Time zones

Overview of supported time zones and event properties for date and time management, including alarm events and trend graphs.

Supported time zones

FactoryTalk Optix
 supports three time zones:
  • UTC standard time zone.
  • Local time zone of the machine running the
    FTOptixApplication
    .
  • Session time zone supported by applications in remote sessions.

Date and time event properties

The date and time format follows the specifications of the OPC UA data type
DateTime
.
The
BaseEventType
 object properties that manage date and time events include:
Date and time event properties with descriptions
Property
Data type
Description
Time
UtcTime
Date and time of the UTC standard time zone + 0.
LocalTime
TimeZoneDataType
Offset in minutes between the UTC date and time and the local date and time of the device for the application. For example, on a device set to UTC + 2, the offset is 120 minutes. If applicable, the offset may include
DaylightSavingInOffset
.
TimeZoneOffset
TimeZoneDataType
Session offset of UTC + 0 for the date and time.

Time zones for alarm events

At runtime, the
Data grid
 object of the
Alarm grid
 and
Alarm log grid
 objects display the local time of events in the
Timestamp
 column.
Object
Timestamp
Alarm grid
Set a dynamic link in the
Time
 property.
Alarm history grid
Set a dynamic link in the
Time
 property with a node pointer.
In projects that support remote sessions, devices with different local time settings can display different time zones in the widgets. The timestamp of the widget displays in the local time zone of the device, even when events occur in different time zones. In the
Timestamp
 column of the
Alarm grid
 or
Alarm history grid
, set a converter of type
Expression evaluator
 with the sum of the properties
{Item}Time
 and
{Session}TimeZoneOffset
.

Time zones in trends

At runtime, the
Trend
 object displays data in the X-axis in the UTC standard time zone.
Use the
Reference time zone
 property of the graph to specify if data displays in the local time zone or the session time zone. If the
Trend
 object connects to a
Data logger
, enable the
Local time log
 property of the application to store data in the local time zone.
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