Using PAA to Quickly Engineer and Maintain PCS 7 Projects

Using PAA to Quickly Engineer and Maintain PCS 7 ProjectsAlex North, Pigler Automation

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Unrestricted © Siemens Industry, Inc. 2018

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2018 Automation Summit

• Title: Using PAA to Quickly Engineer and Maintain PCS 7 Projects

• Track: Productivity and Efficiency

• Presenter: Alex North

• Company: Pigler Automation

• Session # (for your survey): 4.3


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Company Introduction:Pigler Automation

• Pigler Automation, LLC is in business for over 13 years

• We are a Certified Siemens Solution Provider for PCS7

• Located in Longmont, Colorado -- 30 miles north of Denver

• 11 Employees and Growing

• Industries Served: Chemical, Power, Mining, …


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The Presenter

Alex North

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Colorado Boulder

• Lead Controls Engineer with Pigler Automation, LLC

• Process Controls Engineer with Pigler Automation, LLC since May 2013

• PCS7 Certificed Process Control Engineer


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The Challenge

• Upgrade an ASU running on a TI 505 controller to

PCS7 V8.2 using the customers latest PCS7 library

• Our clients typically give us an I/O list with hardware,

Interlock List, Alarm list and P&IDs

• Looking for a faster way to start projects and maintain

documentation after commissioning

• Need a better way to show logic without the need for in

depth knowledge of PCS7 and CFCs

• More of our clients are using Control Module Types

(CMTs) in their custom libraries and templates

CMTs I/O List Hardware

Up to DateDocumentation

Alarms


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The Solution:Plant Automation Accelerator (PAA)

• Ability to work with CMTs and CMT variations

to generate CFCs with minimal effort

• Bulk editing tools to efficiently create projects

• Generate Function Diagrams to show logic in

a simple format

• Generate report documentation

• Synchronize data from PAA to PCS7 and from

PCS7 to PAA

• Maintain documentation after plant

commissioning

• PAA V2.0


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The Solution:What is PAA?

• PAA is an addon/subset of COMOS

• PAA offers a direct connection between PCS7 and an automation

neutral tool for plant engineering (COMOS)

• PAA is a product that takes a step towards a truly digital plant


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Pre Work:Generating CMTs

• We used our clients CMTs and modified them

slightly to capture information we decided

was necessary

• The CMTs should be created general enough

for all projects

Specific variants for each CMT are created

in PAA

• Special attention should be given to which

I/Os should be technology objects as well as

which blocks should be optional


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Pre Work:CMT Variants in PAA

• Once CMTs have been made in PCS7, the library

can be imported into PAA

• In PAA, CMT variants are created

• Variants are used to make the general CMTs

more applicable to the specific project

• CMT function blocks which are optional can be

selected/deselected for each variant

• CMT I/O nodes can be made visible/invisible for

the function diagrams


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Pre Work:CMT Library Excel Sheet

• The CMT_LIB Excel spreadsheet template comes with the PAA installation

• Time must be spent to customize this spreadsheet for the specific CMTs used in the project

• This spreadsheet is used to link an I/O point from the signal list to a signal input on a CMT


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Bulk Engineering:Importing I/O List

• We took our clients I/O list and used it to fill out the Signal List Spreadsheet to import into PAA

• The Signal List Spreadsheet is used to generate individual CMs

• Signal Name is the CM name plus the mapping label

• Plant Hierarchy is defined using the TH columns

• Hardware location and parts are defined

• The name of the CMT to be used to create the CM is defined


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Bulk Engineering:Modifying Symbol Table

• Our customer had defined symbol names to match the installed device so the generated symbol names

needed to be modified

• To change the symbols in bulk, a query can be generated to isolate the data

• The query list can be exported into excel for sorting and copying from and IO list


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Bulk Engineering:Hardware

• A query can be used to isolate hardware data

• From the query the hardware can be bulk edited to fit the plant

• Hardware can be added and removed in PAA and will be transferred to PCS7

• PAA will automatically create reports about the Hardware

BoM

Rack Layout


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Bulk Engineering:Hardware Layout Report


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Bulk Engineering:I/O Report


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Bulk Engineering:BoM


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Bulk Engineering:Pushing Hardware Config to PCS7

• From the PAA PCS7 Import/Export tool, we

can choose to export the hardware

• Running the export comparison, the project

differences can be seen

• Individual hardware components can be

selected for export

• After export, the comparator can be run again

to ensure all data matches

• We found that an import is sometimes needed

after the first export to populate data fields that

PCS7 requires whereas PAA does not


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Bulk Engineering:Creating Logic in PAA

• CMT Technology Objects and “Functions” are

the only logical connections shown in PAA

• New Functions and CMs can be created in

PAA

Charts that did not have an I/O (Interlock

charts, Calculated PVs, etc were required to

manually create)

• Multiple ways to make interconnections in PAA

Connection Manager

Function Diagrams

• Logic Created in PAA can be pushed to PCS7


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Bulk Engineering:Functional Diagram

• Simplified Logic Diagrams can be easier to understand than CFC logic


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Bulk Engineering:Import/Export to PCS7

• Project components as well as library

objects can be import and exported to PCS7

• Using the import/export all work done in one

program can be captured in the other

program

• Importing/Exporting can be used to keep up

to date documentation after commissioning

• The advantages of each program can be

used to improve time to market while still

keeping both programs up to date


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Demonstration


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Benefits

• Using custom variants of generic CMTs dramatically reduced the amount of engineering time spent on

creating charts

• Using the bulk editing tools in PAA improved the amount of time spent on hardware engineering and

configuring hardware settings

• The functional diagrams were used as a design specification to outline program logic and when

approved pushed into PCS7

• After plant commissioning, all changes that were made on site can be imported into PAA to update logic

diagrams, I/O configuration, and BoM


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Lessons Learned

• Using the signal list to import symbol names is restricted to the convention laid out in the Signal list

example, but using queries, these can be changed after they are imported

• Creating helpful queries and saving them is the best way to speed up engineering time

• Modifying connections in the connection editor within PAA is easier than creating the connection in the

function diagrams

• Use both PAA and PCS7 for their specific strengths and import/export the information from one program

to the next

Some logic is created faster in PCS7 while PAA is better at editing configuration data

• Functions used within a CM are not always placed on the same partition

• PAA does have a steep learning curve and can take some time before becoming familiar with it

• Update PAA to the latest version for the latest improvements


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What’s Next

• With the lessons learned from our first project and the pre-work already done, future projects will be

more streamlined

• PAA is the bulk engineering tool of the future which will not only help start projects, but also maintain

them

• We believe all time spent learning this tool now will pay off as PAA becomes more mainstream and

more integrated with PCS7

• Look into the value of addon products for PAA (electrical engineering, 3D and 2D cabinet drawings)


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Using PAA to Quickly Engineer and Maintain PCS 7 Projects

Name: Alex North

Company: Pigler Automation

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 866-871-1456 ex. 6

Session # (for your survey): 4.3

Documents

Using PAA to Quickly Engineer and Maintain PCS 7 Projects