Following on from our Wonderware InPractice R2 event last month, during which a healthy debate around the
misconceptions of ArchestrA Graphics ensued (see previous blog), we decided to
carry on from this topical theme.
With this in mind we decided to collect some
feedback from customers currently using ArchestrA Graphic Technology and find
out what they thought of it. Some major benefits transpired from our
conversations:
- By using ArchestrA graphics and embedding Tags in the ArchestrA symbols, customers saw a significant reduction in the overall actual IO / Tag count of the project by up to three or five fold compared to a standalone Wonderware InTouch application.
- They could retro fit old InTouch applications with ArchestrA graphics when they upgraded a standard InTouch application making upgrading from old systems relatively painless.
- They noted that changing the size of the graphics was now seemless - because ArchestrA Graphics were Vector based the resolution stays in proportion even when the size changes.
- Customers noted they often picked and choose the functionality they wanted from ArchestrA graphics when building an InTouch application, the example given was when you use the IDE to roll out a new applications across the network from a central location, but you don’t have to use ArchestrA graphics.
- One
customer commented that although the ArchestrA Graphics had more functionality
they could be as simple looking as required.
- You can restrict the functionality that is presented to you in the IDE to only those that you are able to use in Standard InTouch projects at the outset, by creating a file called base_InTouch.cab. This hides any of the additional functionality which appears when creating a System Platform application but it useless to you when creating managed InTouch Application.
The overall customer feedback strengthened our thoughts that ArchestrA Graphics has the potential to save development and deployment time and lead to overall huge engineering savings.
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| Written by Helena Finnan & Andy Graham |
Have your say! Are you a ArchestrA
Graphics user? Write your comments below.
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In my opinion, also as a Certified System Platform Developer, ArchestrA graphics are a huge step forward in decoupling graphics development from application logic. That leads to reusability of components with great benefits. I also love building faceplates, because everything is straightforward and more "IT". The worst part of Archestra Graphics, always in my opinion, is InTouch, which is completely unusable when compared to other SCADA development environments. I understand clearly that it is this way because of back-compatibility requirements, but it's a real pain whenever it has to deal with *actual* requirements and *actual* interface usability paradigms.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback on ArchestrA Graphics, we too think it's a huge step forward! I understand your frustrations with the standard graphics, with the latest version (2012 R2) there is hardly any need in developing in Window Maker as all but a few functions can be configured in the IDE with ArchestrA Graphics. The reason for still including the InTouch functionality ensures that all the systems can be developed in both the new and old technology. Going forward we endeavor to make sure the user experience is enhanced and your feedback is very valuable!
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