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Important NOTES that you should read before proceeding

NOTE1: In order to configure points in a project, you must be running a version of Cimplicity with a valid license. This means you cannot have the ‘two hour trial license’ version. If you are using the temporary/trial license Cimplicity 6.1 disk that we have, you need to perform this configuration within the first four days of installing Cimplicity. Cimplicity gives you full functionality for 4 days after installation. After that time, the trial version will default to a 2 hour trial license (which will not let you perform the configuration steps below – there will be no warnings, it just won’t work). So, if, when you start a Cimplicity project (by clicking the blue arrow on the top toolbar of the workbench), you get a warning that says you only have a 2 hour trial license, uninstall and re-install Cimplicity so that you will have full privileges for four days. When you install Cimplicity, install the development server package. This will contain the ‘Workbench’ program that you will be working with much of the time.

NOTE2: In order to perform the configuration steps listed below, you will need version of the OPCGatewayEngine running on either Dynsim or Tsunami. This OPCGatewayEngine must be properly configured for the GEMarkV controls (or other controls) reflected in the Cimplicity graphics (see OPCGatewayEngine help for more). Only points that are listed in the OPCGatewayEngine.tree file will be available to Cimplicity, so make sure all the points Cimplicity needs are in the tree file. One way to do this is to reconcile the tree file with the points listed in the Cimplicity project. Open both (open the tree file in excel so that you can sort the data better) and check to see that they contain the same points. If they do not, add points to the tree file as necessary. Point types and descriptions should be obtainable from the Cimplicty project point details view. At the time of writing (June 2005) the OPCGatewayEngine is specifically geared to be run with GEMarkV engines. If other emulations are to be run, the OPCGatewayEngine will likely need to be modified.

NOTE3: During this process, Cimplicity may crash periodically (I know…great software…but who are we to talk…). This most often happens if one is trying to configure a point that has already been configured. More on this below. If Cimplicity crashes, simply restart it and pick up from where you left off.

Converting a new project from the plant MarkV devices to the OPCGateway device

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In order to configure an actual plant Cimplicity project file into a form that can be used with an ESSCOR simulator, the points associated with the Cimplicity screens must be reconfigured. The easiest and fastest way to do this is to delete all the points and subsequently re-add them properly configured. The other option is to manually reconfigure each point one by one.

In addition to removing points, the devices associated with the points should be deleted as well. When the Cimplicity points are re-added, they will be associated with an OPCGateway server device. Before devices can be deleted, all points associated with that device must be deleted. Similarly, points can only be associated with one device at a time; so if a point is associated with device M1 (real main turbine MarkV controller) it cannot be associated with the OPCGateway server. Thus, such a point must be removed and re-added (this is the easiest way to do this, rather than reconfiguring each point).

Deleting Points [return to Top of the Document]

1) Open a Cimplicity project (*.gef file)

2) Click on ‘points’ in the tree at the left.

3) Make sure all the Cimplicity points that you will need also appear in the OPCGatewayEngine.tree file (see NOTE2 above for details). In order to do this efficiently, you will need to know which devices you are interested. For the Wansley project, for example, we only needed points associated with M1 and S1 (Unit 1) and could ignore M2 and S2 (Unit 2).

a. Perform this point reconciliation step before you delete any points!!!

b. If you haven’t already done so, close the Cimplicity project and back up the entire CIMPROJ directory so that you have the plant’s original controls to work with in case things don’t go according to plan…

4) From the ‘view’ menu, select ‘Details’. The screen should look something like this:

5) In the ‘Details’ view, use shift to select multiple points. Delete all points that do not have their ‘device’ set to $GLOBAL.

a. For the Wansley project, we also deleted a few $GLOBAL points because we re-added them via the OPCGatewayEngine. These points were:

M1_VALID

M1_TIME

M1_DATE

S1_VALID

S1_TIME

S1_DATE

Deleting devices [return to Top of the Document]

1) Once all the points have been deleted, highlight ‘Devices’ in the tree at left (Devices reside in the ‘Equipment’ folder)

2) Delete all devices (i.e. M1, M2, S1, S2) – if you cannot delete a device, it is likely that there are still points associated with that device. Delete the points and then delete the device.

Deleting ports [return to Top of the Document]

1) After all the devices are deleted, ports can be deleted. In the tree at left, highlight ‘Ports’ (also under the ‘Equipment’ folder).

2) Delete all ports.

Make sure the OPC Client option is set [return to Top of the Document]

1) From the Cimplicity ‘project’ menu, select ‘properties’

2) Make sure ‘Basic Control’ is selected in the top box, and ‘OPC client’ in the bottom box.

3) Click ‘OK’

In order to add an OPCGatewayEngine device and add points associated with this device, you must have a properly configured OPCGatewayEngine running on either the same computer or another computer that is networked to the Cimplicity machine. Only the points that appear in the OPCGatewayEngine.tree file will be available to Cimplicity, so make sure all the points you need are in this file. If you are not all that familiar with Cimplicity and/or the OPCGateway engine, it will likely be easier if the two are running on the same machine. If you are using two machines, see additional notes about dcomcnfg settings as well as services settings.

Run the Cimplicity ‘Project Wizard’ [return to Top of the Document]

1) From the ‘Project’ menu, select ‘Project Wizard’

2) At the first screen, click ‘next’ so that you move on to ‘protocol selection’

3) You may have several protocol options on the ‘Available Protocols Page’. Uncheck all protocols except OPC client. Make sure OPC client is checked and click ‘next’

a. If there is no OPC Client option, you may have installed Cimplicity without the OPC Client option. This can be remedied by re-installing Cimplicity.

4) On the ‘Protocol Description Page’ enter nothing if you are running the OPCGatewayEngine on the same computer as Cimplicity. If you are running the OPCGatewayEngine on another computer on the network, enter it in the ‘Computer’ field. Click next:

5) On the ‘Detected Devices’ page, an OPCGateway erver should appear in the list. Check this one and uncheck any others.

6) On the ‘Device Description’ page modify the ‘Device ID’ and ‘Description’ if needed. Usually this will only be necessary if you are configuring points that are on another machine. If you are doing this, the device ID may appear as computername_OPC.Gateway.Server.DA. To maintain portability, it is probably best to make the device ID and description as generic as possible as per the image below. The search criteria and patterns to exclude can be used if desired, but are not recommended unless you have been through the wizard a couple of times and are just trying to configure a few points.

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CADFamily.com

12/01/2011

Cimplicity notes in Chemical