In the lifecycle of an automation solution, engineering costs can represent up to 50% of the overall cost. If you want to reduce them significantly, you will need simple and efficient configuration tools, as well as intuitive operator guidance. SIMATIC WinCC offers both.
Simply use the know-how of PC applications for the industrial process: this is the idea that guided its development. We have obtained an object-oriented, multilingual engineering environment with a configurable configuration interface, tooltips, extensive online help and configuration examples.
Clever down to the detail
The association of an object with an internal or process variable is very simple as one can imagine: as soon as the concerned object is placed in the picture, clear dialog boxes are displayed for the configuration. In addition, WinCC Graphics Designer offers the possibility to manipulate and make dynamic all of the properties of an object. It is even possible to control them by script, in order to access the greatest possible flexibility.
WinCC Graphics Designer supports a configuration in 32 screen levels. For complex views with many overlapping objects, it is possible to hide individual levels for better visibility. The ability to change the properties of individual objects in a group of objects, without having to manipulate grouping, is also very user-friendly.
Objects that appear more than once in the view are usually simply copied. When objects are copied, the variable associations are copied identically. In order to optimize the reallocation, i.e. The association with other tags, WinCC offers the reassignment dialog box: All tags associated with the selected objects are listed there and can be “reassigned” directly.
Setup wizards save time to focus on the essentials
Configuring in an optimized time is also called: delegating tasks. SIMATIC WinCC supports the designer with wizards for routine tasks. For example, the message assistant: it offers default settings that can be applied or modified. Preview windows show the effect of the applied settings. If the designer follows the proposals, he can realize economical and practical solutions in a jiffy and which remain modifiable later.
Recover the “passive knowledge” of the library
Why reinvent what already exists? Once created, the objects are always available thanks to the library. The designer thus establishes standards specific to the company, the technology or the sector allowing the rapid creation of projects. The library already contains a large selection of pre-designed objects sorted by theme, which can be dragged into the mimic with a simple drag and drop.
It’s just as easy to add new objects to the library. If later on you want to make full use of online language switching, then it is worth taking the trouble to configure these objects in multiple languages right away.
Centrally editable graphic objects
It is also possible to use the block technique for configuration: graphic objects can be grouped as desired in a faceplate which only “shows on the surface” the interface parameters relevant for the connection to the process . These faceplates are created and managed centrally. Any modification is automatically taken into account on all occurrences of this block.
WinCC: integration platform
Thanks to a .NET container, WinCC supports the integration of your own dedicated technological XAML and .NET controls. In addition, with the option WinCC / IndustrialX it is also possible to create ActiveX controls and display them in WinCC.
Cross-reference list and display of view properties
Maintenance or installation personnel often find it difficult to familiarize themselves with a project and analyze its specifics. In this case, the following elements are of great help: A cross-reference list with a (filtered) enumeration of all variables, views and functions of the project in tabular form, as well as the central display of the properties of the views directly in WinCC Explorer.
WinCC gives visibility to the project while making it easy to change the configuration, even after a certain time.
Configuring multilingual applications
The texts of the executive application can be edited in all the main languages of Windows (Primary Languages). In addition to statistics texts, this also includes tooltips. With the Text Distributor editor, all texts are exported and re-imported
in CSV format, so that the translation can be done easily with a standard tool. In order to facilitate the translation of the texts of messages, there is a library of text blocks (Text Library) which offers the terms used in the different languages in the form of a table. In the Text Library, you can enter the texts in Windows languages that will be used at runtime, depending on the runtime language set. Filtering mechanisms make it easier for you to work in the presence of large functional capacities.
Configuration tool for mass data configuration
For quick and user-friendly configuration of mass data, you can use a Microsoft Excel-based configuration tool. Existing projects can be read and new ones created. In addition to connections and process variables, measured values, messages and the text library can be processed. For the configuration of archive tags, there is a similar tool called Archive Configuration Tool. The tabular format allows for user-friendly editing including even autofill. Experienced users have more options with macros based on Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).
Immediate certainty thanks to runtime simulation
A SIMATIC WinCC project can be tested even before the communication connection is established with the PLCs. By means of a variable simulation, it is possible to assign a change in values to each (internal) variable used. When the simulated views appear on the screen, one can quickly see if, for example, the configured color changes are appropriate.
Quick commissioning: online configuration
Changing configuration data in the middle of a tricky testing phase? No problem, you can do it online. The modified view is updated as soon as it is next selected (which considerably reduces the commissioning time!). At the same time, quality processes and events are continuously recorded, which constitutes flawless monitoring.
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