iFIX uses a selective alarm configuration based on alarm areas, which are physical or functional divisions of your plant. An unlimited number of alarm areas are provided to serve as distribution points for alarms and messages. Each of these alarm areas can be custom named to easily identify it within your system. The first 16 alarm areas in iFIX are labeled A through P by default. Each alarm area can then be routed to send alarms and messages to selected alarm destinations.
For example, suppose you have two production lines and want to show all the alarms generated on these lines. You also want to show a separate alarm whenever the level of the tank in either production line falls below a certain level. One way to do this is to create two separate alarm areas called LINES and TANKS. Assign all the blocks that monitor these production lines to LINES and only the blocks that monitor the tanks to TANKS, as shown in the following figure. If an alarm occurs on either line, but not in the tanks, only NODE1 would receive the alarm.
Alarm Areas
For detailed information about alarm routing refer to the Implementing Alarms and Messages manual.
