Layout and Functions of the BACnet Engineering Explorer

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 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 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

Create a device manually without browsing. Selecting this entry will open a child panel where the device instance number of the device to be created can be entered. Additional configuration parameter can be set by using the context menu of the device after it is added to the tree.

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.

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 a not configured object in the corresponding BACnet device:

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

In the Type check box, select an object type for which the new object is to be created.

Note:

The creation of new objects only works to a limited extent and and is dependent on the BACnet device. In the event of an error, a corresponding error message is displayed 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: An instance ID that does not yet exist must be selected, otherwise the creation will fail.

Click on the Start button to start the creation process.

If there are BACnet objects in the Engineering Explorer table on the right-hand side that do not exist in the BACnet device, it is possible to create the objects in the device (not only in the WinCC OA database) by right-clicking on the corresponding object line in the table and selecting the context menu item Create Object in Device.

Device Details

Opens the corresponding faceplate of the device.

Change of Password for Device

Opens a dialog that allows the password to be changed. The password is needed when the commands that are sent to the BACnet device have a predefined password and thus the sending of commands is only allowed if this password is known. This password equates to the password that has been 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 found device/object, which is displayed here in the table, shows the status of the device/object.

- Device/object has already been created and therefore exists in WinCC OA.

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

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

The following information about a found object is provided 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.

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.

De-selects all positions (objects/devices) in the table.

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

Filter Settings

With the aid of the filter settings above the tabular list of devices or objects it is possible to shown only selective devices or objects in the table.

The filtering takes place using wildcards, which can be set before or behind the searching criterion, or with the aid of predefined filters, which can be selected in the corresponding combo boxes of the filter settings. Once the Enter key was pressed the table is filtered according to the entered searching criterion.

Supported wildcards

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

The "*" before or after the search criterion defines that any characters may be placed before or after the search criterion (including none).

The "?" stands for exactly one character before or after the search criterion.

The square brackets indicate that one of the characters specified in the brackets must be present.

All search criterion entries are case-sensitive.

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

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

• Show all BACnet objects - all devices found in the EDE file are displayed
• Show only objects from EDE file- only those devices are displayed that are found in the EDE file and have not yet been created in WinCC OA
• Show only engineered objects - only those devices are displayed that were found in the EDE file and that have already been created (and configured) in WinCC OA

In BACnet network

In the filter settings for devices found in the BACnet network, you can filter according to the manufacturer of the device and its ID

Filter settings for found objects

In EDE file

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

• Show all BACnet objects - all objects found in the EDE file are displayed
• Show only objects from EDE file- only those objects are displayed that were found in the EDE file and have not yet been created in WinCC OA
• Show only engineered objects - only those objects are displayed that were found in the EDE file and have already been created (and configured) in WinCC OA

In BACnet network

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

• Show all BACnet objects - all objects found in the BACnet network for this device are displayed

• Show only objects in Device and not in WinCC OA - all objects are displayed that were found in the BACnet network for this device but are not yet available in WinCC OA

• Show only objects in WinCC OA and not in Device - all objects found for this device in WinCC OA are displayed

• Show only duplicate objects -all objects that have duplicates are displayed (note that the WinCC OA BACnet application assumes that the names of the objects in a device are unique. If the same name is used for two objects in a BACnet device, only the object found first is loaded).

• Show only engineered objects - only objects that have been created (configured) in WinCC OA are displayed

Log Output

The log output informs the user about the start and end of processes executed in the BACnet Engineering Explorer, as well as about possible errors.s.

All logs from the Log Output are saved in the BACnet_Engineering.log file (<C:\Siemens\Automation\WinCC_OA\3.20\ _project>\data).