Overview: About the I/O Driver Power Tool

The OPC Client I/O Driver Power Tool is your main configuration utility for setting up and maintaining the OPC Client I/O driver. It provides a means to specify the properties of servers, groups, and items.

Features

The Power Tool provides:

  • The Templates dialog box for specifying server, group, and item defaults.
  • The Setup dialog box for defining the default name and default path for configuration files.
  • The Server Connection dialog box for connecting to a remote or local I/O Server.
  • The Tree Browser for an overall view of your system configuration.
  • The Device Browser dialog box for adding multiple items to a group.
  • The Database Tag dialog box for adding existing items to the Process Database.
  • The Find dialog box for searching for a server, group or item in the Tree Browser.
  • The ability to alphabetically sort groups and items in the Tree Browser.
  • A statistics mode for displaying the statistics of your I/O driver while it is running. Statistics are provided for all levels: driver, server, group, and item.
  • A configuration mode for displaying and modifying driver, server, group, and item properties.

Access Methods

From the iFIX Program Group:

  1. Select Programs.
  2. From the Programs menu, select Dynamics or iFIX.
  3. Select OPC Power Tool from the menu that appears.

From the iFIX Process Database:

  • From the Drivers menu, choose OPC.

From the iFIX System Configuration Utility (SCU):

  1. From the Configure menu, choose SCADA.
  2. From the Configured I/O Drivers list box, double-click your driver.

When you first start the Power Tool, the Server Connection dialog box appears. This dialog box is where you choose the server that the Power Tool communicates with. You can choose either the Local Server (on your computer) or a Remote Server (on the network).

When you choose a server, the I/O Driver Power Tool attempts to connect to the server. If the connection is successful, a message appears telling you that the connection is established. Then the main window of the Power Tool appears. This window comprises:

By default, the following additional components also appear:

You can show or hide any of the components by selecting a command from the View menu. You can also customize the Power Tool’s appearance by dragging the toolbars or the Tree Browser to the location you want. For example, you can make the toolbars or the Tree Browser float above the Power Tool by dragging them to the center of the screen. Later, you can dock them or resize them, as needed.

See Also