CIMPLICITY® HMI

Educational Workshop

Logging

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CONFIGURING LOGGING FOR THE DEMO PROJECT

In this lab we will configure logging for some of the data being collected by the demo project.

You should already have the Demo Project up and running. If not, please go ahead and do that now. Then,
bring up the CIMPLICITY Workbench for the Cimpdemo project.

Now, select Project then Properties from the menu, or click the Project Properties icon on the toolbar.

Now let’s turn on the Database Logger by clicking the box.

You may have some of the protocols selected on yours, or you may have more to choose from (depending on
what was loaded from the CD when you installed), but the key is the “X” in the Database Logger option.

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GE Fanuc Automation North America, Inc.
CIMPLICITY® HMI Educational Workshop
Educational Workshop - Logging 3

Click on OK to acknowledge that the changes will come into effect the next time you start the project. Don’t
bother stopping it right now - we have more work to do first!

Say, did you notice that new icon in the Workbench? We didn’t have that before. Only the options you
actually have or have turned on show up. There’s less confusion that way!

Let's use that new icon. In the Workbench, double-click the Database Logging icon.

Some tables are already defined. Let's leave those alone for now. We will make a new table just for our data.
Click on the New Table icon.

The New Table dialog box will appear.

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GE Fanuc Automation North America, Inc.
CIMPLICITY® HMI Educational Workshop
Educational Workshop - Logging 4

Let’s name the table. In a large project you might have lots of tables, so we really want to name it something
meaningful. How about “DEMO.” Now, choose Group Log Table, as the Table type. Then click on the
“OK” button.

CIMPLICITY HMI lets you control how and when your data is logged without writing any custom software!

From this screen you can cause data to be logged on an event, like the end of a production run or end of a
shift. You can cause data to be logged only while a batch is in production using the gated logging feature or
to log data only while there is an alarm out there.

We’ll go ahead and use the logging conditions of “Periodic” and “5 Seconds.” This means that at every 5
seconds, the system will automatically log the data.

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GE Fanuc Automation North America, Inc.
CIMPLICITY® HMI Educational Workshop
Educational Workshop - Logging 5

Click on the Logging Attributes tab.

From here you can choose what attributes about a Point get logged. Saving the previous value and the time
last logged makes it MUCH easier to create reports later that indicate how much or how fast the data has
changed. Saving the engineering units takes up some extra space but again makes reporting that much easier
later. It helps to determine whether that piece of data was recorded in Fahrenheit or Centigrade. Let the data
tell you instead of guessing!

And, this is VERY important for larger systems since you can record the name of the CIMPLICITY project
that the data came from. This is very important if you are running TWO OR MORE projects on the same
computer. That's another handy CIMPLICITY feature in itself - the ability to run multiple projects on one
computer. This is very handy during system debug and checkout because you can just copy one of the
projects and its logged data to its own PC later as the system grows and expands!

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
GE Fanuc Automation North America, Inc.
CIMPLICITY® HMI Educational Workshop
Educational Workshop - Logging 6

We will use the default of “Point Value.”

Now click on the Maintenance Events tab.

Look at the defaults for the Maintenance Events and Maintenance Actions tabs. We don’t need to change
them - just review them. These are powerful configuration options that mean you don’t have to write
programs to support the database. Just about everything you need can be configured in here.

With many databases and database tools you have to write a program to monitor disk space so that your log
files don't fill it! Well, CIMPLICITY HMI does this for you already! On this tab you can configure the
parameters. No software to write! Another way to look at this is: When there is only XX space left on my
disk OR I have logged a certain number of records OR every X number of days OR every day at midnight OR
whenever a point goes true, its TIME TO TAKE ACTION!

On the Maintenance Actions screen, you can automatically let your data be exported from your database or
deleted completely from it. You can also move the data out to a separate archive file and save it for later
analysis.

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GE Fanuc Automation North America, Inc.
CIMPLICITY® HMI Educational Workshop
Educational Workshop - Logging 7

Databases grow large over time. From here, you can automatically compact the database or run an external
program or an SQL command to take specific actions on your data.

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GE Fanuc Automation North America, Inc.
CIMPLICITY® HMI Educational Workshop
Educational Workshop - Logging 8

There’s one more tab to look at. The Logging Properties tab lets us look at or change some of the more
advanced features.

Since you can log to ODBC compatible databases like Oracle or Microsoft's SQL Server, some additional
data may be needed here.

We also have the ability to log across the network. This means that the database I'm logging to may be on
another computer. BUT what if there is a network problem or that other computer isn't running right now?
Well, CIMPLICITY HMI can automatically handle that for you. The Store and Forward feature allows this
PC to buffer the data. Then, if the other PC goes down, we just store all that information until it comes back
on-line. Then we "forward" that data across the network and into the database. This is all done without any
additional coding or software. This is tremendous power for those multi-node systems that are becoming
more and more popular as people link together the entire enterprise instead of just bits and pieces.

Click on OK. We will now add points to the table to be logged. Make sure that your new DEMO table is still
selected.

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GE Fanuc Automation North America, Inc.
CIMPLICITY® HMI Educational Workshop
Educational Workshop - Logging 9

Choose the “Add Item” icon from the top menu.

You can also choose the Edit menu option and select “Add Points.” The point selection dialog box will open.

All the points for the demo project are now displayed.

By the way, do you see the field for Project? Well, if you are on a network, you can access the points from
other CIMPLICITY HMI servers. All you need to do is select their projects! This is what seamless
integration means - you can reach across the network without complicated programming or configuration!

Later, you can experiment with this browse capability. It's very powerful and can save you lots of time
putting together systems.

Select the following Points to add to your DEMO table: DEMO_SAWTOOTH, DEMO_COSINE, and
DEMO_SINE.

Click OK.

Double-click on the “DEMO” table in the list of tables. This opens the table, and you can see each point that
will be logged to the table.

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GE Fanuc Automation North America, Inc.
CIMPLICITY® HMI Educational Workshop
Educational Workshop - Logging 10

Double-click your mouse on one of the points and you will see the logging conditions for that point. Click on
Cancel when you are done looking.

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GE Fanuc Automation North America, Inc.
CIMPLICITY® HMI Educational Workshop
Educational Workshop - Logging 11

Click on the Close Table icon – it’s the first one on the left - your typical “file close” icon.

Now choose File and Exit to exit out of Database Logger.

Go to the Cimpdemo Workbench. If the project is still running, go ahead and stop the project by clicking on
the Square Stop icon in the toolbar.

Remember that before our logging changes will take effect, we must do a "CONFIGURATION UPDATE."
As powerful as CIMPLICITY HMI is, the database still needs to get started up to take in your configuration.
So, click on the Configuration Update icon in the toolbar.

You will be prompted with the following:

Click OK. That will let the database configuration take effect. After the update is complete, start the project
by clicking on the Triangular Start button on the toolbar.

If, by chance, you stop the project and try to start the project without doing a configuration update, you will
get the following warning message:

Just click on “Yes” and the software takes care of itself! After the update is complete, start the project by
clicking OK when prompted.

And that’s all it takes to configure a database table in CIMPLICITY HMI. No knowledge of SQL required.

You are all set to go!

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GE Fanuc Automation North America, Inc.
CIMPLICITY® HMI Educational Workshop