WinCC/DataMonitor

Description

The WinCC/DataMonitor is an important component for plant intelligence applications in combination with the process visualization system WinCC.

The DataMonitor is used for the display, analysis, interpretation and distribution of current process states and historical data from the process database. With the DataMonitor, WinCC process data can thus be made available to all functional levels in the enterprise via the Web.

Benefits

• Displaying and analyzing current process status conditions and historical data on office PCs using standard tools like Microsoft‘s Internet Explorer or Microsoft Excel.

• No additional time and effort for configuration, since you can directly use pictures from the WinCC project

• Evaluation via centrally administrated templates for detailed analyses of company processes (e.g. reports, statistics)

• Creating event- or time-controlled reports

• Information from the process can be grouped on an individual basis at runtime (information portal) and distributed to different people by e-mail

• User administration with user groups and individual access rights (read, write, create of WebCenter pages)

Functionality

Powerful tools for the depiction and interpretation of current process states and historical data (measured values, messages, user data) from the process database enable the production to be efficiently monitored and analyzed as well as reports to be created and distributed to the appropriate persons. For the display, a DataMonitor client can be set up on any office PC. The data provider - a WinCC/Web Navigator server or a WinCC/DataMonitor server - is installable on any WinCC single-user system, WinCC server or WinCC client.

The DataMonitor and its tools

For visualization and analyzing the WinCC/DataMonitor comprises several internet capable tools that support all common security features like Login/Password, firewalls and encrypting procedures.

• Process ScreensPurely for monitoring purposes of WinCC process screens

• Trends & AlarmsDisplay and analysis of archived process values and alarms in trends or tabular form

• Excel WorkbooksDisplay of archived process values in an Excel table for the analysis and storage on the Web or as print template for reports

• Published ReportsGeneration of time-controlled or event-controlled reports in Excel format or as Portable Data File (PDF)

• WebCenterCentral information portal for the access to WinCC data via user-specific views, clearly arranged Web-Center pages due to user-groups with individual rights for reading, writing or creating web-center pages.

Process screens

The function Process Screens is used purely for monitoring purposes and for the navigation across WinCC process screens with the MS Internet Explorer as a so-called "viewonly client" with an adjustable cursor.In doing so, the WinCC/DataMonitor employs the same mechanisms as the WinCC/Web Navigator, e.g. for the communication, the user administration, the display of screens.

Trends and Alarms

Trends and Alarms is a tool for displaying and analyzing archived WinCC process values and alarms. A predefined page already contains the displays for the process value table, the corresponding trends, the alarm table and the alarm hit list with the associated operator functions. Also included are the statistics functions from WinCC for process value patterns and alarms (e.g. average, standard deviation, variance). Tables only have to be linked with the desired WinCC archive data (measured values or alarms). Chosen data can also be exported to a CSV file and be processed further at a later time (e.g. compression)

Excel Workbooks

The Excel Workbooks are a reporting tool for the display of alarms and current or archived process values in an Excel table. The data can then be analyzed via Excel functions and also be graphically formatted and summarized in a report. Once Excel workbooks have been created, they can be published and made available to the Intranet/Internet, or be used as templates for reports to be automatically generated.Reports can also be generated offline and stored locally as a customer specific analysis.

Fig.: Excel Workbooks

Published Reports

Published Reports automatically generate print jobs from WinCC reports and prepared Excel workbooks. The reports are started time-controlled (e.g. at the end of a shift) or event-controlled (e.g. upon the change of a WinCC tag) and can be distributed by e-mail. Reports created by Excel are saved as XLS fi le. The corresponding fi le created by the WinCC Report Designer is stored in PDF format. and can be further processed and analyzed afterwards..

Fig.: PublishedReports: Workflow of creating reports

WebCenter

The WebCenter is the central information portal for the access to WinCC data via the Intranet or Internet.

Here, users with corresponding user rights can compile WinCC process data, alarms and process screens for any number of screen views for various groups of persons. By means of these views, WinCC data can be compared, analyzed, interpreted and if necessary also exported over absolute or relative time periods. When analyzing historical data, the connection or disconnection of swapped archives is possible via commands.

In a WebCenter page, the user can configure and save own screen views made from WebParts. WebParts are process value tables, trends, statistics displays, timesteps (for the clear depiction of precompressed values), and alarm tables (incl. hit list), as well as a display for graphics, links, and favorites. WinCC process screens can be integrated into the WebCenter without installation work using the WebPart Process Screens.

This allows various information from the plant to be generated in an understandable form for different user groups, corresponding to the function areas of a company, e.g for Quality Assurance (e.g. tables and trend diagrams with operating figures), the plant operator (e.g. pie charts with piece counters) or the service personnel (e.g. trends with temperature characteristics).

Fig.Webcenter: Example of an information portal

Selectable licensing

The licensing takes place sever-based, i.e. is made at the Web Navigator server or DataMonitor server. Depending on the selected license, the DataMonitor software package for the DataMonitor server contains either 1, 3, 10, 25 or 50 client licenses. The number of client licenses denotes the maximum number of clients that can be active at the same time, whereas in principle, any number of clients can be connected. For upgrading the number of simultaneously active clients, Powerpacks are offered.