Recipe management

Recipe types and recipes

A fundamental distinction is made between recipe types and recipes. Comparable with a class in the object orientation, a recipe type is a general description of a set of symbols. On the basis of this description you can create various recipes, comparable with an instance of a class. Specific values for the symbols defined in the recipe type can be saved in a recipe.

The definition of colors as color codes is used as an example. In this example the recipe type Color describes the general structure of a color with its red, green and blue components. Three color recipes for yellow, light gray and navy are created on the basis of this description. The color components defined for these colors are each saved in the three different recipes.

Inheritance of symbol configurations

If, by default, certain recipe types are to have a base set of symbols managed in a central place, then these recipe types can inherit from one or more recipe types. As a result they contain the symbol entries configured in these parent recipe types. These entries are automatically updated in case of changes being made in the parent recipe types.

Reuse of recipes in other recipes

In order to reuse already defined recipes in other recipes, a recipe type may possess one or more recipe types as members, comparable with standard symbol entries. To do this you can drag-and-drop the recipe type of the recipe to be reused from the TC HMI Configuration window into the Recipe Editor in the base recipe type and then enter the recipe to be reused into the recipes derived from it.