METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROL CONFIGURATION WITH OBJECT HIERARCHY, VERSIONING, CHANGE RECORDS, OBJECT COMPARISON, AND OTHER ASPECTS
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus for configuring process, environmental, industrial and other control systems generate and/or utilize models representing configurations of control systems and/or the systems controlled by them. Records of changes to the models or the configurations represented by them are maintained, thereby, for example, providing bases for determining current states, prior states and histories of changes. Objects in the model have characteristics, such as an object type characteristic and an area characteristic. Users can have corresponding permissions. A security mechanism apparatus controls access by users to the objects. Composite objects are defined by definition objects and are displayed in encapsulated or expanded formats. Objects can include an edit control type identifier that determines how they are presented for editing. Functionality responds to user commands by transferring characteristics of a first object depicted by the graphical user interface to a second object. Configuration-time formulas contained objects are evaluated to constants prior to downloading to the control system.
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Citations
173 Claims
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1-134. -134. (canceled)
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135. Apparatus for configuring a process control system, the apparatus executing on one or more digital data processors, comprising:
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a configurator that defines a plurality of objects, each of which represents an entity within any of (i) a controlled system, (ii) the control system, (iii) a control level hierarchy, and (iv) apparatus for configuring the control system, wherein one or more of said plurality of objects are associated with one or more parameters that pertain to characteristics of the entity represented by the respective object; at least one object being defined as a descendant of another object and being associated with one or more parameters of the ancestor object; a change during configuration to a parameter of an ancestor object propagating to a descendant object with which that parameter is associated without recompilation of those objects; and
,the configurator recording at least selected changes made to the one or more objects during configuration, said selected changes including at least one change that is propagated from an ancestor object to a descendent object. - View Dependent Claims (136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145)
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146. A method for configuring a control system with one or more digital data processors, the method comprising:
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using objects to represent entities within any of (i) a controlled system, (ii) the control system, (iii) a control level hierarchy, and (iv) apparatus for configuring the control system, wherein one or more of said objects are associated with one or more parameters pertaining to a characteristic of the entity represented by the respective object; defining at least one object (“
descendant object”
) as a descendant of another object (“
ancestor object”
);associating a descendant object with one or more parameters of the ancestor object from which that descendant object descends, and propagating to that descendant object a change, during configuration, to a parameter of that ancestor object; and
,recording changes made to the one or more objects during configuration. - View Dependent Claims (147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155)
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156. Apparatus for configuring a control system, the apparatus executing on one or more digital data processors, comprising:
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a model representing a configuration of at least one of the control system and a system controlled thereby, the model comprising a plurality of objects representing entities in any of the control system and the system controlled thereby; multiple versions of at least one of the objects, at least selected ones of those multiple versions reflecting changes made to at least one of the configuration and the model; and
,functionality (“
an object compare utility”
) that permits any of;
comparing objects and comparing versions of an object to determine differences therebetween. - View Dependent Claims (157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164)
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165. A method for configuring a control system with one or more digital data processors, the method comprising:
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representing a configuration of at least one of the control system and a system controlled thereby with a model that comprises a plurality of objects representing entities in any of the control system and the system controlled thereby; making changes to at least one of the configuration and the model, said changes being reflected in at least selected ones of multiple versions of at least one of the objects; and
,comparing objects and/or versions of an object to determine differences therebetween. - View Dependent Claims (166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173)
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Specification