Is it any good?
Good points?
Bad Points?
Would you us it for more than one controller?
Would you us it as the only visualisation/logging for the plant?
It's a bit cumbersome to work with, but version 3 is so much better than version 2 visualisations. I've mainly used it in Beckhoff TwinCAT 3.
Pros:
You can make some powerful systems with a few datatypes and frame references. Very easy to expand on, if your datatype planning is solid.
You can do lots of actions on inputs and buttons, which just isn't possible in a lot of other systems. (Such as Structured Text code execution)
You can add recipe management with faily complex setups.
Pretty good user management system.
Cons:
Takes a good amount of time to learn how it works.
Alignment functions and such are as crappy as almost any HMI editor out there. (Looking at you TIA Portal)
Properties are annoying to edit with a lot of clicking around and expanding small [+] menus.
Recipe management is easy to poop.
Tables and data arrays are annoying to create and especially edit.
I don't know if you can even have one visualisation connect to two controllers, but it shouldn't make any difference in complexity if it can.
I have a few control systems made with visualisations as the only HMI, but they aren't exactly "plant" sized. Though I can't see why you couldn't do it. Again, it's quite easy to scale with so I wouldn't have any problem using it.
I have used it with TwinCAT 2 quite a bit, but only as a maintenance tool within the programming software.
I am currently working on a project with TwinCAT 3 that uses Tc3PlcHmi.exe on 5 stations. The first thing I will be doing is to update all of the TwinCAT to the latest version because the HMI will do things like randomly close out. It has become normal practice for the operators to restart TwinCAT or reboot their station to make the HMI work again. I am hoping these problems will go away with a version update.
