PI-AutoPointSync Connector for the Intellution PI-EDA Inteface



PI AutoPointSync Connector

for the Intellution Fix DMACS

(FIX32) / Dynamics (iFIX)

Interface to the PI System

Version 1.1.2.1 to 1.1.2.2

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Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Platforms 1

Diagram of PI APS for the PI-IntFix Interface 2

Principles of Operation 3

Available Points 3

Updated Attributes 3

Configuration Control 5

Features and Assumptions 7

Assumptions 7

Tag Attributes 7

Sync-able 7

Key Field 8

Available Points 8

Naming Convention 9

Error Handling 9

Limitations 10

Installation Instructions 11

Installation Checklist 11

Un-installation Procedure 18

PI-IntFix APS Connector Updates 19

Troubleshooting 21

Error 1904 – During PI-IntFix APS Connector Installation 21

Glossary 23

Revision History 25

Introduction

This manual describes the operation of the PI-Intellution Fix DMACS (FIX32) / Dynamics (iFIX) (PI-IntFix) APS Connector. PI AutoPointSync (PI APS) provides users with a tool for synchronizing the PI point database with the foreign device.

PI APS queries a specified data source for a list of available tags and definitions. This information is used for updating the PI point database, including the creation and deletion of points. PI APS is flexible in that it allows users to configure on a tag-by-tag basis which attributes to update and how often to perform the updates. PI APS logs all actions and changes for the system administrator in order to allow for proper auditing of automated point changes.

Based on Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM), PI APS is comprised of four types of modules:

• The PI APS Configuration Utility module (interactive user interface).

The PI APS Configuration Utility provides the means to configure PI APS for any interfaces that have corresponding PI APS Connectors.

• The PI APS Synchronization Engine scheduler module (Sync Engine).

The PI APS Synchronization Engine (Sync Engine) handles scheduling and point attribute synchronization for all interfaces that are registered with PI APS. This module is the workhorse of PI APS and is the only module that is always running as a Windows service.

• PI APS Interface Connector modules (Interface-specific Connectors).

Each PI APS Connector is an interface-specific module that communicates with the data source for a particular interface to determine point attribute updates. During each synchronization scan, the Sync Engine invokes an interface-specific PI APS Connector and its attendant routines.

• PI APS Custom Configuration Controls.

Each PI APS Custom Configuration Control is a PI APS Connector-specific control that provides the user interface for extending the basic configuration settings. The PI APS Configuration Utility makes it available when the interface is selected for configuration.

Platforms

This PI APS Interface Connector, Sync Engine, and Configuration Utility MUST run on the local Intellution View/SCADA node where the PI-IntFix Interface is also located. This platform can be NT 4.0 SP6a, Windows 2000, XP, 2003)

PI APS requires PI server version 3.3.361.43 or greater. This version of the PI Server ensures compatibility with the PI SDK version 1.1, which is used by PI APS.

Diagram of PI APS for the PI-IntFix Interface

[pic]

Principles of Operation

The PI-IntFix APS Connector is not a stand-alone application. It has been implemented as an in-process COM object in a dynamic link library (DLL) called IntFix_APS.dll. This object is registered during installation of the PI APS Connector.

The PI APS Connector (IntFix_APS.dll) will not appear in the Windows Task Manager Processes list as an independent process. It is loaded by the PI APS Sync Engine which appears in the list as PIAPSEngine.exe. The PI APS Sync Engine then calls the PI APS Connector at the time of synchronization.

For details on how to configure the PI APS Sync Engine to create, edit, and delete PI points as desired, please refer to the PI AutoPointSync for Interfaces and PI COM Connectors User Manual. Note, it is highly recommended that the synchronization results are output to file and reviewed before choosing to automatically update the PI point database.

The PI-IntFix APS Connector has two basic functions that are invoked by the PI APS Sync Engine:

• Acquire a list of available points, and

• Obtain current sync-able tag attributes for existing interface points.

This information is returned to the Sync Engine and used to generate a list of updates, available points, and points for deletion.

Available Points

At the scheduled synchronization time, the PI APS Sync Engine calls the PI-IntFix APS Connector to generate a list of available tags. The Connector will query each Intellution node for a list of tags defined in the node. It compares each Intellution tag to the list of existing PI points. Any Intellution tag that is not found in the PI point list will be passed back the PI APS Sync Engine as part of the list of available points for creation.

By default, the PI APS Connector will query all available SCADA nodes, including networked nodes. Alternatively, the Connector Configuration Control can be used to create a list of specific Intellution nodes to query.

Updated Attributes

At the scheduled synchronization time, the PI APS Sync Engine passes the PI-IntFix APS Connector a list of existing PI point definitions. The Connector uses these definitions to query Intellution for current sync-able tag attributes. The current sync-able attributes are then passed to the PI APS Sync Engine and used for synchronizing the PI Point database.

Configuration Control

The PI-IntFix APS Connector includes a connector-specific configuration control. This control is used to specify which Intellution nodes should be queried for new tags.

[pic]

Access the control from the Settings drop-down menu in the PI-AutoPointSync Configuration and Management Utility:

[pic]

If no Intellution nodes are specified using the configuration control, the PI APS Connector will attempt to query all available networked SCADA nodes for new tags. The nodes specified with the Configuration Control will in no way limit the synchronization of existing tag attributes. All existing tags will attempt to synchronize attributes with the node specified in the tag configuration, independent of which nodes are specified with the Configuration Control.

Features and Assumptions

Assumptions

• The PI APS Connector provides a one-to-one connection between a PI Home Node and the Intellution node where it is installed.

• The PI APS Connector is running on Windows NT 4 SP6a or higher.

Tag Attributes

The Intellution tag definitions are taken from all available SCADA node databases. The following table displays the relationship between Intellution and PI tag attributes in relation to PI AutoPointSync:

|Description |Intellution Attribute |PI Attribute |Sync-able |Key Field |

|PI Tag Name |‘Node:Tag Name’ |Tag |No |Yes |

|Intellution Node |Node |InstrumentTag or ExDesc |No |Yes |

|Intellution Tag |Tag Name |InstrumentTag |No |Yes |

|Intellution Field Definition|Field |InstrumentTag or ExDesc |No |Yes |

|Scan Class Number |N/A |Location4 |No |No |

|Interface Number |Type |Location1 |No |No |

|Tag Description |DESC |Descriptor |Yes |No |

|Engineering Units |EU |EngUnits |Yes |No |

|Tag Zero |LOEC |Zero |Yes |No |

|Tag Span |HIEC - LOEC or |Span |Yes |No |

| |LOEC - HIEC | | | |

|PI Point Type |N/A |PointType |No |No |

|PI Point Class |N/A |PtClassName |No |No |

|Digital Set |N/A |DigitalSet |No |No |

|Digital State Set |Possible States |N/A |No |No |

Sync-able

The Sync-able column indicates which attributes are available for updating through PI AutoPointSync. Note that all PI tag attributes are defined when a new tag is found on Intellution through the Available Points function.

Key Field

The Key Field column indicates which attributes are used to uniquely map interface points to their corresponding Intellution tag. Specifically, this information is the Intellution node, tag, and field definition. The interface requires that this information be specified in the InstrumentTag and, if necessary, in the ExDesc PI tag attributes.

Available Points

Available points are Intellution SCADA tags that the PI APS Connector can access through the local node. This includes remote networked SCADA nodes.

The PI-IntFix APS Connector does not support all Intellution block types for tag creation. However, the Connector will synchronize attributes for all block types once a PI point exists for a block. The following table lists the supported block types along with the corresponding PI PointTypes that will be used to create PI points for each block type:

|Supported Intellution Block Types |PI PointType |

|AA – Analog Alarm |Float32 |

|AI – Analog Input |Float32 |

|AO – Analog Output |Float32 |

|AR – Analog Register |Float32 |

|DA – Digital Alarm |Digital |

|DI – Digital Input |Digital |

|DO – Digital Output |Digital |

|DR – Digital Register |Digital |

|MDI – Multistate Digital Input |Digital |

|TX – Text |String |

Intellution output blocks will be created in PI as inputs. This means that the interface will read their values, but the PI tags will not be configured for writing back to Intellution. The user must manually edit the PI tag configuration for Intellution output blocks in order to be able to write data from PI to Intellution. See the PI-IntFix Interface manual for output tag configuration requirements.

The PI APS Connector will query Intellution for a list of available digital states for digital block types (DA, DI, DO, DR, and MDI). The associated digital state set will be created in PI if one does not already exist.

Note: Digital state sets are not sync-able. If changes are made to a digital block definition, the associated digital state set in PI must be updated manually.

Naming Convention

The following naming conventions are used when Available points are found:

PI Tag Name

New PI tags generated by the PI APS Sync Engine will use tag-naming rules specified by the user.

For details, see the section that is titled PI-APS Configuration Utility in the

PI-APSUserManual.doc.

If no rules have been created by the user, the default naming convention will be used: a prefix of the Intellution node, colon, and then the Intellution tag name, e.g. Intellution Node:Intellution Tag.

DigitalStateSet

PI requires that each digital tag has an associated DigitalStateSet which defines the possible states. The DigitalStateSet name will be a string with each possible state.

For example, a digital input block in Intellution has two possible states: Open and Close. The associated PI tag will be a digital point with the DigitalStateSet defined as ‘OpenClose,’ with State0 being ‘Open’, and State1 being ‘Close.’

Also, if the PI APS Connector receives a null string when querying for digital states, it will indicate this in the DigitalStateSet with a value of ‘.’ This indicates that the associated digital state in Intellution has not been configured.

Error Handling

If Intellution returns an error during a scheduled synchronization, the PI APS Connector will handle it as described below:

• If the error is such that it prevents the Connector from obtaining a list of available points from the local Intellution node database, it will abort the synchronization.

• If the error prevents obtaining available points from a remote SCADA node, the Connector will perform the synchronization with whatever tags were available at the time. It will also print a message to the pipc.log indicating which remote Intellution node was unavailable for the synchronization.

• If an error occurs when querying Intellution for a specific tag’s attributes, it will log the error for that specific point and continue with the synchronization. This is independent of whether the tag lives on the local or a remote Intellution node. All Connector-specific errors are passed back the Sync Engine and printed in the pipc.log file.

Limitations

Strings for sync-able attributes have some limitations. These are due to constraints with the Intellution programming library used to acquire the data. The following table lists these limitations:

|Sync-able Attribute |Limitation |

|Description |Retrieves first 40 characters. |

|Engineering Units |Retrieves first 4 characters. |

|Digital State Set |Retrieves first 7 characters of each state of a digital block. |

| |Retrieves first 9 characters of each state for a multi-state digital |

| |input block. |

Installation Instructions

Installation requires the following software be installed on the PI Interface node:

• PI AutoPointSync (PI APS)

• PI SDK v1.1.0.0 or higher (installed with PI APS)

• PI-IntFix Interface

• PI-IntFix APS Connector

• Intellution View/SCADA Node Software

The PI AutoPointSync Connector MUST run on the Intellution View/SCADA node where the interface runs.

Installation Checklist

1. Install PI AutoPointSync. (PI APS setup installs PI SDK and PI ICU.)

Installing PI APS on a computer with an operational PI-IntFix interface may stop the PI Network Manager service (pinetmgr), which will stop the PI-IntFix interface. Following installation of PI APS, manually restart the PI-IntFix interface(s).

2. Install the PI-IntFix Interface, if it is not already installed.

3. Run PI ICU and configure the PI-IntFix Interface whose tags are to be synchronized.

4. If installing PI APS on a FIX32 node, the path to the FIX32 installation folder must be added to the system PATH environment variable.

Open the Control panel applet: Start ► Settings ► Control Panel.

Double click System to open the System Properties dialog.

Click on the Advanced tab.

Click the Environment Variables button.

In the System variables frame, scroll until the Path variable is visible.

Click on the Path variable to select it.

Click on the Edit button to open the Edit System Variable dialog.

Examine the variable value for the Path variable. If the path to the FIX32 installation folder is not in this variable, add a semicolon followed by the FIX32 installation folder path to the end of the Path value.

Click OK on the Edit System Variable, Environment Variables, and System Properties dialogs.

To guarantee that all applications on this computer begin using the new setting for the Path variable, the system should be rebooted before proceeding.

5. Install the PI-IntFix APS Connector with IntFix_APS_x.x.x.x.exe.

6. Run the PI AutoPointSync Configuration Utility and select “Register New” from the “Interface” menu.

[pic]

The “Configure Interface or PI COM Connector for PI-APS” dialog will be displayed:

[pic]

Follow the instructions for configuring the PI-IntFix Interface to use PI APS. For details on using the Configure Interface or COM Connector dialog, see the section that is titled “Configure Interface or PI COM Connector Dialog” in the PI-APSUserManual.doc.

7. Configure the PI APS Connector for the newly added interface with the options under the Settings menu on the PI-AutoPointSync Configuration Utility main window. For detailed information about the dialogs opened from the Settings menu, see the section that is titled PI-APS Configuration Utility in the PI-APSUserManual.doc.

Review all of the following settings under the Settings menu, as it is likely that the default settings need to be changed for individual interfaces and sites:

Note: It is very important to configure these settings before enabling a new interface instance. In particular, the User-set Defaults establish the default per-point sync settings that will be assigned to existing and available points on the first sync. Therefore, we emphasize that these settings should be configured for your specific needs prior to the first sync.

• Rules

[pic]

• Synchronization Schedule

[pic]

Note: If Synchronize automatically is selected, the first sync will begin immediately when the interface is enabled.

• User-set Defaults

[pic]

and

[pic]

and

[pic]

This PI APS Connector supports two DCS attributes in condition expressions and tag formulas:

[Tag] the tag name of the Intellution block

[NodeName] the Intellution node name

and

[pic]

The condition expressions on this tab support the same DCS attributes as on the Tag Naming tab:

[Tag]

[NodeName]

8. Enable the Sync Engine with the “Tools” menu option titled “Enable Sync Engine” via the PI-AutoPointSync Configuration Utility. The PI APS Sync Engine is installed as disabled and requires the user to enable it. If this menu item has a check next to it, then the Sync Engine is already enabled, and does not need to be enabled.

[pic]

9. Enable the Connector for the selected interface with the “Tools” menu option titled “Enable Connector” via the PI-AutoPointSync Configuration Utility. All PI APS Connectors are installed as disabled and require the user to enable them.

Note: If the interface is configured for automatic scheduled synchronization, the first synchronization will occur immediately when the Connector is enabled. Confirm that Rules for point creation/edit/delete, Sync Schedule, and User-set Defaults are appropriate for your installation before enabling the connector.

If this menu item has a check next to it, then the Connector is already enabled and does not need to be enabled.

[pic]

Un-installation Procedure

To uninstall the PI-IntFix APS Connector, run the “Add-Remove Programs” applet from the Start Menu, Settings>Control Panel> Add-Remove Programs. The following program needs to be removed:

• PI Intellution FIX DMACS (IntFix) APS Connector

PI-IntFix APS Connector Updates

For information on the current version of the PI-IntFix APS Connector, please see the following web site:



Troubleshooting

The following is a list of known error messages, their explanations, and steps for resolving the circumstances that caused those messages to be displayed.

Error 1904 – During PI-IntFix APS Connector Installation

[pic]

This error can occur if the Intellution FIX32 or iFIX software has not yet been installed on the machine where the PI-IntFix APS Connector is being installed. This error can also occur if FIX32 has been installed but the path to the installation folder has not been added to the system Path variable (see step 4 in the “Installation Checklist” section). If the error is ignored and setup is allowed to continue, the files will be installed, but the PI APS Connector will not be registered and must be registered manually with regsvr32 after the Intellution software is installed. To manually register the PI APS connector, open a command prompt and change the working directory to the PI APS connector directory (PIHOME\APS\Connectors\IntFix_APS). For registration to succeed, the PATH environment variable must contain the path to the Intellution installation folder. At the command prompt, the set path command will display the current PATH variable value. Run regsvr32 to register the connector:

Regsvr32 intfix_aps.dll

If the intfix_aps.dll has to be manually registered, it may be necessary for the PI-APS Synchronizaation Engine service to log in as a specific user instead of the local system account.

Glossary

Available Points

Available points are points that PI AutoPointSync has detected on the DCS, but that do not exist in PI. Available Points are displayed grayed out.

Hidden Points

Hidden points are points that PI AutoPointSync has detected on the DCS, but that do not exist in PI, and that the user has marked to be hidden from view.

Existing Points or Existing PI Points

Existing Points or Existing PI Points refers to points that already exist in PI and belong to the current interface.

APS Connector

The APS Connector is responsible for attribute data collection from the DCS.

Key Field

A Key Field is a PI attribute that is required in order to identify what point on the DCS the PI tag corresponds to.

Revision History

|Date |Author |Comments |

|25-Jun-03 |POWilliams |Initial version |

|06-Nov-03 |HABeeson |Updated a few things for 1.0.0.0 Beta 1 |

|17-Dec-03 |POWilliams |Updated for configuration control. Incremented version to 1.0.2.0 |

| | |Beta 2 |

|06-Jul-04 |POWilliams |Update for release |

|16-Nov-05 |GGladysheva |Added tag naming/selection support |

|17-Nov-05 |Chrys |Version 1.1.2.0 Rev B: Reformatted; standardized terminology; fixed |

| | |grammar; changed title to match interface manual; changed directory, |

| | |description and file names to match those actually being used; TOC; |

| | |fixed headers & footers. |

|16-May-06 |LDaley |Version 1.1.2.1 Rev C: Updated for 1.1.2.1 release. |

|31-May-06 |Janelle |Version 1.1.2.1 Rev D: Updated hyperlink to current web address for |

| | |APS; removed hyphens from “PI SDK”, “PI ICU” and “PI API” |

|28-Jul-06 |MKelly |Version 1.1.2.2: Updated the version number to show both 1.1.2.1 and |

| | |1.1.2.2. There was not change to the manual on a bug fix for |

| | |1.1.2.2. |

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PI-IntFix Interface

PI-APS Configuration Utility

PI-IntFix APS Connector

PI-APS Synch Engine

Intellution View or SCADA Node

Intellution

Process Data

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