nxtSTUDIO – Engineering software for all tasks
With the Engineering software several tasks of an automation project are performed simultaneously:
The control logic of the machine/system is programmed and loaded onto a control system or distributed among several control systems
- The associated visualisation for the operation and observation of the machine/system is constructed
- The software application is connected to the real I/O landscape
- The documentation for the project is assembled.
- The planning is supported by numerous functions which facilitate the work and eliminate sources of error.
Two basic procedures are conceivable.
- Planning by means of CATs (prefabricated software objects)
- Planning with self-created software objects
Both variants have their advantages
- Rapid implementation, high quality by using solutions that have proven satisfactory several times
- Flexible implementation, a high degree of individual solution creativity
What is common to both variants is the large-scale re-usability of the solutions.
Extract from the function list / highlights:
- Planning of control engineering, HMI/SCADA, process connection, documentation
- Automated communication between distributed control systems
- Automated communication between control system and HMI
- Multi-client / multi-server visualisation
- Multi-user engineering
- Automatic assembly of the documentation, incl. circuit diagrams with cross references
- Direct data exchange between the control system and SQL databases
- and much more ...
Technology
- Control engineering according to IEC 61499
- Plug-in framework based on .NET
- Storage of the project in standardised XML format
- Programming language Structured Text
- Hardware abstraction with virtual hardware