EcoStruxure Machine Expert Single Variable Definition

Overview

By publishing the variables in EcoStruxure Machine Expert, they will automatically be available for use in the Vijeo-Designer HMI application.

For variable exchange with the Machine Expert protocol, perform the following steps:

  • Create variables in the controller part.

  • Publish the variables by defining them as Symbols in the controller part. They are now available in the HMI part as EcoStruxure Machine Expert variables.

  • Configure the physical connection (automatically setup by EcoStruxure Machine Expert).

NOTE: The last step is not necessary for XBTGC controllers because they may communicate with their own control variables.

Disabling Automatic Symbol Export to Vijeo-Designer

By default, EcoStruxure Machine Expert automatically exports those variables defined as Symbols to the Vijeo-Designer HMI application.

Once symbols have been transferred to Vijeo-Designer, it is usually not necessary to make the transfer every time you call Vijeo-Designer. If you later add or modify symbols in your EcoStruxure Machine Expert application after having initially transferred the symbols, you can transfer symbols to Vijeo-Designer manually at will. To save time when you open Vijeo-Designer, you can disable the automatic transfer of symbols as follows:

Step

Action

1

Select the Options... command from the Tools menu.

Result: The Options dialog box is displayed.

2

Select the entry Vijeo-Designer from the list on the left-hand side.

3

On the right-hand side, enable the check box Disable automatic symbol export.

4

Click OK to close the dialog box.

NOTE: Activating the Disable automatic symbol export function inhibits the automatic export of EcoStruxure Machine Expert variables defined as Symbols to Vijeo-Designer. In order to perform this transfer manually, right-click the Symbol configuration node in the Devices window and execute the Export Symbols to Vijeo-Designer command. If you do not perform this manual transfer, Vijeo-Designer may not show the correct symbols which, in turn, may lead to errors being detected in the project.
 WARNING
UNINTENDED EQUIPMENT OPERATION
Execute the Export Symbols to Vijeo-Designer command if you have activated the Disable automatic symbol export before you start working in Vijeo-Designer.
Failure to follow these instructions can result in death, serious injury, or equipment damage.

Variable Types for EcoStruxure Machine Expert - HMI Data Exchange

The following table lists the variable types for EcoStruxure Machine Expert - HMI data exchange:

Variable type EcoStruxure Machine Expert

Variable type Vijeo-Designer

Variable type EcoStruxure Operator Terminal Expert

Comment

BOOL

BOOL

BOOL

--

BYTE

Integer

BYTE

--

WORD

UINT

WORD

--

DWORD

UDINT

DWORD

--

SINT

Integer

SINT

--

INT

INT

INT

--

DINT

DINT

DINT

--

USINT

Integer

USINT

--

UINT

UINT

UINT

--

UDINT

UDINT

UDINT

--

LINT

–

LINT

--

ULINT

–

ULINT

--

REAL

REAL

REAL

--

LREAL

–

LREAL

--

STRING

STRING

STRING

--

WSTRING

STRING

WSTRING

Vijeo-Designer supports WSTRING as a general STRING type. Therefore, you can either exchange only STRINGS or only WSTRINGS with the HMI. A mixture of these two variable types is not allowed. If you use WSTRINGs, all your strings must be WSTRINGs.

Indicate to the Vijeo-Designer driver that all strings should be managed as UNICODE WSTRINGs as follows:

Select the node SoMachineNetwork or SoMachineCombo in the Navigator tree of Vijeo-Designer and set the parameter String Encoding to the value Unicode.

EcoStruxure Operator Terminal Expert can use STRING and WSTRING simultaneously.

ARRAY

–

–

In Vijeo-Designer and EcoStruxure Operator Terminal Expert, you can only reference the elements of an array, not the whole array.

Example: Your array consists of SINTs called myValues. You can reference myValues[0] or myValues[5] and put this into a control on the HMI screen.

Arrays must not contain more than 2,048 elements. If you try to use arrays with more than 2,048 elements in Vijeo-Designer, a message is issued.

Non-zero based array

–

Non-zero based array

In Vijeo-Designer, you cannot import an array that is defined, example: myArray[1..100]..

ARRAY OF ARRAY

–

–

You cannot export to Vijeo-Designer an array that has an array as its element type, such as ARRAY [0..9] OF ARRAY [0..9] OF INT. Nevertheless, you can use multi-dimensional arrays, such as ARRAY [0..9, 0..9] OF INT.

DUT

–

–

In Vijeo-Designer and EcoStruxure Operator Terminal Expert, you can only reference the elements of a DUT, not the whole DUT. This behavior is similar to the behavior of arrays.

TIME

–

TIME

–

DATE

–

DATE

–

TOD

–

TOD

–

DT

–

DT

–

REFERENCE TO <Type>

<Type> (<Type> being one of the supported types in this list)]

<Type> (<Type> being one of the supported types in this list)]

Do not share references to ARRAYs or structured variables containing an ARRAY in the symbol configuration editor, as their values will not be displayed correctly on the HMI.

NOTE: The variables from the PLC_R structures of the PLCSystem library cannot be shared via the Symbol Configuration with the Vijeo-Designer and EcoStruxure Operator Terminal Expert application of HMI targets (including HMI controllers).

For further information on variable types for EcoStruxure Machine Expert - HMI data exchange, see the Vijeo-Designer and EcoStruxure Operator Terminal Expert online help.

Identifier Length

In Vijeo-Designer, the maximum length of the Symbol name is limited to 32 characters.

Variable names longer than 32 characters produce an error message and are not imported.