Using Tag Groups in Pictures

Tag groups allow you to create one picture to show multiple representations of your process. For example, you can use one picture to represent similar lines on a plant floor. You use the iFIX Tag Group Editor (TagGroupEditor.exe) to create these tag groups in iFIX.

A tag group is composed of a symbol, a corresponding substitution, and an optional description field. Symbols are placeholders for data sources or text in a picture. Substitutions are alphanumeric character strings that replace symbols in a picture. A tag group file is a binary file that consists of the symbols, substitutions, and descriptions for each tag group.

You use symbols in areas of your picture where data points are needed to represent specific process values. A substitution can be a tagname or text, depending on where the corresponding symbol is being used in a picture. For example, if you want to change a button label when a picture opens, you would enter text for the substitution.

You can create several tag group files that associate symbols with specific substitutions in the run-time environment.

Example: Using Tag Groups in Pictures

Suppose you work in a factory that produces both oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies, and each type of cookie requires a different baking temperature. Your factory has three ovens that are controlled by different databases with a similar block structure: Analog Input and Analog Output.

Your real-time control strategy calls for operators to monitor the temperature in each furnace. This strategy calls for you to develop three operator displays. You realize, however, that the only difference between the displays are the tagnames that reference different databases.

You can use the Tag Group Editor to cut development time and save a considerable amount of disk space by creating one picture and three tag group files. In the picture, you assign symbols in place of tagnames and then, at run time, call a tag group file to replace the symbols with real tagnames. You call a different tag group depending upon which cookie furnace you want to display.

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