Creating and handling TwinCAT Measurement projects

The TwinCAT Automation Interface provides methods and properties to create and access TwinCAT Measurement projects. The following chapter describes how some basic tasks can be solved with such a TwinCAT project and includes information on the following topics:

• Requirements
• Creating a TwinCAT Measurement project
• Creating a TwinCAT Scope configuration
• Creating, accessing and handling diagrams
• Creating, accessing and handling axes
• Creating, accessing and handling channels
• Starting and stopping recordings
• Further information on TwinCAT Measurement can be found on the corresponding webpage in our information system.

Requirements

The integration of TwinCAT Measurement projects via the Automation Interface is possible from TwinCAT 3.1 Build 4013.

The interface definitions required for handling TwinCAT Measurement projects are located in the TwinCAT.Measurement.AutomationInterface.dll (this is located in the installation directory of the TE130x scope view)

IMeasurementScope:

Creating a TwinCAT Measurement project

TwinCAT Measurement is a global "container" that can host one or more measurement projects, e.g. a TwinCAT Scope configuration. Similar to a regular TwinCAT configuration, each project is first described with the aid of a template file. This template file is used when adding a new project to the solution, which can be done by calling the AddFromTemplate() method from the Visual Studio DTE object. Note that this procedure is the same when adding a regular TwinCAT project. The following code snippet assumes that you have already acquired a DTE instance and created a Visual Studio solution, as shown in our article about Accessing TwinCAT configuration. A reference to the DTE instance is stored in the "dte" object.

Code snippet (C#):

EnvDTE.Project scopeProject = dte.Solution.AddFromTemplate(template, destination, name);

Definition of the parameters:

Creating a TwinCAT Scope configuration

A TwinCAT Scope project stands for a recording configuration. This means that all elements inserted into the project are subject to the same recording settings. You can add a Scope project via the Automation Interface by specifying the appropriate "TwinCAT Scope Project" template when adding a project using the AddFromTemplate() method, as described above.

Creating, accessing and handling diagrams

Several diagrams can exist in parallel in a scope configuration. To add diagrams to an existing scope project, simply use the CreateChild() method from the IMeasurementScope interface. The following code snippet assumes that a TwinCAT Measurement project has already been created and that a reference to this project has been saved in the "scopeProject" object.

Code snippet (C#):

Project MeasurementProject = dte.Solution.Projects.Item(1);
ProjectItem ScopeProjectItem = MeasurementProject.ProjectItems.Item(1);
IMeasurementScope ScopeObj = (IMeasurementScope)ScopeProjectItem.Object;
ScopeObj.CreateChild(out object chartObj); // Erzeugen eines neuen YT-Charts im Scope

ProjectItem piChart = chartObj as ProjectItem;
IMeasurementScope imsChart = piChart.Object as IMeasurementScope;
imsChart.ChangeName("New Chart");
imsChart.CreateChild(out object axisObj); // Erzeugen einer neuen Achsengruppe unterhalb des Charts

ProjectItem piAxis = axisObj as ProjectItem;
IMeasurementScope imsAxis = piAxis.Object as IMeasurementScope;
imsAxis.ChangeName("New Axis");
imsAxis.CreateChild(out object channelObj); // Erzeugen eines neuen Kanals unterhalb der Achsengruppe
ProjectItem piChannel = channelObj as ProjectItem;
IMeasurementScope imsChannel = piChannel.Object as IMeasurementScope;
imsChannel.ChangeName("New Channel");

IMeasurementScope DataPoolObj = (IMeasurementScope)ScopeProjectItem.ProjectItems.Item(1).Object;
DataPoolObj.CreateChild(out object acqObj); // Erzeugen einer neuen Acquisition im DataPool
ProjectItem piAcq = acqObj as ProjectItem;
IMeasurementScope imsAcq = piAcq.Object as IMeasurementScope;
imsAcq.ChangeName("New Acq");

foreach (Property prop in piChannel.Properties)
{
     Debug.WriteLine(prop.Name + " - " + prop.Value); // Wir geben einmal alle Properties mit Nammen und aktuellem Wert aus um uns einen Überblick zu verschaffen.
     if (prop.Name == "Y-Data.Acquisition")
         prop.Value = imsAcq; // Wir setzen die Acquisition des Channels auf die zuvor angelegte Acquisition im DataPool
}

Starting and stopping recordings

The corresponding methods of the IMeasurementScope interface can be used to start/stop a configured scope recording:

Code snippet (C#):

ScopeObj.StartRecord()
ScopeObj.StopRecord();