TopKapi Newsletter #16 - November 2007

Contents

TOPKAPI IN REAL TIME Quality required Training leads to effectiveness

NEWS TOPKAPI Vision 5 TOPKAPI mmi

ACHIEVEMENTS VALEO ENDESA FRANCE BRL

TopKapi in real time

Quality required We know for a fact that TOPKAPI is recognized as being a robust and reliable product. Although all applications seem to be running perfectly to the satisfaction of our users, sometimes they run slow, which may be considered as being an unavoidable, irresolvable situation. If this happens to you, you should refuse to leave an application in an "average" or"barely acceptable" state. If the computer is slow, if response to operator commands is not instant, if the information on screen is long to refresh, there are certainly causes related with hardware or the application: improper configuration, bad communication settings, unnecessary archiving on disk, etc. If you cannot find the cause, contact us or send your application in the form of a compressed file to support@areal.fr, while describing the problems encountered ; we will audit your application, and tell you how to remove any anomalies or achieve a satisfactory level ofperformance.

Training leads to effectiveness We have always focused on ensuring TOPKAPI is a product easy to use and implement. Although it remains simple for basic use (at least we hope it is), it has grown in sophistication over the years, in order to:

Accelerate the initial setting of applications Allow data structuration facilitating maintenance and reducing cost of ownership.

If you do not grasp the level of these evolutions, you may waste considerable time in developing your applications. Therefore, we strongly recommend taking the time to properly check the new functions, and more particularly:

Database and mimic diagram structured objects SOFTLINK interface to automate application creation Integrated approach with the Unity workshop software by Schneider Electric, importing automation data (Siemens, Rockwell, ...).

AREAL’s technical support staff has been reinforced to cope with strong demand, and we organize "advanced" training sessions to meet these needs.

TOPKAPI Version 5 on preview:

Events

November 13-16, 2007 LYON Eurexpo AREAL Booth: 6B32

November 27-30, 2007 PARIS Nord (Villepinte) AREAL Booth: P49 / Hall 5

February 5-8, 2008 PARIS EXPO - Porte de Versailles AREAL Booth: J51 / Hall 7-2

.NET based DBMS connectivity Graphs enhancements

(For more details, please contact us with the answer form at the end of this document.)

News

TOPKAPI Vision 5 The new version of TOPKAPI is being prepared. Its most obvious developments are its full opening to database management systems, for archiving and running SQL queries, as well as major upgrades of the graph manager. DBMS opening

In TOPKAPI version 5, instead of using TOPKAPI’s proprietary log files, you can use a commercial DB manager (e.g. SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL), where TOPKAPI records the data it generates. The data is then accessible instantly for other applications in the company’s global information management system. Also, SQL queries allow displaying data not issued from the supervision application, in the form of event lists, bar graphs or trend curves.

A user interface provides simple management of queries for selection and sorting on database information. For example, an alarm window can show that a production line stopped instantly after a fault occurred on another line not managed by TOPKAPI. TOPKAPI’s trend curves display both data of the process supervised and values sampled outside TOPKAPI. The developments implemented use Microsoft’s .net environment, providing effective and robust access to the database objects: tests show that 2 to 3000 events per second can be saved by TOPKAPI in continuous running, without causing an overload. Such performance would not be possible without the .net environment, which is why AREAL has considered that the time was right to engage this major evolution.

To ensure perfect ascending compatibility and smooth upgrading, the old and new logging modes can coexist. Triggering criteria for logging are hardly modified, but the data can be directed simultaneously to different tables in different bases. Write requests generated by basic setting can be customized to meet the most diverse needs.

The principles for displaying the views (events and curves) do not change basically, but the upgrade offers the following benefits:

-Content customizing -Broadening of selection and sorting possibilities -Display of data from different tables and handling data from third party applications.

Curves

The curve manager, which becomes a genuine grapher made available to the operator, has many new functions, coupled with the summary functions. This allows more particularly to perform calculations on the fly on raw data, aggregates and summaries, as well as formulas with several independent variables:

"future" curves, allowing to manage and compare objectives/achievements Dynamic multiple variable calculations Aggregate functions over configurable periods (average, minimum, maximum, standard deviation, integral,…) Processing on request (user) or background (resulting curves recorded continuously) New bar graphs Direct display of sample values

TOPKAPI mmi TOPKAPI’s MMI version ensures work floor operation at machine level based on graphic mimic diagrams. It benefits from the full power of TOPKAPI’s graphic editor, and allows implementing man-machine interfaces at a very advantageous cost. After a few years existence, TOPKAPI MMI has become even more attractive:

The development tool has become free The internal calculation functions have been extended The operating tool allows choosing within a global application the part of the facility to be managed locally.

Thanks to these evolutions, TOPKAPI Vision users no longer have to transfer modifications made in the central supervision application to each of the workshop terminal applications: the central application is merely network-copied to the different operator stations in the workshop, which load only their specific, local, part. (For more detail, see the answer coupon at the end of this document.)

Achievements We wish to thank all TOPKAPI users who trust us, and all the persons who contributed to writing these articles at BRL, NOREALP, SNET, VALEO, and more particularly Arnaud LETIERCE, Yves VANHOYE, Laurent PLUMECOCQ, Christophe CAILLAUD, Jean-François RATEL.

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