0)
iFIX - How to Create a Project
Video Production Script
iFIX - How to Create a Project - Video Production Script GE Digital
Blank
Blank
Blank
Blank
Blank
Blank
Blank
Blank
Blank
i-2 GE Digital - Education Services
GE Digital iFIX - How to Create a Project - Video Production Script
How to …..
Topic Script Action
1.1 Welcome to this How To Guide for iFIX
Introduction
In this module you will learn how to create a project
1.2 This How To with iFIX – Create a Project
Objectives Will instruct you how to Create a new Project in iFIX
The topics covered are:
• iFIX Project Components
• The System Configuration Utility
• Configure the Project NodeName
• Configure Project Paths
• Create a new blank Project
• Configure Alarm Services
• Set Network Connections
• Select the Project Database and Drivers
• Understand Startup Tasks
• Understand multiple project management
1.3 Most project components of iFIX are on-line configurable, meaning
iFIX Project that development can occur while the system is running and in
Components service. For the most part, the changes take effect immediately.
The exception to this is the basic configuration settings for the iFIX
project. These basic settings directly affect how iFIX is started, how
it identifies itself on the network and how it interacts with data and
systems distributed around the plant. These basic settings are
configured from a single interface called the System Configuration
Utility (SCU).
Multiple iFIX projects may be configured on a single installation
node, but only one project (and therefore one SCU file) can be used
at a time. To segregate the various different configurations that
may reside on a PC, developers create distinct projects that use
separate folders, files and SCU configurations. Each target project
is associated with its own SCU file and folders, and the Launch
application will start projects according to the SCU file specified by
the user.
GE Digital - Education Services i-3
iFIX - How to Create a Project - Video Production Script GE Digital
Topic Script Action
1.4 The iFIX System Configuration Utility, or SCU, is used to
iFIX System configure these project components of NodeName, Paths,
Configuration Alarm Services, Networking, IO Drivers, the default database
Utility and Startup Tasks.
For detailed configuration there are menus available, as well
as a handy toolbox. All settings can be changed on-line, but
the changes will not take effect until iFIX has been restarted.
There are several ways to open the SCU.
The following presentation in this How To guide will
demonstrate how to open the SCU.
1.5 How to Open the SCU
How to Open
the SCU –
(title slide)
1.6 We have several ways to open the SCU.
How to - From the windows start then all programs that iFIX 6.0 group
Open the SCU of programs.
We have System Configuration which of course will open the
SCU
Or we can click the window start and then in the search
programs and files window type in SCU, and then simply
select SCU from the list, and the SCU will open.
Or, from the desktop shortcut for iFIX 6.0, click the SCU
button and yet again the SCU will open for us.
i-4 GE Digital - Education Services
GE Digital iFIX - How to Create a Project - Video Production Script
Topic Script Action
1.7 Each of the Configuration areas in this How To presentation
System will have their own slide, allowing you to easily switch back
Configuration and forth as required.
Utility –
How To We will start by setting up a new blank project with a new
description Project Path, then configure the Nodename, Alarm Services,
Networks, add IO Drivers, set the default database and
configure Startup Tasks.
We will then Save the new Project SCU.
1.8 How to Create a Project
How to
Create a
Project -
(title slide)
1.9 Here we will show how to create a new project Initially we
How To – need a new folder for the project about to be created, this
Create a new could be a SCADA project or a client project, we will call this
iFIX Project S_LINE1
Then we will open the SCU Firstly we need to configure the
paths, we can do this from the configure menu and choose
paths or from the handy tool box click the first button to
configure the paths
There is no need to modify the base or language path, you
can look up the EBooks to find out what they are for
GE Digital - Education Services i-5
iFIX - How to Create a Project - Video Production Script GE Digital
Topic Script Action
1.9 To Create a brand new project, then we will point the project path
Continued to the new folder that we have created on the desktop You will
browse to the desktop and select S_LINE1 as the project folder.
All the other paths for local configuration, database, pictures,
applications, historical data, alarms, recipes and Alarm Area
Database, are still configured as the original defaults.
By clicking the click change project button, and saying yes to the
prompt to generate the new project files, then all of the
subsequent project paths will be modified as subpaths of this new
S_LINE1 folder. Only when the OK button is clicked, will the process
of creating the project folders and files commence. There will be
several prompts here,
first of all a prompt informing your that some of the sub paths do
not yet exist. You can create all at once, or be prompted one at the
time, or not create them at all. Choose create all
Secondly it will identify that the Alarm Area Database path does
not contain a valid Alarm Area Database file.
This is fine for now.
Click proceed and then the files and folders will be generated.
After a few seconds you will be returned to the main SCU screen
and these files and folders will now exist.
To double check, open the S_LINE1 folder and observe the new
subfolders and in any of these subfolders, find the default files for
a brand-new project.
1.10 How to Configure the Nodename
How to
Configure
the
Nodename
(title slide)
i-6 GE Digital - Education Services
GE Digital iFIX - How to Create a Project - Video Production Script
Topic Script Action
1.11 To configure the local Nodename, we have two options in the SCU.
How To – Either from Configure and local start-up to open the local start-up
Configure definition.
the Or if we double click where it says Node in the centre mimic, this
Nodename will also open the local start-up definition.
There are two nodenames presented.The Local Node Name and the
Local Logical Name.These two are usually identical, on a standard
SCADA Server or Client, however the Local Logical Name will be
different if an Enhanced Failover Pair has been set up.
Additionally there is a local node alias, this is not enabled by default
but if this is ticked then a second name called THISNODE is available
when browsing tags from this local node.
1.12 How to configure Alarm Services
How to
Configure
Alarm
Service
(title slide)
GE Digital - Education Services i-7
iFIX - How to Create a Project - Video Production Script GE Digital
Topic Script Action
1.13
How To – To configure alarm services, again either from the configure menu
Configure we can select alarms or from the handy toolbox the second button
Alarm will open alarm services.
Services iFIX has several alarm services for sending alarms to printers to an
screen summary display, to a text file to an on screen history viewer
to a relational database and to distribute alarms across the
network.
There are various options inside most of the services for example if
a printer is utilised then we can choose which port printers
connected to, its name, we can specify which alarm areas are sent
to this printer and we can configure the format in which the alarm
messages will appear on the printout. The summary service, then
the options that we have are to enable automatic deletion. This
means that if an alarm has cleared and it has been acknowledged it
will automatically be deleted.
There's also Horn support. If enabled then if there are any
unacknowledged alarms in the summary service then the PC
speaker will beep. This thankfully is disabled by default, additionally
we can configure alarm areas at the summary service level but this
is more typically done at the summary object in the HMI. The file
service, if enabled we have options here, to select the areas from
the alarm area database, that will be sent to this text file, and we
can configure the format of the text that will appear inside the text
file.
The history is an on-screen view and again we can select areas and
we can select the format of the view.
The ODBC service allows us to send alarms and events to a
relational database and this is out of scope of this current training
course.
There are advanced options around common formats, around
common alarm areas that are used, queue configuration, and
where operator and recipe messages will be sent.
i-8 GE Digital - Education Services
GE Digital iFIX - How to Create a Project - Video Production Script
Topic Script Action
1.14 How to configure Networking
How to
configure
Networking
(title slide)
1.15 To configure Networking in the iFIX SCU, either from the configure
How To – menu we choose network which will open the network
Configure configuration or from the handy toolbox the third button will also
Networking open the network configuration.
iFIX supports the TCP/IP protocol between nodes on the network
and here we can configure remote nodes that this local project
would like to connect on start-up. You simply type in the remote
nodename and then click the add button. We can continue to add
additional nodes that this project will connect to on startup.
Other nodes on the network that are not automatically connected
to on start-up may still be available but the dynamic connections
tick box will need to be enabled, this will allow other nodes not on
the list below to be available through the HMI, on the fly.
Additionally we can have Enforced Trusted Computing. If the
password entered here is identical on all nodes on the network,
then connectivity will be allowed.
1.16 How to Add Drivers and set the default Database
Add Drivers
& default
database
(title slide)
GE Digital - Education Services i-9
iFIX - How to Create a Project - Video Production Script GE Digital
Topic Script Action
1.17 To add drivers in the SCU and set the default database then this is
How To – achieved either through the configure menu and selecting SCADA,
Add Drivers or from handy toolbox the fourth button along will open SCADA
and set the configuration.
default First of all, we can enable SCADA support. If this is a SCADA node
database this will be enabled, if this is a client node however SCADA support
will obviously be disabled.
On startup the SCADA node can specify the default database that
will be loaded into memory this can be selected by clicking the
ellipses button and then selecting the relevant database file from
the list.
Here we can also specify the drivers that this SCADA project wishes
to use on start-up.
The drivers will firstly have to have been installed and this will be
covered in a later section.
Once they been installed, then in the I/O Driver Name field, click the
ellipsis button and select the requested driver from the list.
Then click OK, and then click add and it will added to the list.
Continue to do so for all other drivers that the SCADA node will
require.
There are other options in this window for Enhanced Failover, and
this will be covered in a much later module.
i-10 GE Digital - Education Services
GE Digital iFIX - How to Create a Project - Video Production Script
Topic Script Action
1.18 How to configure startup tasks
Startup
Tasks
(title slide)
1.19 To configure iFIX start-up tasks then either from the configure menu
How To – we can select tasks, which will open the task configuration window,
Configure or from the fifth button along on the handy toolbox, this button will
Startup also open task configuration. These are additional tasks that will be
Tasks started with the project when the project starts up. There are many
processes that are required for iFIX to run as both a SCADA and
Client node, but these processes are in addition to many of those.
For example, in this already configured list, the first task IOControl
will start the drivers.
The second WSACTask will start the process known as S.A.C - Scan
Alarm & Control, that runs the process database.And there are
others in here, for example Workspace is the HMI and our developer
environment.
In addition to these we can add other tasks. To do this, in the file
name field we will click the ellipsis button and then select the
executable file that we wish to run on start up. This could be
something like the process for Proficy Historian to collect data from
iFIX - the IHFixCollector would be specified then we click open and
any command line options that are required to be passed into a
process can be added, in this case we could use the noservice
option.
We also have three start up modes. This process could be started as
a background task, as a normal in focus task, or a minimised task. It
will depend on the process selected, in this case it is a background
process anyway so that would've been selected and then we click
add.
We can reorder the processes in this list by clicking either the up
arrow or the down arrow. Normally Workspace would be the last
process on the list.
You can then continue to add additional tasks on start up and then
once complete we can click OK.
GE Digital - Education Services i-11
iFIX - How to Create a Project - Video Production Script GE Digital
Topic Script Action
1.20 How to Save the Project SCU
How to Save
the Project
SCU
(title slide)
1.21 To save the current SCU configuration, simply from the file menu we
How To – select save, or CTRL - S on the keyboard will save the configuration.
Save the If you wish to rename the configuration file there is a Save As option
Project SCU and when we look at multiple projects then we will look at the Save
As option again.
1.22 Launch the iFIX Project
Launch the
iFIX Project When a new iFIX Project has been created, starting it is achieved
using the iFIX Startup dialog box. Two inputs are required being the
Project Nodename and the Project SCU selected.
Then the iFIX Start button is pressed to start iFIX with these two
inputs.
Behind the scenes, an application called Launch is used to achieve
this startup process.
This application of Launch has several startup options and can be
manually configured for specific purposes.
i-12 GE Digital - Education Services
GE Digital iFIX - How to Create a Project - Video Production Script
Topic Script Action
1.23 How to Launch the new Project
How to
Launch the
new Project
(title slide)
1.24 Here we will look at how to start up the iFIX project. On the desktop,
How To – double-click the iFIX 6.0 shortcut and this will open the iFIX Startup
Launch the dialogue box.
new Project In the top section it specifies the default nodename, in this case
SCADA1, and also specifies the default SCU file and if we were to
look at that specifically, we will see it is the SCADA1 SCU file in the
project \LOCAL path that we were working with earlier.
We could click the iFIX icon in the top left here and this will
associate this nodename of SCADA1 with this SCU file and it will run
this project. Also in the iFIX Startup dialogue we have the ability to
create a desktop shortcut. When this button is clicked, it will prompt
you for a name for the shortcut, it will default to the logged in
Windows user, typically however this will be changed to the SCADA
nodename or the iFIX project nodename to be used, and we click
create. This will give us a desktop shortcut.
If this desktop shortcut is investigated we will see in its properties it
actually will point to an iFIX application named Launch. We will see
here launch.exe. Launch has several arguments one being the /S, the
SCU argument, would be supplied with the SCU file. Another the /N
argument will be supplied with the nodename to be used, the/L
argument the logical nodename.
This is all done in the background when this desktop shortcut is
created, but it is using this launch application that has many
arguments that can be passed into it.
Then when this new desktop shortcut is double clicked, it will
associate that nodename with the SCU and start the project. It will
start all required tasks because this is a SCADA project, but it will
also start the additional tasks that we specified in tasks on start-up
in the SCU, the last of which of course will be Workspace and it will
present us with Workspace in configuration mode.
GE Digital - Education Services i-13
iFIX - How to Create a Project - Video Production Script GE Digital
Topic Script Action
1.25 Multiple Project Management
Multiple
Project Utilizing the same iFIX Startup utility, many Project Startup
Management shortcuts can be created.
This is particularly useful when an engineer has access to only one
iFIX Development node, but has many projects to maintain.
A series of desktop shortcuts would be created using Launch, but
with their own unique Nodenames and SCU Files as the target
arguments.
1.26 How To – Multiple Projects
How to
Multiple
Projects
(title slide)
1.27 When working with multiple projects on the same node, there will
How To – be many SCU files configured and saved.
Save In this example the SCU here is for a view node named View1.
Multiple Notice how SCADA configuration, SCADA Support is disabled, and
Projects also Tasks on Start-up simply has Workspace.exe as a normal task
listed.
When this SCU has been configured then we would click File and
Save As, then we can specify a new nodename for this. In this case
of course it will be View1.
When Save As is used then you will receive an additional prompt if
you're not saving the default SCU file, this prompt here will request
whether you wish to overwrite the registry entry stating that this
will now be the default SCU file.
In this example of course we would say no to this.
i-14 GE Digital - Education Services
GE Digital iFIX - How to Create a Project - Video Production Script
Topic Script Action
1.28 If managing multiple projects on the one development node of iFIX,
How To – then a developer will have folders for each project that will be
Launch managed.
Multiple Here in this example, we have three project folders for SCADA
Projects Servers, SCADA Line1, SCADA Line2 and SCADA Line3.
And a fourth project folder for a View node that is able to view all of
the SCADA Servers on the network.
To create start-up shortcuts for each individual node, then simply
using the iFIX Startup dialogue, we will specify the nodename to be
used, so S_Line1 for the first SCADA node, and then browse to
select the SCU file for the SCADA node on Line1, and lastly click the
desktop shortcut button and enter S_Line1 as the shortcut's name.
And it will create a shortcut on the desktop. This can be repeated for
S_Line2.
And then repeated again for the S_Line3.
And then lastly, for the View node to view all lines on the plant.
Selecting it's SCU file from the VIEWALL \LOCAL path, again creating
the desktop shortcut for VIEWALL.
Now the developer can open whichever project is relevant for
today's tasks.
S_Line1 will open iFIX but open the specific project files for Line1.
If a project is already running, as in this case here, when attempting
to start any of the other projects, you will be prompted to say that
iFIX is currently running would you like to shut it down and start the
alternate project.
If you say yes to that, then it will shut down the current project and
restart with a new node.
GE Digital - Education Services i-15
iFIX - How to Create a Project - Video Production Script GE Digital
Topic Script Action
1.29 This How To with iFIX – Create a Project
Review Instructed you how to Create a new Project in iFIX
The topics covered were:
• iFIX Project Components
• The System Configuration Utility
• Configure the Project NodeName
• Configure Project Paths
• Create a new blank Project
• Configure Alarm Services
• Set Network Connections
• Select the Project Database and Drivers
• Understand Startup Tasks
• Understand multiple project management
i-16 GE Digital - Education Services
