Strategy editor supporting automatic designation of displayed line style based upon a connection data type

摘要

Enhancements to a strategy object editor for creating and modifying control strategies for process control systems (both distributed and discrete) is described. The improvements include: supporting a set of graphical depictions for individual control object (modified by an appearance object editor), drag and drop connections for declarations that connect control strategies to other control strategies, GUI-based designation of object execution order, automatically applied line styles based upon connection data type, and automatic modification of elements within an appearance object to accommodate a moved attribute.

主权项

1. A method for creating, via a control program editor facility graphical user interface, displayed connections between control object attributes graphically represented on a strategy canvas of the editor facility containing a set of graphical control object representations, the method comprising the steps of:
detecting, by the editor facility, a data type for a connection; determining, by the editor facility, a connection type comprising display characteristics including connection properties and visual line characteristics, by applying the detected data type to a stored set of connection types; and rendering a graphical connection having display characteristics determined during the applying step.