2. CONCEPTS AND FUNCTIONS
2.12 Control Building
Control Builder
Control Builder is an engineering tool offering the latest in control strategy building going well beyond looking "pretty" on screen. Its graphical, object-oriented design dramatically reduces the effort required to design, implement and document control applications.
Figure 6 - Typical Control Builder view with open Control Module.
Prior to R400, you could search or a tag by expanding the function block tree view in Project or Monitoring mode.
With R400, you can search, sort, and filter the tags. The Control Builder search window can be resized to view the complete tag name and other fields.
Navigation improvements in the Control Builder
Navigating to the function block/parameter in the Control Builder is based on the Closed Match concept.
For more information on navigation enhancements, see Control Building User's Guide.
Search enhancements in the Control Builder
Prior to R400, you could search for a tag by expanding the function block tree view in Project or Monitoring mode.
With R400, you can search for tags in the following ways.
Using File > Open > Open Object
Using Find Options toolbar in the tree view Typing the prefix of a tag in the tree view
Using New List View, which also provides sorting and filtering functionality For more information on search enhancements, see Control Building User's Guide.
Resize Control Builder Search windows
Prior to R400, you could not resize the search window to view the complete tag name and other fields.
With R400, following are the enhancements with Control Builder Search windows.
Resizing of the Control Builder Search window to view the complete tag name A tooltip is available for the controls in the dialog box.
Column sorting and resizing based on the column values
The following are the search windows considered for the enhancements:
Point Selection popup window Create / Read Bulk Build List Create / Read Bulk Edit List Substitute Name List
Execution Environment Assignment
For more information on resizing the Control Builder Search windows, see Control Building User's Guide.
Control Builder enhancements in R410
The following are the Control Builder enhancements in Experion R410.
Configuring on-delay and off-delay for individual alarms
With R410, on the Alarms tab, you can configure on-delay time, off-delay time, deadband value, and deadband units for the individual alarms. This is applicable only for few function blocks for which alarms are supported.
For more information about the on-delay and off-delay functionality, refer to Control Builder Components Theory.
Configuring alerts
With R410, the FLAG block is enhanced such that you can configure the FLAG block to generate alerts. To accomplish this, a new parameter ALTENBOPT is introduced in the Main tab of the FLAG block configuration form.
For more information about configuring the alerts, refer to Control Building User's Guide.
Control Builder print feature
Prior to R410, you could not print multiple pages in a single sheet. This resulted in wastage of paper. In addition, you could not view the complete chart configuration in a single page. In addition, before printing, you could not predict the number of pages that might be required to print the selected chart.
With R410, Control Builder print and zoom feature is enhanced such that you can print multiple pages of a chart in a single sheet based on the scale factor. In addition, before printing you can preview the charts and can predict the number of pages to be printed using the Print Preview option. You can also zoom-in and zoom-out the charts to the desired zoom values.
For more information about configuring the alerts, refer to Control Building User's Guide.
Print Preview feature
With R410, Print Preview feature enables you to preview the charts before printing.
You can only preview the chart that is currently open before printing. The Print Preview feature enables you to view each page of a chart individually. You can also navigate to the next or the previous page of the chart.
For more information about configuring the alerts, refer to Control Building User's Guide.
Inserting comments into a strategy using Text Comment block
With R410, you can use the Text Comment block to add comments into a template or a strategy. The Text Comment block contents can be added/modified from the Project view. The strategy can then be loaded to the Monitoring view without inactivating the strategy or setting the CEE to IDLE. If you add a Text Comment block into a strategy that is already loaded, the Load while active delta flag appears against the strategy.
Similarly, if you modify the existing comments in the Text Comment block, the Load while active delta flag appears against the specific Text Comment block. This indicates that the strategy/block can be loaded while active.
For more information about Text Comment block, refer to Control Builder Components Theory.
Exporting object with contents
With R410, you can export objects with contents. When you select a parent object to be exported, all the childlevel objects are also selected for export, by default. The parent objects can be Controllers, CEEs, IOLINKs, containers CM, or user-defined templates. For example, you can export a controller along with its assigned strategies in a single operation.
For more information about exporting objects, refer to Control Building User's Guide.
Regulatory control (REGCTL) function block detail displays
With R410, standard detail displays are supported for some of the REGCTL function blocks. As a result, the operator need not create a custom display for these REGCTL blocks for monitoring purposes.
For more information about exporting objects, refer to Control Building User's Guide.
Support for validation of blocks with OPC references
Prior to R410, if you entered an incorrect block name, there was no option to verify the OPC references during configuration. If any of the block that contained OPC
references had executed successfully, and if that block was deleted later, there was no indication of the missing block during the subsequent execution.
With R410, a new feature is introduced in the Control Builder/Recipe Builder to validate blocks with OPC references after loading the OPC gateway. This feature can also be used for validating OPC references, if the OPC gateway is configured through the Redirection Manager (RDM).
Support to edit or load parameters while active
With R410, you can modify and load the SR-resident parameter values without inactivating the control strategy/setting the CEE to IDLE. The parameters that can be modified/loaded while active are referred to as ‘active loadable’ parameters. In addition, you can turn off editing of all parameter values except for active loadable parameters. To accomplish this, Allow only active loadable parameter changes option is introduced in the System Preferences > General tab.
To load parameters while active, a new load option called Load Values while Active is provided. Note that when load while active is performed, the server point build also happens simultaneously. Any errors that occur while loading the active loadable parameter values do not affect the on-process control.
For more information about Load Values While Active functionality, refer to Control Building User's Guide.
Automatically apply Daylight Savings Time (DST)
Prior to R410, at the start of DST, you had to manually set the DAYLIGHTTIME parameter to ON in all Experion controllers. Similarly, at the end of DST, you had to set this parameter to OFF in all Experion controllers.
With R410, a new feature Automatically apply DST is introduced, which enables you to automatically apply DST settings to all Experion controllers in a cluster. This feature is applicable to all Experion controllers. This feature is optional; however, if you do not select this feature, you still have to manually set the DAYLIGHTTIME parameter.
For more information about Automatically apply DST functionality, refer to Control Building User's Guide.
Identification of unused I/O channels
Prior to R410, identifying unused I/O channels was not easy since I/O channels retained their last modified names even after unassignment or deletion.
With R410, I/O channel names return to their default names after unassignment or deletion; thereby making the identification of unused I/O channels simpler.
In R410 and later, in case the channel name conflicts during any of the scenarios mentioned, “_1” is suffixed with the channel name. For example, if
“AICHANNEL_01” already exists in the unassigned list, the channel name is changed to “AICHANNEL_01_1.”
For more information about identification of unused I/O channels functionality, refer to Control Building User's Guide.
Support to rename objects while importing
Prior to R410, you could not rename the objects while importing. As a result, the existing objects would be overwritten with the new objects.
With R410, you can rename objects while importing the objects. You can also rename objects containing Foundation Fieldbus blocks.
For more information about renaming objects while importing functionality, refer to Control Building User's Guide.
Support to search for dangling/missing connection
A connection is said to be dangling, if a block is missing at one end of the connection.
A connection is said to be missing, if the blocks are missing at both ends of the connection.
With R410, you can search for dangling and missing connections in the system using the Search utility in Configuration Studio. You can perform a search for a dangling connection at the system, the server, the controller, and the tagged module level. You can perform a search for a missing connection at the system and the server level.
For more information about searching for dangling/missing connection functionality, refer to Control Building User's Guide.
Function blocks
Function blocks represent the basic unit of control functionality that includes Regulatory Control blocks, Device Control blocks, Logic blocks, Sequential blocks and Auxiliary blocks. With Control Builder, function blocks are selected from a Honeywell-supplied "Function Block Library" and placed in a Control Module. These function blocks are then soft wired together to perform the desired control strategy.
Control Modules
Experion provides two basic types of control modules: Control Modules - used for continuous control functions, and Sequential Control Modules - used for sequential and batch control functions. Both control module types contain their respective function blocks.
Continuous control functions
The designed-in features of the continuous control functionality reduce your engineering costs and enable intuitive operator interaction with the control strategy.
This has been done by designing in features and options that address a wide range of control needs through simple configuration tasks. By offering configuration options to address control needs, Experion provides predefined approaches for the operator interface, and handling how failures are managed by the control strategy. This in turn defines how your control strategies recover when failures are cleared. In Experion, the continuous control automatically handles these functions, supporting control that
enforces maximum ramp rate of the temperature measurement-adjusting output ramp as necessary. No additional engineering effort is required to implement this on your part.
Logic control functions
The value of logic control functions is focused in the area of improving engineering efficiency by providing a full suite of algorithm options in an approach that can be consistently configured and operated. The built-in device level functions also address:
Common application needs for motors, valves, and pumps Improve operational monitoring by offering
Intuitive interlock tracing, and
Direct access to device maintenance statistics, such as motor run-time.
Sequential control functions
Sequential control functions reduce the engineering costs for implementing sequential and batch control applications. The implementation of batch and sequential control is in the implementation of abnormal situation management such as:
"What control action should be taken when a motor trips?"
"What control action should be taken when an interlock shuts a valve?"
"What control action should be taken when an operator has intervened with manual action to adjust a mode or setpoint?"
The Experion sequencing control facility is designed with built-in options to handle abnormal situations. Devices can be configured to enter states, setpoint, outputs etc.
based on abnormal status, or you can program a series of steps to safely handle the process. Devices can also be configured to take fail-safe action on abnormal sequence operations. Implementation is simplified and intuitive operator information on
sequence/batch status is directly available. The system also uses smart device drivers to enable the control strategy to easily and quickly return to its normal state when the abnormal condition is cleared.
Batch control functions
Experion batch capabilities enable significantly reduced engineering costs and improved operational security. The built-in coordination and batch, sequence, and device controls eliminate the work required to handle normal housekeeping chores, which in many projects can amount to 20% or more of the engineering effort.
Procedural operations
The Sequential Control Module (SCM) and Recipe Control Module (RCM) views and operator interactive functions that collectively work to improve operator effectiveness are referred to as Procedural Operations that are also known as ProcOps or Interactive
startup, shutdown, grade change, and so on, in an interactive manner patterned after those previously executed from paper documents. A Table View function in Station facilitates operator interaction with SCMs and RCMs. Some of the features and functions of Table View are the ability to:
View transition details associated with the step, View Step associated Instructions when implemented,
Use filters allowing operators to focus on items relating to the steps and outputs currently executing ,
Use filters allowing operators to display only executing steps/phases with key trailing transitions ,
Enable the operator to 'stand' on a step to view leading and trailing transition details, and
Record all operator changes made through the SCM/RCM Table View in the system journal.
Layered recipe functions
Starting in Experion R310, Control Builder supports multiple layers of recipe
configuration. This means you can build and execute multiple level hierarchical recipes as defined in ISA S88.01. In this hierarchy, a higher level recipe can control its underlying recipe(s). Recipes at each layer are implemented as a modular function block. Recipe Control Module (RCM) blocks can represent Procedures, Unit Procedures, and Operations. Sequential Control Module (SCM) blocks can represent Phases.
Unit Control Function (UCF)
The UCF provides the ability to map a PHASE block to an SCM or an RCM, which allows a "function" defined by a PHASE block to initiate a single simple SCM in one case and a more complex multi-layer RCM/SCM in another. This lets layered recipes map directly to an SCM/RCM at any level rather than constraining initiation of a Phase/SCM to the operation level. For example, a Procedure, Unit Procedure, or Operation can directly initiate a Phase/SCM. The UCF does not constrain to a defined parent/child relationship between the layers. It supports the standard layers while giving users the flexibility to adjust to meet specific process needs.
Support for Class-based recipes
With R410, the Experion Batch Manager (EBM) is enhanced to support Class-based recipes.
Class-based recipes are recipes that are designed for Unit classes and not for a specific Unit. When you need to run an operation on every Unit in a Unit class, you can create Class-based recipes to avoid creating the same operation for every Unit. That is, you
can design a recipe for a Unit class and during runtime, the recipe can be assigned to run on any selected Unit in the Unit class.
Class-based recipes enable reuse of recipes and reduce engineering effort; there by improving the batch cycle time.
For more information about implementing and using Class-based recipes, refer to the following documents –
Batch Overview and Planning Guide Batch Implementation Guide Operator’s Guide
Template and hierarchical build functions
Control Builder offers optional template and hierarchical build functions so users can create their own templates and arrange control strategy components to reflect their process hierarchy.
Qualification and Version Control System
The optional Qualification and Version Control System (QVCS) lets users easily track and compare changes that are made to control strategies and user templates through Control Builder. It features a Version Control System Manager with a familiar Windows like interface for intuitive interaction with the application.
Peer Control Data Interface functions
Beginning in Experion R310, Control Builder offers a licensed option for a Peer Control Data Interface (PCDI) function to facilitate communications with Safety Manager or third-party devices that support the MODBUS TCP protocol. The PCDI function allows a C300 Controller to communicate directly with Safety Manager without requiring the Experion Server in the communications path. It uses the existing FTE network as the communications medium and has built in redundancy. Other features include:
Bi-directional data transfer,
Operational integration without common cause failures, and Fault reaction configuration per Safety Manager point.