Canvas

Canvas is a visual surface that the AI assistant builds for you from the chat. Instead of answering with text, the assistant can draw a dashboard — gauges, charts, tables, status panels — on a dedicated Canvas tab and keep it updated with live values from your controller. It is the right tool when you want to see a machine or process at a glance rather than read numbers.

Canvas is part of the AI Chat and is available on the Enterprise plan.

Opening a Canvas

You do not open Canvas yourself — you ask for it. In the AI Chat, describe what you want to see, for example:

• "Show the line speed and the tank level as a dashboard."
• "Draw a gauge for the motor current from 0 to 100 amps."
• "Give me a status overview of the conveyor stations."

The assistant opens a Canvas tab and renders the dashboard there. Keep chatting to refine it — ask for a different layout, more signals, other colours, or an extra chart, and the assistant updates the same Canvas.

Live Values

To make the dashboard show real, changing values, ask the assistant to bind it to your controller. This needs an active connection — go online or connect via OPC UA first, the same connection you use elsewhere in Studio. For example:

• "Bind the speed gauge to the line-speed tag and keep it live."

Once bound, the values on the Canvas update on their own as the controller runs, so the dashboard becomes a live picture of your process. If the connection drops, the values pause and resume by themselves when it comes back.

Interacting with the Canvas

The assistant can add controls — buttons or switches — that write a value back to the controller when you use them. You might ask for "a Start button that sets the run command" and then click it on the Canvas to send the value. Controls only write while you are connected, and the assistant tells you what a control does before it wires it up.

For safety, prefer a simulation or test controller when trying out controls that change values on a running machine.

Widgets

The assistant can use ready-made automation widgets, including:

• Gauges — a single analog value against a range.
• Signal charts — one or more values plotted over time.
• Alarm / status tables — a list of items and their state.
• Block diagrams — a simple picture of a process or flow.
• Value displays — a tag with its unit and quality.

You are not limited to these — you can also ask for free-form drawings and custom layouts.

Tips

• Canvas lives inside the AI Chat, so you need the chat set up with an AI provider, and the Enterprise plan.
• One Canvas belongs to your chat. Ask the assistant to "reset the canvas" to start over with a clean surface.
• The assistant reviews its own rendering as it works, so you can simply tell it when something does not look right and it will adjust.