Alert fields

Alert fields (alarm fields) can be used to emphasize visually certain situations in your plant. Each alert field is linked to a variable in your cycle (generally, this will be a calculated value) and appears in three different states depending on the value of this variable:

• "OK" state
• "Warning" state
• "Alarm" state

You can define lower and upper levels for warning and alarm. The resulting state is as follows depending on the value of the variable:

• value < lower alarm level
• lower alarm level < value < lower alarm level: Warning
• lower warning level < value < upper alarm level: OK
• upper warning level < value < upper alarm level: Warning
• upper alarm level < value: Alarm

For each state, a different text and a different outlook can be defined. By default, the colour of the alert field is green for "OK", yellow for "Warning" and red for "Alarm". It is possible to make alert fields invisible in certain states. Therefore, it is possible

• to display an alarm text, that appears in case of alarm only. Else, the field is invisible.
• to display a value permanently, but with a different colour or a different background colour depending on the state.

Like in text fields, you can use EbsScript expressions in brackets "{ }" in your alert field. The expression is evaluated when the text is displayed, e.g. string functions like "{Time}" or arithmetical operations like "{TurbineInlet.P/TurbineOutlet.P}".

If you want to use such an expression as an alert criterion, you have to create a user-defined variable and assign the value within EbsScript. The alert field cannot be linked to expressions directly but only to objects that are defined in the model, like components, pipe properties, or model variables.

Note that alert fields are updated automatically after a calculation. They are not updated automatically after a change in the specification values. If you want to update an alert field due to a change in a specification value without performing a new calculation, use the menu command "ViewàNew ViewàRedraw".

The functionality of alarm fields was extended. They may be used in the same way as buttons to start certain actions (like displaying EposProVis diagrams, executing EbsScripts or switching between EposMonitor pictures).

 

For the definition and handling of alert field, see the "Edit Alert Fields".