Programming software claims design cycle savings
A
Rockwell Automation product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Aug 6, 2002
Two new IEC61131-3 design editors can substantially reduce the programming time required in setting up any automated system.
Accounting for around 80% of the time needed to implement an automated system, programming is a major burden for industrial OEMs, system integrators and end users alike.
To reduce the engineering resources required for this task, Rockwell Automation has added new IEC61131-3 design editors - Sequential Function Chart (SFC) and Structured Text (ST) - to Rockwell Software RSLogix 5000 programming software.
Combined with two existing editors and other industry-leading features, RSLogix 5000 can help reduce design cycle times by 25% and cut programming costs by as much as 40%.
"Using RSLogix 5000, our customers can create modular re-usable code", said Richard Sturt, ACIG marketing manager.
"The powerful RSLogix 5000 development environment allows our customers to save engineering time and develop more structured programs.
This is a major benefit to OEMs, system integrators and end users".
SFC is a graphical language used to organise the flow and control of complex, multitiered operations.
SFC graphically depicts the individual steps in a given process, and provides a diagnostic check to determine when each has been completed.
SFC is ideal for applications like sequencing a machine's states (for equipment with repetitive operations), managing programs and routines for batch processes and executing motion or robotic control.
ST, in contrast, is a high-level, text-based editor with constructs typically found in modern programming languages like Basic.
Augmented by built-in instruction blocks, ST permits easy modelling of multipass loop operations to perform repetitive processing and conditional branching.
This is useful for protocol manipulation such as extracting the weight value out of a string of characters received from a weigh scale.
In addition, programmers use ST for complex mathematical calculations, embedded motion control functions and algorithms requiring the inclusion of process/drive functions, among other applications.
Joined by Ladder Diagram and Function Block Diagram, the existing RSLogix 5000 programming languages, SFC and ST form a complete palette of editors - allowing users to choose the capabilities and services that best fit each application.
This helps simplify the design process and, consequently, decreases the time it takes to program a system.
RSLogix 5000 is the programming and development software for the Logix family of controllers, which includes the Allen-Bradley ControlLogix, CompactLogix, FlexLogix SoftLogix and DriveLogix platforms.
RSLogix 5000 version 11.0, with SFC and ST editors, will be available in the third quarter of 2002.
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