OPC DA Client Tool.
The OPC Client tool is a tool for getting and setting item values from a connected OPC DA server.
The tool includes an abstraction layer to be able to assign the OPC items descriptive names to improve script readability and maintainability. By doing that, it is also possible to re-map items to another “physical” OPC item without having to change existing scripts.
The OPC client creates an OPC device with the same name as the tool instance, to expose the configured OPC items as device entities, making it possible to map virtual device entities to OPC items.
The OPC Client tool can only be used as a workbench instance (it is not possible to create a new instance in a procedure step). That is necessary because the list of OPC items needs to be configured and setup before the tool methods can be used.
The tool supports ‘Simulate’ mode. By right clicking a workbench tool and selecting ‘Simulate’ in the menu the tool will simulate all OPC items. When using this mode it is possible to execute scripts without having access to the used OPC servers. The execution log will show that the used OPC items are in simulate mode and Get methods will just return the default value of the item.
This manual also contains a section on troubleshooting OPC problems.