How to create a digital clock in Xcelsius?

Sep 9th, 2010
by Greg Wayne.

I have had several requests to incorporate a digital clock into an Xcelsius dashboard. Although this can be achieved by finding a digital clock SWF and embedding into an Xcelsius model, I was determined to achieve this by using nothing but out of the box Xcelsius components. Here is what I’ve come up with:

Components needed:

  1. Label
  2. Play Selector
  3. Background
  • Setup your Excel file as shown in the picture below

  • Bind the source data of the play selector component to cell C3 and the destination to C4
  • Set the interaction options of the play selector on the behavior tab to 1 second play time, Auto Play, Auto Rewind, and Auto replay

  • On the appearance tab, set the transparency to 100%
  • Bind your label component to cell C2
  • Place the background component on top of the play selector and label. Set the transparency to 100% and select block mouse movements.

I hope you enjoy. Please feel free to download the source files.

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Posted in: Examples, Interesting, Tricks, Xcelsius 2008.
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  • illnino

    I wonder why it would show 2:59:60 before it shows 3:00:00 when I tried your file.

    I am using Windows XP Chinese Edition.

  • Greg Wayne

    @illnino .. I’m not sure. That is interesting though. My guess would be it has something to do with your XP edition. Double click on your system clock and watch the seconds tick – see if it displays 60th second before going to the next minute. Thanks

  • illnino

    Thanks, Wayne. I checked it wont in my system clock.

    That is weird. Your swf attached on the site shows correctly. Does Xcelsius matters? I am using Xcelsius 2008 SP1.

  • Greg Wayne

    @illnino.. Yes, that may be the difference. My example was created in Xcelsius 2008 SP3. I would recommend upgrading. There have been a lot of feature/component enhancements since SP1. Thanks