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System Requirements
The tables below show the system requirements for the proper installation and operation of the software. Keep in mind these are the recommended prerequisites for the basic installation - depending on your project, you may need different requirements.
Installation System Requirements
Hardware
Minimum
Recommended
CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo
Intel Core i7
RAM
4 Gb
8 Gb
Operation System
Windows 10
Windows 10
Disk Space
2 Gb
10 Gb
Display Resolution
1024 x 768
1280 x 1024 or higher
.NET Framework
v4.8
v4.8
Downloading and Installing FrameworX
We commend downloading our evaluation version to start exploring our software. You can do that by filling out the form here.
We offer a FREE TRIAL with:
Two hours of resettable runtime
Multiple demo projects to use, review, and learn from
500 communication points
Access to all the features in the platform
Access to all our standard communication protocols
MQTT Broker
OPC Client and Server
The Engineering Environment is enabled to edit projects for 30 days with no time restrictions. After the 30-day evaluation period, your project will open but with limited access to the entire project. Project Information access is enabled.
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You can execute Project Examples and Demos with the Free Trial. For simple applications that show casing-specific functionality, check Solution Examples. For complete demos of typical applications, check Demo Projects Overview |
When you install FrameworX for the first time, just click Install. It takes less than a minute!
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Time Limit The Runtime will run for two hours. You will need to restart it during your 30-day evaluation period. The Runtime will not run after 30 days. Contact Sales if an additional access license is needed. |
Managing and Running Solutions
When you first open the software, you'll find a list of your current solutions. By default, you'll find all of our demos installed. Before creating your own solution, we recommend exploring our demos!
For new users, we recommend starting with the Brewery Demo. In this solution, we’ve built a brewery line from scratch, using all of the main software features. At our training site, you’ll find a free course that explains how we did this, from creating a project to adding alarming capabilities. *Update with the demo information for v10*
To open a Solution, just select from the list and click "Run" to simply deploy it or "Edit" to take a look at how we created it. You can also double click the solution to load it.
It will take a minute to open the solution. Once it's successfully started, you'll find the following Welcome Window.
Creating a New Solution
If you want to create your own solution, simply click "New" in the Solution Manager.
Creating a new Solution consists of three phases. First, you must choose which version of the Product Family you'll use and click Next. The features included in your selection will be represented by the icons on the bottom of the page.
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Our platform doesn't require a license for you to explore the Engineering space! With the demo version, you'll be able to run the solution for only 2 hours, but has no limitation on the engineering. |
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To install FrameworX:
1.Run the Installer: Click on the FrameworX-Setup.exe file. The installation will complete in just a few minutes, adding FrameworX to \Program Files (x86)\Tatsoft\ folder.
2.Accessing the Application:
•After installation, right-click the FrameworX icon in the Desktop. When running, at the Windows TaskBar, you can select “Pin to Taskbar” for easy access.
•Alternatively, type “FrameworX” in the Windows search box to locate and launch the application.
When the application is first time launched, it may request to update the Microsoft Visual Studio Redistributable package, simple authorize to proceed.
3. Firewall Authorization:
Upon first editing or running solutions post-installation, Windows Firewall may prompt for authorization. Simply click “OK” to proceed.
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If you have a previous installation using the MSIX installer, please uninstall it first. Due to restrictions with running .NET 8 applications, the MSIX option is no longer supported. If you have a previous installation using the Setup.exe installer, you can install the new version without uninstalling the old one. However, the installation will be slightly faster if the previous version is removed first. |
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For more information about installation folders refer to the Managing Installations section. |
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.NET 8 is required to create solutions to other operating platforms like Linux, and to edit displays to show on web browsers. If you receive a warning that .NET 8 is not available on your computer, you still will be able to work with Windows-only solutions and displays. To install the .NET 8, follow the link in the installer message, or you can find the .NET 8 Desktop Runtime installer from Microsoft here: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/8.0. Be sure to pick the version that matches your CPU architecture, which is likely x64. (And don't pick the "SDK" or ".NET Runtime" or other versions - just the ".NET 8 Desktop Runtime") |
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Upon launching FrameworX, the first interface you’ll encounter is the SolutionsManager. This tool allows you to:
•Manage Solutions: View, create, edit, or run solutions stored on your computer.
•Explore the Demo: Access the Demo Solution installed with the product, located in your Documents folder. You can also download additional demos and examples from Solution Examples.
Select the Demo solution, and click on RUN to execute it, or Edit to access its configuration.
Creating a New Solution
If you want to create your own solution, simply click "New" in the SolutionsManager, and follow the wizard steps.
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The first step is to select the Product that the solution is intended to use. To facilitate multiple scenarios in a cost-effective way, FrameworX has its product line organized into families and models. More information can be found in Product Family.
Once you've selected the product, you must choose what kind of solution you'll build, Windows or Multi-Platform.
Finally, you can add a description and choose a template for your solution here as well. For this example, you can select "HeaderLayout". When you're ready, simply click "Create New Solution".
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After the solution is created, it opens the Designer homepage, the main UI for editing your solutions.
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→ Go to Solution Configuration tutorial, for a step-by-step guide on adding content to your first solution. |
Licensing And Registration
To deploy your solution into production and run it without time limitations, a valid license is required.
- License Information: Access details about your license and activation links via the Solutions Manager. Both online and offline activation methods are available. For comprehensive guidance, see Licensing and Activation.
- Acquiring a License: If you haven’t obtained a license yet, please reach out to us.
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Click on the "Your License" title, at the left side, to navigate to the Page License Information page |
Next Steps, Exploring More Features
With these foundational steps completed, you’re ready to delve deeper into FrameworX:
- •Solution Design: Learn how to start designing your solution in Solution Configuration.
- •Platform Features: Explore the Platform Overview to familiarize yourself with the platform’s capabilities.
- •Tutorials: Engage with our Tutorials for comprehensive exercises.
- •User Guide: Consult the User Guide for detailed information on each module.
- •Training: Access free videos and training courses by signing in at the Training Site.
- •Solution Examples: Review Solution Examples that showcase various aspects and functionalities of the platform.
- •Community Engagement: Join our community forum to exchange ideas and seek assistance.
You can also schedule an introductory meeting with one of our onboarding specialists.
Feedback
Please provide us with feedback on our software and documentation. Share your ideas for new features or specific training topics on our website.
We look forward to engaging with you and making progress together.
In this section:
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Then, you'll move , you must choose what kind of application you'll build. UPDATE IMAGE, there's a grammatical error
Finally, add a title and a description and choose a location on your computer to install this solution (we install it inside the Documents folder, by default). You can choose a template for your solution here as well, but for this example, we won't select anything. When you're ready, simply click "Create New Solution".
Creating a new solution may take a minute - once loading is complete, you'll see our Home Page, that contains all of the basic information for this solution.
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By default, our Solution Explorer Navigation is filtered by All Modules and Features. If you wish to work with a simplified version of the platform, simply change the filter in the first box. |
In the homepage you can also change the Theme you'll be using: we offer five different options (Light, Dark, Indigo, Blue and Live). By default, Light will be selected. On the right side of the screen, you'll find the common steps to start exploring our platform, from DataExplorer to Runtime. We'll explore those basic features in this quick tutorial.
Data Explorer Tools
The DataExplorer tools allow you to easily perform data mining and monitoring from various data sources, including MQTT Brokers, OPC-UA, PLCs and SQL databases. Here, let's see how you can connect to our MQTT Simulator to browse its data.
Go to Data Explorer → MQTT Tools to start. You can connect to your own broker, if you wish, but our system has a native SpartkplugB MQTT Built-In Broker that you can use.
Out platform also offers a MQTT Publisher Simulator, that has customizable data being published. Simply click both of the green "start" buttons to start the Broker and Simulator.
Once you've done so, click Connect to see and browse the generated data.
If you have any PLCs in your network, you can automatically connect to browse its data structure.
Update with automatic creation of Data Templates (the alpha that has this feature isn't available yet). Select what you want and click "Map to Solution". Explain: Device Mapping or ExternalTags Source.
Creating a Unified Namespace and Tags
In the Unified Namespace section, you'll be able to define the data models you'll use in the solution. When building a new solution, a good practice is start by creating Data Templates. In this case, the SolarPanel data template will have already been created, since we exported it from the MQTT Simulator. You can also create manually or import from csv or other libraries.
Update with image of automatic creation of Data Templates (the alpha that has this feature isn't available yet).
Once you have your Data Model, the next step would be to create tags and map it to a Device. This was already done automatically, but once again, you can do it manually if you wish. Here, you'll find the tag DeviceD1 has already been created, with the type "DataModel1", that contains all of the characteristics of the device in the MQTT Simulator.
Update with image of automatic creation of Tags (the alpha that has this feature isn't available yet).
To create a New Tag, simply click the "New Item" option in the Tags menu.
Field Communication: Mapping Tags to Devices
The next step is creating the connection with the field. For this, we offer over 50+ native communication protocols.
When creating a new connection with the field, the first step is to create a Channel. Here, you can a instance of one protocol. You can have many channels connecting to the same protocol if you wish. Once you have a protocol defined, you can create a Node. Finally, you can create a Node, which is where you map the data in your data model to the specific address on the device.
In this case, since we mapped the MQTT Simulator to the solution, the system already created everything automatically, as seen below.
Update with image of automatic creation of everything (the alpha that has this feature isn't available yet).
To showcase how the manual creation works, simply click to create a new Tag1 in the Points section as a "SolarPanel" type.
Once you do that, add it to Points table and map it to a specific Address. You can either type or browse the available data. Because we're using the MQTT in this example, you only need to map at the device level and the system will automatically read all of the properties associated with that device.
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On Asset Tree, you can change the hierarchy of the tags, by creating or importing folders and dragging and dropping tags as necessary. By default, new tags are added to BaseTags. |
Creating a Simple Display with Symbols
Creating a Simple Display with Symbols
Note: the current Alpha has some bugs on previewing so I'd like to review this part after it has been corrected.
Let's start by exploring the Draw Environment. To access, go to Displays → Draw, or simply click the Draw button at the top menu.
This will open the main Draw Environment. By default, the first page created will be the MainPage, where your main content should go.
Before adding anything to the display, you can create tags directly from this environment to use in your page. Simply click the New Tag button in the top menu. This will open a dialog box.
For this example, create a tag with the following settings and click "OK":
Name: Fan1Enabled
Type: Digital
After you've created your tag, you add graphical components to link it to. On the left side of the screen, you'll find all of the components you can use to build your display. Search for "RotateBlower" to get a fan from our Symbol Library. To add it to Display, simply drag it to the main drawing area. You can then double click it to open the Symbol Settings and map it the tag as shown below.
Then, search for "SelectorSwitch" to add a switch to the display as well. Double click it to connect it to the tag we created.
Click on Document Preview, and then click on the SelectorSwitch to turn on or turn off the RotateBlower2 fan.
You can also go to Runtime and click "Run StartUp" to run your solution.
Connecting to Devices: Modbus Master
To add Devices, go to Devices → Channels. Here, click the "+" sign to create a new channel. From the list, select "Modbus Master Protocol" and click "OK".
Them, go to Nodes, on the same section of the menu, and do the same thing to create a node connected to the channel.
Then, let's go to the Unified Namespace section to create some tags related to this device. Simply click New Tag to create four tags, as defined below:
After the four tags have been create, select them and copy the selected rows: we'll use them on the Points section and in our Display, to showcase data from the device.
First, in Devices > Points, right-click to Insert Rows and copy the tags.
Then, go to our main display (by clicking on Draw) and paste the tags there as well. Text bales will be automatically created.
To view your display, choose Document Preview once again.
Note: training material mentions running a simulator, but I couldn't find that in the new version. I'll update after I figure it out.
Create a Real-Time Alarm
To test out the Alarming functionalities in the platform, let's create an alarm. First, on the UNS section, create a new Tag, named FilterAlarm, with the Type "Text".
On Alarms → Groups, you'll find some default groups created.
On Alarms → Items, you'll need to create some items, as shown below. To create, simply click on directly on the first line of the table.
Tag.temperature
Tag.temperature
In the Draw Environment, search for AlarmWindow and drag it into the display.
Insert three buttons under the AlarmWindow object and give their respective names: “All”, “Warning”, “Critical”. You can change the button text in the Drawing Properties, on the right side of the screen.
Double-click on the buttons and configure the filters:
Create Trends
Let's create a Trend Legacy to show the real-time values.
On Unified Namespace → Data Templates, create a new template called Trend.
After you've done that, add the following lines to the table (just start typing on the first line of the table and click Enter to add it).
Name: Reference | Type: Reference
Name: Cursos | Type: Double
Name: pen | Type: Integer
Go to Unified Namespace and create a trend tag as shown below.
Finally, let's add it to the Display. Search for TrendChart and drag it into the display. Double click it to configure it as shown below.
Suggestions for this step:
- Create a Database and DataGrid
- Reports
- ExternalTags
- More details on Runtime
- Scripts
10. Licensing And Registration
To get the full capabilities of our platform and start building your real solutions, you'll need a License. The information about your license and the links to activate it can be found in the Solution Manager page. There you may choose between online and offline activation. You can learn more Licensing and Activation here.
Exploring More Features
With these ten steps, you've learned the basic on working with FrameworX and you're ready to continue your journey.
In this chapter, you'll find more basic information to get you started.
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Once you're ready, we recommend you:
- Explore the User Guide, that goes into detail on each module.
- Take a look at our Solution Examples, that showcase different aspects and functionalities of the platform.
You can also schedule a introductory meeting with one of our onboarding specialists here.