Product category:
Mid-range and Large PLCs
News Release from: Rockwell Automation | Subject: RSWire V4
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 05 September 2001
Towards automating the design of control
systems
Rockwell Automation's new RSWire V4 is a significantly improved version of its electrical design and documentation package, now operating within AutoCAD 2000 and AutoCAD 14
Rockwell Automation introduces RSWire V4, a significantly improved version of its market leading electrical design and documentation package Tailored to meet the needs of engineers, designers, installers and users of electrical control systems, it replaces the drawing board, mechanical CAD and electronic schematic software
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 8 Aug 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Now operating within AutoCAD 2000 and AutoCAD 14, RSWire V4 has open object model for Visual Basic or Visual C++ scripting.
This enables users to write their own supplements to the program using industry standard programming tools.
These tools can be used to completely automate the design and documentation of control systems.
For example, using a custom VBA front end, a tendering engineer can call up standard circuits, 'macros' in RSWire, from a database and use them to create building blocks for the project.
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Devices within these standard circuits can have part numbers automatically added depending on criteria selected by the engineer, such as, the manufacturer to be used, voltage or rating.
Minor changes or alterations can be made manually by the engineer, using the front end to ensure the project is correct and complete.
This data is held in a database and can then be used to create an accurate tender for the project including detailed device and labour costs, together with times for assembly.
The same data can then be used to automatically create detailed schematic diagrams, including intelligent information such as part numbers, cross-referencing and wire-numbers.
The associated documentation for manufacturing, purchasing and commissioning is then generated automatically.
By using VBA to execute commands in RSWire, the design and documentation of the control system can be fully automated from the tendering stage, right through to manufacturing and final documents.
A number of large System Integrators are already taking advantage of this highly integrated and flexible technology to raise their productivity levels and provide a competitive edge.
Another example of VBA being used to automate RSWire is RSWire I/O Builder.
This is a new tool for use with RSWire Designer and Detailer for AutoCAD.
It tightly integrates RSLogix and RSWire to automatically create PLC I/O schematics and provide an automatic bi-directional interface for sharing Tag databases.
RSWire project data is now managed in a Microsoft Access database.
Each project has an mdb database file that contains the RSWire intelligence for the entire project.
This makes it simpler for custom VBA applications to be written for RSWire.
It also allows multiple users to edit the same project simultaneously, with real time updating of cross- references.
Database related reports can be easily formatted in MS Access allowing easy integration with purchasing, stock and other business systems.
Perhaps the best new feature, though, is the Power Editor.
With this, the user can display a pop up menu with a further object specific menu.
For example, right clicking on a symbol will bring up a menu allowing editing of the symbol properties such as the device ID, part number or connection point.
This will greatly reduce the number of key strokes required whilst engineering the project.
Most dialogue boxes can now be re-sized on-line.
This gives greater flexibility in customising the look and feel of individual menus.
Search the language database buttons have now been added to most dialogue boxes.
This enables the user to quickly select a text phrase from the database to use on a design and this will automatically be translated upon request.
When creating a new project, the user can now select the parts database to be used enabling customer specific databases to be used.
It is also possible to copy set-up parameters from an existing project into the new one, ensuring a common look and feel to all projects.
The RSWire navigator functions have been expanded so that any symbol can be located on the drawing quickly and easily.
There are many new and improved functions in RSWire V4.
Many of these are in response to user requests, who although delighted with the performance of the existing program, have indicated areas they would like to see expanded and improved.
RSWire is now even further ahead of the competition and provides the ultimate design and documentation package for designers and users of electrical equipment, whether from Rockwell Automation or other suppliers. Request a free brochure from Rockwell Automation ...
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