Layout and Functions of the BACnet Engineering Explorer

The BACnet Engineering Explorer consists of the following areas:

Tree View of found/created BACnet devices
Tabular List of BACnet devices or device's objects
Filter Settings
Log Output

Tree View

The Tree View shows all created BACnet Devices. Depending on whether or not a device has already been browsed for objects, two different state-icons are shown:

- Device has been created in WinCC OA, but does not contain any objects

- Device and objects have been created in WinCC OA

Most of the tasks of the BACnet Engineering Explorer are executed via its context menu. If general tasks are needed, such as browsing for devices, these are executed via the context menu of the tree root. If the needed tasks are device-specific, such as browsing for objects, these are executed via the context menu of the relevant device.

The tasks of the both context menus are described separately below.

Context menu of the tree root

A right mouse-click on the tree root opens the context menu (see figure below).

Browse BACnet Bus

Browses the BACnet network for BACnet devices and lists the found devices in the table on the right. For details see Browse for Devices (online).

Create a New Device

Opens the BACnet driver configuration panel for creating and configuring a BACnet device. For details, see WinCC OA Online Help - Drivers -> BACnet -> Configuration of the BACnet Driver.

Search EDE File for Devices

Searches an EDE file for BACnet devices and lists the found devices in the table on the right. For details see Browse for Devices (offline).

Context menu of a created device

The context menu of a created device offers options for browsing/importing new objects and their properties, or for specifying detail information of a device.

Figure 3. Context menu of the device example "AS01"

Import EDE File

Imports the device information (objects) from an EDE file. See Browsing Devices (offline).

Browse Device

Imports the device information (objects) from the BACnet network. See Browsing Devices (online).

Generate Objects in Device

Opens a window, which provides the creation of an unparameterized object in the corresponding BACnet device:

Enter the name for the object in the "Object name" input field.

Choose in the "Type" check box an object type for which the new object should be created.

Note:

The creation of new objects does only work with limitations and depends on the BACnet device. In an error case an appropriate error message is shown in the log viewer.

The instance ID of the object can be defined in the Instance number group. You can choose between automatic assignment (the next free instance ID is selected) or manual assignment. To assign the instance ID manually, enter the desired instance ID for the object to be created in the Instance input field. Note that the selection of an instance ID for an object type must be consecutive. This means that if three objects of the type "TrendLog" have already been created with instance IDs 1 to 3, instance ID 4 must be selected when creating a new object of the same type.

Click the "Start" button to start the creation process.

If in the table of the Engineering Explorer on the right BACnet objects, which do not exist in the BACnet device, are present (for example, because the imported EDE file had additional objects, which are not present in the device), then it is possible to create the objects in the device (not only in the WinCC OA database) by right-clicking the corresponding object row in the table and selecting the context menu option "Create Object in Device".

Note:

When creating a new object a check is carried out whether the individual properties are actually supported by the device. If a property is not supported, the address of its _address config is inactive.

Device Details

Opens the corresponding faceplate of the device (see also BACnet_Device).

Change of Password for Device

Opens a dialog in which the password can be changed. The password is required if the commands that are sent to the BACnet device have a predefined password and therefore sending commands is only permitted if this password is known. This password corresponds to the password defined in the WinCC OA driver configuration panel.

Tabular List of devices/objects

This table of the BACnet Engineering Explorer lists either the offline/online BACnet devices found or the offline/online objects of a device found. The background color of a device/object found, shown here in the table, indicates the state of the device/object:

- device/object has already been created and thus it exists in WinCC OA.

- device/object exists only in the network, device, EDE file respectively. It can be created in WinCC OA.

- device/object exists in WinCC OA, but not in the network, device, EDE file, respectively, and thus it should be deleted.

- the found object already exists in another device or EDE file. Each object must have a unique name.

The following information on a found object are given in the table after a device/EDE file has been browsed.:

"Type" - object type
"Name" - object name
"Description"
"State"
"Value" - present value
"Unit"

Double-click on an object/device from the table to open the corresponding faceplate. The faceplate contains all information that is also available in WinCC OA(for detailed information on a specific faceplate, see the object-specific chapter - Overview Tables of BACnet Object Types).

Meaning of the buttons below the Tabular List

Refreshes the Tree View. This is needed in some cases when the refresh is not executed automatically, e.g. after creating a new device.

Selects all positions (objects/devices) in the table.

Deselects all items (objects/devices) in the table.

Deletes the selected device/object from the table and WinCC OA.

Filter Settings

Using the filter settings above the tabular list of devices or objects, it is possible to display only selected devices or objects in the table.

Filtering is carried out with the help of wildcards, which can be placed before or after the search criterion, or with the help of predefined filters, which can be selected from the corresponding combo boxes in the filter settings. After pressing the Enter key, the table is filtered according to the entered search criterion.

Supported wildcards

Wildcards that are supported in the filter settings are "*", "?" and brackets "[]".

The "*" before or behind the searching criterion defines that any characters may stand before or behind the searching criterion (also none).

The "?" stands for exactly one character before or behind the searching criterion.

The square brackets specify that one of the characters specified in the brackets must be given.

All searching criterion specifications are case sensitive.

As an example the following objects with the following names are available in a device: Temperature, Room Temperature, Rated Value Temp., Fire Detector, Entrance Door and Ventilation.


Example of a searching criterion	Displayed results	Statement
*	Temperature Room Temperature Rated Value Temp. Fire Detector Entrance Door Ventilation	All objects are displayed.
*r	Fire Detector Entrance Door	The searching criterion defines that the "R" character must stand at the last position. The number and type of characters before is arbitrary.
R	Rated Value Temp. Room Temperature	The searching criterion defines that the "R" character must stand either at any position or at first position.
R*	Rated Value Temp. Room Temperature
*Temp?	Rated Value Temp.	The searching criterion defines that any number of characters can stand before the "Temp" searching criterion and only one arbitrary character behind.
Temp???????	Temperature	The searching criterion defines that none characters may stand before the "Temp" searching criterion and exactly 6 characters behind.
[RV]*	Room Temperature Rated Value Temp. Ventilation	The searching criterion defines that either the "R" character or the "V" character may stand and the first position.
empty	-	If nothing is defined as the searching criterion, no objects are displayed.

Depending on whether present/found devices or present/found objects are listed in the table the following filter settings can be set:

Filter settings for present devices

In the filter settings for present devices every given column can be filtered separately (excepting "Type", as it is always the same: "Device"). As there are only two possible states for the "State" column the only two offered filter settings are here "offline" and "online".

Filter settings for present objects

In the filter settings for present objects it is possible to filter the "Name" column for the entered searching criterion.

Filter settings for found devices

In EDE file:

In the filter settings for found devices from an EDE file, the table can be filtered for the name of the device and the state (already created or not) of the EDE device. The following filter criteria can be chosen from the combo box:

Show all BACnet objects - all devices are shown, which have been found in the EDE file
Show only objects from EDE file - only these devices are shown, which have been found in the EDE file and have not been created in WinCC OA yet
Show only engineered objects - only these devices are shown, which have been found in the EDE file and have already been created (and parameterized) in WinCC OA

In BACnet network:

In the filter settings for found devices in the BACnet network can be filtered for the vendor of the device and its ID.

Filter settings for found objects

In EDE file:

In the filter settings for found objects from an EDE file, the table can be filtered for the name of the object and the state (already created or not) of the EDE object. The following filter criteria can be chosen from the combo box:

Show all BACnet objects - all objects are shown, which have been found in the EDE file
Show only objects from EDE file - only these objects are shown, which have been found in the EDE file and have not been created in WinCC OA yet
Show only engineered objects - only these objects are shown, which have been found in the EDE file and have already been created (and parameterized) in WinCC OA

In BACnet network:

In the filter settings for found objects in the BACnet network it is possible to filter for the object name and the state of the object. The following filter criterium can be selected from the combo box:

Show all BACnet objects - all objects are shown, which have been found in the BACnet network for this device
Show only objects in Device and not in WinCC OA - all objects are shown, which have been found in the BACnet network for this device, but they do not exist in WinCC OA yet
Show only objects in WinCC OA and not in Device - all objects are shown, which have been found for this device in WinCC OA
Show only duplicate objects - all objects are shown that have duplicates (note that the WinCC OA BACnet Application assumes that the names of the objects are unique in one device. If the same name is used for two objects in one BACnet device, only the object that was found first will be loaded).
Show only engineered objects - only objects that have been engineered (parameterized) in WinCC OA are shown

Log Output

The Log Output informs the user about the start and end of executed processes that are carried out in the BACnet Engineering Explorer, as well as about possible failures.

All logs from the Log Output are saved in the BACnet_Engineering.log file (<C:\Siemens\Automation\WinCC_OA\3.18\ _project>\data).

Meaning of the buttons below the Log Output

Clears the Log Output.

Opens an editor for editing the entries in the Log Output.

File Name	Description
Description of EDE2 2 Spreadsheet.pdf	Description of the data fields in an EDE file.
EDEexample_complete.xls	Excel file containing a complete EDE file example.
EDEexample_EDE.csv	Example of the "EDE" worksheet - contains project information and a datapoint list.
EDEexample_ObjTypes.csv	Example of the "Object-Types" worksheet - contains a list of supported BACnet object types.
EDEexample_StateTexts.csv	Example of the "State-Texts" worksheet - contains information on the state texts that are used for binary and multi-state objects.
EDEexample_Units.csv	Example of the "Unit-Texts" worksheet - contains a list of supported BACnet engineering units that are used for analog objects..

Layout and Functions of the BACnet Engineering Explorer

Types of Engineering

Online Engineering

Offline Engineering