MAXstation Operator Guide - A1

maxSTATION
Operator's Guide
(maxDPU Edition)
278599 Rev. A8
Use this publication as a source for complete and accurate information that helps you better operate or
service Metso Automation equipment. Your comments and suggestions are welcome.
Metso Automation
1180 Church Road
Lansdale, PA 19446
Attention: Manager, Technical Publications
Copyright 2005 by Metso Automation MAX Controls, Inc.

Printed in the United States of America
All Rights Reserved
Metso Automation 278599

ii
Contents
Preface ..............................................................................................................................................ix
Audience..............................................................................................................................................................ix
Scope ...................................................................................................................................................................ix
Editorial Conventions ........................................................................................................................................... x
Additional Reading............................................................................................................................................... x
Chapter 1 ........................................................................................................................................1-1
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................1-1
Hardware Environment ......................................................................................................................... 1-1

maxSTATION Hardware...................................................................................................................................1-1
System Components ..........................................................................................................................................1-2
Network Overview.............................................................................................................................................1-2
Understanding Point Databases .........................................................................................................................1-2
Physical Configuration ......................................................................................................................................1-3
Operating Environment .........................................................................................................................................1-3
Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................................2-1
Getting Started ...............................................................................................................................2-1
Overview............................................................................................................................................... 2-1
Logging on As an Operator ...................................................................................................................................2-1
Logging out of the maxSTATION ........................................................................................................................2-2
Working in maxVUE.............................................................................................................................................2-3
Input Devices.....................................................................................................................................................2-3
Using the Mouse ................................................................................................................................................2-3
Using the Keyboards..........................................................................................................................................2-4
Clicking on Display Buttons..............................................................................................................................2-4
Scroll Bars .........................................................................................................................................................2-5
Working with Pop-up Displays..........................................................................................................................2-6
Limiting the Number of Pop-up Displays..........................................................................................................2-6
Changing Focus .................................................................................................................................................2-6
Understanding maxVUE Error Conditions............................................................................................................2-7
Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................................3-1
Working with Standard Displays ..................................................................................................3-1
Using the Main Menu Display .............................................................................................................. 3-1

Time and Date ...................................................................................................................................................3-2
Security Button ..................................................................................................................................................3-2

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maxSTATION Operator's Guide
Menu Button ......................................................................................................................................................3-2

Last Button ........................................................................................................................................................3-3
System Button....................................................................................................................................................3-3
Tracking Point Information ...............................................................................................................................3-3
Track Selected Point Button ..............................................................................................................................3-3
Print Button........................................................................................................................................................3-3
Alarm Summary Button.....................................................................................................................................3-4
Silence Button....................................................................................................................................................3-4
Ack All Button...................................................................................................................................................3-4
Ack Top Button .................................................................................................................................................3-4
Alarm List..........................................................................................................................................................3-4
User-Definable Buttons .....................................................................................................................................3-5
Point Select Area ...............................................................................................................................................3-5
Point Action Icons .............................................................................................................................................3-5
Point Control Icon..............................................................................................................................................3-5
Point Detail Icon ................................................................................................................................................3-5
Clear Point Button .............................................................................................................................................3-6
Graphical Configuration Page Icon ...................................................................................................................3-6
Tracking Point Icon ...........................................................................................................................................3-6
Ack Point Button ...............................................................................................................................................3-7
Data Entry Dialogs ................................................................................................................................................3-7
Text Entry ..........................................................................................................................................................3-7
Numeric Entry ...................................................................................................................................................3-8
Enumerated Data Entry......................................................................................................................................3-9
Boolean Data Entry............................................................................................................................................3-9
Changing User Security Levels ...........................................................................................................................3-10
Using Default Login ........................................................................................................................................3-11
How to Print maxVUE Video Displays...............................................................................................................3-12
Printing from maxVUE....................................................................................................................................3-12
Printing from Windows ...................................................................................................................................3-13
Chapter 4 ........................................................................................................................................4-1
Using Standard Display Objects ..................................................................................................4-1
Overview............................................................................................................................................... 4-1
Point Data Trends ..................................................................................................................................................4-2
Trend Wrapper...................................................................................................................................................4-2
Trend Scoreboard...............................................................................................................................................4-3
Intelligent Time Stamp ......................................................................................................................................4-3
Using the Data Trend Tool Box.........................................................................................................................4-3
Edit Trend Properties Button .............................................................................................................................4-5
Saving Edits Online ..........................................................................................................................................4-5
Configuring History Properties (History Tab) ...................................................................................................4-5
Specifying Trend Display Shading (Shading Tab) ............................................................................................4-6
Specifying a Trend Wrapper Sampling Rate (Attributes Tab)...........................................................................4-8

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Contents
Specifying Trend Ranges (Range Limits Tab) ..................................................................................................4-8

Specifying Trend Wrapper Alarm Limits (Alarm Limits Tab)..........................................................................4-9
Specifying Live Trend Wrapper Data (Pens Tab) ...........................................................................................4-10
Customizing Trend Wrapper Pen Description and UOM ................................................................................4-12
Using the Enable/Disable Cursor Buttons .......................................................................................................4-13
Using the Freeze/UnFreeze Scoreboard Buttons .............................................................................................4-14
Using the Pan Buttons .....................................................................................................................................4-14
Using the Zoom Buttons ..................................................................................................................................4-14
Rubber Band Zooming ....................................................................................................................................4-14
Display Data Table ..........................................................................................................................................4-15
Newer Trend Wrapper Buttons........................................................................................................................4-16
Sizeable Trend Wrapper ..................................................................................................................................4-17
Understanding the X-Y Plot ................................................................................................................................4-19
Understanding Point Select Objects ....................................................................................................................4-20
Viewing Point Control Pop-ups...........................................................................................................................4-20
Opening a Point Control Pop-up......................................................................................................................4-21
Understanding Faceplate..................................................................................................................................4-22
Recognizing Alarms ........................................................................................................................................4-23
Using Mode Buttons ........................................................................................................................................4-23
Viewing Bar Graphs ........................................................................................................................................4-23
Viewing Point Detail Pop-ups .............................................................................................................................4-24
Interpreting Database Error Conditions ...........................................................................................................4-26
Chapter 5 ........................................................................................................................................5-1
Using Alarm Displays ....................................................................................................................5-1
Overview............................................................................................................................................... 5-1
Display Types ....................................................................................................................................................5-1
Alarm Summary Display ...................................................................................................................................5-1
Alarm List Display ............................................................................................................................................5-2
maxDNA System Alarm Classes...........................................................................................................................5-3
Process Alarms ..................................................................................................................................................5-3
System Alarms...................................................................................................................................................5-3
Viewing Alarms.....................................................................................................................................................5-4
Alarm Summary Display Features.....................................................................................................................5-5
Alarm Summary Menu Buttons.........................................................................................................................5-6
Tools ..................................................................................................................................................................5-6
Filtering Alarms.....................................................................................................................................................5-7
Temporary Filter Setting .......................................................................................................................................5-7
Filtering by Alarm Type ....................................................................................................................................5-8
Alarm Type Definitions.....................................................................................................................................5-9
Filtering by Ack_Status ...................................................................................................................................5-10
Filtering by Severity ........................................................................................................................................5-10
Filtering by Sort Order.....................................................................................................................................5-10
Using the Event Summary Display......................................................................................................................5-11

v
Viewing Current Events Log ...............................................................................................................................5-12

Interpreting Events Data Fields .......................................................................................................................5-13
Changing Event Summary Log Layout ...........................................................................................................5-14
Modifying the Display Presentation ....................................................................................................................5-14
Changing Event Log Column Width ..............................................................................................................5-14
Reordering Columns........................................................................................................................................5-15
Changing Sorted Order of Records..................................................................................................................5-15
Customizing the Event Summary Display...........................................................................................................5-15
Accessing Properties Dialog............................................................................................................................5-15
Changing Start and End Times ........................................................................................................................5-16
Modifying Event Summary Display Properties ...............................................................................................5-17
Selecting Filtering................................................................................................................................................5-17
Using Parameterization to Specify Filters .......................................................................................................5-18
Selecting Filtering Using Right-Click Option .................................................................................................5-19
Printing Event Records........................................................................................................................................5-19
Selecting a Series of Items...............................................................................................................................5-19
Randomly Selecting Items ...............................................................................................................................5-20
Using the Event Management Display ................................................................................................................5-20
Event Management Graphs..............................................................................................................................5-21
Event Management Properties .........................................................................................................................5-22
Chapter 6 ........................................................................................................................................6-1
Using System Menu Displays ......................................................................................................6-1
System Menu Overview........................................................................................................................ 6-1

Viewing the System Status Display.......................................................................................................................6-3
Annunciator Detailed Description .....................................................................................................................6-3
Icon Color Codes ...............................................................................................................................................6-4
Viewing the DPU4E/DPU4F Details Displays......................................................................................................6-5
Using Reset and Takeover Buttons....................................................................................................................6-7
Using the Backup Mode Switch ........................................................................................................................6-7
Understanding the DPU4E Faceplate ................................................................................................................6-7
Understanding the DPU4F Faceplate.................................................................................................................6-9
Viewing DPU4E / DPU4F Details...................................................................................................................6-11
Viewing the Network Status Display...................................................................................................................6-14
Viewing Point Summary Displays.......................................................................................................................6-16
Viewing the Manual Points Summary Display................................................................................................6-17
Viewing Defeated Points Summary Display ...................................................................................................6-18
Viewing Error Logs .........................................................................................................................................6-18
Setting up Filtering ..........................................................................................................................................6-19
Printing Summary Lists ...................................................................................................................................6-21
Tracking Point Configuration ..............................................................................................................................6-21
Viewing Workstation Information.......................................................................................................................6-22
Controlling Report Generation ............................................................................................................................6-23
Viewing Disk Usage Data ...................................................................................................................................6-23

vi
Contents
Using Network Printing Function........................................................................................................................6-24

Using the Printers Tab .....................................................................................................................................6-25
Using the Assignment Tab...............................................................................................................................6-26
Buttons.............................................................................................................................................................6-26
Assignment Dialog Box...................................................................................................................................6-27
Using the Event Loggers Display ........................................................................................................................6-28
Printer Control Area ........................................................................................................................................6-29
Print Status Field .............................................................................................................................................6-29
Print Buffer Statistics.......................................................................................................................................6-30
Chapter 7 .......................................................................................................................................7-1
Using the Operator Keyboard......................................................................................................7-1
Custom Keys .........................................................................................................................................................7-1

Application Specific Operator Keys ......................................................................................................................7-2
Alarm Keys............................................................................................................................................................7-2
Display Keys .........................................................................................................................................................7-3
Pan and Zoom Keys...............................................................................................................................................7-4
Cursor Keys ...........................................................................................................................................................7-4
Numeric Entry Keys ..............................................................................................................................................7-4
Function Keys........................................................................................................................................................7-5

vii
Preface
Audience
This publication is written for anyone who operates a maxDNA Distributed

Control System. Use the information presented here to learn how to access
standard and custom displays needed to operate a system. No previous
maxDNA knowledge is required to understand the contents of this
publication. The displays described here are derived from the Metso
Automation maxVUE Runtime package. This book assumes you have
installed the version of maxVUE available with maxDNA software Release
4, or later.
This publication provides operator information for maxDPU-based systems.

If your installation includes hardware from earlier legacy systems (DPU Bus
Module [DBM], DPU4A/4B, Controller Files, Model 564 I/O, etc.), in
addition to maxDPU hardware, see Publication 278557, maxSTATION
Operators Guide (DBM Edition).
Scope
This publication consists of the following seven chapters:
Chapter 1, "Introduction" provides an overview of the maxSTATION,

covering associated hardware and software.
Chapter 2, "Getting Started," describes maxSTATION logon and logoff

procedures, and introduces new users to input device keying conventions and
standard display features.
Chapter 3, "Using Standard Displays" covers the use of standard displays that
come with the maxDNA System.
Chapter 4, "Using Standard Display Objects" covers the use of pop-up

displays and other display objects.
Chapter 5, "Using Alarm Displays" covers the use of the alarm subsystem.
Chapter 6, "Using System Menu Displays" covers the use of system

diagnostic-type displays.
Chapter 7, "Using the Operator Keyboard" discusses a keyboard developed

especially for system operation and control.

ix
Editorial Conventions
A variety of editorial and typographic conventions are used in this book to

enhance the presentation of information. These conventions are briefly
described below.
Note: Text preceded with the word Note contains especially helpful
information.
Caution: Text preceded with the word Caution advises you to be aware
of or avoid an action that might have unwanted or unknown
consequences.
<> Text references to PC keyboard and the Operator Console keys
are enclosed in angle brackets.
Example: <Enter> means press the key labeled Enter.
Boldface Menu selections and keyboard keys are all shown in boldface.
Menu choice examples: Print, Main, ACK.
Keyboard examples: <F2>, <Enter>.
Additional Reading
For information about related topics, refer to the following maxDNA

publications:
Publication Book Number
Alarm Message Reference Guide 278558
Model IOP Output Driver and Auto/Manual 278559

Station Operator's Guide
maxSTATION Operators Guide (DBM Edition). 278557

x
Chapter 1
Introduction
Hardware Environment
As an operator, you may view and manage your process control environment
through a maxSTATION, the interface between you and the maxDNA
Distributed Control System. A maxSTATION may be set up as an Operator's
Workstation or an Engineer's Workstation.
The Operators Workstation uses maxVUE graphical interface software to

provide a graphical view of the process. The software uses both standard and
custom displays.
The Engineers Workstation is used for creating and maintaining

configurations and process control documentation using the maxDPUTools
and maxVUE Graphical Configurator software. It is also used to create and
maintain custom graphic displays using the maxVUE graphics editor
software.
In addition to these functions, the maxSTATION collects and manages

process and event history, reporting, and archiving using the maxSTORIAN
history and archiving software.
These software functions can be distributed among multiple workstation

processors in a large system segmented by domains or combined into one
maxSTATION in a very small system. For a full discussion of software
available for maxSTATION and the distribution of system resources, see
Publication 278606, System Resources Users Guide.
maxSTATION Hardware
The functions being performed by a particular workstation determine its

minimum hardware requirements. For example, an Engineers Workstation
that is running maxSTORIAN software and collecting historical data needs a
larger hard disk than does an Operators Workstation. Refer to the
specification for each maxSTATION order to determine which hardware
should be present.

1-1
System Components
The full maxDNA Distributed Control System consists of one or more

maxDNA Remote Processing Units (RPUs) cabinets containing the
following:
maxDPU Distributed Processing Units (DPUs), the process controller,
provides control and data acquisition functions.
Input/Output devices (I/Os) for monitoring and controlling the actual
process.
One or more maxSTATIONs configured as operator or engineer
workstations.
Network Overview
maxDNA uses a client / server architecture. The maxDPU, acting as a server,

collects information, stores it, and ultimately transfers the information to the
appropriate maxSTATION clients. The collected data is comprised of alarm,
event, trend, historical, and general point information.
maxSTATIONs and maxDPUs communicate with one another via maxNET.

The maxNET Network is a fully redundant 10/100 Mb per second Ethernet
network using industry standard UDP/IP protocol for communications
between Workstation clients and servers.
Understanding Point Databases
A maxDNA system is composed of point databases. A point database,

created in maxDPUTools, consists of hardware resources and control points.
One configuration is permitted per DPU or DPU pair, which may serve a
group of Remote Processing Unit (RPU) cabinets. Configurations are a
convenient way to represent the components of a typical process control
system. In a power generating plant, for instance, one configuration could
represent a burner management strategy, another a boiler control strategy,
and so forth.
Use maxDPUTools to define and maintain the maxDNA system resources

and the point database.
System resources consist of Remote Processing Unit (RPU) hardware,

consisting of Distributed Processing Units (DPU), I/O Modules, power
supplies, etc.
Control points consist of the following:
Function Block Control loops are built from function blocks. The system
has thee kinds of function blocks: Atomic Blocks,
Standard Blocks and Custom Blocks.

1-2
Introduction
Atomic Block Function Block that implements smallest possible

function in maxDPU. All Atomic Blocks are
programmed into maxDPU.
Standard Block derived Function Block that is part of maxDNA product.

All Standard Blocks are programmed using Atomic
Blocks and/or other Standard Blocks. End users,
operations or consultants cannot customize standard
Blocks.
Custom Block derived Function Block that is made from Atomic Blocks,
Standard Blocks and/or other Custom Blocks. New
Custom Blocks can be built and existing Custom Blocks
can be changed by anyone using maxDNA-engineering
tools.
Operators may view points from any configuration at any Operator's

Workstation provided the Operator's Workstations and DPUs are attached to
the same maxNET network and have read access to specific domains.
A maxSTATION can:
Display real time data from any DPU on the maxNET Network in a
single graphic display.
Display trend or X-Y data from any DPU on the maxNET Network in a
single display.
Access all control loops on the maxNET Network.
Display the current alarm summary display; available alarm information
is typically restricted to a specific domain.
Physical Configuration
maxSTATION components, normally located in a control room, can be

packaged in either a cabinet, a work desk, or a combination of both.
Normally, RPU cabinets are located close to the processes they are
monitoring and controlling.
Operating Environment
The maxSTATION software requires the Microsoft Windows operating
system.
The Windows video display is called the desktop. Icons representing files,
folders or programs may be placed on the desktop. A window is opened for
each individual program (often called an application) that is executed.
Multiple windows can be open simultaneously, be moved and resized, as
desired.

1-3
Chapter 2
Getting Started
Overview
This chapter shows you how to log on and off of the maxSTATION and how
to navigate around standard displays and menus. After you successfully log
on, take a few moments to acquaint yourself with maxSTATION input
devices, standard displays and menus, and menu buttons.
Because of the configurability of the maxDNA System, it is impossible to

describe your individual system precisely. Displays discussed in this
publication are presented only as typical examples. You may or may not have
these displays on your system, but the examples presented here will help you
understand how to use the system and access information.
Logging on As an Operator
As an operator, you may access and view displays that are part of the
maxVUE Runtime application. To access these displays, you must be logged
on as an operator.
Windows recognizes different user account classes. These classes include

Administrators, Guests, and Users, as well as operators. Each of the classes
has different privileges. When new user accounts are created, they are
assigned to one or more groups, which control the privileges of that account.
Each account has a password that allows access to the computer functions
under the Windows operating system.
Each account has a profile that maintains information about the desktop for
that account. These profiles contain information about what icons should
appear on the desktop and what programs should be accessible from the Start
menu, in addition to other information.

2-1
Two default accounts are always available in Windows: administrator and

guest. The administrator account is used for administration purposes,
including user administration, hardware and software administration, and
diagnostic testing. Guest account is a general-purpose account that allows
persons who do not have an account on the machine to use it with limited
privileges.
To log on as an operator:
1. Turn on the computer and monitor, if they are not already turned on.
When you turn the computer on, it goes through its normal boot up
routines. When the computer finishes its start up procedures, the
Windows Logon Screen appears.
2. Click the Operator icon and enter the appropriate password.

After logging on as operator, the maxSTATION Startup Window
appears and automatically starts up the underlying system and software
backplane logic. You will see a series of messages such as the following:
Waiting for Services Startup
Services Event Complete
MCS Registry Editor at 01/22/04 07:11:22
Point Picker at 01/22/04 07:11:22
maxLSS at 01/22/04 07:11:22
Startup Done at 01/22/04 07:11:25
After this startup is completed, this window minimizes itself and
maxVUE Runtime starts up automatically.
When maxVUE Runtime starts up, the Logo display appears. Click anywhere
on the display to open the next display, usually the Main menu display. You
may now begin to work in maxVUE.
Logging out of the maxSTATION

When you are logged on as an operator, your ability to shut down the station
or to change applications is restricted.
To shut down the Operator's Workstation:
1. Press <Ctrl><Alt><Del> to bring up the Task Manager dialog box.
2. From the Shut Down menu item, select Log Off Operator.

2-2
Getting Started
Working in maxVUE
maxVUE runs as a standard Windows application and responds to the mouse
and keyboard like any other Windows package. Within maxVUE, you may
use mice or equivalent pointing devices to click display buttons to move
between displays, perform control functions, and respond to alarm
conditions. Buttons and other Windows features you will use, such as dialog
boxes and scroll bars, are discussed in this chapter.
Input Devices
The maxSTATION accepts a variety of input devices including:
Mouse
Trackball
Touch screen
Keyboard
While this publication only describes mouse operation, mouse instructions

also can apply to a trackball. The primary mouse button is ordinarily the left
button. Whenever a mouse button is referenced with no right, left or center
designation, the left mouse button is assumed.
The mouse is used to position the pointer over the desktop. The pointer is
normally a small white arrow pointing to the left of vertical. The pointer is
used to select objects or perform actions in combination with the mouse
buttons or keyboard keys.
Note: In this publication, the term pointer is used to refer to the mouse
pointer.
Using the Mouse
To take some display-related action, you typically point to a menu item or

screen button using a mouse (or other pointing device) and press or "click"
the left mouse button to select a choice. (On a touch screen, the display
should be touched.) In some instances, you will make a selection or perform
some action by clicking the mouse button twice in rapid succession; this is
referred to as a "double click." On a touch screen this is accomplished by
tapping the display twice.
To right-click means to press the secondary mouse button. To drag an object,

click and, while holding down the left mouse button, move the mouse
pointer. When the object is where you want it, release the mouse button. To

2-3
right-drag an object use, the same method except hold down the right mouse
button.
To select a block of text with the mouse, click the beginning of the block,
and hold down the mouse button while you move the mouse pointer to the
end of the block. Then release the mouse button. To right-select, follow the
same procedure but use the right mouse button.
Using the Keyboards
The maxSTATION can use both a normal QWERTY (Engineers) keyboard

and an Operators keyboard. The Engineers keyboard is required in an
Engineers Workstation. The Engineers keyboard is used to enter text and
perform other functions with special keys or combinations of keys. The
Operators Keyboard has dedicated keys used to perform specific tasks such
as acknowledging alarms or taking control actions. All of the functions
defined for the Operators keyboard can be performed by an Engineers
keyboard using combinations of keys.
Clicking on Display Buttons
Using a mouse pointing device or equivalent pointing device, you may click
on a display button to perform some action. Buttons, featured on graphics
screens, appear raised from the normal background. When you point to a
button and click on it using the mouse, it appears to depress and often
changes color. In maxDNA standard displays, buttons are used to move from
display to display, initiate edit actions, or other operator interface functions.
They are usually rectangular in shape with text or arrows imprinted to
indicate their function.
On the Microsoft Windows XP operating system, buttons are invisible

until the pointing device hovers over them. Certain maxDNA displays (such
as the title area of the Alarm Summary display) use standard Microsoft
objects that make use of this effect. Most other buttons on the maxDNA
system look like buttons and change their appearance only when clicked.
Responding to Dialog Boxes
Dialog boxes allow the system to prompt you for information. Whenever the
system needs more information to proceed, a dialog box pop-up appears. A
dialog box consists of a rectangular window display containing fields for
accepting information. It also includes OK and Cancel buttons.
Typing information and pressing <Enter> on the keyboard, or clicking on

OK, will cause the system to access and process the information you have
typed. Clicking on Cancel will make the dialog box disappear without
accepting information that you may have entered.

2-4
Getting Started
Sometimes you will see option boxes inside a dialog box. Option boxes are
small square boxes, which may contain a check. They are used to select
particular options that may be available to you. There is generally text
adjacent to the option box indicating its function. To change the current
selection of an option box, simply click on the box. If a check appears in the
box, it will disappear; if there was no check, one will be placed there. If the
text at the side of the box is gray instead of black, that option box is not
available, and you will not be able to change it.
Scroll Bars
The scroll bar is another common Windows element sometimes seen in

dialog boxes. The scroll bar allows you to browse through a list of choices. A
typical example would be a scroll bar that allows you to select an existing
filename.
The scroll bar appears in a display as a vertical or horizontal bar; an arrow

appears at each end of the bar. In addition to the arrows, the bar features a
device called a slider. The slider is a rectangular box than can be positioned
at any location inside the bar between the arrows. The position of the slider
in the bar indicates your relative position in a list next to the scroll bar. (A
scrollable list typically appears next to the scroll bar.) For instance, if the
slider is halfway between the two arrows, you have moved about 50 percent
through the list. If the slider is near the top or right arrow, you are at the
beginning of the list.
To make the text list scroll up or down, use one of the three following
methods:
Method 1: Click on the arrows; this will make the list scroll up
or down by one item, or if an item is selected
(highlighted), it will move the selection up or down
by one item.
Method 2: Click on the area between an arrow and the slider;

this will make the list scroll by one page. If you click
above the slider, the list will page toward the
beginning. If you click below the slider, the list will
scroll toward the end.
Method 3: Click on and hold on the slider. Move it. If you

position the mouse cursor on the slider and then hold
the mouse button down, you will be able to move the
slider anywhere in the scroll bar. Use this method to
rapidly move the list up and down. This is often the
quickest way to go to the beginning or end of the list.
Once the desired item is in view, you may select it by clicking on it. This will
cause the item to be highlighted. Once the item is highlighted, click on an
OK button to perform some action on the item. Alternatively, you may also
double click on the item instead of using the OK button.

2-5
Working with Pop-up Displays
Pop-ups are rectangular display windows that temporarily overlay parts of

whatever display you are currently viewing. They are normally used to
display messages and information related to current events in the system.
Many pop-ups will have a title bar. A title bar is a line of text at the top of the
pop-up. If a pop-up has a title bar it can be moved on the display to any
position you like. To move a pop-up:
1. Rest the mouse pointer over the title bar.
2. Press and hold down the left mouse button (this is a click-and-hold
operation).
3. Move the mouse to the desired position. Notice that a box the size of the
pop-up moves with the mouse.
4. Release the mouse button and the pop-up will move to its new location.
Limiting the Number of Pop-up Displays
By default, the number of pop-ups that may be concurrently opened on your

screen is not limited. However, if the registry setting, Limit maxVUE
Runtime Pop-ups is set to a non-zero setting in MCS Registry Edit, the
number of pop-ups you are permitted to open concurrently is limited. The
maximum limit equals the number entered for this registry setting.
Should you request a pop-up that exceeds the permitted limit, the following
message appears:
See Publication 278594, maxSTATION Auxiliary Functions User's Guide for

a description of this setting.
Changing Focus
Since a pop-up can have a title bar, it can also be in or out of focus. Focus is
a Windows term describing the current location of input. Suppose, for
example, you have several pop-ups on the screen at one time. The currently
active pop-up (the one with which you have been changing setpoints, for
example), is said to be in focus. It is designated as in focus by showing a
brighter colored title bar than a pop-up without focus. It is possible to change

2-6
Getting Started
the focus by clicking on another pop-up. When you do this, the current pop-
up's title bar will lose its color, and the pop-up you click on will become the
new focus. Once you have done this, the new pop-up is eligible to accept
input.
Some screens (such as the Alarm Summary) may have a title bar that is
actually a screen object. In this case, the title bar does not change color when
this screen does not have focus.
Only a display item in focus can accept input from the keyboard, mouse or
touch screen. This means that when you click on a display button, or do some
other action on a screen item, that item is given the focus. The item in focus
is also brought to the top of a stack of items, if there were other items on top
of it.
To place an item in focus you must be able to click on some part of it. It is
possible, however, to bury a desired item under several other display
elements, making it totally invisible. This will happen, for instance, if you
bring up a faceplate, and then ask for a detail display. The detail display will
completely cover the faceplate. To look at that faceplate again, you will have
to close the detail display.
Understanding maxVUE Error Conditions

At times, a display will report an error condition affecting the entire display
or just part of the display. To indicate an error condition, diagonal lines are
placed over part or all of the display. The diagonal lines, referred to as
striping, appear when a display, or fields within a display, cannot obtain data
from the real-time system. This may occur because the DPU has
malfunctioned or was taken out of service. Striping may also occur when a
point name attribute does not exist. See Fig. 2-1.

2-7
Figure 2-1. Display Showing Error Condition
When striping occurs, place the mouse pointer over the striped area to read
an error message placed in the ToolTip, a yellow rectangular box containing
instructional information. The following is a listing of typical error messages
that may appear in a ToolTip:
SBP_E_MEMBER_NOT_FOUND - Service does not support this

member
SBP_E_SERVICE_NOT_FOUND - RRS cannot locate the service
SBP_E_TIMEOUT - Operation Timeout
SBP_E_AUTHENTICATION_REJECTED - Username/Password
invalid or Insufficient Privilege
SBP_E_PROVIDER_UNAVAILABLE - Error in routing message
SBP_E_DESTINATION_UNAVAILABLE - Provider unable to

contact ultimate destination

2-8
Chapter 3
Working with Standard Displays
Using the Main Menu Display

The Main Menu display serves as your interface to the rest of the displays in
the system. The Main Menu that comes with the maxVUE Runtime package
is really a starting point for creating your own custom main menu. The center
portion of the display instructs you to replace this menu with your own
customized version.
As supplied, the main menu consists of horizontal and vertical toolbars

containing buttons that open standard displays, such as the System Status
display and the Alarm Summary display. The vertical toolbar also includes
an alarm list area. The horizontal toolbar provides an area for user-defined
buttons. The following sections define the function of each of the standard
buttons.
Figure 3-1. Main Menu Template

3-1
Time and Date
The time and date appear in a box in the upper right-hand corner of the
vertical toolbar.
You may change the date and time at any Operator's Workstation. Note:
Using the default security scheme you must be at Security Level 7 or higher
to set the time.
The TimeSet.mn pop-up lets you manually enter a time and date to be set.
This pop-up is available from the System Menu Display. Click the Apply
button to send the time to the local workstation time and to the DPU (or DPU
pair) that is set as time master. If there is more than one domain and this
workstation has direct access to them, each time master DPU will be time
synced. Click the Reset button to cancel changes.
To change the time at an Operator's Workstation:
1. Click inside the time window to access a pop-up dialog box.
2. Adjust the time using the up and down arrows.
To change the date at an Operator's Workstation:
1. Click inside the calendar window to access a pop-up dialog box.
2. Adjust the year or month by selecting from pull-down menus.
3. Adjust the day by clicking on the desired day.
Security Button
Users gaining access to the system are assigned to a maxSTATION security

group. Upon startup a maxSTATION assumes a particular level depending
on who is logged on (in the Windows sense) to the station. If the user is a
member of the engineer group it assumes the default Engineering Level. If
the user is a member of the operator group it assumes the default Operator
Level.
Click the Security button to change to a different security level numbered 0

through 9. See Changing Users Security Levels, later in this chapter.
Menu Button
Returns to the Main Menu display, regardless of the display.

3-2
Last Button
Retrieves the last display you were using before you got to the current
display. For instance, when you click on the Logo display, the Main Menu
appears. When you point and click on the Last button, the Logo display
reappears. Note that if you press Last twice you will return to your starting
point.
System Button
Opens the System Menu display used to access a family of system displays.
From this display, you can access maxDPU Details displays and other system
displays described more fully in Chapter 6, "Using System Menu Displays."
Tracking Point Information
Allows you to monitor (or track) a point needing close attention. If you
have a selected point defined, you can click the Track Selected Pnt button
to track information about the selected point. Once you have selected a point
to be tracked, it remains until you select a different point. For more details
on the information displayed, see Chapter 6 Tracking Point Configuration.
There are 3 click actions that you can take on the tracking point indication
area:
Left Single click: makes tracking point the selected point.
Left Double Click: makes tracking point the selected point and calls a
Tracking Point Popup for the current tracking point.
Right Single Click: makes tracking point the selected point and calls the
standard Right Click Menu popup with its associated options.
You may also define a point to be your default tracking point by entering its
name in place of the DefaultTPnt string in the TrackingPoint.ini file found
in the C:\Custom\Displays\Operating\Database folder.
Track Selected Point Button
Clicking this button sets the Tracking Point to the current selected point. An
error message dialog is displayed if there is no selected point defined when
this button is clicked.
Print Button
Prints the screen if you use the Network Printing option or a graphics printer
connected to your LPT1 port on the maxSTATION. The printer must be
configured as your default Windows printer.

3-3
Alarm Summary Button
Opens the Alarm Summary display, used to view acknowledged and

unacknowledged alarms of any severity. The Alarm Summary display is
described more fully in Chapter 5.
Silence Button
Click this button to silence an audible signal originating in a maxSTATION

equipped with a sound board and speakers. The audible signal indicates that
an alarm has occurred for a point assigned to a pre-defined hierarchical
group. To implement alarm annunciation, hierarchical groups must be first
defined in maxDPUTools.
Note: maxSTATIONs not equipped with sound boards and speakers may be
configured to silence alarms occurring at a maxSTATION playing the sound.
Ack All Button
Click this button to acknowledge all the alarms shown in the alarm list
display.
Ack Top Button
Click this button to acknowledge the top alarm shown in the alarm list
display.
Alarm List
The Alarm List display shows the most recent acknowledged and
unacknowledged alarms (with the highest severity) from the maximum
10,000 alarms in all the DPU database. Alarms appear inside a window at the
lower part of the Vertical Toolbar. By default, the Alarm List window is
defined to show up to 15 alarms, however, the window may be configured to
display from 1 to 40 alarms.
Unacknowledged alarms are displayed in their corresponding alarm severity

color combination; acknowledged alarms are in white text on a black
background.
Unacknowledged alarms appear at the top of the list followed by

acknowledged alarms; within these groups alarms are furthered ordered from
top to bottom by severity and time.
You may select points from the list to access another display or for control
action. When selected, the tagname of the selected point will appear on the
Point Select area on the Horizontal Toolbar. See "Point Select Area," later in
this chapter.

3-4
User-Definable Buttons
The horizontal toolbar features 12 gray, user-definable buttons on the left of

the toolbar. They are defined in the maxVUE editor. By default, the toolbar
features 12 buttons, however, you may define as many or as few as desired.
You are only limited by available space on the toolbar. If used, they should
be labeled. One possible use of these buttons, for instance, would be to call
up a display.
Point Select Area
Opens a Point Selection dialog box. Enter a point name and click OK to
select a point. When you make your selection, the point name appears in this
area. You may now click the Point Action icons take actions (as described
below) for the selected point.
Also shown below the Selected Point Area are the Description for the
selected point and its Hierarchical Identifier.
Below this information is the name of the display file.
Point Action Icons
These point action icons allow you to take actions (described in more detail
below) on the selected point. The icons on the top row from left to right are
Point Control, Point Detail, and Clear Point. The icons on the bottom row
from left to right are Graphical Configuration Page, Tracking Point, and Ack
Point.
Point Control Icon
Click this icon to open a Point Control Pop-up showing an overview for a
selected point. If no point is currently selected, click the Point Select area to
the left of this icon to open a dialog box to enter a tag name. You may also
select a point by clicking a tagname in the Alarm List. When you select a
point, the tagname appears in the Point Select area. See Chapter 4, "Using
Standard Display Objects."
Point Detail Icon
Click this icon to open a full-screen, detail display of the selected point. If no
point is currently selected, click the Point Select area to the left of this icon
to open a dialog box to enter a tagname. You may also select a point by
clicking a tagname in the Alarm List. When you select a point, the tagname

3-5
appears in the Point Select area. See Chapter 4, "Using Standard Display
Objects."
The detail display contains all editable attributes for a point, such as limits,
constants, setpoint, present value, output value, digital message, sequencer
message, etc.
Depending on the point type, some of the above-mentioned data will not be
available. Refer to Chapter 4, "Using Standard Display Objects," for more
information about individual point types and their graphics displays.
Clear Point Button
Clears the currently selected point indicated on the Point Select area.
Graphical Configuration Page Icon
Opens a Graphical Configuration Sheet that contains the point in the Point
Select area. The symbol for the selected point will be shown in the selected
point color (by default, yellow).
Tracking Point Icon
Click this icon to open a Tracking Point pop-up for the point in the Point
Select area. The Tracking Point pop-up does not automatically close when
you swap to a new display. This allows you to monitor this point while
swapping to other displays.
Refer to Tracking Point Configuration in Chapter 6 for a description of

information shown on this pop-up.
There are two different looks to the Tracking Point pop-up:
The tagname for the point is shown in the first line of the pop-up. The
second line shows the value of interest for the point. The third line shows the
units of measure (in the case of analog values) or the text Bool/Integer for
status values.
If a Tracking point pop-up is requested for a non-configured point type a

pop-up similar to the following is shown:

3-6
Ack Point Button
This button acknowledges any alarm that exists for the point currently
selected.
Data Entry Dialogs

Data entry in the maxVUE environment is accomplished via standard data
entry dialogs based on the type of data:
Text data
Numeric data
Enumerated data
Boolean data
Text Entry
A Text Entry dialog is provided for entry of data such as is required for the
selected point area.
The title bar shows the data that is to be entered and cursor is positioned in
the data entry area.
If the operator is on a maxSTATION with only an Operator Keyboard, the

Show Keypad button will expand to allow selection of alphanumeric
characters that are not part of the Operator Keyboard.

3-7
In the case of the selected point area, the operator may click the PointPicker
button to open a dialog that gives an alphabetic list of all tagnames in the
domain. The operator may then double click on the desired tagname, or
select the tagname and click the OK button.
The selected tagname is then presented in the text data entry dialog. The
operator may then click the OK button and the new tagname becomes the
selected point.
Numeric Entry
The Numeric Entry dialog provides the operator with a means to modify
numeric data. When a field is clicked that allows entry of a value the
numeric entry dialog is presented.
Note that the dialog value is initialized to the current value. The spin buttons
allow the operator to increase or decrease this value by a small amount (the
+ or - buttons) or by a larger amount (the ++ or -- buttons).

3-8
The ShowKeypad button may be clicked to get a numeric keypad similar to

that on the Text Entry dialog.
Enumerated Data Entry
The Enumerated Data Entry dialog provides the operator with a means to
modify enumerated data. The dialog presents a list of the enumerated values
for the field. The operator may then select the desired enumeration and click
the OK button or double click the desired value.
The current value will be highlighted when the dialog is initially presented.
Boolean Data Entry
The Boolean Data Entry dialog provides the operator with a means to toggle
a boolean value. This dialog shows the current value and shows a
highlighted button to toggle to the other state.
In this example, the operator would click the True button to toggle from the
False state, or click the Cancel button to take no action.

3-9
Changing User Security Levels

maxSTATION security consists of 10 independent security levels numbered
0 through 9. The numbered levels correspond with the following default
security level names:
0. Guest
1. Lab Data
2. Technician
3. Operator 1
4. Operator2
5. Supervisor
6. Tuner
7. Engineer 1
8. Engineer 2
9. Bypass
Note: Level 0 implies no write access. Level 9 is referred to as Bypass

mode. When the maxSTATION is at Security Level 9 the DPU will grant all
writes.
To change the maxSTATION security level:
1. Access the maxVUE Runtime main menu and click the Security button
to open the following Security Pop-up:

3-10
2. Select a level and enter the password associated with that level.
The passwords for each level as well as the default Engineering and default
Operator levels are set via the MCS Security Edit Utility. See Publication
278606, System Resources Users Guide, Chapter 3.
Note: to run Security Edit the currently logged on user must be the
Administrator.
Using Default Login
Use the Default Login button to change the maxSTATIONs Security level
to the default level that corresponds to the current Windows user.
If the user is a member of the maxSTATION Engineer or Operator group

then the default Engineer/Operator level will be selected. Otherwise the
default is set to 0. The default Engineer and Operator levels are set via the
Security Edit program. The initial values after installation are 3 for Engineer
and 1 for Operator. Depending on the current security level when the Default

3-11
Login button is clicked, a password may be required to actually change to

that level.
Changing security levels may not require a password, and depends on the
current and selected passwords, and the Password Entry mode selected via
the Security Edit program. The following table describes when a password is
required to change:
From To
Current Level Selected Level Password required
9 Any No
0 Any Yes
Any non-zero Default level for currently No
logged in user
Any non-zero A higher level Yes (unless selected level is
the default )
Any non-zero Any non-zero lower level Yes (unless the Password
Entry mode is set to allow
lowering of security levels
without entering a password.)
How to Print maxVUE Video Displays

You may generate hard copies of maxVUE video displays:
Printing from maxVUE using Windows network printers or a local
printer connected to the maxSTATION LPT1 parallel port; refer to
"Printing from maxVUE."
Printing from Windows, in parallel with the monitor, using a screen
capture utility; refer to "Printing from Windows."
Printing from maxVUE
You may print video displays directly from maxVUE using a printer attached
to a Windows NT network or a local printer connected to the maxSTATION
LPT1 parallel port, which is reserved for this purpose. The printer must be
configured as your default Windows printer.
Use the Print button on the standard vertical toolbox or the <Print Screen>
key on the Operator Keyboard to print maxVUE displays. The Template
Print button and the <Print Screen> key respond to either network printers
or local printer configurations.
Note: The <Print Screen> key on the PC typewriter keyboard is used only
under Windows.

3-12
Whether you are using a local or networked printer, before you can initiate a
print request, the appropriate Windows print driver must be selected and
configured to match the targeted printer.
A maxSTATION screen capture utility takes a snapshot of the entire screen

and sends it as a bitmap file to the default printer. Everything, including pop-
ups, is printed exactly as it appears on the screen. If a color printer is used,
the printed image is rendered in color. If a non-color printer is used, the print
will not use dithering but will print in gray scale.
Printing from Windows
A number of screen-capture utilities available for Windows take a current

screen image and place it in the Windows clipboard. In the case of the
maxSTATION, the screen image is saved as a 256-color bitmap.
Windows assigns this screen capture function to the <Print Screen> key
located to the right of <F12> on the Engineer's keyboard. Once a screen
image is captured, you may paste it into a paint program, such as Paint, to
edit or modify the image, print it, or save it to a file.

3-13
Chapter 4
Using Standard
Display Objects
Overview
A standard display object allows you to interact with maxDPU Function
Blocks consisting of Atomic Blocks, Standard Blocks and Custom Blocks.
Standard display objects fall into the following categories:
Point Data Trends

X-Y Plots
Point Select Objects
Point Control Pop-ups
Point Detail Pop-ups
Graphical Configuration Objects
Tracking Point Objects
Point Data Trends and X-Y Plots are normally put on or in displays. They
typically take up an entire display. To access a trend plot, however, you must
ask for a display, either through the Main Menu or through some other
means.
Function Blocks may have associated Point Control pop-ups and Detail pop-
ups. Point pop-ups are used to represent data acquisition and control.
The control process can be as simple as an on/off switch and as complex as a

PID loop. This chapter covers samples of the different pop-ups you will
encounter and describes their use. To learn more about available Function
Blocks, see Publication 278589, Function Blocks Programmers Reference
and Users Guide. Point pop-ups as described in this chapter are very
general.

4-1
Point Data Trends

Point Data Trend displays consists of a core trend graph and a surrounding
Trend Wrapper display, a ready-to-use graphical interface. The core trend
appears in a rectangular graph featuring horizontal and vertical grid lines.
See Figures 4-1a and 4-1b. The vertical, or X-axis, is used to plot the
engineering value of the points. Units-of-Measure for any analog point
appear next to the value of the corresponding point on the control.
The text state (the Message, not 0 or 1) for any digital point appears on
the control and the Tabular Data Display.
The horizontal, or T-axis, shows the time of the data being plotted. Up to 12
points may be plotted on the same graph, depending on trend wrapper
version. Refer to the next section. The data on a given graph may reside in
any maxSTATION running maxSTORIAN.
Trend Wrapper
The surrounding trend wrapper template displays dynamic information about

the graph and lets you change trace assignments. Three versions of the trend
wrapper are available, the original version, the newer version and a sizable
version. The original version supports up to eight pens and the newer version
supports up to 12 pens. The sizable version is based on the newer version but
is stretchable and allows multiple instances to be placed on a maxVUE
display. The features for the newer version described in this section apply to
the Sizable Trend Wrapper. Refer to he section titled Sizable Trend Wrapper
for details on how it differs from the newer version. It is recommended that
new displays be built with the sizable version. The original version has been
retained for compatibility with older versions of maxSTATION and should
not be used for new displays.
The main difference between the original and newer two versions of trend
wrappers is in the display of dynamic information around the central graph:
Both versions show a scoreboard with information about the traces on the
graph. The original trend wrapper puts the scoreboard at the top of the
display. The newer version puts it at the bottom of the display. Please refer
to the description of Trend Scoreboard below.
The top portion of the newer trend wrapper shows a scrolling marquee that
repeats the information of each row in the scoreboard.
The display of range limits is different between the two versions; the original
version shows a fixed display of the range limit values on the left side of the
display. The newer version shows the range limits as well as intermediate
range values on the right and those limits are associated with the currently
selected row of the scoreboard.
Please refer to Figures 4-1a and 4-1b for pictures of the two versions.

4-2
Using Standard Display Objects
When alternate language support is enabled, any trend wrapper tag

descriptions and dates may appear in a second language.
By default, the core trend graph uses the Default Trend Source to
determine which trend source to ask for trend values.
Trend Scoreboard
The Trend scoreboard consists of two columns of rows of information about

the traces on the display:
The Color Block shows the color of the trace.
The Trend Banner consists of the configured description, a user-specified

description, or tagname, attribute, and statistic of the trace (based on the
Registry Editor setting for Trend Banner Style). See Publication 278594,
maxSTATION Auxiliary Functions User's Guide for a description Trend
Banner Style.
The Value field shows the latest trend value on the graph or the value under
the Trend Cursor. The text Pending appears in the value field when a
request for trend values is initiated and is replaced with a value or the text
Bad Data (if no data is available).
The last field shows the units of measure for the trace or a text specified by
the user as described in Customizing Trend Wrapper Pen Description and
UOM below.
Intelligent Time Stamp
The time stamp display at the bottom of the grid shows hours, minutes,
seconds and date. To avoid ambiguity and clutter, this display changes
spacing of the grid lines, depending on the size of the trend graph.
If the date changes within the trend view, the new date will appear below the
first time stamp after midnight of that day.
Using the Data Trend Tool Box
The Data Trend Tool Box, located on the left-hand side of the trend graph,
contains buttons that let you reconfigure and control trend graph features and
functions.
The original version features 12 Toolbox buttons, while the newer version of
the trend wrapper features the same 12 buttons plus three additional buttons
unique to its interface, Marquee, Tag/Description Toggle Button, and
Marquee Interval. All buttons for both versions are described in the
following sections.

4-3
Figure 4-1a. Sample Original Wrapper Trend Plot
Figure 4-1b. Sample Newer Wrapper Trend Plot

The following sections describe what each button lets you do.

4-4
Edit Trend Properties Button
The Edit Trend Properties button lets you access maxVUE Trend
Wrapper Properties dialog boxes. See Figure 4-2. If you click this button,
you will be presented with the maxVUE Trend Wrapper Properties. These
boxes allows you to change the time and length of the trend, request history
data, and edit or add specific tagname.attributes to the trend.
The Trend Wrapper Properties has the following Tabs:

History
Attributes
Shading
Range Limits
Alarm Limits
Pens
Saving Edits Online
To save on-line edits or run-time changes made to the Trend Wrapper

Properties, each property page dialog contains a Save button. This will allow
the display to remember the changes made when called up again.
Note that in the maxVUE Editor at design time, the Save feature may be
defeated on a per pen basis if the Locked checkbox is checked on the Trend
Wrapper Pens property page. To allow saving of run-time Change of any
property for a pen, the pen must be set to Unlocked (unchecked check box) at
design time.
Click the Save button to save online changes. If the Save button is clicked
and the changed properties are unlocked, the changes will be saved.
Click the Reset button to discard all runtime changes. If the Reset button is
clicked, all run-time-changes will be discarded and the display will be set to
the design time settings.
Note: It is assumed that there is only one Trend Wrapper display in a screen.
Configuring History Properties (History Tab)
Access the History Tab to select live or historical trending. See Figure 4-2.
An historical trend has a non-current start time and does not update in real
time. If you select historical trend mode, you must select a time and date
from the Start Time and Start Date sections of the property sheet. The
displayed trend graph will then provide you with a snap shot of the values
from the start time/date to the end of the configured trend length.
If you select live trending under the Trend Mode section, the start time is
automatically set to current. This allows your trends to update in real time as
new data come in from the field.

4-5
Figure 4-2. Trend Wrapper History Property Sheet
Specifying Trend Display Shading (Shading Tab)
Access the Shading Tab to specify various shading options for each trace
pen.

4-6
Figure 4-3. Trend Wrapper Shading Property Sheet
To configure shading:
1. For each pen, select one of the following shading types from a drop-
down list box:
No Shading The default is No Shading.
Trace Shading will be drawn between each point of this

trace (pen) and another trace (pen).
% of Range Shading will be drawn between each point of this

trace and a fixed percentage of the range of this trace
(pen).
2. Under the Shading No field, enter a trace number (if the shading type is
Trace) or the % of range (if the shading type is % of Range).
3. Under the Shading Style field, select one of the following fill patterns
from a drop-down list box:

4-7
Specifying a Trend Wrapper Sampling Rate (Attributes Tab)
Access the Attributes tab to specify a time interval sampling rate for the
trend data on the core graph. See Figure 4-4. The resulting values are then
shown graphically in the form of an analog trace or digital graph.
To specify sampling information:
1. In the Time Interval field, specify the time between the collection of
two samples. The default is 1 second, but may be as fast as one tenth of a
second. The maximum value is 30 days.
2. In the Max Samples field specify the maximum number of samples to be

taken during specified Time Span. The maximum number of samples is
999. The default is 100.
Note: The Time Span field is a read-only field. It displays the time span
value from the multiplication of entered Time Interval and Value selected in
the Num of Samples field.
Figure 4-4. Trend Wrapper Attributes Property Sheet
Specifying Trend Ranges (Range Limits Tab)
Access the Range Limits tab to specify ranges for point identifiers that you
specify on the Pens tab. See Figure 4-5.

4-8
You may either enter a point value in the Range Hi and Range Lo fields or
use the tagname.LimHi or tagname.LimLo format, respectively, to set the
point trace ranges. The default range hi value is 100 and the default range
low value is 0.00. The Pen fields correspond to values that you specify on the
Pens tab.
You may override the default state text for a digital trace by entering the
True/False text in the Range Hi/Range Lo fields respectively.
The Digital checkbox or the Quality checkbox is checked when you are
trending digital or quality point attributes, respectively.
Figure 4-5. Trend Wrapper Range Limits Property Sheet
Specifying Trend Wrapper Alarm Limits (Alarm Limits Tab)
Access the Alarm Limits tab to specify high and low alarm ranges for point
identifiers that you specify on the Pens tab. See Figure 4-6. The Alarm Hi
and Alarm Lo fields only accept a constant value. The default Alarm hi
value is 100 and the default low value is 0.00 for the older trend wrapper and
9999 and 9999 for the newer trend wrapper. The Pen fields correspond to
values that you specify on the Pens tab.
Click the Color button next to each field to select a trace color for a trended
value that appears when the value enters an alarm state.

4-9
Figure 4-6. Trend Wrapper Alarm Limits Property Sheet
Specifying Live Trend Wrapper Data (Pens Tab)
Access the Pens tab to specify a point attribute and statistic data that you
want to plot against time for up to eight traces (original trend wrapper), or up
to 12 traces (newer trend wrapper) in an animated Trend Wrapper Control.
See Figure 4-7. Use this page to also specify trace types (analog, digital, or
quality), and a trace color.
To specify live data:
1. Select the Pens tab, if it is not already selected.
2. Click the Enable box to highlight one of the Data Identifier for Pens
fields.
3. From the Data Identifier for Pens field, specify a point attribute statistic.
Available statistics are Sample, Average, Maximum, Minimum, Start,
Ontime, Offtime, Oncnt, Offcnt, Totcnt and Quality.

4-10
Note: To specify a digital value, click the Digital checkbox and specify a
digital statistic in the Data Identifier for Pens field. To specify a quality
value, click the Quality checkbox and specify the quality statistic in the Data
Identifier for Pens field. Click the Color box for a desired trace to edit a trace
color.
The Quality value of the point appears at the bottom part of the trend graph
as does a digital trace. To edit the trace color, click on the Color (box) field
and select a color via the Color pop-up.
Note: Although you can change the color of a trace in maxVUE Runtime,
you cannot change the color of the pointer that is drawn on the right-hand
side of the graph at the current position of the trace value on the newer trend
wrapper.
Figure 4-7. Trend Wrapper Pens Property Sheet

4-11
Customizing Trend Wrapper Pen Description and UOM

By default the Trend Wrapper displays the description and units of measure
of pen trace. In some cases these values may not apply to the selected trace
variable. For instance, for a PID the Unit of measure may be DegF. This
applies to most of the attributes of the PID. However the attribute AO has a
units of measure of %.
In order to make the values of the displayed description and units of measure
fields more appropriate, the user can customize the description and units of
measure of each pen. To do so, the following optional parameters must be
added to the string entered in the Data Identifier for Pens field of the Pens
Property Page (see Specifying Live Trend Wrapper Data)
<(tagname | HID)>.<attribute>.<statistic>,DESC="description",UOM="units
of measure"
The first three parts of the string (<(tagname | HID)>.<attribute>.<statistic>)

are required when specifying a Pen. The DESC and UOM parameters follow
the required portion. If either of these fields is present, their value will
replace those that would normally be shown. The following apply to both
fields:
A comma , must precede the parameter.
The parameter must be spelled exactly, but may be in upper or lower
case.
The equal sign = must follow the parameter.
The value must be in double quotes.
Spaces may be used within the double quotes.
If the size of the value exceeds the field where it is displayed at runtime,
it will be truncated.
The order of the parameters does not matter.
The DESC parameter specifies description. If this field is not present then,
the Trend Wrapper acquires the description attribute from the TagName or
HID. It displays this value on the Trend Banner or the ToolTip depending on
the Registry value of Trend Banner Style. If the DESC parameter is present,
its value will always be displayed on the Trend Banner, and the TagName or
HID will displayed on the ToolTip.
The units of measure value is displayed on the scoreboard. If the UOM

parameter is present its value will be displayed on the scoreboard.
The Data Identifier for Pens field of the Pens Property Page may be set via
either the maxVUE Editor or maxVUE Runtime. If the optional parameters
are set via the maxVUE Editor, then in order to eliminate them via maxVUE

4-12
Runtime, set their value to an empty string. For instance, suppose if the Pen
Identifier was set to the following in the maxVUE Editor:
Saw1.ao.sample,DESC=new Description
If the operator wanted the description to revert back to the original

description for saw1.ao he could enter the following using the online update
capability of the Trend Wrapper in maxVUE Runtime:
Saw1.ao.sample,DESC=
Examples of values entered in Data Identifier for Pens
a) Customize the description of FIC101.ao

Fic101.ao,DESC=A New Description
b) Customize the units of measure of Saw101.ao

SAW101.ao,uom=anewUOM
c) Customize the description and units of measure of PID101.ao

PID101.ao,DESC=A New Description ,uom=anewUOM
d) Customize the description and units of measure of PID201.ao

PID101.ao ,uom=anewUOM,DESC=A New Description
Using the Enable/Disable Cursor Buttons
Use the Enable Cursor button to place a vertical cursor line on a trend
to read the actual trend data and time for all points which intersect the line.
Use the Disable Cursor button to remove the perpendicular line and
return the trend values to live mode.
When you click the Enable Cursor button, the cursor line appears
perpendicular to the time stamp area appearing along the bottom of the
graph. When the cursor is at the right edge of a horizontal trend (top of a
vertical trend), point data is current and updating. At the left (bottom), the
data is updating for the point in time corresponding to the start time minus
the trend span. When the cursor is on the graph it "sticks" to the graph
position, showing new time and data values as the graph updates.
To select the trend cursor:

4-13
1. Rest the mouse pointer over the cursor and click. When you select the
trend cursor, your mouse pointer changes to a green bi-directional trend
arrow.
2. With the trend cursor selected, drag it to a new position on the graph.
When you release the mouse button, the trend cursor snaps to the closest
plotted point, the screen and trend cursors return to normal, and the data
is updated.
Using the Freeze/UnFreeze Scoreboard Buttons
Click the Freeze Scoreboard Button to freeze the trend plot.
Note: when you freeze the scoreboard using the newer version of the trend
wrapper, marquee scrolling is not affected.
You may use the Enable Cursor button in conjunction with the Freeze
button to read the Data Statistic values at any given point in time. Click the
Unfreeze button to return the trend plot to live mode.
Using the Pan Buttons
The four Pan buttons let you view a trend forward and backward in time.
Panning (scrolling) moves the start time of a trend view, while leaving the
time span constant. Use the single-arrow buttons to pan one fifth
of the time span. Use the double-arrow buttons to pan one full
time span in either direction.
Using the Zoom Buttons
The zoom buttons let you raise or lower the resolution for the
time span. When you click the Zoom in/out buttons you increase or decrease
resolution for the time span by a factor of two. You may continue to click the
zoom buttons until you reach the respective minimum and maximum
resolutions.
Rubber Band Zooming
To see greater trend detail, use the Trend Wrapper rubber band zoom feature
to zoom in on a displayed Trend field. To use the rubber band feature, click
and drag on an area you wish to see enlarged to include in the rubber band
rectangle. The display settings before any rubber band zoom in will be
remembered to support zoom out later.

4-14
If you click the Zoom out button and attempt to zoom out further than
the zoom in, Zoom Out By Time will be performed.
Display Data Table
Click the Display Data Table button to open a pop-up displaying a

trend Data Presentation table. The table displays the values of each trended
Data Statistic per date/time. This table can be printed or copied as a file.
To save tabular data to a file:
Click the Save button appearing on the Data Presentation table to access
the following Save as dialog.
Figure 4- 8. Saving Trend Data Presentation Table.
From this dialog box, the tabular data shown in the Trend Data Presentation
window can be saved to a file.
The default folder, c:\Custom\Database\System, may be changed using the

dialog box.
The default name of the file is TrendLogyyyymmddhhmmss.csv, where the

date and time are represented by yyyymmddhhmmss, and the default suffix is
csv (Microsoft Excel comma separated values).

4-15
Note: the save as type selection is not used.
Figure 4-9. Trend Data Presentation
Newer Trend Wrapper Buttons
The following three buttons only apply to the newer trend wrapper:
Tag/Desc Click this button to show either tag names or

descriptions in the Trend Banner portion of the
scoreboard. Note that when you select Tag, the
associated description appears for each pen in the
ToolTip. Conversely, when you select Desc, the
associated tag appears for each pen in the ToolTip.
The button text indicates which type of display is
active.
Marquee Toggle the Marquee button to turn scrolling on or off
in the marquee area across the top of the Trend
Wrapper. When the Marquee button is off, a single
selected pen remains in focus. When scrolling is
enabled, the Marquee button appears highlighted;
when it is turned off, the button is dimmed.
Marquee Click the Marquee Interval button to change the
Interval marquee scrolling frequency. When you click this
button, a pop-up appears allowing you to change the
time interval. Enter a time between three and 30
seconds.

4-16
Default/Alternate Click this button to toggle between the default trend

Source source and the alternate trend source. The alternate
trend source is defined via the Alternate Mounts popup.
Refer to Publication 278622, maxSTORIAN Users
Guide for more information.
Sizeable Trend Wrapper
Icon on MaxVUE Editor Menu:
(maxVUE_SizableTrnWrap.SizableTrnWrapCtl )
This version of the Trend Wrapper can be used to replace the previous
versions of the Trend Wrapper which include the following:
MaxVUE_maxDNA_Trend_Wrapper (new)
MCS_MAXVUE_TRWRAP.ocx (old)
It retains most of the functionality of the

MaxVUE_maxDNA_Trend_Wrapper and includes a lot of new features, the
most important of which are the ability to place multiple instances of it on
the same maxVUE display and resize it within a reasonable range of
dimensions. The following sections describe the new features, the changes in
implementation of some of the original features. New restrictions on the use
of this control are described.
Comparison to MaxVUE_maxDNA_Trend_Wrapper:
1. Unless specifically mentioned, all of the original functionality has been
retained. Refer to the previous sections of this document for details.
2. When a single instance is placed on a maxVUE display and sized the
same as the maxVUE_maxDNA_Trend_Wrapper it will look and behave
the same except:
The Toolbar will appear by right-clicking on the control.
The new tool bar includes the marquee timer and Trend Core
timer that used to appear on the left side. It also contains a Limits
button that will display a popup containing the Range and Alarm
limits.
The Point Group information does not include the UnitsOf
Measure.
3. Properties:
A new property called InstanceName has been added to the Attributtes
Property Page. Each instance of this control that is added to a maxVUE must
have an instance name that is unique among all other instances of this control

4-17
on this display (i.e. the same name could be used for an instance on another
display). Its purpose is for saving run-time changes.
New Features:
1. Sizability & MultiInstance:

When the control is placed on a display, it can be sized to meet most
requirements. However the design goal was to allow 4- 6 instances
configured as follows:
TrnWrapper 1 TrnWrapper 4
As the size is decreased from the maximum, the graphic elements within the
control will resize themselves proportional to the new dimensions. This
includes the fonts used by text elements. However, since the fonts become
unreadable with a point size below around 8.0, the text elements will not be
made smaller than the size (height & width) required to hold the largest size
string at a point size of 8.0. When the control is sized below this minimum
(in either the vertical or horizontal dimensions, some text elements will either
disappear or moved to a popup as follows:
If the control width is too small to accommodate the entire Marquee,

the Description field will be removed first. If the Marquee is still too
large, the Units-Of-Measure will be removed.
The Point group information at the bottom of the control will be

replaced with a button titled Show Point Groups. Left-clicking the
button will display a modal Popup showing all the information that
the MaxVUE_maxDNA_Trend_Wrapper displayed (Pen Color,
Tagname, Value, Unit-Of-Measure), with the addition of the
Description.
2. Limits:
A button titled Limits has been added to the Toolbar. Left-clicking it will
display a popup showing the range High\Low values, the Alarm High\Low
values along with their color properties.

4-18
Restrictions:
The only restriction that exists at this point is that Pens must be assigned in
strict ascending order. That means that if three points are to appear on the
trend, they must be pens 1, 2 and 3.
Understanding the X-Y Plot

The X-Y Plot shows how selected points in your configuration dynamically
relate to one another. The X-Y Plot Control consists of a core plot graph with
an X horizontal axis and a Y vertical axis. The graph may show up to eight
X-Y plots.
Optionally, the X-Y Plot may include a static, highlighted geometric shape
(or polygon) to show an operation region on the graph. See the following
figure. This could be used to show graphically, for instance, a region of safe
operation or optimum performance. X-Y coordinates that fall out of this
region may show an out-of-range condition.
The X-Y Plot may be embedded in another display or used full screen.
Because the plot contains no operator controls for editing the traces, the
display is essentially read only.
X-Y Core Control showing two plots and static geometric shape

4-19
Understanding Point Select Objects

Point pop-ups are normally available from any display that uses the
Horizontal Toolbar display as its base. On displays of this type, once a point
has been selected the pop-ups can be invoked by pressing the Point Control
or Point Detail buttons on the Horizontal Toolbar display.
Point Select Objects, like point data trends, are normally found in displays.
Click on the Point Select Object to select it. When a point select object is
selected, its color changes to yellow.
Point select objects could be small identifying boxes, text or, graphic
representations (bitmaps) used to make selecting a point quick and easy. You
will typically see a point select object embedded at the top of any point data
pop-up.
To manually enter a point name click the Select Point area on the Horizontal
Toolbar to open a dialog box.
Figure 4-10. Selected Point button on Horizontal Toolbar
Viewing Point Control Pop-ups

You may display Function Blocks at several different detail levels. To view a
greater level of detail after a Point Select Object, select Point Control Pop-
up. The Point Control Pop-up, consisting of a faceplate image, provides an
overview of the Block's operation. Some of the faceplates have simple
controls, such as on/off buttons. Other faceplates have bar graphs showing
the process being controlled; this is typical on faceplates for PID loops.
Figure 4-11 shows typical faceplate types available in the system.
Atomic Blocks that can be tagged have an associated Point Control pop-up.
Custom blocks may also have an associated Point Data pop-up created for
your specific system.
Standard Point Control pop-ups are available for the following Atomic Block
types:
AIB DTAG
AOB FSTOUT
ATAG RTD
AUTOMAN SEQMSTR
DEVLOG TC

4-20
DIB PID001 (the Standard PID Function Block)

DOB
Opening a Point Control Pop-up
You may open a point control pop-up using one of two methods:
Method 1: Click on the Selected Point area on the Horizontal

Toolbar to bring up the Selected Point Dialog Box.
Enter a tagname and click OK to provide a valid
tagname to the system. Click on the Point Control Pop-
up button to display the Point Control pop-up faceplate
for the selected point.
Method 2: Click on a select object from a display. Select objects

are typically found on graphics displays. There may be
many select objects scattered around a display. To bring
up a faceplate, click on a select object, and then click on
the Point Control Pop-up button on the Horizontal
Toolbar.
Faceplates do not close when you click on a Clear Selection button. This
allows multiple faceplate pop-ups to be open simultaneously. To close a
faceplate, click the close button on the faceplate title bar.
Note: This is only available for faceplates that are true pop-ups. Faceplates
built into displays are not pop-ups. (They have no title bars and cannot be
moved).

4-21
Figure 4-11. Point Control Pop-up
Closing the faceplate in this manner does not clear the current point
selection. If you have not clicked on the clear selection button and you close
a faceplate, you can click on the Point Control Pop-up button again to bring
up the faceplate associated with the last point selection without filling in the
dialog box.
Understanding Faceplate
When you access a faceplate, notice that the top line of each faceplate is a
point select object. Click here to select the faceplate. When the faceplate is
selected, the background of the unique tagname function area changes to
yellow. Once a faceplate is selected, click the Point Detail Pop-up button to
display more details about the point. This approach eliminates the need to
enter any more information in a dialog box, such as the point tagname.

4-22
Recognizing Alarms
All Buffer type faceplates and faceplates for the standard PID, ATAG and
DTAG contain an alarm function area consisting of:
Short description of the point
Short alarm string for the point
The alarm string will only be shown if the point is in alarm. Color coding of
the alarm function area of the faceplate indicates the point is in alarm. If the
point is in alarm and unacknowledged, the outside border of the alarm
function area and the alarm message text itself blinks red and yellow.
After the point is acknowledged, the alarm function area stops blinking. The
alarm function area border and message text are shown in a solid (non-
blinking) red as long as the point is in alarm.
For faceplates with alarming capabilities, click the ACK button to

acknowledge the alarm condition of the point. When the point clears, the red
alarm function area returns to its normal (gray) color.
The standard PID and ATAG and DTAG faceplates also contain Defeat
buttons. Click the Defeat button in these faceplates to temporarily disable
alarming for the point. If the alarm is defeated, the Defeat button appears
highlighted. Press the Restore button on the operator keyboard to restore the
point to an unacknowledged state or click the Defeat button again.
Using Mode Buttons
The following point data pop-up types contain a mode button to toggle the
associated point between manual and auto modes:
AUTOMAN SEQMSTR
DEVLOG PID001 (the Standard PID Function Block)
The mode button shows a hand icon on the button face to indicate manual
mode, and an oval containing two arrow heads to indicate auto. Click this
button to toggle between either mode. Notice the button face icon changes to
indicate the current mode.
Viewing Bar Graphs
Standard PID and AUTOMAN Point data pop-ups include bar graphs to
provide quick reference to point attribute values. The PID shows values for
SP, PV, and AO. All numbers shown below the bar graph have a text
mnemonic associated with their function and are printed in the same color
that appears on the bar graph.
The output value shown as a blue bar graph is always displayed as a

percentage of full scale. If the point is in manual, you can usually change the
value of the output by clicking on the numerical value of the output below

4-23
the bar graph. You will be presented with a small pop-up for entering a new
value.
The green bar graph represent the Process Variable (PV) and any other input
values the point may have.
The setpoint is represented as an arrow on the left-hand side of the bar

graph. If the point has a setpoint, you may enter a new setpoint by clicking
on the numerical value of the setpoint below the bar graph. As in changing
the output value, you will be presented with a small pop-up for entering a
new setpoint value. The setpoint value is entered in the engineering units of
the setpoint instead of as a percentage.
The PID faceplate contains two arrow buttons beneath the SP, PV, and AO
values. When the point is in Auto mode, the up and down arrows let you
adjust setpoint up or down. Notice that the arrows are colored yellow in auto
mode to match the set point numeric field above the buttons.
When you place the point in manual mode, the up and down arrow buttons
let you adjust output up or down. Notice that the arrows are colored blue in
manual mode to match the output numeric field above the buttons.
The AUTOMAN faceplate also contains up and down arrow buttons, but
these are only used to adjust setpoint.
Viewing Point Detail Pop-ups

The point detail pop-up consists of a tabular grid listing all the attributes and
associated values and references for a selected point. From this display you
may access and adjust online most of the available point attributes associated
with a given point. Point security may restrict the points or individual
attributes of a point that you may edit. Figure 4-12 shows a typical example
of a detail pop-up. Press the Point Detail Pop-up icon appearing on the
Horizontal Toolbar display to access the Detail pop-up.
Note: You may open up this pop-up for a point in any subsystem using one
of two methods described in " Viewing Point Control Pop-up," earlier in this
chapter.
Except for setpoint changes, the block must be set to Manual Mode before
you can edit the block's attributes. (No error message is given if an edit is
attempted in the wrong mode.)

4-24
Figure 4-12. Point Detail Pop-up
The first column of the grid views, labeled Members, shows most of the
associated attributes for the selected atomic block typically needed for
configuration excluding base attributes. To view all the available attributes
for a selected atomic block, click the All checkbox in the tabular detail at the
upper far left.
The remaining columns display the associated category for each attribute, the
value assigned to the attribute, reference pointers, a brief description, and the
Security Class of each attribute. Only the Value (displayed in white) and
Reference (displayed in white or cyan) columns are editable. The remaining
columns are informational.
The above figure shows the tabular detail for an atomic block. Notice that
when you select an atomic block, its tag name appears in the title bar of the
tabular grid view.
The tabular detail pane contains the following tabs:

Alphabetical,
Categorized,
By Channel.
Security
Help

4-25
The Alphabetical tab, the default setting, organizes attributes in alphabetical

order under the Members column. Click the Categorized tab to list attributes
in category order, starting with Inputs, Outputs, standard, etc. Click the By
Channel tab to organize attributes numerically by input/output channel
numbers. This category only applies to Buffer type Atomic Blocks
containing channels and associated signals. Click the Security tab to sort
attributes in Security Class order. The Help tab shows the configuration help
file for the type of block being displayed.
Interpreting Database Error Conditions
Fields in a tabular grid may display one of four colors to indicate data quality
problems or reference errors. A reference field colored in red indicates a bad
reference. This occurs when, for whatever reason, maxVUE cannot locate the
referenced attribute. A bad reference condition may occur for the following
reasons:
Reference string contains a typing or syntax error
Referenced tagname, gname, or relative index number is entered
incorrectly or does not exist.
Reference may be found in another DPU that is offline.
Error conditions related to values are caused by data having less than good
quality. The following table lists colors and their meanings.
Color Meaning
Red bad quality or a bad reference
Cyan Substitute quality
Yellow Doubtful quality

4-26
Chapter 5
Using Alarm
Displays
Overview
Display Types
This chapter shows you how to use and configure the following alarm
display types. These displays either let you view alarm displays or control
how alarms are viewed.
You may view maxDNA alarms from a variety of standard and custom
maxSTATION graphic displays:
Alarm Summary
Alarm List
Other Display Types
Point Control Pop-up Faceplates; refer to Chapter 4
Point Detail displays; refer to Chapter 4
Custom graphic displays
This chapter deals exclusively with viewing and controlling the Alarm
Summary and Alarm List displays. Refer to Publication 278558, Alarm
Messages Reference Guide, for more information about all the possible
maxDNA alarm messages and their meanings.
Alarm Summary Display
The Alarm Summary display shows filtered or unfiltered alarms (up to a

maximum of 10,000) from all the DPU databases. By default, a single Alarm
Summary page displays up to 20 alarms, however, the window may be
configured to display from 1 to 40 alarms; display buttons let you page up
and down through the full list.
Click the Alarm Summary button on the Vertical Toolbar or on the

Operator keyboard to access the display in a single keystroke. Each entry on
the standard display lists the time, date, tagname, and alarm text of the alarm.
Additional information may be included in customized versions of this
display, such as acknowledge state, severity, description. Points may be

5-1
selected in the summary for display swap or control action. When selected,
the tagname of the selected point will appear on the Point Select area on the
Horizontal Toolbar display.
Alarm List Display
The Alarm List display shows the most recent acknowledge and
unacknowledged alarms (with the highest severity) of the maximum 10,000
alarms from all the DPU databases. By default, the Alarm List displays up to
15 alarms, however, the window may be configured to display from 1 to 40
alarms; the alarms appear inside a window at the lower part of the Vertical
Toolbar.
Because the Alarm List remains on the Vertical Toolbar display, you never
lose sight of highest priority alarms. Unacknowledged alarms are displayed
in their corresponding alarm severity color combination; acknowledged
alarms are in white text on a black background.
Unacknowledged alarms appear at the top of the list followed by

acknowledged alarms; within these groups alarms are furthered ordered,
from top to bottom, by severity and time.
Severity is shown with the following color combinations for

unacknowledged alarms:
Severity 5 bright yellow text; blink bright/dark red background
Severity 4 black text; blink bright/dark red background
Severity 3 bright red text; blink bright/dark yellow background
Severity 2 black text; blink bright/dark yellow background
Severity 1 blink green/light blue text; black background.
Black background is used for all acknowledged alarms. Colors are as

consistent as possible with Alarm Summary displays. However, maxVUE
color conditional implementation used for the Alarm List does not permit
both text and background colors to change.
If an alarm is acknowledged, its severity background will turn Black, and its
position in the list will change. You may select points from the list for
display swap or control action. To select a point you may either left-click on
the point from the Alarm List or enter the name in the Point Select field of
the Horizontal Toolbar. When selected, the tagname of the selected point will
appear on the Point Select button on the Horizontal Toolbar. Also, a box will
surround the tagname of the selected point on the Alarm List.

5-2
Using Alarm Displays
maxDNA System Alarm Classes

maxDNA System lets you view two classes of alarms:
Process Alarms
System Alarms
Process Alarms
Process alarms consist of alarm messages associated with the process itself.
These consist of two types:
Process Limit Alarms
Process limit alarms are caused by values exceeding their assigned

limits. Alarm information consists of time, point tagname and its
long description, alarm text associated with the alarm, current value
of the point, alarm limit value, and the units of measure for the point
in alarm.
Process Status Alarms
Process status alarms are generated by points and programs at DPUs.

Alarm information consists of time, point tagname and its long
description, alarm type text and the alarm value.
System Alarms
System Alarms consist of alarm messages associated with the system

hardware. These consist of two types:
Station Diagnostic Alarms
Station diagnostic alarms are caused by maxSTATION or Remote

Processing Unit (DPU, I/O boards) faults, such as weak batteries,
card failures, etc. Alarm information consists of time, tagname of the
station reporting the alarm, the device reporting the fault, and the
alarm text.
DPU Bus Network Diagnostic Alarms
This relates to two classes of alarms, DPU Bus related (DBM-based

systems only), and maxNET network related. DPU Bus network
diagnostic alarms are caused by cable breaks, token passing errors,
failure of stations to respond, etc. maxNET Network alarms are
caused by Frame Switch failure, Ethernet card failures, Ethernet
cable breaks, or a failed target maxSTATION.
Alarm information consists of time, tagname for the DPU Bus

reporting the alarm (e.g. DPUBUS1), name of the maxSTATION
involved in the fault, and the alarm text.

5-3
Figure 5-1. Alarm Summary Display
Viewing Alarms
Click the Alarm Summary button on the Vertical Toolbar to view system
alarms on the Alarm Summary display. See Figure 5-1.
Note: By default, the Alarm Summary display lists all alarms in the DPU
database without filtering. Use the Temporary Filter Setting Display to set up
and control how alarms are seen on the actual Alarm Summary displays.
You may filter alarms by type, the state of acknowledgment, and the severity.
See "Filtering Alarms."
The Alarm Summary Display includes six buttons at the bottom of the
display that lets you view alarms filtered by various categories that you select
from the Temporary Filter Setting dialog box. See "Alarm Summary Menu
Buttons."
Alarms can be acknowledged from a variety of places in the system. Both the
Alarm Summary and Alarm List displays have Ack Top buttons which
acknowledge the top-most alarm.
The Alarm Summary display includes an Ack Page button that

acknowledges all alarms in the currently displayed page. The Horizontal
Toolbar also includes an Ack button. The Ack button on the Horizontal

5-4
Toolbar display, however, acknowledges the point currently selected, not the
top most alarm in the maxSTATIONs DPU database.
You may select a point from the Alarm Summary display using two methods:
Method 1: Using your mouse or track ball, point to a desired point and
click the left mouse or track ball button. In response, the
tagname will appear on the Selected Point area on the
Horizontal Toolbar.
Method 2: Click the Selected Point button on the Horizontal Toolbar

display and enter the text for the selected point in the dialog
box pop-up. Enter the point name and attribute in either tag
name or Hierarchical Identifier (HID) format using the
keyboard or graphic keypad.
Once you select a point any of the point specific buttons on that display will
act on it. These consist of Clear Point, Ack Point, Point Control Pop-up,
Point Detail Display, Graphical Configuration Page, and Tracking Point Pop-
up.
With either method, the selected point name appears on the Selected Point
area in the Horizontal Toolbar display. Also, a box will surround the tagname
field on the Alarm Summary.
Alarm Summary Display Features
Each line of the Alarm Summary display is color coded to facilitate quick
recognition of severe alarms. Broken down by fields, the color coding is
applied to each field as follows:
Time Stamp Field (blinking)
Yellow on Red Unacknowledged alarm with a severity of 5
Black on Red Unacknowledged alarm with a severity of 4
Red on Yellow Unacknowledged alarm with a severity of 3
Black on Yellow Unacknowledged alarm with a severity of 2
Green on Black Unacknowledged alarm with a severity of 1
White on Black Acknowledged alarm
All other fields
White on Black Acknowledged/Unacknowledged alarm
This color scheme makes unacknowledged alarms more visible on the

display, however, you may customize color schemes to suit your preferences.

5-5
Alarm Summary Menu Buttons
The Alarm Summary Display includes six buttons at the bottom of the
display that let you view alarms filtered by various categories that you select
from the Temporary Filter Setting dialog box. See "Temporary Filter Setting"
later in this chapter. You may click the following buttons to display a filtered
alarm list:
All Alarms Display all alarm messages.
Process Diag & Display only process diagnostic and process control
Control alarms.
System Diag & Display only system diagnostic and process alarms.
Process
System Diagnostic Display only system diagnostic alarms.
Process Diagnostic Display only process diagnostic alarms.
Process Control Display only process control alarms.
Tools
The Alarm Summary Display includes several Tool icons located in the
upper, left-hand side of the display. Refer to the following for a description
of each tool.
Home
Click on this button to return to the beginning of the alarm list
PgUp
Click on this button to scroll up by one page in the alarm list
PgDn
Click on this button to scroll down by one page in the alarm list
Ack Page
Click on this button to acknowledge all the alarms in the currently

displayed page.
Ack Top
Click on this button to acknowledge the top-most alarm in the list.

5-6
Temporary Filter
Click on this button to bring up the Temporary Filter Setting display.

Use this to control the types of alarms seen on the alarm summary.
See the next section.
Filtering Alarms
You may control what appears on the Alarm Summary display using one of
the following two methods:
Method 1: This method uses Hierarchical Identifier (HID) filtering.

HID filtering is preprogrammed on the Alarm Summary
Display button on the Vertical Toolbar to selectively include
or exclude portions of your Hierarchical Identifier database.
This method allows a maxSTATION to selectively display
alarms based on a portion or portions of the process.
Method 2: Use this method to selectively include and exclude different

alarm types. Use this in combination with the
preprogrammed Alarm Summary Display button to
maximize your control over alarms.
Temporary Filter Setting
Figure 5-2. Temporary Filter Setting Display
Use the Temporary Filter Setting display to select the type of alarms you
wish to display on your alarm summaries. See Figure 5-2. You may click
buttons at the bottom of the Alarm Summary display to access various

5-7
filtered alarm summaries. See "Alarm Summary Menu Buttons," earlier in

this chapter. The display lets you select four filtering options: Type, Severity,
Ack_Status, and Sort Order. See the following sections.
Filtering by Alarm Type
The Alarm Type field allows you to choose the types of alarm messages to
be displayed on the alarm summary. Open the drop down menu and select
the appropriate option.
Refer to the following Alarm Filtering Quick Reference Table for a listing of
each filtering category that you may select, and the corresponding alarm
classes and types that come under this category. The following section,
"Alarm Type Definitions," expands on the information presented in
Table 5-1.
Refer to the "Alarm Types" section, at the beginning of this chapter, for a
description of all the maxDNA alarm types.

5-8
Table 5-1. Alarm Filtering Quick Reference Table
Filtering Category Alarm Class Alarm Types

(from Alarm Type
field)
Process Process Process Limit, Process Status
Diagnostic/Control
Process/System System, System Diagnostic, Process Limit
Diagnostic Process Alarm, Process Status Alarm
System Diagnostic System Station Diagnostic, Highway

Network Diagnostic
Process Diagnostic Process Process Limit Alarm, Process
Status Alarm
Process Control Process Process Limit, Process Status
All Process, Process Limit, Process Status,
System Station Diagnostic Highway
Network
Alarm Type Definitions
For the Alarm Type category, you may select from the following choices.
Refer to Table 5-1 for a summary of alarm classes and types that fall under
the following categories:
Process Diagnostic/Control
Display only process diagnostic and process control alarms. Process

alarms consist of all process limit alarms and all process status
alarms both in I/O failure and control state and classify all points
associated with control application as oppose to system points.
Process/System Diagnostic
Display only system diagnostic and process diagnostic alarms, and

classify all points in need of maintenance or repair. Diagnostic
alarms consist of system diagnostic alarms and process diagnostic
alarms.
System Diagnostic
Display only system diagnostic alarms.

5-9
System diagnostic alarms consist of DPU Bus diagnostic alarms and

station diagnostic alarms.
Process Diagnostic
Display only process diagnostic alarms. Process diagnostic alarms

consist of process limit alarms and process status alarms associated
with hardware failures, such as open thermocouples or transmitter
failures.
Process Control
Display only process control alarms. These consist of process limit

and process status alarms that pertain to normal process control.
All
Display all alarm messages.
Filtering by Ack_Status
Ack_Status allows you to choose to display acknowledged alarms,

unacknowledged alarms, or both. You may choose among the options by
opening the drop down menu and selecting the appropriate option from the
menu:
Unacknowledged Display only unacknowledged alarms.
Acknowledged Display only acknowledged alarms.
Both Display both acknowledged and unacknowledged

alarms.
Filtering by Severity
Severity allows you to control the severity of alarms presented on the alarm
summary. Alarm severity is set on a point by point basis when the database is
configured. Generally, hardware alarms have a higher severity, but this can
be changed by the person configuring the database. You may qualify what
severity alarms are displayed. The options are presented in a dropdown
menu.
Filtering by Sort Order
Sort Order allows you to set the order in which alarms are sorted. Select from
the choices shown on the dropdown list:

5-10
Ack/Severity/ Sort alarms by the major categories, unacknowledged,

Time and acknowledged. Within those categories sort the
alarms in order of severity. When there are two alarms
with the same severity and acknowledge status, sort them
in the order of their occurrence.
Severity/Time Sort alarms in order of severity. Within severity, sort in

(No DBM) the order of their occurrence. This sort is supported only
by maxDPUs. It is not supported by DPU Bus Modules.
Ack/Time Sort the alarms by the major category severity. Within

those categories sort the alarms in the order of their
occurrence.
Use the Reset button at the bottom of the Temporary Filter Setting display to
return to the default values.
As shipped, the system is set up to show all alarms, both acknowledged and
unacknowledged, severity greater than or equal to one, with alarms sorted by
Ack/Severity/Time. The current setting for each of the four fields can be
seen in the text description just below each of them.
Note: The Alarm Summary Display uses a color circle at the upper-right
corner of the display as a visual indicator of filtering. When the display
comes up as an unfiltered alarm summary, it is indicated by a momentary
yellow circle that disappears. A filtered alarm summary is indicated by a
momentary red circle that turns to pink.
Using the Event Summary Display

Access the Event Summary display to view current or past events and to
direct event output to a printer. The display shows the following event
types:
Process alarms
System alarms
Operator actions
Sequence of events
Program generated events
Edit actions
In addition to the events display log, the display includes a button bar
appearing in the upper part of the display just beneath the title bar. The
button bar consists of start and end time fields and four buttons:

5-11
Start Begin event retrieval
Stop Stop event retrieval
Properties Modify display properties and apply filters
Print Print events or save to a file
Start Stop Properties Print
Figure 5-3. Event Summary Button Bar
Viewing Current Events Log

Click the Start button on the display button bar to begin the collection of
current events. Click the Stop button to halt event collection.
Note: the Event Collector and Event Server programs must be running for
event collection to occur.
Figure 5-4. Event Summary Log Display

5-12
Interpreting Events Data Fields
Events are listed on the display under the following fields:
Time
Date and time that the event occurred.
A/C (Alm/Clr)
When an unacknowledged process or system alarm is logged, the
character string Alm appears in this three-character wide field. If the alarm
is acknowledged or otherwise clears, the character string Clr appears. If
the line applies to any other event, such as the SOE events shown above,
the field is blank.
Type
The following event types are listed here by a two-character type code:
Event Type Type Code

Process alarms PA
System alarms SY
Operator actions OA
Sequence of events SQ
Program generated events PG
Edit actions EA
Note: An Edit Action occurs when an operator edits, for instance, the
constants or limits of a point.
S(Severity)
Alarm severity ranging from 1 to 6.
Tagname
Tagname of associated point; the tagname is created when you configure
a point using maxDPUTools.
Event Text
Alarm message text appears here, such as HiHi LoLo; Range High; and so
forth.
When this field applies to an edit action, the message text describes an
attribute that was edited.
Description
Description of the point which experienced the event.
AltDesc

5-13
Description of point in another language; used in multilingual

environments.
Changing Event Summary Log Layout
You may remove columns from the event log and change column order using
the Layout feature.
To remove columns and change column order:
1. Click the Properties button on the Event Summary display to access the
Event Retrieval Properties dialog.
2. Click the Layout button to access the Layout dialog.
3. Clear the checkbox next to a column heading name to remove that

column from the event log presentation.
4. To change the order of event headings, click on a heading in the list to

highlight it and use the up and down arrow buttons to move the heading
to a different position in the list.
5. Click OK to close the dialog. The changes will now be in effect while
the event log remains open on your display.
Modifying the Display Presentation

You may modify the display presentation by changing column widths,
reordering columns or changing the sort order of records. See the following
sections.
Note: these changes only persist while the display is open. When you close
this display, open another display, and then return to the Event Summary
display, the display opens with its original default settings.
Changing Event Log Column Width
In the Event Summary Log, you may change column widths and the order of
columns.
To change a column width:
1. Rest the mouse cursor over the vertical border between two columns
until the pointer changes to a vertical bar with a horizontal arrow in each
direction.
2. Click and drag the mouse to move a column border left or right. This
feature always adjusts the width of the column to the left of the pointer.

5-14
Reordering Columns
To change the order of any column in the window:
1. Click and drag the column heading to the left or right.
2. Release the mouse button after you move the column to its new, desired
location.
Changing Sorted Order of Records
To change the sort order of records in a column:
1. Stop the display from retrieving, using the button in the Event Summary
Button Bar.
2. Click on the desired column header. This causes the tabular view to be
sorted by that column in ascending order.
Customizing the Event Summary Display

You may change display properties to modify the display presentation and to
filter specific events by type, tagname, severity, alarm types, hierarchy, text,
description, and alternate description.
Note: these changes only persist while the display is open. When you close
this display, open another display, and then return to the Event Summary
display, the display opens with its original default settings.
Accessing Properties Dialog
To change Event Summary display properties and apply filters:
Click the Properties button appearing on the Event Summary display button
bar to open the following dialog:

5-15
Figure 5-5. Event Retrieval Properties Dialog
The property dialog presents you with display customization and filtering
options.
Changing Start and End Times
The dialog contains fields for selecting start and end times that are identical
to fields appearing on the Event Summary display itself just beneath the title
bar.
If you already selected starting and ending times on the event summary
display itself, those settings appear on the Event Retrieval Properties dialog.
To select specific start and end times:
1. Click the drop-down arrow in the Start Time and End Time fields
appearing at the top of the display and enter new start and end dates from
a pop-up calendar.
2. Use the spin control to enter new starting and end times.

5-16
Note: when you clear the Start Time checkbox, the event function uses the
earliest available start time, which will be the date and time of the oldest
event stored in C:\custom\database\system\events. When you clear the End
Time checkbox, the event function collects current events continuously.
Modifying Event Summary Display Properties
Click the Properties button on the Event Summary display to modify several
display properties.
In the Service field, specify an event provider source. The default source is
_EVTSERVER.EVENT_DATA, which assumes the event source is local.
To specify a source on a workstation in another domain, the path should
include a specific domain name.
Check the checkbox next to Sort by Most Recent Events First to display
the most recent events first on the display versus last.
Check the checkbox next to Show Counts of Each Occurrence to show a

running count of event records with the same tagname, type, and event state.
The counts will appear in the Counts column of the display. The Counts
column will replace the Time column.
Check the checkbox next to Maximum# to enable a feature which limits the
number of events that may be displayed. In the field next to Maximum#,
enter the maximum number of events to display.
Selecting Filtering
To specify temporary filters, click the Properties button to access the Event
Retrieval Properties dialog.
1. Under A/C to Include, clear any checkboxes to exclude alarm state

events, clear alarm state events, or other.
2. Under Event Types to Include, clear any check boxes to exclude those
events from the log. Only the events of the type that are checked will be
displayed in the list view.
3. Under Severity Filtering, enter any severity to be included or excluded

in the appropriate fields. To enter multiple severities, specify them with a
space separating each one of them.
4. Under Optional TagName Filtering, enter any tag names to be included

or excluded in the appropriate fields. To enter multiple tag names,
specify them with a space separating each one of them. For example:
Tag1 Tag2.

5-17
You may also specify filters using pattern matching. In the fields provided,
enter specific tagname information or alphanumeric characters in
combination with wild card characters. Wildcard characters are asterisk (*),
any string, and question mark (?), any character.
Note: you may also specify filters using parameterization. See Using
Parameterization to Specify Filters, in the next section.
5. Under Optional Hierarchy Filtering, enter any hierarchical identifiers

(HIDs) to be included or excluded in the appropriate fields. To enter
multiple HIDs, specify them with a space separating each one of them.
You may also specify filters using pattern matching. In the fields provided,
enter specific HID information or alphanumeric characters in combination
with wild card characters. Wildcard characters are asterisk (*), any string,
and question mark (?), any character.
Note: you may also specify filters using parameterization. See Using
Parameterization to Specify Filters, in the next section.
6. The Optional Pattern Match Filtering area consists of three fields that
permit you to view Event Summary display events having similar
message text, description text, or alternate description text.
7. In any of these fields, you may enter specific text, or use pattern
matching.
8. When you select filter options, click OK to accept these options and
close the dialog, or click Cancel to cancel these selections and close the
dialog.
9. Click Reset to cancel any custom filtering and reestablish the default
settings.
Using Parameterization to Specify Filters
To specify filters using parameterization, instead of entering specific

tagnames, HIDs, etc., enter a Software Backplane identifier between % signs,
such as
%_SEL_PT.TAGNAME%
This particular parameter could be used with the Alarm List on the Vertical
Toolbar, for instance. When this is used as an inclusive filter for tagnames,
an operator may click on a tagname in the Alarm List window, making it the
selected point. With the selected point now set, an operator may now open
the Event Retrieval Properties to see the most recent relevant events for the
selected point.

5-18
Selecting Filtering Using Right-Click Option
To make it easier to select filters and also eliminate keying errors, you may
select filters for event types, severity, tagnames, and so forth, directly from
the event log using the mouse.
To select filters using the mouse:
Access the Event Summary display and click the Stop button to stop event
collection, if it is not already stopped.
Right-click on any of the following fields in the event log to select it:
Time
A/C
Type
S (severity)
TagName
Event text
Description
Alternate description
When you right-click on any one of these fields, a dialog appears showing
the selected item. Click OK to confirm your selection.
When you select an item, it is automatically selected and placed on the Event
Retrieval Properties dialog in the appropriate field.
Printing Event Records

You may print records from the Event Summary Log by using the Print
button on the Event Summary Button Bar. By default, clicking this button
will print all events to your default printer.
Selecting a Series of Items
You may also make multiple selections at one time using familiar Windows
features. Make selections from the event log in succession, or make random
selections. See the following sections.
To select multiple items in succession:
1. While holding down the <Shift> key, click on the first item you wish to
select. Then click on the last item in the list you wish to include, to
highlight the entire selection.
2. Click the Print button to access the print dialog.

5-19
Randomly Selecting Items
In addition to selecting items in succession as they appear in the event log,

you may also select records randomly.
To make random selections:
1. While holding down the <Ctrl> key, click on each record you wish to
include to highlight then.
2. Click the Print button to access the print dialog.
Using the Event Management Display

Access the Event Management display to assist in analyzing event activity
when the sheer number of events is too great to assimilate at a glance. This
tool helps you to recognize patterns in event activity in the system.
In addition to an Event Summary presentation like that discussed above, the

Event Management display includes graphical presentations showing:
Process versus System alarms counts over time

Total event counts over time
Pie chart display of the percentage of event types
Pareto graph analysis of the percentage of events by point

5-20
Event Management Graphs
Use the different graphs to look for patterns in event history. The left-hand
side of the top of the display is for bar chart graphs. Refer to the button
group below.
From left to right:
Use the first button to display a bar graph showing a count of process
versus operator events. The process events are shown at the top of the
bar (in yellow) and the operator events are shown at the bottom of the bar
(in red).
Use the second button to display a bar graph showing a count of total
events over time.
Use the third button to save the graph information in a CSV-format file.
By default the files are stored in C:\Custom\Database\Temp. You may
browse to a different location and save it as a different name from the
default.
Use the forth and fifth buttons to toggle between a graph that displays in
only the left-hand portion of the display or the entire top of the display.
The buttons in the middle portion of the display control the output of the
graphs on the right-hand side of the display.
Use the left button to display the Pie Chart graph.
Use the right button to display the Pareto Chart graph.
Pie Chart Graph
The Pie Chart graph shows percentage of all events being shown on the
tabular presentation at the bottom of the display. The pie chart updates as
new events are added to the list. Refer to the sample below.

5-21
Pareto Chart Graph
The Pareto Chart graph shows a count of events and percentage per tagname.
Use the buttons at the right of the chart to:
Scroll down in the list of tagnames.
Display from the top of the list.
Save (in CSV format) the information being shown in the Pareto graph.
By default the files are stored in C:\Custom\Database\Temp. You may
browse to a different location and save it as a different name from the
default
Event Management Properties
The user interface for the tabular list of events at the bottom of the Event
Management display is similar to that of the Event Summary display. Please

5-22
refer to the section above titled Using the Event Summary display. There
is, however, an additional feature on the Properties page that allows you to
save and reload any filters you apply to the display of events.
Once you have set up the filters as desired, enter a file name in the text box
to the right of the Save Config button and click that button. By default
the file will be stored in the C:\Custom\Database\Temp folder.
You may navigate to a different location by using the Folder tree view.
When you save the file it will be shown in the Files box. Refer to the
picture above. This filters configuration may be opened on subsequent calls
to the Event Management display by selecting the file in the Files box and
clicking the Open button.

5-23
Chapter 6
Using System
Menu Displays
System Menu Overview

System Menu displays are a collection of screens used to diagnose problems
in your maxDNA system. Refer to this chapter to learn what maxDNA
related displays are available and how to use them.
Click the System button appearing on the Vertical Toolbar display to access
the System Menu Display. The System Menu consists of a number of large
buttons, each of which is dedicated to a different system display. Clicking a
button calls up the appropriate display. Note that the use of large buttons
provides easier operation with touch screens and allows the use of pictorial
backgrounds for faster functional recognition especially in non-English
versions of the system.
Note: in a mixed system using maxDPUs and DBMs, your system may
maintain separate System Status displays for each system. Additionally, a
System Status display may be customized. Buttons that do not apply to your
system may be removed.
Click this button To open this display
System Status There are three button types. The first and second
types let you access the display summarizing the
health of each of the maxDPU4Fs and maxDPU4Es
respectively in your system. See the next section. The
third type lets you access the display summarizing the
health of DPU Bus Modules in your system.
Interaction Page Click to access pages showing DPU data and statistics.
See Publication 278557, maxSTATION Operators
Guide, "Using Interaction Pages," in Chapter 3. Not
used with maxDPUs.

6-1
Network Status Click to view the operational status of maxNET

networks A and B for Workstations and maxDPUs.
See Viewing the Network Status Display.
Network Printing Click to redirect Event Logger print jobs between a

primary printer and a secondary printer. See Using
Network Printing Function.
Event Loggers Click to view the Event Logger display that shows the
status of, and controls, up to three Event Loggers.
Reports Panel Click to control the printing of reports. See

Controlling Report Generation, later in this chapter.
maxSTORIAN Click to view the status of a stand-alone or

Status maxSTORIAN pair. Refer to Publication 278622,
maxSTORIAN Users Guide for more information.
Event Summary Click to access the Event Summary display, described

in the previous chapter.
Point Summaries Click to access manual points and defeated alarm

maxDPU summary displays for maxDPU points, described later
in this chapter.
Point Summaries Click to access the Point Summary displays for DBM
DBM points, described later in this chapter.
Tracking Point Click to open the Tracking Point Configuration tool.

Configuration See Tracking Point Configuration later in this
Chapter.
Disk Usage Click to view current maxSTATION disk usage

information by application. See Viewing Disk Usage
Data, later in this chapter.
WorkStation Info Click to access information pertaining to your

Workstation. See "Viewing Workstation Information,"
later in this chapter.
Time Set Click to access a pop-up that lets you set the system
time. See Time and date information in the
description of the Main Menu Display.
Event Click to access the Event Management display that

Management assists you in analyzing your event history. This
display is described in the previous chapter.

6-2
Using System Menu Displays
Figure 6.1 System Menu Display
Viewing the System Status Display

The DPU4E/DPU4F Status displays show a collection of objects called
annunciators. View this display to see a summary of the health of each of the
maxDPUs in your system. See Fig. 6-2. Each maxDPU is represented by an
annunciator that contains color-coded icons for:
CP (maxDPUs Control Processor) status,
backup status,
I/O subsystem status,
maxNET networks A and B status.
A colored outline is used to denote which maxDPU of the Pair is active. A

quick glance at the display can indicate if all is well with your DPUs or if
attention is required. To view additional information about DPU status, click
on a specific DPU annunciator to access a separate maxDPU Details display
for the selected DPU. See Viewing the maxDPU Details Display, later in
this chapter.
Annunciator Detailed Description
The DPU Status display consists of two annunciator types. One represents a
maxDPU pair and the other a standalone (single) maxDPU. Icon meanings
for each annunciator are the same.

6-3
The maxDPU Pair annunciator just has two of each icon, the upper row for
the Primary DPU and the lower row for the Secondary DPU. To indicate the
active DPU, a cyan-colored border surrounds the row. If the border is not
visible, neither DPU is active (or the display cannot communicate with the
DPU). Refer to Figure 6-2 while reading the following description.
Figure 6-2. Annunciators
Icon Color Codes
Icon colors appearing in maxDPU annunciator objects represent the

following conditions:
CP defines the status of the maxDPU computer

Off-red: SBP
communications bad
Red: DPU Status bad (Dark Red, if DPU Fan and/or
Battery bad)
Yellow: DPU Status (Dark Yellow, if DPU Fan and/or
marginal Battery bad)
Green: DPU Status good (Dark Green, if DPU Fan and/or
Battery bad)
BK defines the status of backup

Off-red: SBP communications bad
Red: Backup Status bad
Yellow: Backup Status marginal
Green: Backup Status good
I/O defines the I/O card and Key-lock status

Off-red SBP communications bad
Red: Critical I/O card bad
Yellow: Normal or Non-Critical I/O card bad
Yellow Key In Between or Key Off Line
Green: Normal and Critical cards good

6-4
A B defines the Network A and Network B status

Off-red: SBP communications bad
Red: Network has Failed
Dark Gray: Network is OFF
Yellow: Network has errors
Green: Network is OK
Note: For a virtual DPU, the A and B network icons are always dark gray
and the I/O icon is always yellow. A virtual DPU always consists of a single
DPU.
Red Striping is used to indicate that the SBP cannot communicate with either
of the DPUs.
Annunciator objects work only with maxDPU based systems. If your system
also contains earlier DPU Bus Modules (DBM), the Status display may also
contain DBM status objects. See Figure 6-3. For information about DBM
objects, see Publication 278557, maxSTATION Operators Guide, Chapter 6.
Figure 6-3. DBM Status Display object
Viewing the DPU4E/DPU4F Details Displays

Click on a specific DPU annunciator, appearing in the DPU4E/DPU4F Status
display, to access a DPU4E/DPU4F Details display for the selected DPU.
See the previous section. Refer to Figure 6-4a for an example of the DPU4E
Pair Details display and Figure 6-4b for an example of the DPU4F Details
display.
The DPU4E/DPU4F Details Display simulates a front maxDPU faceplate

and provides a list of DPU status details. When you select an annunciator
object for a specific DPU pair, animated faceplates appear for primary and
secondary DPUs. If you select a standalone DPU and not a DPU that is part
of a backup pair, the DPU4E/DPU4F Details display depicts only a single
DPU.
In addition to the faceplate graphics, the display lists details for the selected
DPU pairs in the center of the display. For a single standalone DPU, only a
single list is shown. See Viewing DPU Details, later in this chapter.

6-5
Figure 6-4a. DPU4E Pair Details Display
Figure 6-4b. DPU4F Pair Details Display

6-6
Using Reset and Takeover Buttons
From this display, you may click Reset and Takeover buttons appearing on
the DPU faceplates to reset a DPU or to cause an inactive DPU to become
the active DPU. When you click Reset or Takeover, pop-ups appear
allowing you to confirm or cancel the operation. Buttons on the Reset
confirmation popup allow the user to perform either a soft or hard reset of the
DPU.
Using the Backup Mode Switch
Click the Backup Mode Switch, appearing at the bottom of the display, to
select a backup mode, either Standalone or Backup Enabled.
For example, if the switch is in the backup enabled position, when you click
the switch the following pop-up appears. Click the Standalone button or
click Cancel to abort the mode change.
Figure 6-5. Confirm Standalone Pop-up
Understanding the DPU4E Faceplate
The DPU4E faceplate features 13 LEDs (12 functional) identical to the LED
arrangement for an actual DPU. The LED colors on a DPU faceplate indicate

6-7
the associated hardwares functional status. At various times the LEDs flash
green, yellow, red or display no color to indicate the associated hardwares
functional status.
Click the IO Status button appearing on the maxDPU4E faceplate graphic to

access an I/O buffers inventory status display. See I/O Status, later in this
chapter.
The LED color states shown on the display should be identical to the color
states on the actual DPU.
The status LEDs are divided into the following sections:
Network Status LEDs
maxNET Network A health
maxNET Network B health
Backup link health
Serial Port LEDs
Status for serial port 1
Status for serial port 2
IO Status LEDs
Digital Input status
Digital and Analog Output status
Analog Input, Thermocouple, RTD status
(The fourth LED is reserved for future use)
Hardware Status LEDs
Battery status
CP health
IOM processor health
DPU State LED
DPU State LED will display different color combinations based on being
a Standalone or Backup DPU and whether it is active or Inactive.
All or some of the LEDs display a set of color codes associated with the
following DPU states:

6-8
DPU during a Windows CE boot

DPU during normal operation
DPU shutting down
Database save and recovery
During installation of new software image in flash memory
For additional information about LED interpretation, see Publication 278590,

Model PDP Series 200 maxDPU4E Hardware Guide, Chapter 4.
Understanding the DPU4F Faceplate
The DPU4F faceplate features LEDs identical to the LED arrangement for an
actual DPU. The LED colors on a DPU faceplate indicate the associated
hardwares functional status. At various times the LEDs flash green, yellow,
red or display no color to indicate the associated hardwares functional
status.
The LED color states shown on the display should be identical to the color
states on the actual DPU.
The status LEDs are divided into the following sections:
Network Status LEDs
maxNET Network A health
maxNET Network B health
Backup link health
IO Status LEDs
I/O this LED summarizes the status of all the I/O cards. The following
list describes the meaning of the LED colors.
Off if no I/O cards are defined in the database or if the DPU is

inactive and does not have redundant I/O. The LED will also be off if all
I/O cards are either taken off scan or placed into simulate mode.
Green if all the I/O cards defined in the database are responding
properly.
Yellow if at least one of the cards defined in the database is not

responding properly.
Red if none of the cards defined in the database are responding

properly.
In addition to the I/O summary LED on the DPU front panel, the DPU4F
Detail display also contains four LEDs to indicate card status organized
by type of IOM operation. This is similar to the indicators on the DPU4E

6-9
display. These LEDs are located adjacent to the faceplate. The color
codes for the individual LEDs are the same as for the I/O summary LED
listed above. It is possible for information from a single card to be
accessed through several different types of IOM operations. Thus, one
card could cause more than one of the I/O operation LEDs to illuminate.
The I/O operation LEDs are:
Fast Digital Inputs (labeled DI on the display)
Outputs (labeled AO/DO on the display)
Inputs (labeled AI on the display)
Items (labeled ITEM on the display)
Click the I/O Status button next to the maxDPU4F faceplate graphic to
access an I/O buffers inventory status display. See I/O Status, later in this
chapter. The information on that display can explain why an error condition
is being indicated by one of the I/O Status LEDs.
Hardware Status LEDs
CP health
IOM processor health
Over-all I/O Health
DPU State LED
The DPU State LED will display different color combinations based on
being a Standalone or Backup DPU and whether it is active or inactive.
All or some of the LEDs display a set of color codes associated with the
following DPU states:
DPU during a Windows CE boot
DPU during normal operation
DPU responding to soft reset
For additional information about LED interpretation, see Publication 278705,

Model PDP Series 400 maxDPU4F Hardware Guide, Chapter 4.
Time Sync Information
Time Synchronization information for the DPU is shown in two fields near
the bottom of the faceplate. The top field displays either Time Slave or
Time Master depending upon how the DPU is configured. A Time Slave
gets the current date and time from a Time Master.
The lower field displays the IRIG-B status of the DPU. IRIG-B is an
international standard for a time transmission signal. The IRIG-B signal is

6-10
typically supplied by a high accuracy source such as a GPS receiver. The

maxDPU4F may be purchased with an option to allow it to decode the IRIG-
B signal. A DPU (or DPU pair) with the IRIG-B decoder will typically be
used as a Time Master in the system. Other DPUs will be configured as
Time Slaves.
On a Time Slave DPU, the lower display field will be blank. On a Time
Master DPU, the lower field will contain IRIG status information. If the
IRIG signal is being decoded properly by the DPU, the field will show IRIG
OK. If the DPU can not decode the IRIG signal, the field will show IRIG
Failure. If the DPU is a Time Master and if IRIG decoding has not been
enabled (via a setting in the TimeSync atom), the field will show IRIG is
not enabled. Note that only the active DPU of a DPU pair decodes the IRIG
signal. Thus, in a properly operating DPU pair, the active DPU will indicate
IRIG OK and the inactive will indicate IRIG Failure.
DPU Temp
This field indicates the temperature (in degrees Celsius) measured by a

sensor on the DPU.
Viewing DPU4E / DPU4F Details
For maxDPUs the following information appears in the center of the Details
display. All of the fields listed below apply to the maxDPU4F. Only some
of the fields appear on the maxDPU4E display.
The DPU name, IP address, current Time and Date, DPU serial number,
DPU hardware revision and service count (which corresponds to the size
of the downloaded configuration).
Current revision levels for CP, IOM, CPLD, IOM FPGA, and the Shared
Memory FPGA. These fields correspond to various hardware and
software components within the DPU.
Current DPU run mode and state, Backup mode, Other DPU state, Active
Pulses state, Other DPU Active Pulses state.
Alarm severity information for the specified DPU or DPU pair. The
alarm fields show total alarm counts for each DPU for severity levels 1
(the lowest severity) through 5 (the highest severity).
Fatal Error Reason indicates the reason that the CP has experienced a
fatal error. When the DPU is running normally, the field will contain
NA (not applicable). If a fatal error occurs, descriptive text will appear
instead, when possible.
SODIMM Status displays information about the SODIMM memory
module installed in the DPU. If a standard memory module is installed,
the field will show Standard. If an error-checking SODIMM (e.g.,
181559) is installed and operating properly, the field will show OK. If
an error-checking module is installed and if it has detected a memory
error, the field will show a message such as CORR/NONCORR Mem

6-11
Error. If that happens, the Fatal Error Reason field will change from
NA to Memory Error Detected.
The Time Since Boot field shows how much time has elapsed since the
DPU was last started. Time Since Change shows the elapsed time since
the DPU underwent a major state change (e.g., if an Active DPU became
Inactive).
Function Block Time
This field displays the percentage of available time (0-100%) that is being
consumed by function blocks within the DPU. The function blocks are
defined in the DPUs database and are downloaded to the DPU. Function
Block Time is a measure of DPU loading. It gives an indication of how
much logic may be run in the DPU. Function Bock Time is displayed by
means of a bar graph and a numeric display. The color of the bar is green for
light loads and will turn yellow and then red as the loading approaches
100%.
DPU Security
Pressing the DPU Security button will open a pop up display that shows
those stations (both DPUs and workstations) from which this DPU will
permit communications. If a station is not listed, it will not be able to access
this DPU. Security information is downloaded to the DPU by maxDPUTools.
DPU Network View
Pressing the Network View button opens a popup that shows how this DPU
sees the A and B networks. The rows of the display represent a list of all
stations from which this DPU has heard. Icons indicate the current
communications status for those stations on networks A and B. A yellow
smiling face indicates that this DPU is currently communicating with the
station on that network. A green frowning face indicates that this DPU is
currently not able to hear the station on that network. No icon indicates that
this DPU has never heard that station on that network.
This information can be a very valuable tool for network troubleshooting.

By comparing what each DPU can see with your network layout, you may be
able to deduce the cause of communications problems (e.g., the failure of a
particular Ethernet switch or cable.)
A screen shot of a typical Network View display is shown in the following

figure.

6-12
Figure 6-5A. Network View Popup
In the example, fields at the top of the display indicate that this is how the
DPU named CORNER (which is a Primary DPU at IP address
172.16.1.70) sees the network. The rows in the tabular field show that this
DPU has, in the past, heard as many as seven stations. At the present time, it
only hears six stations (it does not currently hear workstation LANC074 on
Network A and it has never heard it on Network B). It used to hear
workstation MCSXP10 on both networks but it currently can only hear it on
Network A.
The columns to the right of the IP addresses show flags and advanced
statistics that are intended for use by Metso personnel.
I/O Status
Click the IO Status button appearing on or near the maxDPU faceplate

graphic (part of the DPU4E/DPU4F Details display) to access an I/O buffers
inventory status display. See the following figures.
I/O Status Button
Figure 6-6. I/O Status Button DPU4E/DPU4F

6-13
Figure 6-7. I/O Status Display
The IO Status display consists of seven columns. The first column displays a
happy or sad face depending on the buffer status, and the IO module address
that the buffer is assigned to in decimal and (hex). The next five columns
display the buffer type, tagname, cabinet name rack and card number that
was entered when the buffer was created and added to the DPUs
configuration. The seventh column displays any error message and/or code
that was received if the buffer has a bad status.
The icon in the first column represents the status of the card as per the
following table.
Ok
Bad Status
Off Scan
Simulate Good
Simulate Bad
You can cause an I/O buffer to become the Selected Point by clicking on the
buffers address in the status box.
The station name box at the bottom of the display contains a check box to
provide filtering. Use filtering to display only those buffers with a bad status.
It also provides a drop list of DPUs that can be displayed.
Viewing the Network Status Display

Access the Network Status display to view the operational status of maxNET
networks A and B for WorkStations and for maxDPUs. To access the
Network Status display, click the System button on the vertical toolbar and
click Network Status on the System Menu display.

6-14
The display uses maxTRANSPORT to determine the health of each network

at other locations based on the ability of the station (where the display is
running) to communicate with other stations. In essence, it represents this
workstations view of the network.
The display consists of icon pairs representing workstation and DPU

connection status for Networks A and B. DPU pairs are organized according
to the Ethernet switch to which they are connected. Each switch group is
called a subsystem.
Figure 6-8. Icons represent workstations attached to maxNET networks A and B. The name of the
workstation appears under each icon grouping.
Figure 6-9. DPU pairs are organized by Ethernet switch to which they are connected. Each switch
group is called a subsystem.
Rest the mouse cursor over a workstation or DPU icon to obtain a ToolTip
display. ToolTip text reports the IP addresses of the stations. The name of the
WorkStation appears below the Network A and B color fields. For DPUs, the
ToolTip also shows the DPU name followed by _P (Primary DPU) or _S
(Secondary DPU).
Additional icons for Ethernet Switches, cables, and printers are not animated.
They appear on the display as a visual aid to assist in troubleshooting
network problems. However, as another troubleshooting aid, the Ethernet
Switch icons will display their Network A and B IP addresses via ToolTip.

6-15
Colors are used to indicate good, bad, and transitioning conditions of the
network health. See the following table.
Color Meaning
Green Network is good, maxTRANSPORT can communicate with the
station on this network
Red/Green Network status is changing (good to bad or bad to good)
Flashing Red Network is bad. maxTRANSPORT cannot communicate with the
station on this network.
Note that the icon for your WorkStation (the WorkStation from which you
are viewing this display), will appear green (good) even if your network
cables are disconnected. This is because your display can still talk to your
maxTRANSPORT. If you see a Network Display in which every network
icon except yours is red, suspect your network connection. Everyone else is
probably good.
To further verify this, access the Network Status display at another

workstation. You should see your icon marked red and the others green.
The Network Status display is drawn to correspond to your actual network

layout, it should be easy to use this display to troubleshoot network
problems.
For example, if all of the Network B icons attached to Switch 2 show bad
(flashing red), check the Network B Switch 2 and any common cables and
media converters that connect it to your WorkStation.
Viewing Point Summary Displays

There are two Point Summaries buttons on the System Menu display.
Click the Point Summaries maxDPU button on the System Menu display to
access the Manual Points Summary and Defeated Points Summary displays
for maxDPU points.
Click the Point Summaries DBM button on the System Menu display to
access the Manual Points, Bad Points, Defeated Alarms, Suppressed Alarms,
and Point Value Summary displays for DBM points. See Publication 278557,
maxSTATION Operators Guide (DBM Edition) for more details about the
DBM Point Summaries.

6-16
Figure 6-10. Manual Point Summary Display
The Points Summary display features the following buttons:
Manual Provides a list of points that are in Manual mode.
Defeated Provides a list of points that have defeated alarms.
All View a list of all alarms from the standard Alarm Summary
display.
Viewing the Manual Points Summary Display
Click the Manual button to view a list of points set in manual mode.
Only the following Atomic Block types can appear in a manual summary:
ATAG,
DTAG,
AUTOMAN,
SEQMSTR,
DEVLOG
all buffers (TC, RTD, AIB, AOB, DIB, DOB, PLSIO, QPAT)
ATAG and DTAG are included if the Mode attribute is set to forced (1).
SEQMSTR and DEVLOG are included if the Opmode attribute is set to
Manual (0).
Buffers are included if the Simst attribute is set to Simulated (1) or if the
Mode attribute is set to Offscan (1).

6-17
AUTOMAN is included if its Mode attribute is exposed or if it has a

tagname. If the Mode attribute is exposed, AUTOMAN will use its parents
tagname in the Manual Points Summary.
The display typically lists the following point information:
Tag Name Point name assigned in maxDPUTools
Description Brief description of point.
HID Associated hierarchical identifier of the point
Viewing Defeated Points Summary Display
Click the Defeated button on the point summary display to view a list of
defeated alarm points.
Only the following Atomic Block types can appear in a defeated summary:
ATAG,
DTAG,
ALMREP
Additionally, a Custom Block point may appear if a defeat attribute was

defined. If the defeat attribute is true, the block will appear in the summary.
If an ATAG, DTAG or ALMREP doesnt have a tagname and the defeat

attribute is wired, the Atomic Block will not appear in the defeated summary.
The display typically lists the following point information:
Tag Name Point name assigned in maxTOOLS4E
Description Brief description of point.
HID Associated hierarchical identifier of the point
Viewing Error Logs
Both the Manual Points Summary display and the Defeated Points Summary
display produce error logs to flag specific points which could not be
retrieved.
To view an error log:
Click the View Error Log button appearing at the top of the Point Summary
display to open an error log window.
The log provides the name of the Software Backplane (SBP) error, and text
describing the error.

6-18
Setting up Filtering
By default, both the manual points and defeated points summary displays
retrieve points from up to eight hierarchical identifier (HID) levels and for all
configured domains.
Access the DB Summary Control Properties dialog to filter points appearing

on point summaries by HID and domains.
Note: the filtering only persists while the Point Summary display is open.
When you close this display and open another, the standard default settings
take effect.
To filter the points that may appear on either display:
Click the Configure button appearing on the Point Summary display to

access the following dialog:
Figure 6-11. Summary Control Properties Dialog
The dialog features three tabs. Click the Type tab to select the database
summary you wish to filter, manual points or defeated alarms.
Click the HID Filters tab to configure filtering for a specific tag name or
HID. Notice that when you first open this tab, asterisk characters appear in
each available field. These default settings cause point summary displays to
collect point information for all eligible points.

6-19
Figure 6-12. HID Filters Tab
Use this dialog to filter by tag name, HID levels or a combination of both. In
the fields provided, enter specific tag name information or alphanumeric
characters in combination with wild card characters. wildcard characters are
asterisk (*), any string, and question mark (?), any character.
Click the Domain Filters tab to configure domain filters.
If a domain is checked the maxDPUs listed in c:\Custom\Database\dpulist.ini

whose addresses match domains specified in the Domain tab will be sent
requests for point summary information. Remove the check next to a domain
number to exclude that domain.
Figure 6-13. Domain Filters Tab

6-20
Printing Summary Lists
Click the Print button appearing on the Manual Point Summary display to
print a manual points or defeated alarms lists or save the lists to a file. When
you click the Print button, a generated list is transferred to WordPad. From
WordPad, click the Print button icon or click the Save icon to create a file.
Tracking Point Configuration

Click the Tracking Point Configuration button on the System Menu
display to access the Tracking Point Configuration tool.
This tool allows you to define Tracking point ObjType and attribute pairs.
The ObjType is an attribute of every Atomic, Standard, or Custom Block and
can be viewed in Expert Mode from the point details pop-up or the Point
Browser for a point. Attribute names can also be viewed from the left-hand
column titled Member.
Click the New button to define new Tracking Point information.
In this dialog enter the ObjType. When you click the OK button, you will be
presented with a dialog to enter an attribute name to be tracked for this
ObjType.

6-21
Click OK from this dialog to save the new Tracking Point Configuration.
Now when you request tracking of a point of the ObjType, the attribute name
you have defined will be displayed for the point.
If the attribute you have defined is a Boolean or Integer type value, you
should also click the Boolean/Integer checkbox on the original dialog for the
type.
You may also change an attribute value to be displayed for a tracking point
by entering the attribute name in the .Attribute box. Be sure to include the
leading . in your name.
Viewing Workstation Information

Click the WorkStation Info button on the System Menu display to access a
workstation information display. The display provides a centralized location
for information that applies to the workstation. Currently, this information
covers the revision level of maxSTATION software, alternate language
support information, and information on the Security Dongle.
The dongle fields show dongle serial number, order number, and item
number. There are also fields for information regarding the dongles
expiration. This information consists of the expiration date, the number of
days until the dongle expires, and a status message area that warns as the
expiration date approaches. The status message area remains blank until the
current date is within ninety (90) days of the dongle expiration date.
Thereafter, the warning message changes at 30 days, 15 days, and 5 days
until expiration.
It is important to note that the dongles sold as part of customer systems do

not expire. They are good forever. Only test dongles and dongles provided
for demonstration purposes expire. It is only for these dongles that the
expiration information is important.
The Alternate Language Support information shows the current language

mode (default English), and provides a button called Alt Language that
allows you to toggle between English and an alternate language.

6-22
Controlling Report Generation

Click the Reports Control button on the System Menu display to open the
Reports Control Panel. Use the Control Panel to control how reports are
printed and manage various configured and generated reports. The panel is
divided into four views, titled Configured Reports, Generated Reports,
Printers Available, and Printer Queue. See Figure. 6-14.
These respective views display:

Configure reports by name and type, and last modification date
Generated reports by name and type, and generation date
Printers that are physically or logically connected to the workstation
The stations print queue information
From the control panel, you may demand configured reports, print preview,
print, export, archive, or delete generated reports. You may also cancel a
single print job listed in the print queue or cancel and remove all jobs in the
queue at once. From the Printers Available view, you may select a default
printer from the list of available printers.
Figure 6-14. History Reports Control Panel
Viewing Disk Usage Data

Access the Disk Usage dialog to view current maxSTATION disk usage data
from an information display.

6-23
To view this display:
1. Open maxVUE Runtime and access the main menu.
2. Click the System button on the vertical toolbar and click the Disk Usage
button on the System Menu.
The display shows the assigned maximum storage buffer, the assigned alarm
limit, and the disk space remaining for each application.
Figure 6-15. Disk Usage Display
Using Network Printing Function

Use the Network Printing function to direct Event Logger printing between a
primary printer and a secondary printer. Printers can be either directly
connected to a maxSTATION, or directly connected to one of the two
Ethernet networks. Network Printing also monitors the status of both local
printers and network printers connected through Axis Print Servers, and
allows for printer failover.
The system alarms primary/secondary printer alarms for a logical (LPT)

printer connection. This display can be used to get more details about the
failure.
To access the Network Printing function, click the Network Printing button
on the System Menu to get to the Network Printing dialog.

6-24
Figure 6-16. Network Printing Printers Tab
The dialog consists of two tabs, Printers and Assignment. See the following
two sections.
Using the Printers Tab
The Printers tab lists all available printers connected locally or connected on
other maxSTATIONs, and printers connected over the network through the
Axis Print Server or any other print server.
For each listed printer, the display consists of the following:

printer name
printer status
number of print jobs queued for the printer
LPT port or ports the printer is currently assigned to.
Printers may be in one of the following states:

Normal: the printer icon bears a green dot.
Paused: the printer icon appears purple to indicate the printer needs
attention.
Fault: the printer icon appears red to indicate the printer needs attention.
????: there has been no communication with the printer
The small icon next to the printer name indicates the printer status.

6-25
Due to differing status returns, depending on the server in use, only a Fault
status is displayed for several different printer errors.
Clicking on a row of the Printers tab will set the selected point to that printer.
The point detail button may then be used to open a detail pop-up for that
printer.
Using the Assignment Tab
The Assignment tab displays the current assignment settings of five usable
maxSTATION LPT ports. The settings are:
LPT Port
primary printer,
secondary printer,
current printer
Figure 6-17. Network Printing Assignment Tab
The small icon next to printer name indicates the printer assignment:
Primary printer as current printer: the printer icon has a green dot.
Secondary printer as current printer: the printer icon has a yellow dot.
Buttons
The following buttons appear on either the Printers or Assignment tab.

6-26
brings up the Assignment dialog box for a selected LPT port; the
primary printer and secondary printer can be reset (see next section
for detail).
switches the setting of the selected LPT ports current printer from
primary printer to secondary printer, or from secondary printer to
primary printer.
pauses printing on the selected printer or current printer of the

selected LPT port.
resumes printing on the selected printer or current printer of the

selected LPT port.
clears all print jobs queued to the current printer of the selected LPT
port.
refresh the status of the selected printer.
eject a page of the selected printer.
Clicking on a row of the Assignment tab will set the selected point to that
printer port. The point detail button may then be used to open a detail pop-
up for that printer port.
Assignment Dialog Box
Use the Assignment dialog to select a printer and set it as primary or

secondary.
This dialog contains information about printer drivers and page orientation,
portrait or landscape. The drivers of primary printer and secondary printer
must be the same to ensure that redirection of spooled print jobs will be
successful.
To set a printer as primary or secondary:
1. Click the Assignment button appearing in the upper left of the

Network Printing dialog to access the Assignment dialog.
2. Select a desired printer and click the Primary or Secondary button.
Click the Clear button to clear these settings.

6-27
Using the Event Loggers Display

Access the Event Logger display to view the status of up to three Event
Loggers and to control their operation. Any Event Loggers monitored by this
display may be running on the same maxSTATION as this display or may be
running on different maxSTATIONs. You may access these event loggers
from the Event Logger display. See the following figure. For more
information regarding the Event Logging process, see Publication 278594,
maxSTATION Auxiliary Functions User's Guide.
Figure 6-18 - Event Logger
The Event Logger display consists of three columns, each corresponding to

one Event Logger. The name of the logger appears at the top of each column
(e.g., _EVTOPR for the middle column).
Each event logger column consists of three fields:

Printer Control
Print Status
Print Buffer Statistics

6-28
Printer Control Area
The Printer Control area contains a switch that permits you to enable or
disable event printing. To indicate printer enabled status, a green rocker
appears with the right side depressed, and an adjacent printer symbol
indicates the enabled state (e.g., _EVTOPR and _EVTNT55).
To indicate printer disabled status, a red rocker appears with the left side
depressed. Additionally, the printer symbol is covered with a circle and
slash, indicating the disabled state (e.g., _EVTVALIDAT2). Click on the
switch to toggle the enabled / disabled state.
Events entering the logger pass through a FIFO (First In First Out) buffer that
can hold 600 events. The contents of this buffer are shown in the Event
Logger window. When an event is removed from the event buffer it is
placed into a printer spool file (one file per event) and entered into the queue
for printing.
When printing is disabled, events entering the logger build up in the event
FIFO buffer since they have nowhere to go. If the buffer ever fills up, the
oldest events in the buffer will be deleted (and therefore lost) to make room
for the newest events. Events will continue to be lost until room becomes
available in the buffer.
Click the Print Test button to print one line on that loggers printer to verify
the printers operational status. Events are printed in time sequence order.
However, for speed, the Print Test button bypasses the normal time ordering
process so the test line may appear out of time sequence on the printout. The
test print will appear after any previously spooled events have been printed.
Print Status Field
The Print Status field displays the following information:

Printer Port The name of the port to which printing will be directed
Printer Status The Open/Close status of the printer spool file queue (open
means that events may enter the queue for printing). This
status will change from Open to Closed when the switch is
changed from Enable Printing to Disable Printing.
Hold Status The Held/Going status of the logger. If the current number
of spool files exceeds the maximum (see Spool File Limit
and Current Spool Files, below), the Event Logger status
changes from Going to Held and no more events can be
placed into the printer queue until the number of spool files
drops below the limit. It is possible to lose events when in
the Hold state since events will build up in the FIFO buffer.
If the FIFO buffer fills up, the oldest events in the buffer
will be lost to make room for new events.

6-29
Spool File Indicates the maximum number of event spool files that
Limit may be queued up (waiting to be printing). If the spool file
limit is reached, the logger status changes to Hold to
prevent additional events from this logger from being
spooled. The Spool File Limit is configured in the
EventLogger.ini file for each logger. Each event logger
may have a different spool file limit. In fact, it is a good
idea to assign a higher limit to higher priority event
loggers. This will reduce the possibility of losing high
priority events due to spool limits.
Current Indicates the number of spool files currently in use. As
Spool Files spooled events are printed, the spool files are deleted and
this number drops. All loggers and other programs that
direct output to the same printer port create spool files and
therefore contribute to the total number of spool files that
exist at any given time. Thus, the spool file limit may be
reached even if any particular logger is not processing
many events.
Print Buffer Statistics
The Print Buffer Statistics field displays event information:

Events Total number of events that have been printed.
Printed
Events Lost Total number of events that could not be printed (due to the
spool file limit or other reasons). Lost events cannot be
recovered or printed by the Event Logger.
Click the Reset Status button to clear (zero) the counts for Events Printed
and Events Lost.
Click the Purge Events button to delete all events from the event buffer.
Deleted events cannot be recovered or printed by the Event Logger.
To reduce the possibility of accidentally purging events, a pop-up display

will appear and ask for confirmation before performing the purge. If you
change your mind, click the Cancel button instead of the Purge button on the
confirmation pop-up.

6-30
Chapter 7
Using the
Operator Keyboard
The maxDNA Operator Keyboard is a Metso Automation MAX Controls-

supplied inputting device designed to perform process control and operator
display control functions. This keyboard was developed specifically for
maxDNA control operations and is intended to augment inputting functions
which you may also perform using a mouse, trackball or touch screen.
In addition to the operator keyboard, you may also use the Engineer's
keyboard, a standard PC QWERTY keyboard, to perform similar inputting
functions. This chapter discusses the operator keyboard functions versus the
standard PC typewriter keyboard functions.
Notice that the Operator's keyboard is divided into sections. Each section has
a title (Mode, Setpoint, etc.), and uses the following color coding to help you
identify the function of the keys:
Light Gray User-programmable function keys
Yellow Alarm control
Blue Display manipulation and control
Gray Keyboard entry keys
The following sections discuss each of the keys on the keyboard.
Custom Keys
Seven custom function keys, located in the upper, left-hand corner of the
keyboard, are designed to be user configurable by the system engineer as
display swaps.

7-1
Functionally, these keys correspond to function keys F2 through F8 on a PC

keyboard. Consequently, if you have a PC keyboard connected, its function
keys can be used interchangeably.
The F1 key (as with the PC QWERTY Keyboard) is used for on-line help.
The keyboard is designed so that an overlay can slide in between the

keyboard and the plastic. This overlay can be used to identify the functions
currently assigned to the function keys.
Application Specific Operator Keys

The following keys become functional when the Command Atomic Block is
configured for their use as part of a Custom Block. Some or all of these keys
may function depending on whether system designers at your specific site
have implemented them. Consult your internal documentation.
This group of keys requires a selected point before they will have any affect.
Mode Keys
<Man>: Manual Mode
<Auto>: Automatic mode
<Casc>: Cascade mode
<Comp>: Host computer mode
Setpoint keys
<>: Raise Setpoint
<>: Lower Setpoint
Output keys
<+>: Raise output
<->: Lower output
Logic keys
<On Start Open>
<Off Stop Close>
<Reset>
<Reverse>
Alarm Keys
The four alarm keys, colored yellow, control alarms. Use these keys to
control alarming for the currently selected point.
<Acknowledge>

7-2
Using the Operator Keyboard
Acknowledges the alarm associated with the currently selected point.

This key has the same effect as the Ack button on a Control Point
pop-up. On the PC keyboard, the equivalent key is <Ctrl-F3>.
<Silence>
This key currently has no affect.
<Defeat>
Defeats alarming for the currently selected point. On the PC

keyboard, the equivalent key is <Ctrl-F4>.
<Restore>
Restores alarming for the currently selected point. On the PC

keyboard, the equivalent key is <Ctrl-F5>.
Display Keys
Display keys, colored blue, are shortcut keys for bringing up the most
commonly used displays. See Chapter 3, "Using Standard Displays" for a
description of each of these displays.
<Main Menu>
Calls up the main menu display for the maxSTATION; on the PC

keyboard the equivalent key is <Ctrl-F6>.
<Alarm Summary>
Calls up the alarm summary display for the maxSTATION; on the

PC keyboard the equivalent key is <Ctrl-F7>.
<Last Screen>
Redisplays the screen displayed prior to the current one; on the PC

keyboard the equivalent key is <Ctrl-F8>.
<Print Screen>
Prints the screen if you use network printing or a printer connected to

the LPT1 port on your maxSTATION. The printer must be set up
through Windows as the default printer. On the PC keyboard the
equivalent key is <Ctrl-F9>.

7-3
Pan and Zoom Keys

Use the gray Pan arrow keys to move around a display that is larger than the
screen. Use the blue zoom keys (Norm, Full and Mag) to increase and
decrease the magnification of the display.
<Norm>
This key will act the same as the <Full> key. The PC keyboard
equivalent for this key is <Ctrl-N>.
<Full>
This key, the opposite of <Mag>, causes the display to zoom out to
its fullest (or Normal) size. The PC keyboard equivalent for this key
is <Ctrl-F>.
<Mag>
This key causes the display to zoom in, or magnify the display. The
PC keyboard equivalent for this operation is <Ctrl-M>.
<> <> <> <>
The pan keys cause the view window to pan in the selected direction.
For many displays the screen will have to be magnified for these
keys to be functional. The equivalent PC keyboard keys for these
actions are <Page Up>, <Page Down>, <Ctrl-Page Down>, and
<Ctrl-Page Up>.
Cursor Keys
The cursor keys are colored gray on the keyboard indicating that they are
used for movement and data entry. The cursor group is used for cursor
movement in Interaction Pages. Press the arrow keys to move the pointer
about the display.
Note: The <Pick> key has no current function.
Numeric Entry Keys

The numeric entry keys, also colored gray on the keyboard, are used to enter
values into numeric fields. They can be used to change setpoints, output
values, etc.

7-4
Using the Operator Keyboard
To change a numeric value on the screen, move the pointer to the field you
want to change. If the field is changeable, the pointer will turn into a vertical
bar. You can also move the pointer to the input field by pressing the <Tab>
key. Once you have started entering a number you may use the <Rubout>
key to erase the character to the left of the cursor. After you have finished
entering the number you must use the <Enter> key to save your changes.
On the PC keyboard, the equivalent for <Rubout> is <Backspace>.
Function Keys
Use the 7 programmable function keys to bring up your own custom
displays. The programmable function keys are pre-assigned in the
maxSTATION default settings by your system engineers.
Note: The F1 key is pre-assigned as the Help key and will bring up the
maxVUE Help display
Figure 7-1. maxVUE Help Display

7-5

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maxSTATION

Attention: Manager, Technical Publications

Copyright 2005 by Metso Automation MAX Controls, Inc.

Metso Automation 278599

Hardware Environment ......................................................................................................................... 1-1

Using the Main Menu Display .............................................................................................................. 3-1

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Menu Button ......................................................................................................................................................3-2

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Specifying Trend Ranges (Range Limits Tab) ..................................................................................................4-8

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Viewing Current Events Log ...............................................................................................................................5-12

System Menu Overview........................................................................................................................ 6-1

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Using Network Printing Function........................................................................................................................6-24

Custom Keys .........................................................................................................................................................7-1

Metso Automation 278599

This publication is written for anyone who operates a maxDNA Distributed

This publication provides operator information for maxDPU-based systems.

This publication consists of the following seven chapters:

Chapter 1, "Introduction" provides an overview of the maxSTATION,

Chapter 2, "Getting Started," describes maxSTATION logon and logoff

Chapter 4, "Using Standard Display Objects" covers the use of pop-up

Chapter 6, "Using System Menu Displays" covers the use of system

Chapter 7, "Using the Operator Keyboard" discusses a keyboard developed

Metso Automation 278599

A variety of editorial and typographic conventions are used in this book to

For information about related topics, refer to the following maxDNA

Publication Book Number

Alarm Message Reference Guide 278558

Model IOP Output Driver and Auto/Manual 278559

maxSTATION Operators Guide (DBM Edition). 278557

Metso Automation 278599

The Operators Workstation uses maxVUE graphical interface software to

The Engineers Workstation is used for creating and maintaining

In addition to these functions, the maxSTATION collects and manages

These software functions can be distributed among multiple workstation

The functions being performed by a particular workstation determine its

Metso Automation 278599

The full maxDNA Distributed Control System consists of one or more

maxDNA uses a client / server architecture. The maxDPU, acting as a server,

maxSTATIONs and maxDPUs communicate with one another via maxNET.

Understanding Point Databases

A maxDNA system is composed of point databases. A point database,

Use maxDPUTools to define and maintain the maxDNA system resources

System resources consist of Remote Processing Unit (RPU) hardware,

Control points consist of the following:

Metso Automation 278599

Atomic Block Function Block that implements smallest possible

Standard Block derived Function Block that is part of maxDNA product.

Operators may view points from any configuration at any Operator's

maxSTATION components, normally located in a control room, can be

Metso Automation 278599

Because of the configurability of the maxDNA System, it is impossible to

Windows recognizes different user account classes. These classes include

Metso Automation 278599

Two default accounts are always available in Windows: administrator and

2. Click the Operator icon and enter the appropriate password.

Logging out of the maxSTATION

To shut down the Operator's Workstation:

1. Press <Ctrl><Alt><Del> to bring up the Task Manager dialog box.

Metso Automation 278599

The maxSTATION accepts a variety of input devices including: