CN110333861A - A general UI design method for upper computer based on PLC - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a method for designing a general-purpose UI of an upper computer based on PLC. The specific steps include: step 1, first designing the general-purpose UI of the upper computer of the PLC; step 2, designing the content of an Excel table to be loaded by the UI obtained through step 1; step 3. Activate the upper computer software of the PLC, load the Excel table content that needs to be designed in step 2, and complete the update of the internal variable storage value of the upper computer of the PLC. According to the difference of the equipment, the present invention does not need to change the internal program of the UI, only needs to be updated The content of Excel can be reloaded by the PLC host computer without any additional programming, which significantly improves the efficiency of software development.

Description

A general UI design method for upper computer based on PLC

technical field

The invention belongs to the technical field of industrial control software development, and relates to a PLC-based universal UI design method for an upper computer.

Background technique

User Interface (UI for short) is the medium for interaction and information exchange between the system and the user. To operate the hardware to achieve two-way interaction to complete the desired work.

In terms of UI development in the field of industrial automation, the usual practice is to develop a set of host computer software for a device, and the attributes of each object of the host computer are directly connected to the PLC program variables. An object can only display unique text, and the operation of an object Instructions are unique. This leads to the need to modify the host computer program many times when the equipment is replaced or certain control requirements of the equipment change, which brings repetitive and time-consuming labor and prolongs the development cycle; at the same time, some standardized equipment in industrial automation is also urgently needed. A host computer UI that partially satisfies universality is needed.

Contents of the invention

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a general UI design method for upper computer based on PLC, which solves the problem in the traditional upper computer software design that the internal program of the upper computer needs to be frequently updated because of different devices.

The technical scheme adopted in the present invention is, a kind of general UI design method of upper computer based on PLC, concrete steps are as follows:

Step 1, first design the general UI of the upper computer of the PLC;

Step 2, design the content of the Excel table to be loaded by the UI obtained in step 1;

Step 3: activate the upper computer software of the PLC, load the contents of the Excel table that needs to be designed in step 2, and complete the update of the internal variable storage value of the upper computer of the PLC.

The present invention is also characterized in that:

The UI area in step 1 specifically includes:

The device name display area is used to display the name of the currently operating device, and the name display area adopts oval static text;

Device switching area, used to display and select devices;

The device operation button display area is used to display the operation button layout of the current device;

The specific operation steps in the device switching area in step 1 include:

First, set 3 button objects on the general UI of the upper computer of the PLC to display 3 kinds of operable devices. The general UI of the upper computer of the PLC marks the text of each button object. After the general UI of the upper computer of the PLC is running, click The corresponding button can switch the operation mode of the device;

The specific operation steps in the device operation button display area include:

Firstly, buttons with 4 rows and 3 columns are used on the general UI of the upper computer of the PLC, and each device operation button is marked with objects 1 to 12 in turn. After the general UI of the upper computer of the PLC is running, click the device switching button in the device switching area Any one of them can change the internal variable value connected to the device operation button, and the text displayed in Object 1 to Object 12 will be updated to the operation text under the corresponding device;

The design of the content of the Excel table in step 2 is as follows:

First design an Excel table with 12 rows and 5 columns, where the title of the first column is the row number, and the maximum value is 12;

The title name of the second column is the device name, and each device corresponds to a unique name expression. Only the second line has content, which is Chinese characters, and the content of the subsequent lines is empty;

The title name of the third column is the button object, and the values from the 1st to the 12th row are button object 1 to button object 12 in turn;

The title name of the fourth column is the button object text, and the content from the second row is the name of the specific operation command of the device expressed in Chinese characters. The specified Chinese characters are used to display the text of the UI object after the UI is activated and triggered to run;

The title of the fifth column is Status Feedback. Through the communication network, the PLC host computer reads the feedback command of the PLC program, and changes the attribute of the corresponding UI button object in the third column to display the execution status of the object operation command;

The specific operation steps of step 3 are as follows:

Step 3.1, activate the PLC host computer software;

Step 3.2, after the PLC host computer software is activated in step 3.1, judge whether the trigger condition is met. If the trigger condition is not met, on the initial interface of the UI, the device name display area and the device operation button display area are empty;

If the trigger condition is met, the PLC host computer software starts to read in the Excel table content designed for the corresponding equipment, and the PLC host computer software stores the read Excel table content into the program internal variables of the PLC host computer software;

Step 3.3, after processing in step 3.2, the UI interface displays the stored value of the internal variable;

Step 3.4, by switching different device buttons, trigger the operation program of the PLC host computer software, update the UI object text to connect the internal variable value, object 1 to object 12 display the text of the corresponding device, update the internal variable storage value and text of the PLC host computer software Indicates that the update is complete.

The beneficial effect of the present invention is

A PLC-based universal UI design method for upper computer of the present invention, in the face of differentiated equipment control requirements, does not need to change the internal program of the upper computer UI, only needs to update the content of the Excel table according to changes in equipment control requirements, the upper computer Reloading is enough, without any additional programming, the text update based on the same UI interface can be realized. This method makes full use of Excel's convenient and clear features for data management, frees developers from programming, reduces the chance of errors, and significantly improves development efficiency.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a general UI interface structural diagram in a kind of PLC-based host computer general UI design method of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of general UI update display text in a kind of PLC-based host computer general UI design method of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a general UI operation effect of the present invention taking "mud pump" as an example in a PLC-based upper computer general UI design method of the present invention.

In the figure, 1. Device name display area, 2. Device switching area, 3. Device operation button display area.

Detailed ways

The present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

The present invention provides a kind of general UI design method of upper computer based on PLC, and concrete steps are as follows:

Step 1, first design the common UI of the upper computer of the PLC, as shown in Figure 1, the UI area specifically includes:

The device name display area 1 is used to display the name of the currently operating device. The name display area adopts elliptical static text, and the value of the static text is the name of the currently selected operating device. ;

Device switching area 2, used to display and select devices, the specific operation steps include:

First, set 3 button objects on the general UI of the upper computer of the PLC to display 3 kinds of operable equipment. After the UI is running, click the corresponding button to switch the device operation mode. By default, the text labels of the three device switching buttons are device name 1 to device name 3. After the general UI is running, click the corresponding button to switch the device operation mode, the background color property of the button changes at the same time, indicating that the device is currently selected;

The device operation button display area 3 is used to display the operation button layout of the current device. The specific operation steps of the device operation button display area 3 include:

Firstly, buttons with 4 rows and 3 columns are used on the common UI of the upper computer of the PLC, and each device operation button is marked with objects 1 to 12 in turn. After the general UI of the upper computer of the PLC is running, click the device switch in the device switching area 2 Any one of the buttons can change the internal variable value connected to the device operation button, and the text displayed by Object 1 to Object 12 is updated to the operation text under the corresponding device;

Step 2, design the content of the Excel table to be loaded by the UI obtained in step 1, first design an Excel table with 12 rows and 5 columns, as shown in Table 1, where:

Table 1 The content of the Excel form designed by the technical scheme of the present invention

The title name of the first column is the row number, and the maximum value is 12;

The title name of the second column is the device name, and each device corresponds to a unique name expression. Only the second line has content, which is Chinese characters, and the content of the subsequent lines is empty;

The title name of the third column is the button object, and the values from the 1st to the 12th row are button object 1 to button object 12 in turn;

The title name of the fourth column is the button object text, and the content from the second row is the name of the specific operation command of the device expressed in Chinese characters. The specified Chinese characters are used to display the text of the UI object after the UI is activated and triggered to run;

The title of the fifth column is Status Feedback, which is a part of the program variable of the PLC host computer. Through the communication network, the PLC host computer reads the feedback command of the PLC program and changes the attribute of the corresponding UI button object in the third column to display the object operation. The execution status of the command, for example, the background color of the UI object here is green, indicating that the device is running;

Step 3: Activate the PLC upper computer software, load the Excel table content that needs to be designed in step 2, and complete the update of the internal variable storage value of the PLC upper computer. After the PLC upper computer software is activated, load the Excel sheets of different devices according to the trigger conditions , to complete the update of the storage value of the internal variable of the host computer, and the UI itself does not need to be changed. As shown in Figure 2, the specific operation steps are as follows:

Step 3.1, activate the PLC host computer software;

Step 3.2, after the PLC host computer software is activated in step 3.1, judge whether the trigger condition is met. If the trigger condition is not met, on the initial interface of the UI, the device name display area 1 and the device operation button display area 3 are empty, that is, all should be displayed The text of the text UI object is not displayed at the moment;

If the trigger conditions are met, according to the programming rules, the program script of the PLC host computer is triggered, and the PLC host computer software starts to read the contents of the Excel table designed for the corresponding equipment, and the PLC host computer software stores the read Excel table content into the PLC host computer In the program internal variables of the software;

Step 3.3, after processing in step 3.2, the UI interface displays the stored value of the internal variable;

Step 3.4, by switching different device buttons, trigger the operation program of the PLC host computer software, update the UI object text to connect the internal variable value, object 1 to object 12 display the text of the corresponding device, update the internal variable storage value and text of the PLC host computer software Indicates that the update is complete.

According to the detailed description of the technical solution adopted in the present invention above, enumerate embodiment:

The example equipment is "mud pump", and its Excel table design is shown in Table 2:

Table 2 Contents of the Excel table designed for mud pump equipment

The Excel table design features of the "mud pump" equipment are as follows:

(1) The row number of the first column is 12;

(2) The name of the equipment in the second column is "mud pump", and the contents of the subsequent columns are empty;

(3) The contents of the third column "button and handle objects" are object 1 to object 12 in sequence;

(4) The "button and handle object text" in the fourth column arranges the content of the target line according to the device control requirements. In some cases, due to the length and width restrictions of the UI object, a single line cannot fully display the font and needs to be divided into lines, so in the text Add "\r" (line break in computer language) to the string, such as "pump stop\r resume" in line 2;

(5) The fifth column "status feedback", according to the control requirements, use the PLC feedback command to change the object attributes with status display requirements; but not all operation commands require feedback. For example, after the PLC in column 5 receives the operation command, if the command is executed normally, the PLC will feed back the status of command execution "Pump1Start_STA" to the host computer, and the host computer uses the status feedback command to change the attribute of object 5, such as the background color turns green.

After the design of the Excel form of the equipment is completed, the host computer needs to be loaded. After the software of the PLC host computer is activated, the Excel form of the "mud pump" equipment is loaded according to the trigger conditions. The operation effect of the general UI is shown in Figure 3. Among them,

Equipment name display area 1, the static text is displayed as "mud pump";

In equipment switching area 2, among the three equipment name switching buttons, the UI text of equipment name 1 displays "mud pump", the UI text of equipment name 2 displays "cat road", and the UI text of equipment name 3 displays empty, because the current selection The most important is "mud pump". The surface of this button is displayed in a black frame according to the feedback from the PLC, so as to distinguish it from other buttons.

In equipment operation button area 3, the UI text of objects 1 to 12 displays the contents of column 4 in Table 2 in sequence. After the text is displayed, you can operate the external button to send an operation command, such as clicking the external button corresponding to "No. 1 pump start" After the PLC receives the operation command, it will feed back the status display command "Pump1Start_STA" to the host computer according to the program. The surface of the button is added with a black rectangular frame, and the background color attribute is green to distinguish it from other buttons.

The technical solution of the present invention adopts the connection between the internal variable and the attribute of the UI, and indirectly connects the peripheral PLC program variable and the object UI attribute through the bond function of the internal variable, and then only needs to update the stored value of the internal variable according to the difference of the equipment, and this According to the trigger conditions adopted in the technical solution of the invention, the upper computer loads Excel of different devices, and stores the content of Excel into the internal variable, which is to update the stored value of the internal variable.

Claims (6)

1. a kind of general UI design method of host computer based on PLC, which is characterized in that specific step is as follows:

Step 1, the general UI of host computer of PLC is designed first；

Step 2, the Excel table content that the UI that design is obtained through step 1 need to be loaded；

Step 3, the upper computer software of PLC is activated, load need to complete the upper of PLC through the Excel table content that step 2 designs The update of machine built-in variable storage value.

2. the general UI design method of a kind of host computer based on PLC according to claim 1, which is characterized in that the step The region UI specifically includes in rapid 1:

Device name viewing area (1), for showing the device name of current operation, the title viewing area is static using ellipse Text；

Equipment switch area (2), for showing and selecting equipment；

Equipment operation button viewing area (3), for showing that the operation button of current device is arranged.

3. the general UI design method of a kind of host computer based on PLC according to claim 2, which is characterized in that the step The concrete operation step of equipment switch area (2) includes: in rapid 1

3 button objects are set first on the general UI of the host computer of PLC shows 3 kinds of manipulable equipment, the host computer of PLC The text of each button object is marked in general UI, and after the general UI operation of the host computer of PLC, clicking corresponding button can be cut Change the equipment operation mode.

4. the general UI design method of a kind of host computer based on PLC according to claim 2, which is characterized in that described to set Include: for operation button viewing area (3) concrete operation step

Using the button of 4 rows 3 column first on the general UI of the host computer of PLC, each equipment is successively marked with 1~object of object 12 Operation button clicks any one of the equipment switching push button in equipment switch area (2) after the general UI operation of the host computer of PLC, The built-in variable value of changeable equipment operation button connection, the text that 1~object of object 12 is shown are updated under corresponding equipment Operate text.

5. the general UI design method of a kind of host computer based on PLC according to claim 2, which is characterized in that the step The design of Excel table content is specific as follows in rapid 2:

The Excel table of 12 rows 5 column is designed first, wherein the 1st entitled line number of column heading, numerical value are up to 12；

The 2nd entitled device name of column heading, each equipment correspond to the statement of unique title, only the second row has content, are Chinese character, subsequent rows content are sky；

The 3rd entitled button object of column heading is followed successively by 1~button object of button object 12 from the 1st~12 line number value；

The entitled button object text of 4th column heading, content, which is followed successively by, since the 2nd row has with Chinese character come the equipment indicated The title of body operational order, the text that specified Chinese character is used to show UI activation, triggers postrun UI object；

The entitled state feedback of 5th column heading, by communication network, PLC host computer reads the feedback command of PLC program, changes 3rd arranges the attribute of corresponding UI button object, to show the execution state of Object Operations order.

6. the general UI design method of a kind of host computer based on PLC according to claim 2, which is characterized in that the step Rapid 3 specific steps are as follows:

Step 3.1, PLC upper computer software is activated；

Step 3.2, PLC upper computer software judges whether to meet trigger condition after step 3.1 activation, if being unsatisfactory for triggering item Part, in the initial interface of UI, device name viewing area (1) and equipment operation button viewing area (3) are sky；

If meeting trigger condition, PLC upper computer software starts to read in the Excel table content for corresponding equipment design, and PLC is upper Machine software will be in the program built-in variable of the Excel table content deposit PLC upper computer software of reading；

Step 3.3, after step 3.2 processing, the storage value of UI interface display built-in variable；

Step 3.4, by switching different device buttons, the operation sequence of PLC upper computer software is triggered, UI object text updates Built-in variable value is connected, 1~object of object 12 shows the text of corresponding equipment, and PLC upper computer software built-in variable storage value is more The display of new and text, which updates, to be terminated.