Create a New Faceplate

To create a new faceplate, follow these steps:

1. Modify an existing sample faceplate.

Or:

Create a copy of an existing faceplate.

Or:

Create a new page in Graphics Builder using the "faceplate" template in the required resolution.

Note: The sample faceplates use a specific set of items to display controls at runtime. You can build your faceplate using these items, which are listed in the topics that describe the faceplates for meters, drives and valves.

2. Save your page.
3. Go to Citect Studio.
4. In Visualization activity | Pages, set the Content Type for the above page to "FP". Content of this type will automatically display in the Faceplate Zone of the workspace.
5. Click Save.
6. In Citect Studio, System Model activity | Equipment, locate the equipment for which you are creating the faceplate.
7. Add the name of the page you created earlier to the Content field for the equipment. It can include a comma separated list.
8. Click Save.

Note: User interaction with faceplates is achieved through command tags (items) associated with the various components of a faceplate. Items are listed in the individual faceplate topic. Buttons on a faceplate are designed to support this interaction. However, tags in Citect SCADA need to be mapped to the tags that you have configured on your PLCs. For example, tags for starting a drive (StartCmd) and displaying its status (CtrlMode) available in Citect SCADA. Similarly, tags for starting the drive and displaying its status would exist on your PLC. These two sets of tags need to mapped to each other for the buttons on the drive faceplate to work. If the mapping is not created, buttons on the faceplates will not function. Refer to the example below to understand how this works.

Example

This example illustrates how tags are used to achieve interaction with faceplates.

The CtrlModeDef tag sets the default mode of operation for a piece of equipment. If you set this tag to 0 for a pump, the default mode of a pump will be Auto. That is indicated on the faceplate by a rectangle in the top-right corner of the Auto button on the faceplate as shown below.

The CtrlMode tag represents the current mode for a piece of equipment. If the CtrlModeDef (default) and CrtlMode (current) have different values, the current mode will be displayed in green. For example, the CtrlModeDef = 0 (Auto) and the CtrlMode = 1 (Manual), the Manual button will be displayed in green. Clicking the Manual button will set the ManCmd tag to 1.

If the pump is not running, the Start button will also be displayed in green to allow you to manually start the pump. If the pump is running, the Stop button will be green allowing you to manually stop the pump. The Auto button will continue to display the rectangle to indicate that it is the default mode. Note that the Start and Stop buttons are available only when the mode is Manual.

Note: Clicking any button will set its <name>Cmd tag to 1. For example, clicking the Manual button will set ManCmd to 1.

When you click one of the buttons, a circle will appear in the top-left corner to indicate that a command (Start in the above image) has been sent to the PLC mapped to the corresponding tags. Once the Start command is completed, the circle will disappear as the PLC sets StartCmd to 0 (or StopCmd to 0 in case you clicked the Stop button). In addition, the PLC sets the value of the Running tag to 1 (Stopped tag if you clicked the Stop button). When you click Stop, the value of the Stopped tag is 1.

See Also

Published June 2018