How hard is it to program Time of Day controls in InTouch?

[Saffa]

What you've described is easily achievable in Wonderware System Platform. It's object oriented to the core. "Classic" Intouch not so much, although you could get most of the way there with symbols and some thought put into tag names.

Why use a package like that? Well maybe you're not just working with one type of PLC. Maybe you've got several different brands. So you buy SP and get access to a dozen different IO servers and a world-class historian. Maybe your system includes sites on unreliable links and you need local caching of historical data.

System Platform and classic Intouch both work very well with Rockwell PLCs. And Schneider PLCs. And probably a host of others I've never had to try. But as with anything, if you don't have training and experience with a system then it's going to be a lot harder to build an effective and elegant solution.

 

[SandwichMagic]

This is a bit off-topic, but why would anyone use In-Touch with Rockwell systems as opposed to Rockwell HMIs? FactoryTalk View?

Our only Panelviews came from OEM's who spec it. We use WonderWare with ArchestrA built in for a couple different reasons. Since we just use thin clients, it's quite a bit cheaper to replace if it breaks compared to panelviews. The other problem is that in the event of one breaking, replacing it with a new panelview can sometimes be problematic, they always seem to have different version numbers and of course none of those are compatible. We also just like some specific functions in WonderWare and have got pretty good at it. Too invested to switch I suppose. But I might have just had a bad experience with Rockwell HMIs, to each their own.