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Key Concepts and Terminology

Target Platform

How to Use the Project Settings and Utilities

The target platform refers to the operating system and hardware environment on which your project will be deployed and executed. Our platform supports various target platforms, including Windows, Linux, and real-time operating systems, ensuring flexibility and compatibility with a wide range of industrial automation systems.

By selecting the appropriate target platform, you can optimize your project's performance and ensure seamless integration with your existing infrastructure.

Target License

The platform uses a licensing model to provide different levels of functionality and scalability, depending on the needs of your project. The target license determines the features, modules, and tag limits available within a specific project.

We offer several licensing options, catering to various project sizes and complexity levels. By choosing the right target license for your project, you can ensure access to the necessary tools and features while optimizing costs.

Categories

One interesting feature in the software platform is the ability to use Categories to organize and group items on runtime, such as variables, alarms, and trends.

Plugins

Plugins are additional software components that can be integrated into the platform to extend its functionality and compatibility. These plugins can be developed by third-party vendors or even end-users. They enable you to add custom features, support for specific devices, or integration with other software systems.

Our platform provides an SDK (Software Development Kit) that allows developers to create their own plugins, ensuring maximum flexibility and adaptability to meet unique project requirements. By leveraging plugins, you can tailor the platform to fit your specific needs and create highly customized automation solutions.

How to Use the Project Settings and Utilities

         Access the Project History

Configuring Project Settings

Configuring Categories

Working with the Utilities

Troubleshooting and Best Practices

The Project Settings page (Project → Settings) has the configuration options that applies to the entire project.

You can view and change the project settings that you configured when you created the project.

Project information
Field	Description
Description	A description for the project.
Project Path	Read-only path to the project.
Tag Count	How many tags the project has.
Communication Points	How many communication points the project has.
Target Platform and License
Field	Description
Target Platform	Shows the target platform selected in the project creation procedure.
Product Family	A basic description of the product families is Enterprise — Complete FactoryStudio functionality Edge HMI — Use for smaller applications and embedded systems. Express — Use only for test or demonstration purposes. IIoT Gateway — Create a project to work as an OPC server or Data Acquisition Gateway, providing data to other applications from the native protocol drivers. Changing the family settings may cause some configurations to be invalid. For example, some features are only available in the Enterprise version.
Product Model	The product model is connected with the maximum number of real-time communication points you are allowed on that project. Check Managing Licenses for more information.
Canary Historian	Defines how many tags will be used in the project.
Project Options
Field	Description
Culture Info	Select the target language for the runtime application. This setting controls the formatting of dates, numbers, and other information so they are in compliance with the selected language. It is possible to change this setting later.
Allow Client Tasks (WPF only)	Permits execution of scripts and tasks on the client-side, allowing you to create interactive and dynamic user interfaces, perform client-side data processing, and implement custom functionalities. This feature can help improve user experience and reduce the load on the server by offloading some processing tasks to the client.
Enable Diagnostics Logging	When enabled, the platform will generate detailed diagnostic logs that capture various events, system messages, errors, and performance data throughout the project's runtime.
Run Modules inside main Runtime process
Field	Description
Script Tasks	When selected, script tasks will be executed within the main Runtime process, sharing resources and memory with other core processes. This can improve performance but may impact the stability of the entire system in case of script errors or issues.
First Device Channel	When selected, the first device channel will run within the main Runtime process. This can enhance communication performance between the first device and the platform but may also affect overall system stability if the device communication encounters issues.
Python Interpreter
Field	Description
Local	Server

Anchor

	Allows you to enter the path to the Python interpreter installed on the local machine.
Server	Allows you to enter the path to the Python interpreter installed on the server where the project will be deployed and run.

Verify the Target Platform

Customize Settings, if needed

Define Categories on large applications

Import Tag Definitions , when applicable

Manage Project Plugins, when applicable

Export the Project Configuration

Access the Project History

Configuring Project Settings

Configuring Categories

Using Import Wizards

Managing PlugIns

Exporting Project Contens

Utilizing the Project History

Working with Project Categories

Create a Category

To create a category, go to the Project Explorer, right-click on the Categories folder, and select "Add Category". Give the category a name and description, then click OK.

Assign Items to Categories

To assign items to a category, select the item in the Project Explorer, go to the Properties window, and select the Category tab. From there, you can select the category you want to assign the item to.

Display Categories on the runtime

To display categories on the runtime, you can use the Category Navigator widget. To add the Category Navigator widget, go to the Toolbox, select the Category Navigator widget, and drag and drop it onto the runtime screen.

Organize the Display of Categories

You can customize the display of categories on the runtime by adjusting the properties of the Category Navigator widget. For example, you can set the width and height of the widget, change the font size and color, and specify the order in which categories are displayed.

By using Categories you can organize and group items on runtime, making it easier to manage and navigate through large and complex projects.

You can create a dictionary of Categories to allow classification of engineering objects. Most configuration tables have the Category column, where you can apply one or more categories to that object.

Create user-defined categories labels that you can use as tag metadata. Categories are useful for filtering when creating the project and during runtime.

1. Go to Project → Categories.
2. Add and edit the desired categories for this project.

In order to apply a Category to a Tag or any other object:

1. Open the DataGrid Configuration Table for that object.
2. Set the column Category to be visible.
3. Edit the contents of that column. It is possible to select multiple rows. 

Using Categories on Runtime

The object categories can also be accessed during runtime for filtering and other custom applications from Category.

A list of all the categories that are defined in the project during runtime is available in the property Server.Categories. 

Troubleshooting and Best Practices

Common Issues and Solutions

Best Practices and Recommendations

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