Devices and Protocols

Native Communication Drivers

Connectivity is a key FactoryStudio feature, therefore many native communication drivers to a variety of industry standard protocols and PLCs are available.  New drivers are continuously added to the standard distribution of FactoryStudio. See the List of Available Drivers in the Appendix to the User Manual.

OPC Client and Server Support

FactoryStudio is in full compliance with the OPC Server and Client specifications. For any protocol not included with the product, the OPC client provides all the necessary integration.

Remote Data Servers

Data acquisition and drivers, native or OPC, can run on remote computers, for instance to get data from RS-232 devices or to eliminate the requirement for DCOM OPC configuration.

OPC Data Server FactoryStudio Station

FactoryStudio can be deployed as a stand- alone OPC Data Server, using the native protocols and providing data to other systems though its OPC Server interface. 

Automatic Synchronization

A Tag Import Wizard and automatic definition synchronization is provided for OPC Servers, Rockwell ControlLogix L5K files, CSV files, Beckhoff TwinCAT, OSIsoftTM PI System and PI AFTM; new wizards are continuously being added.

Process Isolation and Multi-threading

Data communication runs in its own .NET domain, with a WCF layer to isolate the drivers from the main real-time database. Multiple threads are created to each protocol and device node for maximum performance.

Diagnostics Tools

Complete set of testing, deployment and diagnostics tools provides fast and reliable application development and installation.

Built-in Performance Monitoring

Statistics on system messages, success and error messages, dynamic blocks created, cycle time and execution time on each block are generated to allow the fine tuning of high performance applications.

Dynamic Addressing

Everything in the driver configuration, from the station node IP to the address and tag mapping can be changed online using the project script itself. Create standard applications capable of having the runtime setup to the specific conditions where it is being deployed.