Menu

Menu options

The menu contains the two headers Project and Options. Note that further options might be added in the future.

Project

This menu header is used for basic operations like saving and loading single projects or variable-routings.

Figure 10: Project menu

A complete setup consisting of multiple connected systems (e.g. Simcenter Amesim and SIMIT Unit) and variable-connections (defined in the variable-router tab) can be saved as a project. In this case all relevant information like paths to specific project-files/directories, settings or variable-connection-pairs will be saved in a file ending with *.amcpf (automation connect project file). This file can be opened with a standard text editor like Notepad and therefore allows for manual editing. Note that all project-paths (e.g. to a Simcenter Amesim *.ame file or a SIMIT Unit *.spf directory) are saved absolute, resulting in an incorrect loading if the projects are moved or renamed.

In addition to complete setups, saving and loading only the variable-mappings from the variable-router is also possible. Connections can be saved and loaded from the **.amcpf* template or a CSV-table. In the later case the structure needs to follow the template:

[Output variable information];[Input variable Information].

The variable information consists of following:

[Name]:[Comment]:[Interface]:[Address (or empty)]:[In/Output]:[Datatype]:[Additional Index].

For example, a valid line for an output variable would be:

n_ist::Simcenter Amesim:0.0:Output:LREAL:0" or "SpeedAxis_1_Actor_Interface_AddressIn.NIST_A:Input1# 2.0:PLCSIM Advanced:2.0:Input:UINT:1.

Options

Options This menu-header contains different options to configure specific behaviors. As shown in the following figure, the possible options are the following ones:

Figure 11: Options menu

• Ignore empty symbols Ignore empty symbols : With this option enabled, variables without a name will be ignored when cyclically reading the current values. In addition, they will not show up in the variable-mapping overview. With this option you can filter unused addresses (e.g. when using Simulation Unit) to increase clarity and performance.

• Force Write Unchanged Values Force Write Unchanged Values : This option controls the write-update-mechanism of Automation Connect. When disabled, only value-changes will be written to the interfaces. When enabled, all input variables will be written constantly in every cycle.

• Simcenter Amesim default run parameters

Simcenter Amesim default run parameters: This option opens the Simcenter Amesim parameters, which will be used as standard for all new setups. See the User interface overview chapter for further information.

• Synchronization settings

Synchronization settings: This option opens a new dialog to run multiple systems synchronously. See the Time synchronization chapter for further information.

• Minimum autoconnect similarity

Minimum autoconnect similarity: With this option you can modify the "Autoconnect" behavior of the variable-routing interface (see The Automation Connect environment in detail chapter) to automatically connect variables with more or less identical names. This check uses the Levenshtein distance to calculate the similarity of different variable-names, where every modification of characters (change, delete, add, move) to transform one name into the other is counted. With this option you can define a minimum similarity, with which the tool will connect variables. If you enter 0, only identical names will be connected; if you enter a higher number, the tool will search the most similar names according to the defined limit and connect all variables with the same top similarity. Note that numbers in names are unique and need to be identical for autoconnecting.

Autoconnect similarity

Figure 12: Autoconnect similarity

• View settings file

View settings file: This option opens the standard settings file which contains the standard Simcenter Amesim simulation parameters, the update cycle or the last projects. These settings are saved in the XML-file DefaultSettings.xml in the %Appdata%/Imagine SA/Automation Connect directory.

• Variable reading-cycle

Variable reading-cycle: This value defines the desired cycle time (in ms) for re-reading all system-output variables. Each connected system has its own background-updater and will display the real update time in its tab. If the update is faster than the target time, the cycle will pause for the remaining milliseconds. If the update takes more time than desired, it will update as fast as possible. Figure 13: Variable reading-cycle

• UI refresh rate

UI refresh rate: This value defines the desired cycle time (in ms) for updating the interface variable values display. This cycle is separated from the actual reading cycle.

• Show connection states

Show connection states: This option adds a colored box at the top of each interface tab indicating the current connection state.

• Minimize to tray

Minimize to tray: This option controls the Automation Connect behavior on minimizing the UI. If enabled, Automation Connect will minimize to the system tray, displaying a small icon and allowing basic commands through the right-click contextual menu. If disabled, Automation Connect will minimize to the taskbar like most other programs.

• User Amesim sim. Step as global reading cycle

User Amesim sim. Step as global reading cycle: This option simply disables the manual input of a 'Variable reading cycle' (see above) but instead uses the set 'Amesim simulation Step' (See Simulation parameters) for all interfaces.

Help

• View helpfile

View helpfile: This option will open the Automation Connect help chapter in the Simcenter Amesim help viewer.

• View logfile

View logfile: This option opens the current logfile which contains all messages from all connectors. This Log file will be created only once a day and is saved in the %Appdata%/Imagine SA/Automation Connect/Logs directory

• Switch to x86/x64

Switch to x86/x64: This option will temporarily save your project, reopen Automation Connect with the opposing architecture and try to load the setup again.

• About

About: This option will open a dialog with general information about the current Automation Connect version in use.