Connecting Runtime-Free to Any OPC-DA Server with VS.NET Your Host Today: Win Worrall Application Engineer and Developer Got a snazzy graphic mike – remove this and put it here!

Connecting Visual Studio.NET to OPC Data Access Servers Agenda – 45 Minutes  OPC to Visual Studio.NET Overview  OPCData.NET Overview  Live training  Basic OPC functions  Reading, Writing, Subscribing  Browsing via code and dialog  Windows application  Web application  Discussion, Questions & Answers

Using Visual Studio as an OPC Client  When you configure an HMI, you configure an OPC client connection to the OPC Server.  In VS.NET you need an OPC client plug-in tool  Good Design and Planning Still Required  Systems are only as good as weakest link Visual Basic to 1 OPC Server to 1-N Devices

Putting it to Work Server Application Client Tool Plug-In

OPC Client Plug-In Tools  Two Types – Free & Commercial  Free Wrapper Objects  Available from OPC Foundation  Requires understanding of key OPC interfaces and working with handles & collections  Community support only – no phone or support  Commercial Software Tools  Variety of types & languages available  Details of OPC implementation abstracted for user  User focuses on “read this”, “write that”  Phone, support usually included  OPC Certified solutions are available

OPCData.NET  100% managed, native.NET component  Targeted to Microsoft.NET Framework 2.0  Works with VS 2005 and higher.  Easy to use API  Abstracts much of the OPC work under the hood  Multi-threaded, non-blocking design for high performance  Self-optimizing  OPC Certified  OPCData-COM available for ActiveX users

Typical Usage  Thin-client web applications  Building your own web service  Can be used from within any tool based on the Microsoft.NET Framework  Thick-client.NET applications  Windows Forms or Windows Services  Your application with OPCData.NET  Your OPC-DA Serve r

OPCData.NET API  Three main assemblies  EasyOpcCommonNet.dll  Classes that hold common OPC information  EasyOpcDANet.dll  Classes that work with OPC Data Access  EasyOpcDANetForms.dll  Classes that work with OPC-DA from Windows Forms applications (browsing dialogs)

OPCData.NET API  EasyDAClient is the main object that allows access to OPC DA servers  Browsing via dialog or code  Allows simultaneous operations  multiple threads for improved efficiency  Error handling  OPC-related errors, COM/DCOM errors, errors returned from OPC server, errors detected by OPCData.NET library  Helper properties for increased control  Synchronous and asynchronous operations, timeout and hold periods, percent deadband

Live Demo  Basic OPC functions  Reading and Multi Reads  Writing and Multi Writes  Subscribing  Browsing via code and dialog  Windows application (VB.NET)  Web application (C Sharp)

What Tools are Needed?  For all usage scenarios  No tag count limits  No limits on # of clients, # of servers  OPCData.NET Single PC Usage License (p/n ) $595  OPCData.NET Single Developer + Runtime Free License (p/n ) $995  OPCData.NET Additional Developers License (p/n ) $395  OPC Data Client (p/n ) $1495  OPCData.NET  OPCData-COM  Support contracts also available (20% of List Price)  Contact us for upgrade pricing from OPCWebClient 3.02

Contact Information & Other Learning Opportunities  Questions later?  Win Worrall   x 1329 or x1329   Other learning opportunities  Recording of this webinar  Visit