User Broadcast Notice

The User Broadcast notice message can be useful for notifying all users of maintenance outages, users group meetings, or for a “tip of the day.”  The notification will close on its own after a user-defined number of seconds, or a user can select the “close” button at the base of the notify screen.

To create a notice, create a Rich Text File document with Microsoft Word or Microsoft Wordpad, and save the file as “Notify.RTF.”  Placing this file in the installation subdirectory (by default PetraSRV) will display the notification for every user using that installation.  Placing the notification file in the root folder of a project will only display the message to users opening that specific project.  The notification message can be displayed at any time by selecting Help>Show Notice Message on the menu bar at the top of the Main Module.

A notice message

Though most of the formatting like text size and color is controlled by the actual document, Petra.INI has a few additional settings that change how the broadcast notification works.

UBCWaitSec – This option sets the length of the notice in seconds.  Users can close the notice at any time with the “close” button on the bottom of the notice.

SoundFile – This option adds a sound file that plays whenever the notification opens.  Set the path and file name of the wave file, or just the name of the wave file if it’s in the installation directory.