Deep OA Product Insight http://www.oaprofessor.info/ 2026-05-13T15:33:20+00:00 http://www.oaprofessor.info/ http://www.oaprofessor.info/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=wiki:dokuwiki.svg text/html 2021-10-26T18:25:00+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=alertfiltering&rev=1635272700&do=diff Most of the time people like the concept that the alert banner or the alarm screen (AEScreen) shows the most recent alarms for the entire system. What if you wanted to see only alarms from a certain system in a distributed network? This is really very easy, there are internal data points under the DPT: _AESProperties. text/html 2021-10-26T18:18:00+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=alertinternaldp&rev=1635272280&do=diff The Alarm system in WinCC OA conforms to international standards for alarm management. The standards do not specify a lot of details about how the alarm system must look for the operator and this is a common request for custom layout. WinCC OA provides a number of tools to create and customize the AES screen, but it is not well documented. text/html 2021-10-26T18:24:07+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=alertscreentopology&rev=1635272647&do=diff In some projects, customers do not like the alarm/alert screen as a popup. These customers would prefer that the alert screen act like any other navigation and be part of the topology. * Turn off alert panel on top. System Management->Settings->Central Settings text/html 2021-10-26T18:25:26+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=asciifileedits&rev=1635272726&do=diff The ability to do “massconfiguration” is a unique and powerful tool in WinCC OA. Most people use the MaPara addin for Excel and that works great. Many times, the ASCII manager panel can be just a useful to export all the descriptions and/or alarm text for a complete class of data point. This type of edit ensures consistency in the alarm messages. Using the text/html 2022-08-11T16:41:19+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=autologinpanel&rev=1660236079&do=diff NOTE: this method does not appear to work when using -ssa on 3.17+ Some use cases have the OA client auto start to a user which has limited security privileges. In these cases, the UI should start without a login dialog, but auto login with a “safe text/html 2019-11-25T22:52:26+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=backupbuiltin&rev=1574722346&do=diff Watch out, there are 3 different backup things in OA and they need to each be in their own directories. * Value archives, long term trending storage (each one setup independently) * alert archive, if you initialize the folder, it will delete everything (all folders under that will be erased) text/html 2022-08-03T13:46:26+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=backupyourbackups&rev=1659534386&do=diff Sometimes we make some fun subroutines. Here is a control manager script that takes the backup folder that OA makes (if you set it up) and makes a copy every day so you have 365 versions of your project somewhere. It then will reuse the folder name for next year. text/html 2021-10-26T18:25:55+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=bettersimulators&rev=1635272755&do=diff A useful feature is the Simulator objects in the graphics library (ramp, sine, and random). They can pump data into your system for testing, etc. I find it useful to make them start automatically rather than having to click on the little box to get them started. Sadly, the internal object names are slightly different, but easy to lookup by right click text/html 2021-10-26T18:27:56+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=checkboxsize&rev=1635272876&do=diff If your UI is using larger fonts (i.e. size 18 or bigger), you will notice that the box for the checkbox object is pretty small. This is a default size and is fixed by the stylesheet for OA. The way to fix such things is to define a special stylesheet and redefine some of the object properties. text/html 2019-11-25T23:08:13+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=deleteoldlogfiles&rev=1574723293&do=diff In rare occasions, we may need to remove files which are older than a particular date. This might be log file, Value Archive backups, etc. Always be careful about removing files unless you really understand the way the system is managing them. There are some cool batch file techniques in Windows. You can create a .bat or .cmd file that is added to the Windows Scheduler and gets triggered at some time interval like weeks or months. Inside this file is where the magic is. text/html 2021-07-20T18:15:33+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=desktop_ui_redundancy&rev=1626804933&do=diff When using Desktop UI, you should always start with the tool that is added when you installed the Desktop UI. See Help->WinCC OA UI->Desktop UI->Requirement and Installation. This tool will get a quick connection started for you. Follow the help to add a connection. Once you have successfully tested this connection, it will replace the generic name with the project name. If you right click on that item in the list, you can text/html 2023-04-19T18:52:30+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=dp_fct_expressions&rev=1681930350&do=diff The dp_fct config for a data point element is a slick way to create calculated tags without scripting. The most common use case for this is to average some sensor values to get an overall value. Let's take this example: you have a chilled tank with 3 sensor values for the temperature. You really want the overall tank temperature, but over time the tank will have different temps at the sensors. A good way to get a better feel for the tank overall temperature is the average of the temps: tan… text/html 2019-11-25T23:12:31+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=englishasdefault&rev=1574723551&do=diff When you have more than 1 language in OA, make sure that English is the second language listed in the config file. This will align with the panels shipped with the product and reduce issues with panels not being translated. You can make this choice only the moment after you create the project. Edit the config file before you start the system. text/html 2019-11-25T23:17:31+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=enterkeyhabit&rev=1574723851&do=diff Take a look at your keyboard: find the Enter key. There is an icon on that key. It is like a hanging arrow. You will see this same icon on configuration fields throughout WinCC OA. Guess what that means... HIT THE ENTER KEY! Just clicking or tabbing out of that field does not execute the script behind the input field and you did not get what you wanted from your efforts. Form a habit of hitting the enter key vs grabbing the mouse. text/html 2025-07-08T17:45:09+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=graphics_ui_only_events&rev=1751996709&do=diff Most of the time the events created by the change of a DPE are enough for most designs. There are some interesting features that allow you to create an event that only the UI you are using will see. Here is the scenario: You need to display output fields in the units (english vs. metric) that the user selects. You can imagine that the user would have some toggle button on a topology page like the info or navi page. If the user toggles this button, then all of the output fields on the page w… text/html 2019-11-25T23:22:45+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=loginrootvspara&rev=1574724165&do=diff root vs para user name As you probably know, if a non-UI manager changes a value (like a driver), it is marked as changed from “root” as the user. “root” is going to become a very special user in the future, and we all should stop logging in as root for testing, etc. text/html 2019-11-25T23:25:19+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=logviewertoscriptclick&rev=1574724319&do=diff if you start the Log Viewer from GEDI (View->Log Viewer), rather than from PMON... Try double click on a scripting error from the logviewer and it will take you to the error in the CONTROL editor and other fun shortcuts. text/html 2021-11-02T14:43:58+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=masterdpbackdoor&rev=1635864238&do=diff Master data points are a key feature which makes WinCC OA a powerful object oriented modeling tool. The ability to create a template and reuse it to ensure consistency is very important for large complex projects. From time to time, I have seen situations where the _mp_ master data point forgets configs. I don't know why or when this happens, but it happens. Sometimes, we want to add or adjust a master data point without having the system make any changes to all of your instances. For these… text/html 2019-11-25T23:34:08+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=oatoolsforsystemcall&rev=1574724848&do=diff found interesting call in the CONTROL language: getComponentName( ). This call will return the utility name from the bin directory by giving it a keyword (there are 20+ keywords!): string asciiTool = getComponentName(ASCII_COMPONENT); This will return text/html 2019-11-25T23:36:55+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=panelnameextensions&rev=1574725015&do=diff Later versions of OA do not need to know exactly what extension is used for panel files. We usually think about .xml or .pnl, but they can also be encrypted with yet another extension. For this reason, we would break our projects because we used the file name exactly like: text/html 2019-11-25T23:47:34+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=pathsymbolicconstants&rev=1574725654&do=diff An interesting question came up when talking with a customer and they were asking how to get directory path for various things. Check out the response: Look in the help->CONTROL->Introduction CONTROL->Predefined symbolical constants (I already sent them a better English translation) text/html 2023-03-14T14:32:13+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=popupmessagebox&rev=1678804333&do=diff Don't make your own message popup panels for your project, use the ones that are already made. Sadly, they are hidden in help. Search in the help system for “Standard dialogs” to find the discussion on these very useful popups. You then use the button wizard and it creates the code like: text/html 2025-07-21T15:28:12+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=postgresql_backup&rev=1753111692&do=diff There is a backup tab in the NGA configuration for the database of your choice. But, this backup works only if the database is being managed by WinCC OA (i.e. started and stopped with each run of the project, not a service). Many customers do not want their database managed this way, they want to run the database as a service as expected and put the files on secondary drives or even on remote drives. text/html 2019-11-26T02:14:41+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=sendmeanemail&rev=1574734481&do=diff Simple notification from OA When a manager gets into some infinite loop or crashes for some reason, the PMON setting for the manager start mode = “always” will restart the manager after the Seconds to Kill has yielded no comms with the Event Manager. text/html 2021-12-29T20:41:00+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=shutdown&rev=1640810460&do=diff SCADA systems are usually run 7x24x365. There are some cases when we want to shutdown a project and maybe even the computer. I encountered this case for a system running on a big UPS. Unlike the home UPS, this system had _address config DPE that told us 2 things, first was when we were running on battery, and secondly, when the battery was getting low. text/html 2025-07-21T15:30:41+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=sidebar&rev=1753111841&do=diff Topic List Alert Screen no Popup Alert Filtering A&E Internal DPs ASCII File Editing Auto Login Backup Info Backup Versions Better Simulators Stylesheet Checkbox Desktop UI Only Events Desktop UI Redundant Delete Old Log Files English as Default Enter Key vs. Mouse Login root issues Log Viewer HotLinks Master Data Point Backdoor OA Tool for System() Panel Name Extensions Paths and Symbolics Popup Message Box PostgreSQL Backup Email from OA Shutdown UPS logic UI Start on… text/html 2021-07-20T18:35:21+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=start&rev=1626806121&do=diff Welcome to the independent information wiki for Siemens SIMATIC WinCC Open Architecture software for SCADA systems. We host this site to share tips and tricks, code segments, and project concepts with the OA community. Visit our website: www.malonecomputing.com See our OA online demo: text/html 2021-12-10T22:07:16+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=startasserviceui&rev=1639174036&do=diff The help has very nice documentation on starting OA as a service on either Windows or Linux. see: help->Installation->Windows->WinCC OA as service The concept is this, setup pmon as a service, and he will start all of the managers you have specified. text/html 2019-11-26T02:22:02+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=tcpv4vsv6&rev=1574734922&do=diff It is recommended to run either TCP IP V4 or V6, not BOTH. This is an issue with the internals of OA and using the TCP stack for all communications. While the OS usually handles these requests, we have seen instances where the software bounces between V4 and V6 and the system is not as stable as it with just V4. text/html 2019-11-26T02:30:53+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=timemath&rev=1574735453&do=diff CONTROL language is pretty good, but it is not a pure mathematics engine. For example it is smart about time math: today - 86400 = yesterday ... this works! However: today + (-86400) = today the syntax engine does not know what to do with that even though it is a valid mathematical expression. text/html 2021-10-26T18:30:17+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=trendclearpensareas&rev=1635273017&do=diff If you are designing a trend with scripting or drag/drop methods to assign pens, you need a way to clear the chart. This is not a trivial task as you need to disconnect, clear memory and then remove elements from the trend. Here is code to correctly clear out a trend chart: text/html 2021-10-26T18:30:06+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=trendonlypenvisible&rev=1635273006&do=diff if you follow the High Performance HMI concepts, there is a need for a very clean view of a trend embedded in tanks and sometimes on other objects. Turning off all of the extra trend inputs and outputs is not that easy. First, in the dialog box with the tabs for defining the source of the curve, turn off all of the visible things. Check each tab for visual items to turn off. text/html 2019-11-26T02:35:30+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=upgradingtonewversion&rev=1574735730&do=diff When you migrate your project from one version to another, be very careful to have a project that would run on that computer before migrating/converting. For example, if you had in your config files the event and data = IP... make sure you either comment those out, or put them to the computer where you are doing the migration/conversion. Otherwise it will fail with a message that is hard to understand. text/html 2021-10-26T18:30:44+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=uxclientinbrowser&rev=1635273044&do=diff Running WinCC OA UX Client can sometimes not work as expected. For example, just sending a project to UX client shows it as an odd window inside the browser frame. This window now has scroll bars and it is rarely not what you want. Here are some solutions: If you want to keep the OA title bar inside the browser, put this code on the init of your first panel: text/html 2021-10-26T18:31:02+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) http://www.oaprofessor.info/doku.php?id=uxclientonly&rev=1635273062&do=diff if you are going to use only UX clients (and not DesktopUI or Mobile UI), there is no need to run the Webclient_http.ctl. You need only start a small http server in a control manager. Here is the CTRL code you need: #uses "CtrlHTTP" main() { int port, sport; paCfgReadValue(PROJ_PATH + "/config/config", "httpServer", "httpPort", port); paCfgReadValue(PROJ_PATH + /config/config", "httpServer", "httpsPort", sport); httpServer(false, port, sport); }