Faceplates, Basics

A faceplate displays the extended operation dialog of a symbol. This means that in addition to values and states of a datapoint that are displayed in a symbol, the faceplate panel informs of further values and states. Furthermore, it provides the following functions:

  • acknowledgement of alerts,

  • the display of selected datapoint elements on the trend tab,

  • creation of notes for the current object instance (e.g. maintenance work of an engine),

  • the change of datapoint element values

When several monitors are used (multimonitoring), consider the following:

1) the monitor resolution of all monitors must be the same

2) monitors must be horizontally aligned

3) faceplates will be aligned only to the X axis.

Left click on a symbol to open its faceplate.

Figure 1. Example of a faceplate

A faceplate shows the symbol that is displayed in the panel and information about the datapoint elements of a datapoint. This information is represented via an elementary symbol in the faceplate.

An elementary symbol is a reference panel with graphics elements, which are controlled via $-Parameters. From a graphical point of view, elementary symbols are buttons, text fields, dialog boxes, sliders, etc., which provide an additional range of functions (authorization functions, color change, animations, etc.).

Click on the button to open the extended view of a faceplate. In most WinCC OA Libraries, there are at least three available tabs ("Alarms", "Trend" and "Notes") in the extended view.

  1. Available tabs.

  2. Opens the WinCC OA online help for the corresponding data point type.

  3. Acknowledges a sum alert

  4. Alert row with the most recent alert.

  5. Opens the variable trend in a new window.

  6. Opens the alert screen in a new window.

  7. Closes the faceplate.

The three standard tabs that are available in most WinCC OA Libraries are:

  • "Alarms" - available if the sum alert handling datapoint config is available in the alarm node.

  • "Trend" - available if at least one datapoint element, whose trend curve should be shown in the Trend tab, was selected on the "Trend" tab of the PARA when selecting the datapoint type.

  • "Notes" - available if the datapoint element contains the general node with the datapoint element note, in which the internal datapoint type _STDLIB_Note is embedded. Furthermore, the config entry useNotes may not be set to FALSE.

Alarms Tab

On the "alarms" tab, pending alerts are displayed for the corresponding datapoint and can also be acknowledged (provided that the user has the corresponding authorization).

Via the button beneath the "alerts" tab, you can acknowledge all visible alerts on the tab (sum alerts as well as single alerts). This button is only activated when the "alarms" tab is open and the user possesses the corresponding authorization for acknowledging alerts (authorization bit 5).

Figure 2. "Alarms" tab

Trend Tab

On the "trend" tab, trends for process values for the corresponding datapoint can be viewed.

Configure the datapoint element for the trend curve via the PARA module. On the "trend" tab, click on the datapoint type and select the datapoint element, whose progress should be shown.

To view historical data on the "trend" tab, add a WinCC OA archive config to the datapoint element.

Figure 3. "Trend" tab

Notes Tab

On the "notes" tab, you can create notes for the corresponding object instance (data point).

In the "new note:" create a note and save it by clicking the button . In the "last note:" field, the most recently saved note is displayed.

Click on "delete" to delete a note (the most recently saved note remains in the history).

Figure 4. "Notes" tab

The "history notes" button opens the note archive. The notes of the last 6, 12 or 24 months can be displayed here.

Figure 5. History notes