value and adjust the object's size to make sure it all fits. Though, let's hope you never encounter a steer with that temperature! We'll reset it.
Now, let's explore the bottom half where Fusion can change the object's properties based on what's happening in the job. Let's say we want the temperature to turn red when it exceeds 104 degrees. Enable the "if" statement, set it up so Fusion watches for temperatures greater than or equal to 104, and change the font color to red.
Curious to see how it'll look if this statement is triggered? Right-click in the Editor window and select "Show Alternate View." Just as we intended! Right-click again to return to the normal view.
You might have noticed that the triggers for changing object properties closely resemble the criteria that sort protocols are based on. Well, that's because they are the same. Anything you can use for sorting can also be displayed on a custom page in a HUD and can influence how object properties change.
Let's say we want a visual indicator that only appears when an animal isn't in its home pen. In the Object Library, select "Drawing" so that we can add a rectangle to the editor. Resize it to cover the lower third of the page. Then, go back to the Page Objects tab to change its color to orange. By default, we don't want this visual indicator to be visible, so we'll set the opacity to zero.
Now, let's create an "If" statement that only triggers when the animal's home pen is not equal to their current pen. Notice that the "If" statement can be used to compare different fields? When this condition is true, we want to change the opacity back so that the rectangle becomes visible. To test it, right-click in the editor again to show the alternate view.
At this stage, you can continue adding more objects to the custom page or create additional custom pages and customize them as needed. Crafting your own HUDs is a powerful way to ensure that during a job, you have the exact information you want at your fingertips.
Now, you might be wondering how Fusion knows which HUD to display during a job. Let's save this HUD by clicking the "Save" button and then I'll show you how to connect a HUD to a job definition.
Let's go back to the list of job definitions and edit an existing job. Click on the "Windows" tab, where you'll find a list of all the windows that will open when this job definition is used. To add our newly designed HUD, click the plus button and select it. You can also rearrange its position by dragging it under the Subjob List window, for example.
When Fusion starts a chuteside batch based on this job, it will open the windows in the order they are listed here. This is significant because the settings on this tab can be used to specify where a window should appear on the screen. It can open relative to the screen itself, but it can also open relative to another window—but only as long as that other window is already open.
Take the Scale Indicator as an example. You can see it's set to open 10 pixels from the left of the screen and 10 pixels from the top. Then, if you look at the Subjob List window, it's set to open relative to the Scale Indicator window, aligning their left sides and positioning it 10 pixels below.
If you select the newly added Treating Jobs HUD, you'll notice that Fusion has positioned it at the default location, just to the right of the Scale Indicator window. You can adjust this placement if needed. Notice the checkbox in the "Other Options" area? It's generally recommended to keep this checkbox checked. Different barns may use screens of varying sizes, and this Windows setup may not work for everyone. However, with this checkbox enabled, your crew can arrange the windows for this job as they prefer the next time they run it on the barn computer. Fusion will remember and use those positions in the future for that computer.
If you have questions related to designing HUDs, please use the help button to access the documentation. Additionally, feel free to reach out to our support team for assistance.
