Unicode text and Arabic

Hi all, I'm programming a project for the TP700 in TIA Portal V13 that requires English, Spanish, Ukrainian, and Arabic. Of course, the first 3 languages were quite easy to implement using "Project Languages" and the Project texts list. However, as I understand it, right to left languages are not supported on panels equipped with Windows CE. Is that correct?

I have searched the forums and came upon a number of threads on this topic with possible solutions, none of which I have been able to implement in Portal with the HMI I am using. Has anyone had success displaying text in runtime using Unicode? Has anyone been able to successfully implement Arabic on a Comfort panel programmed with TIA Portal V13?

Is it possible to install a font that will display Arabic characters properly in runtime?

I NEED to find a workaround for this and Siemens support completely shut it down, saying simply that it's "not supported". This is not an acceptable answer considering there are nearly 300 million people that speak Arabic globally and this language must be supported.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.   

Hello Hiaxis

hmm i also do not know any workaround. But you can use a Panel PC with WinCC advanced Runtime. Here you are able to use Arabic Language in Runtime.

Sorry for no better solution.

Bye Murof

All, I just wanted to provide you with an update. I was able to find a workaround in order to display Arabic as text instead of hard coding as an image on the TP700 Outdoor panel. Here is an explanation of my solution (which has been provided to Siemens by way of my local rep.):

Here is what I started with:

Image1

Obvious problem here. No Arabic characters on screen

Here's the fix.

Step 1:

Load an alternate font in the TP700. To display the Arabic characters, I used "Bahij Bassan", a free true type font. This can be done by USB or by TIA Portal

Step 2:

As Siemens pointed out earlier in this discussion, the selection of a second language is just a pointer to a second column in the text list so which language you use to display Arabic text doesn't matter. However, as we all know, the Siemens runtime in Windows CE6 does not support right to left languages. This is a BIG problem because Arabic is written in right to left. In addition, the letters in each word must be connected properly from right to left when displayed on screen to form a script similar to our cursive writing. Characters that are not connected correctly have no meaning and are therefore not readable as Arabic script.

I used "Afrikaans" as the second project language, a left-to-right language in TIA Portal, but what you actually use doesn't matter.

Here is the result when switching to Afrikaans:

Image2

New problem. We now have Arabic characters on screen, but they are not connected. This is invalid and not readable as Arabic script

Step 3: When you add your Arabic written in right to left format to the text list and attempt to display the font in runtime, the order is reversed on screen, changing the word's meaning. When you write "Arabic Word" in your Project text list in TIA Portal, it displays on screen in runtime as "droW cibarA" which is not valid. This is because the RTL text pasted into the text list has been drawn on screen in LTR. The order is reversed and the connectors are missing. It's gibberish to the people that read Arabic.

The workaround for this is to reverse the order of the words and all letters in each word BEFORE runtime. That way, when runtime reorders them, they display in the correct order and connected correctly. You can do this manually character by character, word by word or write a script in Excel to do this for you. For the Arabic word above, rather than starting with the correct format in the text list, I used the word that is backwards. Runtime displays the word "backwards" but because we started with it backwards, it displays in the correct order from right to left and the font takes care of the character connections for you to make it readable as Arabic script.

Here is the final result:

Image3

The final result. Readable, connected Arabic that actually makes sense. Done with text, not images or graphic lists.

I hope this helps others that have this issue and I hope that Siemens will eventually add support for one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.