About
The tool is designed to process standards and libraries of XML database imports for FLSmidth QCX v8.
The tool as the name suggests tries to solve the most of the annoyances of the tool Standard2Solution that is available with Qcx.Core installation. It is meant as in place replacement with more features.
As simpler version of this tool this tool can process packages (in fact ZIP files) and replace special {%placeholders%} with specific data. On the top of that this tool can do much more to simplify solution creation.
In fact Standard2Solution.Auto is in-place replacement to standard QCX Core Standard2Solution program.
Standard2Solution.Auto window
Features
Handle Standards and Solutions¶
This tool can handle both Standards (with placeholders) and Solutions.
Handling of Solutions can be handy when you want to only copy file into destination folder.
Multiple files handling ¶
The tool can handle processing more files than one in one process. This is usable for example when creating more instances of one equipment.
How to add file: Click on “Add file” button on the bottom of the program window.
Project Load/Save
It is possible to save list of all loaded files with all placeholder values into file on disk. The file extension is
.FlsProject.
To load or save project click on “Load project” or “Save project”.
Project in Windows Explorer
Source folders
Source folder is folder that contains standards or solutions. If the file is loaded from one of the source folder the path to file is changed to relative and corresponding folder is selected.
When the folder path changes (e. g. path contains version number) there is only one place to change all paths.
Following picture shows an example of several source folders in one project file:
Grouping
Standards and solutions that link to same logical group (like Equipment standards, ECC files, ...) can be split into groups.
Instant import
If QCX system is installed, it is possible to install all processed files into system.
Click on “Process” button and after everything is translated, the message box pops up asking whether user wants to install solutions just processed. This will create .BAT file and import the solutions.
Advanced features
Replace files
It is possible to replace any file within standard or solution. This can be used for example for replacing XmlSpecific files of QCX drivers.
- Discard – discards (removes) any content that user edited.
- View – shows content of the file
- Edit – edits (overwrites) the content of the file
- Xslt – use XSL transformation on source file (see next section)
- Replace – file will be replace when checked
Feature filter
“Features” feature brings possibility to include or omit several parts within files. Then the engineer can choose which parts will be included in processed file.
For this feature you have to use special comments within XML file:
<!--<<%Position01%>>-->
<Language>
<Designation>Qcx.Equipment.{%Friendly name%}.Unit.Main.Position01</Designation>
<LanguageText>{%Friendly name%} Position01 position</LanguageText>
</Language>
<!--<</%Position01%>>-->
This will show following checkboxes in user interface:
Lists
“List” feature brings possibility to repeat specific part of the file several times.
To include this feature, use following syntax:
<!--[[%Role%]]-->
<UserGroup>
<Designation>[%Role%]s</Designation>
</UserGroup>
<!--[[/%Role%]]-->
This brings following user interface control:
Calculations
Source files can also contains calculations. Use special comment format for calculation. There is possibility to use fallback to default value for older program.
Here is example how to calculate 1 + 1:
1 + 1 = <!--{{1+1}}-->2<!--{{/}}-->
The calculation engine uses C# engine to calculate values, so you can use full syntax of this programming language:
5! = <!--{{ Enumerable.Range(1, 5).Aggregate(1, (a, b) => a * b) }}--><!--{{/}}-->
Number function
The Number function is predefined function that can be used to get value from string:
<PrmAddr>
<!--{{"%MW" + (12289 + (Number("{%RemCTL PLC addr%}")) / 2)}}-->%MW12289<!--{{/}}-->
</PrmAddr>
Default values
Default values will be offered as predefined values in placeholder grid. Again, fallback value is supported for older version:
<FeatureMask>
<!--((%FeatureMask%))-->3<!--((/%FeatureMask%))-->
</FeatureMask>
Qcxsys files (Code2Configuration)
The Code2Configuration is the tool that parses PLC source code and creates a QCX ECC configuration files with block algorithms and everything that is needed. The tool uses several special features included in Standard2Solution.Auto.
This includes:
- Default values for RemCTL and RemHMI base address.
- Calculations
XSLT transformations
XSLT programming language can be used to transform XML files within standard or solution.
Following image shows how to replace one specific tag:
CSV table
The button CSV exports all placeholder values into simple table and copies it into clipboard. The format is tab-separated values (can be inserted directly into Microsoft Excel as table).
Following screenshot shows Excel Sheet that holds this overview.
Smart substitution
The name of the Standard2Solution.Auto tool refers to Standard2Solution tool from which it borrows the possibility to convert standard to solutions and has extension .Auto which means that it can pre-fill placeholder values by simple heuristics.
This allows to quickly inserting most common placeholder values.
References