Capula's OSISoft Pi to PTC Thingworx Connector

Connector Mashups

Owned by Noel Thethy (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 21 Aug, 2020
4 min read

The following entities will be created during installation. These are described within this document:

  • OSIPIThing – This is the default created RemoteThing that the Connector uses for demonstration.

  • OSIPITemplate – This is the RemoteThing Template for communications between the Connector and ThingWorx.  Use this template to create other Things bound to the edge thing name defined in the OSIPIConnector.config file.

  • OSIPIBaseTemplate - The base template used by the OSIPITemplate for creating AF Elements and AF Element Templates.

  • OSIPI.DataArchive.Viewer – The main mashup to use for viewing PI historian data. The viewer allows the selection of one to eight tags for viewing.

  • OSIPI.DataArchive.PIPointSubscription – Screen allowing the configuration of PI points to be put on subscription for ThingWorx to be updated whenever a value changes.

  • OSIPI.AF.CreateThingTemplates – Screen allowing the creation of ThingTemplates from Element Templates defined in AF.

  • OSIPI.AF.CreateThingTemplates – Screen allowing the creation of Things from Elements defined in AF.

  • Various datasets and media items for the properties and services included with the connector.

The following mashups can be used to explore the PI / AF elements directly once the connector is installed, but they can also be used as examples of how to connect interact with the data and shapes when you create your own mashups to represent the PI data.

Data Archive Viewer

The Data Archive Viewer allows you to select a single point or multiple points. They will immediately plot once selected according to the sample mode settings.

Selecting multiple points

To select multiple points in a group:

  1. Click the first point, and then press and hold the Shift key

  2. While holding Shift the last point you want to include, all points between the first and last chosen will also be selected

To select multiple points not in a group:

  1. Click the first point, and then press and hold the Ctrl key

  2. While holding down the Ctrl key, click each of the other points you want to select

Use the refresh button on the time selector at the bottom to refresh the screen or expand/contract the time period.

To add a point(s) to the left hand side of this screen, press the Add Tag button. The following screen will allow the user to search for tags in the historian database and return them to the main screen for viewing purposes. Here the calculation type and interval or number of samples to be returned can be specified.

Synchronise Elements

The AF Element Template Sync menu item (mashup is OSIPI.AF.CreateTemplates) allows the user to sync Element Templates in OSIsoft’s asset framework with ThingTemplates in Thingworx. If the templates aren’t created in ThingWorx, they will automatically be created with the same name and attributes in ThingWorx.

The AF Element Sync menu item (mashup is OSIPI.AF.CreateThing) allows a user to create Things that match the Asset Frameworks Elements. Any element attributes will be added as properties to the ThingWorx Thing. Additionally, a network is created to match the element hierarchy in PI.  

Point Subscriptions

The Point Subscription menu item (mashup OSIPI.DataArchive.PIPointSubscription) is used to add properties that match PI Points in the PI Data Archive. ThingWorx is updated when a new event is recorded on the PI historian.

Synchronisation

The Synchronization Management menu item (mashup OSIPI.HierarchySynchronizationManagementMashup) allows a user to initialize an AF Database with ThingWorx. This creates a hierarchy of things within Thingworx based on the Asset Frameworks Elements. The mashup further allows the user to schedule an update of an existing thing hierarchy with the master in AF. To initialize the Database, the user needs to choose an AF Server Thing then pick the database from Available Databases that needs to sync with ThingWorx.

To set a schedule for an update of an existing thing hierarchy, the master user in AF needs to set the Enabled option to On. Insert the update rate in minutes then click the save button.

Hierarchy Management

The Asset Hierarchy Management (mashup OSIPI.AssetHierarchyViewMashup) allows a user to view already-imported hierarchies of things and allows subscribing to specific attributes of an element.

Editing an element

The AF Attributes (mashup OSIPI.AFAttributes) shows a list of elements that can be edited in Thingworx.

To edit an attribute, pick which one you want to change. Click the Edit button located at the bottom corner, after making changes, click the Save button.

Data sources and subscriptions

The Data sources (mashup OSIPI.DataSources) shows a list of subscribed things that will be written into Asset Framework server.

 

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