display system time in layout, system variable does not seem to work...

[TimPovey]

Hi All,

Looking for some guidance, I have a layout set that gives a summary of several values every 5 miutes and I wish to provide a time stamp ( just normal computer clock type of time display HH:MM:SS) of when the current values were taken. I have read the help files  and found a global variable  ${TIME} and also found references to ${ACTUAL_HOUR}, ${ACTUAL _MINUTE} etc variables, however when I try and use ${TIME} it doesn't work and reverts to ${VAR_1} in the module.

Is the ${TIME} variable still active in version 12 or is it a leftover from previous versions? if this is the case how do I get around this and compile a normal time data string from the component variables that do seem to report back the system time?

I am on the current release with service pack...

Any help appreciated.

Tim

[CJ_Butler__DASYLab_Pro]

${TIME} is a global string. You can't use it in a module - only in the layout.

Use it in the layout by creating a Text Line object. You'll have the current time displayed on the layout.

In the worksheet, you can use the Special-TimeBase module to generate the time as a channel, and you can display that in a Digital meter using the Clock mode. 

You could also use the Control-Write Block Time module to write that information to a Global string that you can then display using the Text Line object.