Looking for powerful HMI

Hi

I'm looking for an HMI for a company with lots of small facilities, and 6 main control rooms.

some of the small facilities require local HMI.

The HMI should be easy to maintain (small use of scripts if any)
should combine unlimited hierarchy (in characters) tag(point) database with unicode support for tag names.
it should also support the creation of graphic templates and derived graphic object.

Thanx

For what I know, any of the big ones can satisfy your requests:
WinCC, RSView, Citect, Cimplicity.

Personally, I used a lot of Citect and Cimplicity, I think that Cimplicity is more powerful when making updates online, and the way it manages it's scripts and objects...

But, once again, I think any of those will work without problems.

FactoryPMI is a good choice for most of your criteria, particularly that you can launch clients from anywhere, UNICODE support, and unlimited licensing.

I don't think that any of the mentioned packages natively support derived graphic objects, although all provide the means to accomplish most tasks.

Nathan, does that mean that FactoryPMI has graphical objects that can be derived into further graphical objects ?
If so, do you have some examples ?
This does interest me a lot too.

Now it is approximately 10 years since I had a project with Citect, but I do remember how easy it was to create graphical objects (Super Genies). I do not remember of they could be derived, but I was thrilled the way you could make a change and have the change take effect throughout the project.

Siemens has a faceplate object, but it does not support animating the most basic graphical objects. So that disqualifies the faceplates for my use.

For what I know, any of the big ones can satisfy your requests:
WinCC, RSView, Citect, Cimplicity.

Click to expand...

I dont think so...

I want HMI that will combine cimplicity graphic capabilities(classes and objects)
with RSView tag database capabilities (unlimited hierarchy for tag names).
plus the unicode support for tag(point) names(IDs).

its a 500K$ upgrade project.

With that kind of investment, I would look at Wonderware InTouch 10.0 with Archestra Graphics and, if you are willing to invest the time, Wonderware System Platform 3.0 to roll all of your applications into one development environment that allows multiple users to work on the project at the same time. Wonderware can also provide a small CE OIT with a runtime license already installed, for the local HMI.

Best regards

Disclaimer -- I am an employee of Bosch Rexroth Corporation.

Bosch Rexroth has a wide array of powerful HMIs that I believe would meet your needs, along with a host of other products (PLCs, motion, pneumatics, hydraulics).

Check us out, feel free to message me if you have questions

http://www.boschrexroth-us.com/country_units/america/united_states/en/products/GoTo/index.jsp

KP_EENG said:

With that kind of investment, I would look at Wonderware InTouch 10.0 with Archestra Graphics and, if you are willing to invest the time, Wonderware System Platform 3.0 to roll all of your applications into one development environment that allows multiple users to work on the project at the same time. Wonderware can also provide a small CE OIT with a runtime license already installed, for the local HMI.

Best regards

Click to expand...

Does InTouch supports unicode character set for its tag names? i.e. you can name the 'area/plant/location/instrument' in asian language?

I have never used that functionality, but I would imagine that Wonderware would provide support for foreign languages. Here is a link to the global support page. Surely you can find someone there that can answer that question.

http://global.wonderware.com/EN/Pages/ContactSales.aspx

Best regards

Unfortunately, no. Graphical object inheretence is the single feature I know of that FactoryPMI can't match on. I forgot that Citect could do so - I was thinking that Wonderware alone had that capability. FPMI will allow dynamic driving of all properties including animation, image swapping, color filtering, etc. This is extended with a feature called "styles" that can drive changes throughout your project, but it has to be pre-planned/designed to a large extent (this video demonstrates). Alternatively, you can render your own objects with Java2D code, which is very powerful, but pretty technical. Ultimately, FPMI doesn't yet support inheretence/polymorphism with graphical objects.

JesperMP said:

Nathan, does that mean that FactoryPMI has graphical objects that can be derived into further graphical objects ?
If so, do you have some examples ?
This does interest me a lot too.

Now it is approximately 10 years since I had a project with Citect, but I do remember how easy it was to create graphical objects (Super Genies). I do not remember of they could be derived, but I was thrilled the way you could make a change and have the change take effect throughout the project.

Siemens has a faceplate object, but it does not support animating the most basic graphical objects. So that disqualifies the faceplates for my use.

Click to expand...

If that's a hard and fast requirement, I think InTouch 10 is the only game in town (short of writing your own application). You'll have to verify the unicode support. Perhaps someone else here can address how well it works in practice.

briana banks said:

I dont think so...
I want HMI that will combine cimplicity graphic capabilities(classes and objects)
with RSView tag database capabilities (unlimited hierarchy for tag names).
plus the unicode support for tag(point) names(IDs).

its a 500K$ upgrade project.

Click to expand...

check into the products offered by "Proface"....they have the full range of what you are looking for. I don't work for them, but have used them considerably in the past 5 years...