FactoryTalk View ME applications

FactoryTalk View ME

applications are typically designed on a workstation and downloaded to a dedicated HMI device in the production control system. The devices and topology used while developing the application may be different than those in the actual production system. For example, when you are developing the application, you may have a laptop with a serial connection to a controller, but the intent is to run the application on a

PanelView Plus

terminal that has an Ethernet connection to a controller.

To support this idea of dissimilar communication network configurations, which is the application design environment versus the runtime deployment environment,

FactoryTalk Linx

presents two separate tabs of physical topology information: the

Design

(Local) tab and the

Runtime

(Target) tab.

Design (Local) tab

The

Design

tab specifies information about the communication network configuration that pertains to the environment within which the application is being developed. In the example above, you would use the Design tab to specify that the controller is accessed via the serial connection. When you highlight a shortcut and then point to a device within the Design tab, you are indicating the physical device with which the shortcut will be associated during application design activities. These design activities include tag browsing and testing applications and displays.

For online tag-browsing, the system uses the device specified on the

Design

tab as the source for the tag data. For testing displays and applications, the system exchanges data with the device specified on the

Design

tab.

Runtime (Target) tab

Use the Design tab to specify information about the communication network configuration that pertains to the environment within which the application will eventually be deployed. To continue the example, you would use the

Runtime

tab to specify that the controller is accessed via an Ethernet connection. When you highlight a shortcut and point to a device within the Runtime tab, it indicates that the physical device with which the shortcut should be associated when the <RSVIEW> application is executed on the deployment target (in the example, this is the

PanelView Plus

terminal).

When you create a

FactoryTalk View ME

runtime image (.mer file), the system collects the topology information from the Runtime tab and places it in that image. The information on the Design tab is ignored when the

FactoryTalk View ME

runtime image is created.