Puzzles in Symphony Plus

To mark my return to blogging about DBDOC and INFI 90, I pose some puzzles.

FC 116 - Jump/Master Control Relay

I have always been curious about this function code. It is able to "jump" over block processing and

1. and leave the skipped blocks unchanged S3= 0
2. or zero the skipped non-forced rung blocks that are jumped S3= 1

We have data from 600 active and prospective DBDOC builds over the years. Fewer than 5% of these INFI 90 had this function block. Furthermore, many that had it at some time in the past no longer use it.

The block appears to still be supported in SPlus Engineering.

Can anybody add insight to the current thinking about FC 116?

UCB and SPO/PGP Graphics

Once upon a time, SPO SPlus Operations graphics were PGP and used files with extensions .UCBG, .UCBV and so on. This continued into SPO, where the WORK folders used them.

It is obvious that the UCB initials meant something. Can anybody indicate what those letters stood for?

Chaining of FC 126 RDEMUX Blocks

We find numerous FC 126 blocks that have the value of S3 "Block address of next block in link list" incorrect. Here is an example:

Is this an issue? Is it not an issue because the chained RDEMUX block is not used? Are there ramifications that are not apparent from the documentation?

In DBDOC builds, the error codes [316] through [319] and [325] are have the attributes that they report things that violate the rules, but we do not know if they actually cause a problem other than not actually working. If the result is not used, who cares? 

What I could check had the badly linked blocks unused generally. The puzzle is if this ever is worth reporting.

DBDOC 11.4 is available now!

DBDOC 11.4 features important new capabilities, particularly in terms of system support.  We see the first support for ABB SPE 2.4, as well as the first implementation of AC 800M support (alone, or in a mixed INFI 90 / AC 800M system).  In addition, there are significant improvements to support for 800xA and PGP graphics, as well as numerous bug fixes and improvements to Hyperview and the rest of the applications. 

Download DBDOC 11.4 Here

Powerful new support for SPE 2.4 systems. 

• DBDOC now supports S+ Engineering 2.4 systems. 

Initial support for AC 800M systems. 

• DBDOC now supports mixed INFI 90 / AC 800M and exclusively AC 800M systems. 
• Full navigational and search support is implemented. 
• Click to see all uses of a function block, and double-click to go to its location in the configuration.
• Multipage sequence diagrams are automatically merged for easy visualization and navigation. 

Improved support for 800xA graphics 

• BBA folders as well as ASSYST folders now searched by the build system. 
• Improvements to hotspot generation, placement, and sizing. 
• Improvements to dynamic bar support, and identification of more horizontal dynamic bars. 
• Text handling improved to make search more correct and complete. 

Improved support for SPlus graphics 

• Improved handling of SPO 3.3 .mimic & .bin files 
• Many improvements to hotspot, link, and text generation and placement. 

Multi-user BuildPlus buildroots 

• BuildPlus should now automatically and seamlessly handle multiple users, even of different privilege levels, seeing the same buildroots. 

Hyperview in a Web Browser 

• Various and sundry bug fixes and improvements to functionality and usability.
• More browsing and navigation idioms supported, such as browse and synch to table of contents. 
• All dbdoc file “documents” can be accessed transparently via a regular web browser url. 

Search 

• Recall search results with “R” key 
• The database of a search result is now displayed in database search results. 
• Title searches are now retained after restart, for convenience. 

Hyperview miscellaneous 

• Due to popular demand, Treeview Table of Contents has been fully reinstated. 
• Double click on a signal line on CAD/CLD goes to block source. 

Live data 

• Blue “EXTERNAL” is no longer  shown for unfetchable live data on graphics. 
• Stop fetching data for a block if Destination Node Offline error is received.

Download DBDOC 11.4 Here

DBDOC 11.3 -- Ready to download!

DBDOC 11.3 is an important release that revamps the basic Hyperview interface, provides notably improved support for SPO and 800xA/PG2 graphics, enhanced integration of SPE 2.x, improved AutoCAD and MicroStation support, and live data reliability improvements. It also contains the prototype release of Hyperview in A Browser.

Download DBDOC 11.3 Here

New Hyperview navigation & hotspot interaction.

• Hyperview now supports a “drag-pan” and “scroll-zoom” as its default interface, for better usability and compatibility with a touch-screen context.
• Hotspots highlight interactively when you mouse over them.

Improvements to error browser, search & thumbnail support.

• Errors can now be grouped by file type, including graphics type.
• Context of surrounding words for search hits can now be displayed.
• Thumbnails can be enabled separately for CAD/CLDs and general graphics.

Powerful new support for SPO and SPE 2.x systems.

• BuildPlus “automagically” detects and builds the most recent version of time/date stamped data for SPO SPlus Operations Databases and SPE 2.x Backups, without the need to rename and copy these files
• In many cases SPE 2.x can be now integrated automatically by BuildPlus without requiring an SPE backup at all.

Improved graphics support.

• Ongoing improvements to hotspot placement, live data, fonts and colors in SPO graphics.
• Many improvements to 800xA/PG2 graphics, including better hotspot placement, split Auto/Manual and Cascade/Ratio hotspots, more live data hotspots.

Improved AutoCAD & MicroStation support.

• Support for AutoCAD ODA 21.11
• Proper handling of MicroStation files with unicode names.

Live data reliability.

• Ongoing improvements to Relay and Collector modes.
• Data fetches are suppressed for the relevant block when certain HOPC errors are encountered, preventing stalls.

Hyperview in a Browser initial release

• Hyperview in a Browser prototype release: Hyperview’s basic functionality in a touch-screen friendly web browser framework, suitable for tablets over wifi on your LAN, and most browsers on any networked machine.
• Hyperview in a Browser supports basic navigation, search, and live data.
• Hyperview in a Browser works on desktop and tablets, in Edge, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, in all versions and platforms more recent than October 2017.

Give us a call if you would like to try out Hyperview in a Browser! It's not hard to set up, and we can walk you through it.  There is documentation here. 

Presenting DBDOC 11.2 Feature Update!

DBDOC depends on feedback from you, our clients, to provide better and better support for graphics and other system features, as well as support for the ways you actually use DBDOC.

DBDOC 11.2 Feature Update is an improvement on DBDOC 11.2 that addresses issues that came to light as 11.2 was used in the field over the past few months.  If you are upgrading, DBDOC 11.2 Feature Update is now the preferred upgrade version, and is available here.  

What does 11.2 Feature Update add to 11.2?

Improved S+ Support

Most significantly, your feedback on DBDOC 11.2 has provided enough information to make a number of improvements to our support for SPlus graphics, such as the following: 

• Direct links to Station block PV, SP and MA blocks in more instances
• Handling duplicate column names in SPO tag database file
• Numerous places where appearance is improved in SPO graphics
• Elimination of many unnecessary live-value hotspots

Please continue to let us know when you see issues with your graphics, text, or hotspot placement.  DBDOC's graphics support involves a fair amount of reverse engineering, and we are constantly learning more about the file formats we are supporting.

@Values like Set Point (SP) and Process Value (PV) on SPlus graphics were erroneously linking to the base Station Block, instead of the appropriate SP or PV blocks.  This is corrected in 11.2 Feature Update.

Live Specs on Ladder

In another area, in response to client feedback, Hyperview has added full support for the "new" live specs on ladder diagrams (not just CAD/CLD diagrams).   Prior to DBDOC 11.1, live specs were implemented as a form of live loop annotation, but this could be a highly inefficient use of live data bandwidth, as almost never changing specs were fetched as often as other sorts of live data.  In DBDOC 11.1, specs were integrated with layered specs, and comparisons between live and static specs were automated (read more here).  However, on our first pass, we missed adding this feature to ladder diagrams.   This has now been corrected, and clients with ladder diagrams can now enjoy full-featured and bandwidth-efficient live specs.

Press S on Ladder Diagrams to show integrated live specs, automatically highlighting discrepancies between live and static values on wired inputs and other specs.

Working CIUMON Interaction with ABB HAOPC

Several clients encountered a problem where CIUMON was found to be receiving data only once every 10 seconds from HAOPC.  This has now was fixed and has been subsequently verified in three different client systems.

Documentation for Custom Function Codes

11.2 Feature Update generates automatic documentation of the inputs, outputs, and specifications of custom function code blocks.

In addition a variety of other minor fixes and additions are included in DBDOC 11.2 Feature Update.   Please contact support @ gmcl.com if you have any questions about what has changed.  It's entirely possible that issues you have seen in earlier versions are now fixed, and if not, we want to know!

New Visual Signal Tracing Features: Signal ID, Quality Info, Input Trees, Output Trees

With DBDOC 11.2, Hyperview has added a number of interesting visual features on configuration diagrams that should make signal tracing even more intuitive. 

You've probably noticed the first new feature.  Now, when you mouse over a signal line on a CAD/CLD, it highlights and shows a tooltip with the block number and the quality type of the signal.  This is handy for quickly decoding a visual rat's nest of signals.

Hovering the mouse over a signal line highlights it in yellow.

If you want a better look, simply click on the signal line.  The highlight will "stick".

The line is now sticky-highlighted in orange.

Input Trees

You can visually display the "tree" of inputs for a block by right-clicking on a function block and choosing "Show Input Tree For This Block".  All the signals leading into the block and their ancestors are highlighted in red.

From a function block's context menu, you can display the input tree for a block.

If you trace the signal onto another sheet via the IREF, the input tree highlight continues on the adjacent CAD/CLD.  

Of course, it depends on the particulars whether this sort of visual signal tracing is helpful.  Many configuration diagrams contain feedback loops, causing virtually every block on the sheet to become highlighted.  

If an IREF is connected to an OREF on the same sheet, both will be highlighted, of course.

Here, for example, the input tree for Block 4109 has been shown.

Input signal tree for Block 4109.

Zooming out, we can see that an OREF is highlighted, as well as a number of IREFs.

Luckily, it is quick and easy to see why.  Hovering the OREF signal shows that it is in fact the identical signal that comes in the IREF in the lower left of the diagram.

The yellow highlight shows that both the OREF and IREF are connected to Block 4219.

Output Trees

Output trees can be displayed in the same way, and are shown in green.

Both input and output trees can be shown at the same time, for different blocks, or the same block.

Note: It's worth knowing that the input or out signal tree is calculated "on the fly," when you load a document.  Most of these trees would be very large indeed, if they were computed in totality for the entire system.  This "on the fly" tree building should not affect you if you are physically tracing signals from sheet to adjacent sheet, but if you "skipped ahead" without going through connecting sheets, lines would not be highlighted, even if they were in fact ultimately in the ancestor or descendant tree of the root block.

Quality

The new line information also gives you more information about signal quality.   Of course, you can already see if a line has quality, based on whether it is black or blue. 

Block 1790 is black, and has no quality.

Block 1790 is 133 is blue, and has PROCESS quality.

And this signal coming in from a DI/B block has PROCESS, COMMS, and IMPORT quality.

We hope you find this extra visual support for DBDOC's signal tracing capabilities handy.  Let us know what you think!

DBDOC 11.2 is ready to go!

We're excited to release DBDOC 11.2!  This version really capitalizes on the groundwork laid in DBDOC 11.0 and 11.1 to present some game changing new features. 

Hyperview has thumbnail images in indexes.

Thumbnail images can now be shown in the indexes for all graphical document types. Thumbnails are generated when the dbdoc file is built, and are cached on the build machine.

          

Hyperview highlights signal lines and show input/output trees.

Mousing over a signal line on a CAD/CLD sheet now causes it to be highlighted, with a tooltip showing block number and signal quality.   You can now have Hyperview display the trees of input and output signals for any block.

Latest ABB versions supported

Supported ABB software versions include SPE 2.3, SPO 3.2, 800xA PG2 6.0, GPI, HPG, HGS.

BuildPlus has a new look, and new features.

BuildPlus icons have been updated, and toolbar buttons rearranged for clarity.

A new interface makes it easier to manage your DBDOC license.

Graphics and document support has been extended.

Extensive improvements have been made to SPlus graphics support, in the areas of live data hotspots, formatting, tags, fonts, and colors.  Extensive improvements have been made to 800xA PG2 support, in the areas of searchable text, dynamic bars, pseudotags, and graphics rendering.

There are improved automatically generated links on PDF files, and JPG images are now supported in AutoCAD drawings.

Other system changes

Software license keys are now supported, custom Function Code Support(Composer 6.5 S+ Engineering 1.3) has been added, and support for PG2 XLS (800xA Display Documentation) files has been removed.

Live data improvements

A new indicator in CIUMonController shows whether a CIUMon is able to provide data.  In addition, CIUMon can now recover automatically when RoviSys OPC90 temporarily hangs.

And much more!

You will find these updates, and many more bug-fixes and improvements in DBDOC 11.2
See the full Release Notes for further information on DBDOC 11.2 and prior versions.

Download DBDOC 11.2 here!

Accelerate your live data with RoviSys Turbo!

Whether or not you have DBDOC, your INFI 90® System can use RoviSys Turbo. RoviSys Turbo makes DBDOC live data five to ten times faster. Composer alone is typically ten times faster when monitoring. There is no extra communication loading.

How does it work? RoviSys is the first to make use of capability in the CIU and IET800 to fetch up to 16 analogs or 16 digitals in a single GMI fetch. Setting up your IET800 with OPC90 to gain the advantages of turbo polling is straightforward and uses standard ABB parts. 

10x faster with no extra load!

RoviSys Turbo gets up to 16 analog or digital values from a module in one message, improving monitoring significantly at no extra communications load.

Put spare CIUs to good use

RoviSys Turbo can handle multiple CIUs and IET800s - serial, SCSI and ethernet. Make use of spare CIUs by providing added cabability for power users, or increasing the amount of data fetched.

Share a CIU or IET800

Use what you’ve got! RoviSys Turbo can support Composer and DBDOC at the same time using one CIU or IET800. Composer is given priority over DBDOC, while DBDOC makes good use of the CIU when available.

Try RoviSys Turbo!

Accelerate today! Visit gmcl.com or rovisys.com for more information and start your free trial of RoviSys Turbo.