SiB-X Import Rules
The SiB-X Import Rules is a library block that is used to collect the rules for importing objects into Desigo CC. The configuration of the Engineering Object Types (EO Types) is carried out by defining the data structures used to model the field information handled by Desigo CC. Basically, the modeling includes:
- Defining hierarchies, objects, and properties.
- Mapping the instance attributes.
Once a family model is fully configured, it can be exported/imported. For instructions, see Configuring SiB-X Import Rules in a Library.
The SiB-X Import Rules under the L1-Headquarter level are basic configuration provided by Headquarter that can be modified by Headquarter experts and Customer Support only.
Depending on the allowed customization level, authorized experts can manage import rules at L2-Region, L3-Country, or L4-Project level.
Data Model Concepts
Product Families
Objects are organized in product families to logically group the model objects. Product families can be based on SiB-X imported models (SiB-X product families) or manually configured for the system internal objects or non-SiB-X control units (product families).
Some specific localizable texts are associated to each family (text groups library block).
Each library can only support one product family.
Object Instances and Corresponding Types
Desigo CC can represent events and statuses present in the connected control units by creating a real-time process image that maps all the field conditions into internal data structures.
To create a consistent image, the internal data structures must match in number and type the corresponding data in the control units. More specifically, a given control unit can be represented by a list of object instances that refer to a set of model structures called objects.
In System Browser, the object instances are located under the following path:
Project > System Settings > Libraries.
Object Properties
Each object is made up of several elementary properties, the atomic elements corresponding to one of the possible data types.
When setting the import rules, Desigo CC is capable of handling both simple and complex properties.
Typically, each property of an object is represented by a single Data Point Element (DPE). However, special cases will require complex properties, that is, a property folder containing several DPEs.
Engineering Object Types
Desigo CC is based on a type/instance concept. Any field object is an instance of a pre-defined type: Engineering Object Type (EO Type).
The EO Types implement the object models used to represent the conditions of the connected control units in Desigo CC. For each control unit, an appropriate subset of types is applied, and possibly customized in some parts for handling specific cases.
EO Types and SiB-X Mapping Rules
Each family includes several EO Types that Desigo CC shows in the family subtree. The EO Types of SiB-X product families correspond to the Desigo CC Data Point Types mapped with the import rules.
You assign EO Types to object models. In Desigo CC, each model is in a specific library folder where a specific product family object contains the data model corresponding to the related family of control units (for example, APOGEE, BACnet, and so on).
Each family includes several objects that in turn are made up of properties, which contain the actual data values.
SiB-X Standard
Object family models can be based on SiB-X, designed for representing physical and logical elements of a device into an XML file.
Beyond the actual elements to represent, SiB-X files also contain one general metadata definition for each object that maps a corresponding real element. This definition is called Engineering Object Type (EO Type) and includes the elementary data properties (for example, integer or analog values, strings and so on) that collectively support the process image representation of the element.
The EO Types (the internal metadata definitions) are largely based on the SiB-X EO Types even though, in the model implementations, a cross-mapping is required between the two and EO Types may or may not correspond one-to-one with SiB-X EO Types.
SiB-X-based models can profit of the SiB-X files to quickly import both EO Types (metadata) and instances (project data).
A standard SiB-X file contains a MetaFeature file section to reference metadata. In special cases, metadata are referenced using the Symbol tag from an external referenced file. This result in providing the object data type definitions and object instances in separated files. The object data type definitions are used to set the import rules; then the object instances can be imported.
Non-SiB-X Modeling
Not all object family models are necessarily built via SiB-X files. You can manually create and customize families with no SiB-X import, using the required data types.
