CIMPLICITY OPC Specifications

Refer to the OPC Foundation specification documents for more information on details presented in this section.

  • OPC Specification Compliance.
  • COM Program ID.
  • Supported Data Access Custom Interfaces.
  • Supported Automation Interfaces.
  • OPC Group Object Percent Dead Band.
  • Blobs.

OPC Specification Compliance

The CIMPLICITY OPC Server is compliant with the following OPC standards:

  • Data Access Custom Interface Standard V3.0, V2.0, and V1.0a.
  • Data Access Automation Interface Standard V3.0 and V2.0.
Note: For specific information about the differences between 2.x and 3.x OPC specifications, refer to the OPC Foundation web site.

COM Program ID

Once installed, the CIMPLICITY OPC Server is typically referenced by an OPC client by its ProgID (program ID). The ProgID for the CIMPLICITY OPC Server is:

CIMPLICITY.HMI.OPCServer

The OPC Server's unique CLSID (class ID) is:

{B01241E8-921B-11d2-B43F-204C4F4F5020}

Supported Data Access Custom Interfaces

The CIMPLICITY OPC Server implements the following COM interfaces. Note that standard COM interfaces are not listed.

IOPCServer IOPCBrowseServerAddressSpace
IOPCItemProperties IConnectionPointContainer
IOPCCommon IOPCGroupStateMgt
IOPCASyncIO2 IOPCAsyncIO
IOPCItemMgt IConnectionPointContainer
IOPCSyncIO IDataObject
EnumOPCItemAttributes IEnumOPCItemAttributes

Supported Automation Interfaces

The CIMPLICITY OPC Server relies on the standard automation wrapper supplied by the OPC Foundation.

The automation wrapper interacts with the automation client (e.g. Visual Basic for Applications script) and the custom interface of the CIMPLICITY OPC Server.

Note:
  • The automation wrapper executes in-process with the automation client.
  • Selection of the type of interface to use, custom or automation, depends on the goals of the client application developer.

Adhoc client applications written in Microsoft Visual Basic (for example) typically use the automation interface.

  • Automation interfaces are easy to use in the VB (and VBA) development environments.

However, the automation interface is slower at execution time.

  • Applications written in Microsoft Visual C++ (for example) use the custom interface.

This is the most efficient interface, but it is more complex to use.

OPC Group Object Percent Dead Band

Percent dead-banding is not supported directly by the CIMPLICITY OPC Server when a client configures an OPC group.

The CIMPLICITY runtime database provides support for dead band change notifications.

Dead banding is configured when a point is added to a CIMPLICITY project.

If a client specifies a percent dead-band value for a group, the value is ignored.

Change notifications are reported to an OPC client based on the dead-banding configured for a point in the CIMPLICITY project.

Blobs

The CIMPLICITY OPC Server does not support the use of blobs. Refer to the Data Access specification for more information on blobs.