WinCC 7.3 Group Display Colors: Project-Wide Configuration

1. Overview and Problem Scope

Group Displays in WinCC V7.3 are the primary summary indicators that aggregate active, acknowledged, and historical alarms for a process area. They appear in the overview area, on area selection buttons, and inside faceplates. Each message priority class (AH/AL priority 1, WH/WL priority 2, and so on) is normally assigned a fixed color set inside the WinCC Group Display ActiveX control: typically red for unacknowledged, dark red for acknowledged, green for "went out", yellow for locked, and gray for the idle state.

Customer requirements frequently override these defaults. A common request is to repaint priority 1 (AH/AL) to blue while leaving priority 2 (WH/WL) red, or to harmonize a facelift across all sub-screens. Because the Group Display OCX inherits its color from the picture that contains it, the change must be made in the right place: the embedded instance for a one-off edit, or the central Base_Data_Pool standard pictures for a project-wide rollout.

This reference covers both paths in detail, including the exact property names, the directory structure of the standard picture pool, the menu path inside the WinCC Graphics Designer, and the file replication steps required to push the changes from the engineering station to every WinCC Server and WinCC Client in a redundant or distributed system. The closing sections document the equivalent color-palette workflow introduced with WinCC Unified V21 so that engineers migrating projects can compare both approaches.

2. Group Display Architecture and Color Inheritance

WinCC 7.3 Group Displays are implemented as an ActiveX control (CLSID {3FCEB72F-7B6E-4C4E-A1A2-3D1B5C8E0F11}, vendor "Siemens AG") that hosts a sub-picture. The control exposes two interfaces to the picture:

• Container interface — handles size, position, and instance-specific overrides (e.g. a single picture that needs a non-standard color for that one faceplate).
• Picture-in-Picture interface — points to the underlying .PDL file that draws the seven message-class states.

Color is therefore resolved in this order at runtime:

1. Instance properties in the host picture (Configuration dialog » Colors tab).
2. Standard picture @GroupDisplay.PDL inside Base_Data_Pool.
3. Project-wide default in the Computer properties » Colors dialog.

Editing the instance is quick but only affects one picture. Editing the Base_Data_Pool PDL affects every Group Display in the project that has not been locally overridden. Server-client replication only succeeds when the same Base_Data_Pool version exists on every node.

3. Message Class Color States Reference

The Group Display OCX evaluates seven logical states for each message priority class. The property names below are taken from the Group Display Configuration dialog (Colors tab) and must be entered as a long integer in BGR format (WinCC legacy color encoding: 0x00BBGGRR).

The BGR values above are 0x00BBGGRR. A blue background for an unacknowledged priority-1 alarm is therefore entered as 0x00FF0000, not 0x000000FF. Enter the value as decimal in the property field (decimal 16711680 for pure blue).

4. Per-Instance Color Change in Graphics Designer

Use this path when one picture (e.g. a single faceplate or a test screen) needs a non-default color without affecting the rest of the project.

Prerequisites:

• WinCC Explorer V7.3 or later with the Graphics Designer add-in.
• The picture must be open with edit rights (project must not be in runtime).
• The Group Display must be embedded as a control, not a static picture.

1. Open the target picture in Graphics Designer.
2. Right-click the Group Display control and choose Configuration Dialog » Colors.
3. Pick the message class from the dropdown (e.g. Error (Priority 1)).
4. Click the color swatch for Came In - Background Color On and enter the new BGR value or use the color picker.
5. Repeat for any further states that need to be harmonized (Ackn Back Color, Went Out Back Color, Idle Back Color).
6. Click OK, then File » Save the picture and trigger a full compile via WinCC Explorer » Graphics » Compile All.
7. Open WinCC Runtime and verify the new color on a forced message.

5. Project-Wide Color Change via Base_Data_Pool

The standard picture pool is the single source of truth for every Group Display in the project. It is located in the WinCC installation directory and is replicated to every project during Load Online.

Path:

Key files in this folder for color editing:

1. Close the WinCC project on the engineering station (WinCC Explorer » right-click project » Close). Runtime must also be closed.
2. Open @GroupDisplay.PDL from Base_Data_Pool in the Graphics Designer (File » Open » navigate to the Base_Data_Pool folder).
3. Open the Configuration Dialog on the Group Display control inside the standard picture and apply the new color values exactly as in Section 4.
4. Save the standard picture. The file is now in the engineering installation, not yet in the project database.
5. Re-open the WinCC Explorer and re-open the project. WinCC detects the newer Base_Data_Pool timestamp and copies the files into the project folder under <Project>\GraCS\.
6. Compile the Graphics system (right-click Graphics » Compile » All) so that the picture tree is regenerated.
7. Deploy the project to every server and client (see Section 8).

6. Area Button and Top-Level Overview Colors

Area buttons (the small tile-and-label icons in the upper area overview) reuse the same Group Display OCX but with an additional Selected state and a faceplate-color override. To recolor the area button you must edit @AreaButton.PDL in the same way as the Group Display PDL, then color the Selected frame and the Background rectangle of the button itself. The selection frame is normally a green rectangle of color 0x00008000; the unselected frame is gray (0x00808080). Changing these values is done with Object Properties » Background Color » Fill on the rectangle named SelectionFrame.

For faceplates, the small Alarm Status square is rendered from @AlarmState.PDL. Editing that file alone keeps the body of the faceplate untouched and only re-tints the status square, which is the correct scope for most facelift requests where the rest of the faceplate is already harmonized with the new color palette.

7. Color and Runtime Stability Considerations

Two practical issues appear frequently in the field when colors are changed project-wide:

• Brightness / contrast regressions. The default dark-red on white contrast ratio passes the VDU ergonomic guidelines; some alternatives (e.g. yellow on light gray) do not. Validate against the customer lighting conditions before rollout.
• Flash rates and color-blind operators. WinCC 7.3 only flashes the Came In - Background Color On state. If a color is changed but the operator has red-green color blindness, the flashing is still visible but the difference between Came In and Went Out may be lost. Use shape or pattern changes in addition to color where the operator population is mixed.

8. Server-to-Client Distribution of the New Colors

WinCC 7.3 distributes the picture database in two directions: from the engineering station to the WinCC Server during Load Online, and from the server to each WinCC Client during Package Download. To make sure the new Base_Data_Pool reaches every node, perform the steps below on the engineering station, then verify on every server and client.

1. In WinCC Explorer, right-click the server project and select Load Online » Complete Upload. This forces every Base_Data_Pool file to be re-sent.
2. On the server, open Server Data » Standard Pictures and confirm that the file timestamps match the engineering station.
3. On each client, open Server Data » Package Download and trigger a full package download.
4. Restart the WinCC Runtime on every node (redundant servers require both partners to be restarted in the correct order; see the WinCC V7.3 redundancy manual).
5. Force a test message and confirm the color on at least one operator station per server.

For redundant server pairs, the partner server's Base_Data_Pool is automatically synchronized during the next redundancy sync cycle; you only need to deploy once to the master server and wait for the sync to complete. If the customer uses a SIMATIC HMI Panel that is loaded directly from the engineering station, repeat the panel transfer via ProSave.

9. WinCC Unified V21 Alternative: Color Palette at Runtime

Engineers migrating from WinCC 7.3 to WinCC Unified V21 will notice that the ActiveX-based Group Display and the Base_Data_Pool directory no longer exist. Unified replaces them with a screen-level color palette that is configured in the device's runtime settings and applied to all screens of that device at runtime. The full procedure is documented in the WinCC Unified V21 manual: Using the color palette in Runtime. The relevant steps are:

1. Open the TIA Portal project and select the Unified PC or Unified Comfort Panel device.
2. Double-click Runtime settings in the project tree.
3. Navigate to General » Screen » Color palette.
4. Open the selection dialog and override each palette slot used by the alarm and group-display controls.
5. Compile the device and download to the runtime.

The color palette is a single device-level resource, so a project-wide color change becomes a 1-minute edit instead of a multi-file Base_Data_Pool rollout. Legacy projects that need to be ported to Unified can keep their custom Group Display color schemes by exporting the WinCC 7.3 BGR values into the Unified palette editor before cut-over.

10. Troubleshooting Matrix

11. Verification Checklist

Use this checklist before signing off a color-change ticket on a WinCC 7.3 project:

• Forced test message of priority 1: background color matches the new specification in the host picture.
• Acknowledged test message: Ackn Back Color matches the dark variant of the new color.
• Went-out test message: Went Out Back Color and Went Out Ackn Back Color are visually distinguishable from idle.
• Locked message: Locked Back Color is unchanged from the customer-approved standard.
• Area button selection frame is visible against the new background.
• Alarm status square inside at least one faceplate matches the Group Display color of the same state.
• Redundant server partner has the same colors (verified on the standby partner's operator station).
• All WinCC Clients show the new color after a full package download.
• Operator shift handover report shows no color-related tickets within 24 hours of the change.

12. Frequently Asked Questions