Overview: Integrated-system Design

Electrical schematic and layout software tool for integration, automation and control-system design.

Integrated-system Design allows you to design Integrated / Control / Automation systems by connecting components together using wires, cables and schematic labels.

The software provides many advanced features not found in other electrical design software applications.

The schematic Guidance System will help to make sure wires are routed to the correct component connections.

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These warnings are also displayed in the Schematic Report.

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Integrated-system Design will also allow you to create physical layouts, mount components to din-rails, mount components into enclosures, mount din-rails into enclosures and see where wires need to be routed using the layout guidance system and the Air-wires feature.

Examples of components are: data loggers, PLCs, sensors, power supplies, solar panels, batteries, circuit breakers etc.

If the component you require is not in our expanding list of predefined components, then you can create your own using the Component Library Editor.

In the Library Editor you can create schematic symbols which can be added to schematic drawings, and also create physical layout form-factor models of the component, which can be added to layout objects.

Electrical Objects

During the schematic symbol creation process, you can add electrical objects such as power inputs, communication ports, analog inputs / outputs etc.

Communication Protocols

You can add communication protocols to any of these electrical objects. An extensive list of communication protocols is supplied with Integrated-system Design, and you can easily create your own protocol if the one you need doesn't exist in the supplied list.

Additional Functions

You can also add 'Additional Functions' to the electrical object and also to the component.

Examples of Additional Functions might be: 'High-speed Counter' which might be added to a digital input electrical object.

When you hover your mouse on the electrical object points, the term 'High-speed Counter' will be displayed in the electrical object heads-up display (if enabled).

This allows you to see information about the component without having to refer to the component's data sheet.

The PLC may be able to generate and send email alerts. In this case, you might add 'Email Send' or 'Email Tx' to the component's list of additional functions.

When you hover your mouse over the component, the term 'Email Send' will appear in the component heads-up indicating the component has the ability to send emails.

This feature provides concise and valueable information to schematic designers, and saves time by removing the overhead of searching component data sheets for information.

Requirements

Requirements can be added to electrical objects. Requirements are just Additional functions that are applied as 'requirements'. For example, a sealed lead-acid battery might have the requirement of 'SLA Charger' applied to its terminals. This tells the schematic-check logic to make sure an SLA charger is connected to the battery; if not, a warning will be generated in the Schematic Report, Project Navigator, Component Heads-up and the Electrical Object point Heads-up (visible at top left of screen when hovering on electrical object points).

Measurements

Measurements can be added to electrical objects; for example, a depth sensor would have a depth measurement added to it's electrical output object. If the sensor could measure depth in the range of 0 - 12 feet then the measurement Depth would be added to the electrical output, and the range 0 - 12 added, and 'feet' units-of-measure added.

Incompatibles

Incompatibles are also just Additional Functions. These can be applied (using the PMA dialog from the Component Library Editor) to electrical objects.

If you apply an additional function to an electrical object as an 'Incompatible', the Guidance System in the schematic editor will flag an error if an electrical object with that 'incompatible' is wired to an electrical object that has that additional function applied.

This serves to avoid errors where one electrical object is incompatible to another for any reason.

As an integration designer, you only have to hover your mouse on the component to see the measurements (and other functions) the component produces.

Schematic Checking

Measurements may be used later to satisfy project level requirements. For example, if a customer wanted a parameter such as depth measured, the schematic report dialog will search the list of project-level requirements and check that there is a component in the schematic that satisfies this requirement. If a component exists in the schematic that produces the required measurement, the report will check the component to make sure it doesn't have any issues such as no power supply connected to it, or a communication reference (GND) connection missing etc.

This partial-modelling of components in the schematic helps to ensure the schematic is less likely to have errors.

The schematic is automatically checked after each alteration including moving a wire or adding a component to the drawing.

Discrete Components

Discrete Components manage the number of parts within a component. For example, if a relay output module contains 4 relay contacts, using discrete parts when designing the component will ensure the design personnel are unable to add more contacts than the output module provides.