Boxes

Boxes describes the Boxes in the System Manager, e.g. Fieldbus coupler. From the version 2.0.0.0, all EtherCAT members are treated as Box type.

Name and Comment have the same content as in System Manager. Type should be the abbreviate name which could be found in TcTerminals.xml.

Type is necessary for System Manager to append the correct Box. Normally it is just the short name of the type shown in System Manager, e.g. BK2000.

There are two cases, which have to be treated specially.

1) For EtherCAT boxes, the Interface of the boxes has to be "ETHERCAT" Type . The Type of a EtherCAT box can be given in an exact or short format. For instance, "BK1120-0000-9998" is the exact Type for a BK1120, which can be found on the EtherCAT tab of an EtherCAT Box property settings. If the short format of "BK1120" is given, the latest Revision (e.g. "BK1120-0000-0000" ) will be imported.

It will be included in the Ecad Xml File, as

<Interfaces>
  <Interface>
    <Name><![CDATA[FB1_1]]></Name>
    <Comment/>
    <Type>ETHERCAT</Type>
    <Boxes>
      <Box>
        <Name><![CDATA[BKF33]]></Name>
        <Comment/>
        <Type>BK1120-0000-9998</Type>
        <BoxNo>5</BoxNo>
        <Terminals>
          ...

Or in general, especially for the third party products, the code should be given in format "V%8X_P%8X_R%8X_S%8X", e.g.

V00000002_P04602C22_R270E0000

V: Vendor code, e.g. it is 2 for Beckhoff products.

P: Product code.

R: Revision number, optional.

S: Serial number, optional.

%8X: a number in hex format and 8 length.

2) For Profibus boxes:

If the Profibus box is a Beckhoff Product, "BK3XXX" should be given in <Type> tag. Otherwise it should be "PBDP_GSD".

To give the exact Type information, the Production Name or Module Name in GSD file must be included in <ProductName> tag in <AdditionalInfo> tag, e.g. IL230x-B310, which is listed in Beckhoff Catalog.

<Interfaces>
  <Interface>
    <Name><![CDATA[Pos.650 Sorter201 (FC310x)]]></Name>
    <Comment/>
    <Type>FC3100</Type>
    <Boxes>
      <Box>
        <Name><![CDATA[Coupler box IL230x-Bxxx]]></Name>
        <Comment/>
        <AdditionalInfo>
          <ProductName>IL2302-B310</ProductName>
        </AdditionalInfo>
        <Type>BK3XXX</Type>
        <BoxNo>5</BoxNo>
        <Terminals>
          ...

See the next section "AdditionalInfo" to get more detail information.

BoxNo is the physical topography of the box, identical with the number of “Id:” in System Manager.

The topography for LightBus is very important, but not for Profibus.

Connection is a special Element for giving connectivity information of EtherCAT box. It is especially useful for such EtherCAT boxes with more than 1 EtherNet port, like EtherCAT junction EK1122.

Variables defines the linked I/O variables of a Box and PLC variables, as given in the last section.

Terminals represents the I/O terminal cards extended to a Box.

AdditionalInfo and Modules are used optionally for such as Profibus and DeviceNet.
AdditionalInfo provides the possibility especially for third-party products to include the additional information.
Modules give the information of Profibus modules.

Link provides information of linked NC/CNC Axis, Encoder or Drive of the Box.