Fix32 Scada-3
Fix32 Scada-3
Fix32 Scada-3
FIX Training
Page 1 of 50 akj May 2004
FIX32 Training Course.
An introduction to using and developing
FIX32 Software in a real time environment.
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Prepared by A.K.Jones CEW Process Control
Process Control CEW
FIX Training
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FIX32 SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition)
Table of Contents_____________________________________________________
1. FIX Overview 3
1.1 Capablities of FIX Software 3
1.2 Terminology 4
2 Basic Architecture of FIX 6
3 Development Applications 8
4 iFix versus FIX32 9
5 Varieties and versions of Fix32 10
6 Installing Fix32 11
6.1 Starting FIX 13
7 Developing displays 14
8 SCU (Systems Configuration Utility) 24
8.1 SIM Addresses 24
9 Process Database and DIT 27
10 Historical Trending 33
10.1 Historic Assign 34
10.2 Starting and Configuring Historical Assignment 36
10.3 Historical Collect 38
10.4 Start Historical Collection 39
10.5 Historic Display 40
10.6 Defining Pen Groups 40
11 Creating Pen Time and Chart Group Definitions 46
a. Configuring Pen Groups 46
b. Defining Time Groups 47
c. Define the Chart Group Configuration 48
Process Control CEW
FIX Training
Page 3 of 50 akj May 2004
1. FIX Overview
1.1 Capablities of FIX Software
Fix is true Client/Server i.e. no replication of dBs is required.
A. Introduction to FIX Software
Industrial Automation Software
Provides a Window into the process
Supplies real-time data to personnel and to software applications
Basic FIX functions are:
- Data acquisition
- Data management
A. Data Acquistion
Ability to retrieve data from the plant floor
Direct communication with I/O devices in the plant
Interface to the I/O devices via I/O drivers
B. Data Management
Ability to process and manipulate acquired data
Data management is made up of many components, including:
- process monitoring (graphic display)
- supervisory control
- alarming
- reporting
- data archiving
Process Control CEW
FIX Training
Page 4 of 50 akj May 2004
1.2 Terminology
A. Node Types
A computer running FIX is called a node
A node that acquires data from a process is a Scada server
SCADA -- (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition)
communicates with process hardware via I/O driver software
loads and maintains the process database
A View Client is one that does not perform SCADA functions
this node receives data from SCADA nodes
A View node can run other application software
B. Node Configurations
Stand alone node
Any node not communicating with nodes on the network
Fig 1.1 shows a stand-alone SCADA server
Fig 1.2 shows a distributed process
Local node
describes the node being worked on currently
Remote node
On a distributed system, a node other than the local node
May also refer to a node being accessed via a modem
Run-Time node
Does not allow modification of displays or process database
Not necessarily read-only
PlantTV
A read-only View client with DDE and ODBC options
Process Control CEW
FIX Training
Page 5 of 50 akj May 2004
Fig 1.1: Example of a stand-alone FIX system
Fig 1.2: Example of a distributed FIX System
Process Control CEW
FIX Training
Page 6 of 50 akj May 2004
2 Basic Architecture of FIX
A. Process Data
FIX is used with the process instrumentation in a plant.
Sensors and controls send data to registers in the process hardware.
Typically this hardware is a PLC
Fix software acquires raw data from process hardware.
B. I/O Drivers
The FIX interface to a PLC is called an I/O driver
Each I/O driver is specific to the PLC hardware
I/O driver functions:
Read (and write) from the I/O device (called polling)
Transfer data to/from addresses in the Driver Image Table
(DIT)
An I/O driver collects data from poll records
poll records are specified by addresses in PLC registers.
a poll record can be a single data point or a range of points.
C. Driver Image Table (DIT)
Area of SCADAs memory where the I/O driver stores poll records
I/O drivers update poll records in the DIT
Each poll record has a rate at which updates are processed.
Update rate is called the poll time and is default of 1 second
D. Scan, Alarm and Control (SAC)
SAC functions include:
Fetching data from the Driver Image Table (DIT)
Transferring data to the Process database (PDB)
SAC reads from the DIT at a rate called the scan time
Default 1 second, minimum of 0.05secs (dont believe it)!
Process Control CEW
FIX Training
Page 7 of 50 akj May 2004
Fig 1.3: FIX architecture.
Process
Hardware
I/O Sensors
PDB
AI CA
AI TR AO
DI DO
Driver Image
Table
DIT
Poll Record
Data:
12 31 18 44 22
19
Scan, Alarm
and Control
I/O Driver
Software
View
(Links)
View
Process Control CEW
FIX Training
Page 8 of 50 akj May 2004
3 Development Applications
A. Development applications used
The Draw application is the program used to develop pictures.
The View application is used for viewing the pictures
Database Builder is used to add tags to the Process database (PDB)
The System Configurator is used to set options within FIX
(referred to as the SCU, pronounced skew)
Startup. (Used to start the Scada application)
Mission Control
Each of these is described in detail later.
Process Control CEW
FIX Training
Page 9 of 50 akj May 2004
4 iFix versus FIX32
iFix ver 3.5 is the latest product from Ge-Fanuc and is used extensively throughout
industry. iFix is different to Fix32 in that it uses VBA instead of the scripting
language as used in Fix32, this makes iFix software a much more powerful tool for
accessing and manipulating not only data and screens, but allows the user to actually
write programs from within the iFix environment. The capabilities of the software are
only limited by the user himself and inherent limits of VBA .
The basic components of iFix, are however very similar. The Database builder is the
same (very similar), the SCU is the same. The main differences are the Workspace
view and the driver implementation. Alarming is the same.
IFix is in-line with latest technologies and uses objects extensively. It supports
embedded externally written ActiveX objects within its own runtime window. This
allows for extremely powerful solutions to be developed with the minimum effort and
securely.
For the purpose of this document we are going to concentrate on FIX32 as it is a
sound basis for understanding Fix and Scada applications. Fix32 is still the main
workhorse of the Hot Mill Scada network.
New developments should consider moving to iFix as a solution within the Hot Mill.