Industrial control and monitoring system status visualization method and system

A control and monitoring system, comprising:

• a plurality of networked components;
• a process manager having a console adapted to display a system view, the system viewing tool comprising:
• an expandable component tree, the component tree comprising at least one parent icon and at least one child icon, wherein the parent icon is expandable to reveal the child icon and the child icon is associated with a one of the plurality of networked components;
• a first dynamic graphic associated with the child icon, wherein the first dynamic graphic is adapted to change based on changes relating to a status of the one of the plurality of networked components;
• and
• a sorting system adapted to pass the first dynamic graphic up the expandable component tree based on a configuration of the sorting system, to a second dynamic graphic associated with the parent icon.

A control and monitoring system, comprising:

• means for networking a plurality of network components;
• means for displaying a system viewing tool, the system viewing tool comprising:
• an expandable component tree, the component tree comprising at least one parent icon and at least one child icon, wherein the parent icon is expandable to reveal the child icon and the child icon is associated with a one of the plurality of networked components;
• a first dynamic graphic associated with the child icon, wherein the first dynamic graphic is adapted to change based on changes relating to a status of the one of the plurality of networked components;
• and
• means for passing the first dynamic graphic up the expandable component tree based on a configuration, to a second dynamic graphic associated with the parent icon.

A system viewing tool for a networked system, comprising:

• an expandable component tree, the component tree comprising at least one parent icon and at least one child icon, wherein the parent icon is expandable to reveal the child icon and the child icon is associated with a networked component of the networked system;
• a first dynamic graphic associated with the child icon, wherein the first dynamic graphic is adapted to change to represent a plurality of states of the networked component in a user configurable manner;
• and
• a sorting system adapted permit programming of the user configurable manner and to pass the first dynamic graphic up the expandable component tree based on the user configured manner, to a second dynamic graphic associated with the parent icon.