System 800xA Training

Chapter 3 Engineering Workplace

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 3 Engineering Workplace .......................................................................................................................................... 1

3.1 General Information ..................................................................................................................................................... 2
3.1.1 Objectives.............................................................................................................................................................. 2
3.1.2 Legend .................................................................................................................................................................. 2
3.1.3 Reference Documentation ...................................................................................................................................... 2
3.2 Review of Aspect Objects............................................................................................................................................. 3
3.3 Engineering Workplace / Plant Explorer ....................................................................................................................... 4
3.3.1 What is a System?.................................................................................................................................................. 4
3.3.2 What is a Workplace? ............................................................................................................................................ 4
3.3.3 Starting the Engineering Workplace ....................................................................................................................... 5
3.3.4 Browse the Aspect Directory.................................................................................................................................. 6
3.3.5 Plant Modeling / Structures .................................................................................................................................... 7
3.3.6 Context Menus....................................................................................................................................................... 8
3.3.7 Navigate between Structures .................................................................................................................................. 9
3.4 Structures used for Application Engineering.................................................................................................................10
3.4.1 Functional Structure..............................................................................................................................................10
3.4.2 Control Structure ..................................................................................................................................................11
3.4.3 Location Structure.................................................................................................................................................12
3.4.4 Library Structure...................................................................................................................................................12
3.4.5 Object Type Structure ...........................................................................................................................................13
3.5 Structures used for Administration...............................................................................................................................14
3.5.1 User Structure.......................................................................................................................................................14
3.5.2 Workplace Structure .............................................................................................................................................14
3.5.3 Service Structure...................................................................................................................................................15
3.5.4 Maintenance Structure ..........................................................................................................................................15
3.5.5 Additional Structures ............................................................................................................................................15
3.6 Handling of Objects and Aspects .................................................................................................................................16
3.6.1 Adding Objects .....................................................................................................................................................16
3.6.2 Adding Aspects.....................................................................................................................................................17
3.6.3 Default Aspect for an Object ...............................................................................................................................18
3.6.4 Aspect Inheritance ...............................................................................................................................................19

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3.1 General Information

3.1.1 Objectives
On completion of this chapter you will be able to:
• Describe the common structures within Aspect Directory
• Navigate in the Engineering Workplace
• Identify / create aspects and objects

3.1.2 Legend
> Indicates when you go from one menu to a sub-menu
Italic Indicates object and file names
“ “ Indicates dialog box buttons, tabs, menus etc.
Bold Indicates important topics
Indicates start/explanation of student activity

3.1.3 Reference Documentation

3BDS011222 System 800xA
Configuration
3BSE030322 System 800xA - Operations
Operator Workplace Configuration
3BSE041389 System 800xA
System Planning

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3.2 Review of Aspect Objects

An Aspect Object is a computer representation of a real world object. The object may
be a valve, a transmitter, a motor, or any other physical equipment that is located
throughout your plant.
Aspects are characteristics associated with an aspect object, such as drawings,
maintenance records, trends, and faceplates. Many aspect objects come with a set of
predefined aspects and new aspects can also be added to an object.

If we approach this problem with a simple, common object, a control valve; what
types of information might be required by various users throughout the plant facility?

Each of the pieces of information associated with this control valve can be associated
as an aspect to the valve object. It is also possible to allow or deny access to these
aspects depending upon the user that is logged in to the system.

Remember also that an aspect object can be as simple as a valve, or more complex,
such as an entire plant. Anything from a single field device to a whole plant can be
defined as an object or as a set of nested objects. These objects can have as many
aspects defined as they relate to control, maintenance, or even cost and vendor
information.

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3.3 Engineering Workplace / Plant Explorer

Engineering Workplace / Plant Explorer is the tool that is primarily used for System
800xA configuration. The Engineering Workplace is the workplace used for all project
work done by application engineers.
It is used to create and manage Aspect Objects and their related Aspects.

3.3.1 What is a System?

A system is a collection of programs and services that are run together to support the
Human System Interface (HIS). At the very least there will be an Aspect server and a
Connectivity server making up the system.
Before you start, make sure that the system is “Up and Active”.

3.3.2 What is a Workplace?

This is the working environment for a particular group of people who might wish to
access the system. In a newly installed system there are 4 default workplaces provided,
intended for various users.
• Engineering Workplace
• Operator Workplace
• Plant Explorer Workplace
• Two Screen Plant Explorer Workplace
In a delivered system there may be more. A delivered application is likely to have a
workplace tailored to the requirements of the customer.

The main difference between the Engineering Workplace and the Plant Explorer
Workplace is that only the Engineering Workplace allows you to use advanced tools
such as Function Designer and Bulk Data Manager.
NOTE! The system extension “Engineering Base” must be loaded
to have the Engineering Workplace available.

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3.3.3 Starting the Engineering Workplace

You can access the Engineering Workplace by right-clicking on “Workplace” on your
computer desktop and then select “open”:

You can also use the “Start” button to select “Workplace”:

Start > All Programs > ABB Industrial IT 800xA > System > Workplace

NOTE! Click on “Create Desktop Shortcut” in order to be able

to start the desired Workplace in an easy manner.

The Workplace logon screen has three selection panes:

• The ‘System’ selection pane
• The ‘Environment’ selection pane
• The ‘Available workplaces’ pane
In a typical plant there will be only one system available. This will be the system that
was built for the application.
In a system that has environment support enabled in Configuration Wizard you can
work with two environments: Engineering and Production. Environment support is a
separately licensed functionality.

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3.3.4 Browse the Aspect Directory

The Engineering Workplace is used to browse and navigate in the Aspect Directory.

Structure Selector Aspect list

Object list Faceplate

Graphic display

Aspect Preview

T = 67 C

Browse the
aspect server

Aspect Directory

The Engineering Workplace is based on the concept of Windows Explorer. When

viewing a structure, objects are in the left-hand window (pane) and aspects of the
selected object are in the right-hand window (pane).

Aspects

Aspect Objects

Aspect preview

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3.3.5 Plant Modeling / Structures

The creation and integration of aspect objects representing your plant control system is
known as Plant Modeling. A natural way to represent the relations between different
aspect objects is to organize them in a structure.
Depending on the user looking for the information or their role in the plant, an aspect
object may exist logically in several different structures. This concept of structures is
central to the Aspect Object architecture.

The Engineering Workplace organizes the 800xA system into Structures that can be
accessed from the pull-down menu in the upper left-hand window.

Within a system, aspects travel with the aspect object. If an object is moved to another
structure, the aspects move as well. If an object is inserted (copied) from one structure
into another, the aspects associated with the object will be inserted too.
NOTE! The same object can be seen in different structures.

There are 19 structures by default. The use of these structures will vary from system to
system depending upon the needs of the person(s) that are configuring and using the
system.
The majority of time we use only a few of these structures, which are marked in blue:
• Control Structure
• Functional Structure
• Location Structure

For further information on all of the structures in the 800xA system, please see
Appendix A in the System 800xA - System Planning documentation.

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3.3.6 Context Menus

By right-clicking on an object, the corresponding aspects will appear. Each object has
certain aspects available, which can be different from one object to the other.
Also the aspects have a context menu to handle the aspects themselves.

Aspect Context Menu:

Used to handle the aspect

Object Context Menu:

Used to handle the object

NOTE! User roles affect the contents of the context menu.

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3.3.7 Navigate between Structures

You can easily navigate from one structure to another, if the same object is used in
several structures.
Structure
Selector

Structure
Aspect

Just click on the structure aspect and it will lead you to the place where the object is
located in the other structure.
NOTE! A good example is an object type, which is placed in the
Object Type Structure and in the Library Structure.

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3.4 Structures used for Application Engineering

These are the main application structures of the 800xA system. These structures are
primary structures, because it is assumed that most Application Engineers will
perform most of their work within these structures.

3.4.1 Functional Structure

The Functional Structure describes the functionality of the plant. It is used to structure
the plant into systems and subsystems according to the plant equipment.
By this it can also be used to organize displays, alarm sectioning and other functions
that are related to the structure of the plant.

It can also display aspect objects that are not directly related to any specific control
logic, like a heat exchanger (the physical object) included in a control loop.

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3.4.2 Control Structure

The Control Structure is used to organize the process control environment in the
system i.e. to define where the different parts of the control application execute. Also,
the user can check consistency and monitor the system status.
It is initialized without any objects. After the configuration is done, it contains the
networks and nodes that are used to control the plant process.

This structure contains control networks, control projects, applications, controllers,

stations, different types of sub-objects (like I/O boards and process objects as well as
signals assigned to different objects within this structure).

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3.4.3 Location Structure

The Location Structure (optional) is supplied to help the user identify plant equipment
based on the geography or location of the objects in the plant.
Objects in this structure would consist of buildings, rooms, and locations of the
physical site. As such, there are no default objects in this structure upon system
creation.

3.4.4 Library Structure

The Library Structure is used to categorize and store reusable entities. It contains all
object type libraries and its versions. The object types of these libraries are stored in
Object Type Structure.
It contains the templates for such object types as the Alarm and Event List
configuration, History Logs, and Trends.

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3.4.5 Object Type Structure

Almost all aspect objects are instances of an Object Type. The intent is to make it
possible to create and efficiently re-use standardized solutions to recurring problems.
An example would be a control valve. Rather than create a new and unique Aspect
Object for every valve in your plant, it would be more efficient to create a few valve
types. When you needed a particular solution, you would use an instance of one of
your valve Object Types.
When an instance of that object type is used, the aspects that are pre-defined for that
object type are automatically instantiated and associated with the new instance.

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3.5 Structures used for Administration

3.5.1 User Structure

The User Structure holds the defined users and user groups allowed to work in the
system.
All users must have a related MS Windows user account. The security settings
primarily contain information about a user and what the user is allowed to do within
the system (his user role).

3.5.2 Workplace Structure

The Workplace structure is used to define and create the layout of the screens for user
interface to the system. This includes workplaces for operations, maintenance,
management etc.
The workplace objects types of aspect that can be placed here are numerous, and they
control the layout and function of a workplace, for example tool bars and menu items.

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3.5.3 Service Structure

The Service Structure holds the services, their groups and providers, and the relations
between these defined in a system.
A service is a global function in the network, and the objects and aspects in the
Service Structure control the definition and deployment of the services.

3.5.4 Maintenance Structure

The Maintenance Structure is used to define and work on Backups, System
Configuration Versions, and Synchronizations.

3.5.5 Additional Structures

Other structures that contain important information or may require a one-time
configuration for the system include:
• Admin Structure
• Aspect System Structure
• Node Administration Structure
• Graphics Structure

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3.6 Handling of Objects and Aspects

3.6.1 Adding Objects

1. Right-click on an existing object (in this case the Root object) and select “New
Object…”

2. Select the object type, give it a unique name and select “Create”.

If “List presentation” is selected, object type is listed in alphabetical order.

The new object will appear in the structure at the level that it was created. In this
instance, the new object was added at the root of the structure. Any default aspects that
are part of the object type will automatically appear in the aspect list.

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3.6.2 Adding Aspects

1. Right-click on an existing object (in this case the Sxx_Plant object) and select
“New Aspect…”.

2. Select the aspect type, give it a unique name and select “Create”.

The Alarm and Event List aspect has been added to the Sxx_Plant object. The main
view of this new aspect is visible in the preview pane. The user may toggle the
preview pane (viewable or not) as desired.

Toggle
Preview

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In the Aspect List, graphic aspects come in pairs, having one of them PG2 at the end
of the name (e.g., Graphic Display and Graphic Display PG2). PG2 aspects are those
belonging to the new graphics interface implemented from version 5.0 SP2 onwards.

3.6.3 Default Aspect for an Object

Each object may have one (and only one) aspect set as the default aspect. By doing so,
this will be the aspect that is automatically viewed in the preview pane while working
in the Plant Explorer.
In an Operator Workplace context menu, it is the default aspect that is at the top of the
aspect list. It is also the aspect that will be acquired when there is a left mouse click on
the object.
NOTE! Often the default aspect is the Faceplate of an object like
a motor or valve.

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3.6.4 Aspect Inheritance

Some aspect properties cannot be modified because the properties are inherited from
the Object Type structure. Note that in the Inherited column, the value for the
highlighted aspect is set to true.

To modify the aspect properties, you may override the inheritance.

After selecting “Override”, the value in the “Inherited” column is now set to false and
you may edit the aspect properties.
NOTE! To inherit the aspect again from the type, just delete the
overridden aspect.

F Exercise 3.1

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