SCADA add on software

Hello,

I am currently working at a company where we are automation jobs. We are using Schneider Electric's PLCs combined with some field instruments for various parameters to be monitored/measured. We are also currently using Schneider's software called Vijeo Citect v7.2.

Vijeo Citect is good, but its lacks in generating good reports/trends/graphs. I am not talking about complex reports, but simple yet informative ones. Vijeo Citect according to me is not helping at all in this regard.

So I spoke to the concerned person at Schneider and they recommend me to go with their own Vijeo Historian software with a MS SQL back-end for this purpose. Our company accessed this proposal but found it rather expensive.

We would probably go for Vijeo Historian once our knowledge with software is adequate and if it Vijeo Historian is appropriate for any project that we execute.

My understanding is that, it's possible to write a small app using Visual Basic that uses the data from Vijeo Citect combined with MS SQL back-end to generate reports.
Our company at present isn't very good at software at the moment. So for the current project that we are executing, we would like to buy a software that isn't too expensive(open source application is preferred) that can generate these additional reports. And over the coming months, build a small application that can generate reports, trends,etc.


I am very new to automation, so it is possible that some of my assumptions above might be wrong, please don't hesitate to correct me. I would like some advice on this issue.Any sort of help is much appreciated.

If you are using a SQL based historian, then you could use SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) to create reports.

They are basic reports based of SQL queries. Nothing fancy, but if you are looking for information rather than glamour, take a look.

They would suggest that !!

Have you looked at using Citect trends and plotting them using process analyst, its a pretty good tool

You don't have to use the historian part of the server, you can just buy Citect reports and just use the Excel and Web reports, it works pretty well and will hook into the Citect trends and instantaneous data to plot graphs and give tabular reports.

I would get yourself on a Citect reprots course, it will give you an understanding of whats possible.

Thank you both for your advice.

I will try and look into Process Analyst for generating reports/trends.

I have checked out Citect Reports as tragically1969 has mentioned, I think since being bought over by Schneider Electric, Citect Reports is not available as a standalone product. It seems to be included in Vijeo Historian.

As for the Citect Reports Course you suggest, are there any available on the internet that I can download and learn from home?

Thanks

I have been looking at other varieties of Scada / historian packages.

What is too expensive - for you

We are at present a system integrator of Schneider Electric. And at the moment the team at our company hasn't got enough knowledge regarding different Scada + Historian packages available.

I've looked into some of the more well known ones such as Wonderware's Intouch, Siemens Win-cc , RS-view and Spider Based Scada of ABB. Apart from the cost of the scada/historian package itself, we will require training and in the current situation we simply cannot afford to get a software person to implement them. therefore we are also implementing schneider's Vijeo Citect ourselves without hiring a software person.

But the problem is that no one at the company including me is good at software, so at present we are trying to work out a skill set required by the software person to come and help us implement the scada software.
And in the long run maybe help us develop a small reporting application. Our Company feels its difficult (I feel the same way, due to the booming software/IT industry) to retain a good software person without paying him a high salary.

check the pricing of - inductive automation - Ignition

adam675 said:

We are at present a system integrator of Schneider Electric. And at the moment the team at our company hasn't got enough knowledge regarding different Scada + Historian packages available.

I've looked into some of the more well known ones such as Wonderware's Intouch, Siemens Win-cc , RS-view and Spider Based Scada of ABB. Apart from the cost of the scada/historian package itself, we will require training and in the current situation we simply cannot afford to get a software person to implement them. therefore we are also implementing schneider's Vijeo Citect ourselves without hiring a software person.

But the problem is that no one at the company including me is good at software, so at present we are trying to work out a skill set required by the software person to come and help us implement the scada software.
And in the long run maybe help us develop a small reporting application. Our Company feels its difficult (I feel the same way, due to the booming software/IT industry) to retain a good software person without paying him a high salary.

Click to expand...

Well as an SI you should get free training places every year when you pay your agreement for support etc.

If you are starting down the Citect route i suggest that you get yourself on a couse ASAP otherwise you are going to have a whole load of pain.

How to Insert Data to SQL Server

I try to insert data in OPC Server to SQL Server but i can't.
i'm using Vijeo Citect 7.20
Can you help me how to do it ?!
thank u a lot !

adam675, check this:
http://www.citect-webhelp.schneider-electric.com/vijeo/AutoMerge/CicodeReferenceWeb/content/SQL_Functions.html

By using Cicode you can store data directly into SQL-server and then fetch it to e.g. Excel report. Certainly, you still need someone who is aware of making SQL queries and VBA code.

The citect historian is sold by point count. So determine what you actually need to report on to get the quote.
What you are paying for is the engine that links it to citect. This allows back filling of lost data by accessing citect trends.
Under the hood historian is mssql so reporting is done using any reporting package that can hit sql. Ms reports for one. From there it is just understanding the table structure.
If you use another product fornreporting you may need to purchase middle ware etc.
Yes you can get citect to write to sql, access, execl etc. But I would guess based on what you have said about your experience with citect, your development time will eat away any savings.

Whoops old post alert