Introduction to the Workshop

 

 

Get the demo started by using the task bar on Windows 95 or Windows NT. Select: Start, then Programs, then CIMPLICITY, then HMI, then Start Demo. The CIMPLICITY menu looks like the picture at the left.

The demo will start up and automatically bring up the screen below.

Allow CIMPLICITY HMI to start up. If asked for a User ID, enter ADMINISRATOR as the user name and leave the password blank. Then click on OK and you’ll be able to see the first screen of the demo!

The demo project has several areas that highlight some of the capabilities of the CIMPLICITY HMI product. The Plant Simulation area shows an example of a manufacturing plant that is making three different flavors of sport drink. The About CIMPLICITY area highlights some of the various features and options that are available with the product. The CIMPLICITY Applied area shows various applications where CIMPLICITY can be used.

Let’s take a quick tour. Select the Plant Simulation button (the purple one). It will take you to the following screen. Here we see an overview of our Plant. The first screen shows an example of a web page inside the CIMPLICITY screen. You can explore the plant by selecting the Process, Discrete, Packaging, and Facilities tabs at the top of the page.

Select the Process Tab. The screen should look like this –

Want to learn more about CIMPLICITY and our Plant example? Click on the question mark next to Overview in the lower right corner of the screen. A help menu will open up. Do you have speakers connected to your PC? Then press the Tell Me button and sit back while CIMPLCITY takes control of your mouse and the screen and a speech engine describes what the various aspects of the product. Pretty fancy! While this shows off the power of CIMPLICITY, most likely you probably won’t be creating screens quite this fancy for your real world applications, but it’s nice to know the power is there if you want it. By the way, the fancy three dimensional graphic screens were actuall created in a CAD package and imported into CIMPLICITY as bitmaps.

Let’s look at some screens more along the lines of what you will be creating in this workshop. Select the Main Menu button at the lower left side of the screen to bring you back to the Main Menu Screen. Then select the CIMPLICITY Applied category by clicking on it! Now you should see this screen:

Using the mouse, click on Water Treatment. See how the notes on the right change as you move from application to application?

Click on the Water System icon. You should see a screen like this:

Now let’s take a moment to see what’s going on here. There are a number of points (run-time variables) defined to represent the water treament process. The screen also shows various pieces of equipment in the process: the pump and filter, the water tank, the purgers, etc.

Have you looked behind your PC yet? No programmable controller, right?! Well, you caught us - the demo runs completely off some preprogrammed points that simulate data that would actually come in from your programmable controller - a handy technique that you can use, too.

Browse through the other screens in the demo when you have a chance. It is filled with interesting examples, and you can use any of the graphic examples to help you get going on a real project. Close this window when you’re done.