1. Building Scalable Automation Systems in Visual Studio .NET
Introduction to
OPC Systems.NET
Hello everyone, thank you for joining us on this webinar. My name is slim-shady and I am excited to show you how you can rapidly build scalable SCADA/HMI systems without writing any lines of code. I would agree that this sounds like an impossible task, but today we’re going to see just how this is indeed possible.
Win Worrall
Applications Engineer & Developer
Direct Line: +1 (704)

2. Agenda Introduce OPC Systems.NET General Architecture
New OPC Gauge.NET
Live Demo – Creating SCADA/HMI Screens
Live Demo – Deploying Applications
Live Demo – Web Applications
Summary
Questions & Answers
Here’s the agenda for today. We’ll begin by introducing the OPCSystems.NET suite of tools. Then we’ll move onto our Live Demos (as quickly as we can) which is where we’re going to actually build an HMI and deploy it to other computers. Then we’ll wrap-up with a summary and some Q & A.

3. Purpose OPCSystems.NET solves the following needs:
Build Complete HMI/SCADA Solutions
Easy configuration: easy User Interface
Windows, Web (Ajax) & Mobile Development Tools
Easy Deployment: SmartClient Technology
Data Logging, Reporting with Notifications
Trending in Windows or via Web Pages
Alarm Logging with Notifications
Open API – lets you control the software
Let’s begin by explaining WHAT the OPCSystems.NET product-line is…
First, it is a complete suite of tools that allows you to build a complete HMI/SCADA solution in Visual Studio.NET, be it C# or VB.NET etc.
The whole thing is extremely easy to setup and configure, and we’ll see that in the live demo.
The development tools available for developing Windows applications, Web Applications or Windows Mobile applications allow for code-less development, that is to say, you can create applications using just your mouse – so you lock your keyboard in a box somewhere as you won’t be needing it to do any coding.
You’ll enjoy the convenience of SmartClient Technology that will make deployment a breeze. If you’ve heard of 1-click deployment, well, this is that!
A Data logging tool is part of the suite, so you won’t need to build one or buy a separate Data Logger.
Reporting your historical data is always important, well you can build reports and have them automatically build at specific times or on events and have them automatically printed and ed to you etc.
Ditto on the logging of your Alarms, and being notified when alarms are active.
Last of all, the big one, the entire system has an open API which means that you can create your own applications to control the system, to add more functionality, to use the existing functionality – basically, you have complete access which means your own imagination is your limiting factor. Now you don’t hear that too often do you?

4. Benefits OPCSystems.NET provides these benefits
Data can come from any OPC DA Server and/or Databases
Math Engine, for dynamic calculations to Tags etc.
Scalable System, Service based architecture
Multi-Threaded for faster, and more Reliable operations
Buffers data, eliminating data-loss for short outages
Modular, components available separately or as a suite
100% Managed Code for all versions of Visual Studio .NET
OPC Self-Certified, for assurance in quality
NO MORE DCOM HEADACHES
Alright, so we now know what the point of this system is, so lets quickly gain an understanding of some of the benefits in the system, the very things that you can’t see, hear, smell or touch…
Scalability: you know you need it! The system you implement today is likely going to grow tomorrow, and when those needs arise, you’ll need a system/platform that will give you that flexibility. Well, it’s in there and we’ll see what this means in just a moment.
Multi-threaded: concurrent processing enables the software to be more responsive and utilize your computing power more efficiently. Likewise, put this system on a multi-processor PC and watch the performance increase.
Buffers data: Zero data-loss is possible even with temporary network outages. Obviously this is a big deal, but you’ll see what this means in just a moment.
Modular: Means you can buy just what you need, to keep costs down, or maximize on your investment and savings and go with the entire suite.
Affordable: You’re about to see that there’s a lot to this system, but you’ll be surprised at how affordable and cost-effective this solution is.
OPC Self-Certified: This is a big-deal. If you use OPC software, it should be Self-Tested by a minimum, if not, don’t use it. This is a seal of quality, meaning that the software has been to OPC Interoperability Workshops where it has been tested against other vendors software, but also tested by the OPC Foundation’s error injection server that passes bad and invalid information to the client to ensure that it gracefully handles and recovers from problematic situations.
Oh, what’s that bottom bullet? Oh yeah, no more DCOM headaches… why? Because OPCSystems.NET is based on .NET technology and consequently uses .NET Remoting instead – which is the platform that Microsoft wanted us to migrate towards so that DCOM could die a peaceful death.

5. How it works… Data Consumers Data Source
YOUR Custom Applications (Windows, Web, Mobile etc)
Data Logging
Alarming
Reporting
Trending
Batching
Bridging
Data Consumers
OPC Systems .NET Service (Tag Repository)
Other OPC Systems .NET Services
Other OPC Systems .NET Services
OPC Server
PLC
DCS
Other
Database
Your App?
Data Source
So here’s a picture of how all the pieces fit together…
In the middle of the picture is the heart of the system, the OPC Systems .NET Service. This is your Tag Repository. This is the center of the universe. All of your tags are defined here, as well as where the values of those tags come from – which could by an OPC Server, a database or your own application.
All of the OPC Systems.NET applications and components communicate directly to the OPC Systems .NET Service. Notice how they don’t communicate to the OPC Server? That’s by design. If they went directly to the OPC Server then you would be using DCOM and we don’t want to use that now do we? So we go to the Service instead using .NET Remoting.
Well, let’s talk about these Client application connections…

6. OPC Systems .NET Service (Tag Repository)
Reliable Connections
OPC Systems .NET Service (Tag Repository)
Client Application
Queue
Local
Network
Internet
Tag Repository individually “caches” data to each client
If a client goes temporarily offline, it will “catch-up” on the next update.
Applies to ALL OPC Systems .NET Components (data logging, alarms, WinForms, WebForms etc.)

7. Scalability Add more OPC Systems Bridge them together… Across Internet
OPC Systems .NET Service (Tag Repository)
Client Application(s)
Across Internet
OPC Systems .NET Service (Tag Repository)
Client Application(s)
Across LAN
OPC Systems .NET Service (Tag Repository)
Client Application(s)
So once you’ve got a system in place, you want to be sure it can grow. Well, you can connect your client applications to OPC Systems.NET Services on the local machine, across the network or even the internet. That’s represented here by the orange lines.
These red lines represent how the Services themselves can be connected to each other using bridging. This could also be useful in a redundancy scenario.

8. New - OPC Gauge.NET
No programming required, just define the properties
Circular and Sliding Gauges
Each gauge can support up to 4 axis with up to 4 needles and 5 ranges per axis for a total of 16 values per gauge.
Access both local and remote Tag Parameters for values and alarm limits
Assign tag values to more than just the Value.
Full programmatic support for modifying all properties
Ok, here we are, live demo time… so we have quite a lot of things to demo here. This will be a good test of all those things I’ve been talking about are true, can I show all of this in the remaining time?
We’ll setup our Tag repository to acquire tags from an OPC Server.
We’ll data-log those tags to a Text File.
We’ll then create a simple Windows HMI application with some data, charting and alarming capabilities. Then we’ll see how to deploy it.
We’ll quickly create a web-based HMI screen.
So let’s switch over to our Virtual PC and demo all of this stuff.

9. Live Demo Collect Tag data from an OPC Server
Create a small WinForms HMI
Simple data display
Add some Charting and Alarming controls
Deploy our application
Create a small WebForms HMI
Ok, here we are, live demo time… so we have quite a lot of things to demo here. This will be a good test of all those things I’ve been talking about are true, can I show all of this in the remaining time?
We’ll setup our Tag repository to acquire tags from an OPC Server.
We’ll data-log those tags to a Text File.
We’ll then create a simple Windows HMI application with some data, charting and alarming capabilities. Then we’ll see how to deploy it.
We’ll quickly create a web-based HMI screen.
So let’s switch over to our Virtual PC and demo all of this stuff.

10. Affordable List of Components OPC Controls.NET OPC Trend.NET
OPC Alarm.NET
OPC Gauge.NET
OPC Web Controls.NET
OPC Web Trend.NET
OPC Web Alarm.NET
OPC Database.NET
OPC Report.NET
OPC Recipe.NET
OPC Client.NET
OPC Mobile.NET
OPC Route.NET
No Limit to OPC Server Connections or Number of Tags
Connect Unlimited applications to the OPCSystems Service
No Limit to the number of Text File or Database Connections
Fully documented, lots of examples
Current Licensed Users should contact us for pricing details
Maintenance Agreements are available for 20% of list price
So what do you think? Not bad eh? There’s a lot in there huh?
I’ll bet you’re wondering “yeah, but what’s the damage?” – well, you can get the whole thing for just $
Now, we don’t care or count things like OPC Server connections, tag points, how many files or databases you’re going to log to. Likewise, the development tools are Runtime-free. All the documentation and tutorials are part of the package. And the SmartClient technology is a benefit of the .NET Framework and Visual Studio .NET, so guess what? That’s FREE.
Any One (1) Component
$795
Any Three (3) Components
$1995
Any Five (5) Components
$2995
All Thirteen (13) Components
$4995

11. Summary Convenience: Quickly and easily build & deploy HMIs
Scalable Framework: allowing your system to grow
Reliable: OPC Self-Certified, plus Buffering
Alerting: Data Logging, Reporting, Alarming & Notifications
Open: API provides interface for your apps to control
Affordable: modular, buy what you need.
So to wrap-up:
We’ve seen what convenience means in terms of rapid development and easy deployment means
We understand some of the ways in which you can scale-up your system
We can trust the software because of its OPC Self Certified status, and also trust in the communications infrastructure which can eliminate data-loss for short network outages.
You’ve got the alerting capabilities for alarms and reports.
You’ve got an open API for those developers out there that want and/or need to build custom software to further enhance/extend their overall systems.
And it’s affordable folks. Go out there and add-up the cost of equivalent tools giving this functionality – that’s assuming that you don’t have to re-invent parts of the system yourself.

12. More Information www.softwaretoolbox.com/opcsystems
… get through to an expert!
Questions:
Win Worrall:
Tel: +1 (704)
Technical Support:
Tel: +1 (704)
Web:
So at this point, we have finished the Presentation and now I’d like to open-up the phones for Questions and Answers.