PlantX Manual

© 1998-2007 Adaptive Control Inc. All rights reserved.
This manual may not be reproduced either in whole or in part, by photocopy or

by any other means, without the written permission of Adaptive Control Inc.
Trademarks used in this document are acknowledged.
Find us online at www.adaptivecontrol.com
Document Revision: 20070427

Contents
Contents ........................................................................................................... 2
Introduction ...................................................................................................... 5
Running Plant Explorer ................................................................................. 6
Three Main Windows ............................................................................... 6
Machines........................................................................................................... 7
Two Tab Selectors ........................................................................................ 8
List Summary ................................................................................................ 9
Status Icon ............................................................................................... 9
Adding a New Column ........................................................................... 10
Interesting Live Variables To Add .......................................................... 11
Database Columns ................................................................................ 13
Adjusting a Column ................................................................................ 13
Moving and Resizing Columns .............................................................. 14
Order of Machines ................................................................................. 14
Ticket Summary .......................................................................................... 15
Running Dyelot ...................................................................................... 15
No Dyelot Running ................................................................................. 15
Profile Summary ......................................................................................... 16
Graph Summary ......................................................................................... 17
Screen Summary ........................................................................................ 18
All Detail Views ........................................................................................... 19
Status Window ....................................................................................... 19
Program Detail ............................................................................................ 20
Graph Detail ................................................................................................ 21
Mimic Detail ................................................................................................ 22
I/O Detail ..................................................................................................... 23
Variables Detail ........................................................................................... 24
Parameters Detail ....................................................................................... 25
Schedule ......................................................................................................... 26
Dyelots Display ........................................................................................... 26
Colored Dyelot Bars ............................................................................... 26
Time-Scale............................................................................................. 27
Now Line ................................................................................................ 28
Dyelot Tooltips ....................................................................................... 28
Show Overruns ...................................................................................... 29
Selecting Dyelots ................................................................................... 29
Create a New Dyelot ................................................................................... 31
Append, Insert or Rush .......................................................................... 35
Edit, Delete and Rename Dyelot ................................................................. 35
Rescheduling .............................................................................................. 36
In-Tray......................................................................................................... 37
New Dyelot ............................................................................................. 37
List Of Dyelots........................................................................................ 38
Program View ............................................................................................. 39
Delays and Alarms View ............................................................................. 39
Bulked Recipe View .................................................................................... 40
Find ............................................................................................................. 41
Simple Find ............................................................................................ 41
Advanced Find ....................................................................................... 41
Recycle Dyelot ............................................................................................ 44
Append Similar Dyelot ................................................................................ 44
Stoppage Reasons ..................................................................................... 44
History View ................................................................................................ 46
Zoom ...................................................................................................... 47
Alarms .................................................................................................... 48
Details .................................................................................................... 48
Save As.................................................................................................. 49
Export..................................................................................................... 49
Dyelots Report ............................................................................................ 51
Alarms Report ............................................................................................. 52
Delays Report ............................................................................................. 53
Stoppages Report ....................................................................................... 54
Exceptions Report....................................................................................... 55
Programs ........................................................................................................ 56
Create a New Program ............................................................................... 57
Commands ............................................................................................ 57
Entering and Editing Steps .................................................................... 58
Profile ..................................................................................................... 58
Parameters ................................................................................................. 60
Send To Machine ........................................................................................ 61
Get From Machine ...................................................................................... 62
Specifications ................................................................................................. 63
PC Hardware .............................................................................................. 63
PC Software ................................................................................................ 63
Machine Controller Models ........................................................................... 64
LogicArt Controllers .................................................................................... 64
Terminology ........................................................................................... 64
Chinese Characters In Data .................................................................. 64
Controller Locking .................................................................................. 64
Program Size Limits ............................................................................... 64
Unlocking a Machine ............................................................................. 65
Index ................................................................................................................ 66
Chapter 1 Introduction Page 5
C H A P T E R 1
Introduction
Congratulations on your purchase of Plant Explorer - software to make
running a textile dyeing plant easy and productive.
You should probably just read this manual from the beginning through to the
end, as more technical information is put to one side in the margins so you
can skip over it on the first reading.
If you have not yet purchased and installed Plant Explorer, you might want to
turn to the Specifications section at the end of this manual to be sure the PC
and other electronics you choose to run the software is fit for the job.
** Includes free copy of Plant Messenger **
Plant Mimic – draggable with mouse

Chapter 1 Introduction Page 6
Running Plant Explorer

When you have got all the program groups and machines set up correctly, it is
time to start Plant Explorer. Exit the setup and logon screens if you have just
been doing setup, and double-click on the Plant Explorer shortcut on the
desktop again.
Because you have got some machines setup this time, Plant Explorer should
go immediately into its normal running screen.
If instead you had wanted to go back into setup again, hold down the Shift key
while Plant Explorer starts up, and then type in the correct setup password as
you did before.
Three Main Windows

When Plant Explorer is running normally, at the bottom of the screen you will
always see three buttons which select each of the three main windows of
information:
Press one of these buttons at any time to switch to the desired screen.
Machine Summary
Here we can see information about what’s happening right now on all the
machines.
History
Here is the list of history information for dyelots that were run in the past. Use
this screen to check for quality and diagnose production problems, amongst
other useful things.
Programming
Here the programs that are used by the machine controllers can be
conveniently viewed, printed and edited in one central place. Getting the
correct programs is very important to make the most out of your plant.
Chapter 3 History Page 7
C H A P T E R 2
Machines
The purpose of this screen is to show live information about machinery.
Pausing dyelots, changing step and stopping dyelots can also be done here.
However, starting a new dyelot cannot be done on this screen – it can only be
done instead by going to the schedule screen and making a new dyelot there.
The reason for this feature is that when you are starting a new dyelot, you will
also want to check if there are any other dyelots already scheduled, waiting to
start on the same machine.
Here is a typical screen-shot from a plant:
As you can see, the top half of the screen shows a list of all machines, whilst
the bottom half shows program information about the machine that is currently
selected by a blue marker in the top list.
Two Tab Selectors

There are two tab selectors down the left hand side of the screen. The top
one lets you change which kind of summary you would like to see in the top
half of the window, while the bottom selector changes the kind of machine
detail to show at the bottom.
As you can see, the options on the top, summary selector are:
List, Ticket, Profile, Graph, Screen
while the options on the bottom, detail selector are:
Program, Graph, Mimic, I/O, Variables, Parameters
You can combine any top selection with any bottom selection, giving you 5 x 6
= 30 options ! All useful…
The most commonly used option on each selector is the first – that is, the
Summary is List and the Detail is Program – and that is what Plant Explorer
starts showing when you first log-in.
The views shown when these selector buttons are pressed are now explained
in more detail.
List Summary
Here is part of the previous screen-shot, made larger:
Like all screens on the machine summary, the information shown is live for all
machines.
If there are more machines or more columns than can be displayed all at
once, then scroll-bars will automatically show to allow this extra information to
be brought into view.
Status Icon
The small picture at the left next to each machine name is called the status
icon and show important information as follows:
The machine is not communicating with Plant Explorer. Perhaps the

controller has no power, or there is a fault with the communications
wiring.
The machine is online. No dyelot is running on it at the present time.
A dyelot is running normally without alarms.

A dyelot is running, but it has been paused – this means that

production has stopped on the machine.
A dyelot is running, but there are alarms on the machine. These

alarms mean that there is a problem, either with the machine or with
the operation of the control.
As you can see on the screen-shot, the machine showing ‘OK’ has no other
program or step information because it is not running a dyelot.
Adding a New Column

The columns displayed on this list can be modified. There are many different
useful pieces of data that can be shown, including live information from the
machine controllers, and also database information for the currently running
dyelot, such as customer order number, and so on.
To change the columns displayed, right-click on any line and choose ‘Add
Columns’ from the context menu that appears:
This will display this dialog:

In the top half of this screen is a list of all the live data available on the
machine – in this case, machine ‘L1’ – and in the bottom half is a list of all
available data in the database. On your computer, the contents of these lists
may be slightly different.
To add any item as a new column on the machines list, just double click on it.
When you have added all the new columns, click on the ‘Close’ button.
Interesting Live Variables To Add

If you click on the tab marked ‘Parent’, some standard interesting variables
will be shown, looking something like this:
Many of these are worth double clicking on to add as a column on the

machine list summary:
Job
The name of the dyelot, otherwise known as the job name, currently running
on the machine.
This dyelot name may be blank if, for example, the dyelot was started on the
controller and no dyelot name was typed in on the controller. Although Plant
Explorer will function normally in this case, it is not the best way to run your
plant. It is much more helpful to give each dyelot a real name so that status
screens and history records always can identify the dyelot.
If you have accidentally started a dyelot with a blank name, you must wait for it
to finish and then rename it on the ‘Schedule’ screen to give it a proper name.
Program Number And Name

The number and name of the program currently being run by the dyelot.
While one dyelot is running, it may use several different programs, one after
another, but this column will always show details of the program currently
running.
Step Number And Text

The number and text of the step that has been reached in the current
program.
Time In Step
How long in minutes the program has been on the current step, and also how
long it ought to remain on this step.
For example here, the value ‘127/20’ means that the current step of the
program should take 20 minutes to perform, but already 127 of these minutes
have passed. This is of course is bad – the dyelot is losing time.
Active Alarms
The names of any alarms currently active on the controller. Alarms are not a
good thing to have, and often indicate practical problems on the machines,
including delays and mechanical issues.
You should work to never see any alarms appear as they are costing you
time, money and quality.
Database Columns
As mentioned above, as well as columns that show live data from the
controller it is also possible to have columns showing information from the
database. This information is taken from the Dyelots table in the database
and comes from the dyelot currently running (in State 2) on that machine.
The kind of information available in the database for a dyelot will very much
depend on how Plant Explorer has been setup and on how much integration
has been done with other computer systems in the plant. Typical useful data
columns are things like color-code, customer name, and sub-strate, if
available.
Adjusting a Column
The new column you have just added may need a little more work to look
good. You can right-click on the name at the top of the column to show this
context-menu:
If the name of the column is wrong, or needs shortening, then choose

‘Rename Column’:
If you no longer want this particular column, then choose ‘Delete Column’. If
you want to start again, adding all columns from scratch, then choose ‘Delete
All Columns’.
The information in the column will usually be aligned to the left, meaning that ir
is displayed starting on the left of its display rectangle. If you prefer the
information to be centered or aligned to the right, then just select those
options.
The layout of all columns is automatically saved for you, so it will look just the
same the next time that you log into Plant Explorer as the same user.
Moving and Resizing Columns

It is very easy to move or change the width of a column just by using the
mouse.
To move a column, click and hold down at the top of a column on its name,
and then drag with the mouse to a new position for this column, and then
release.
To change the width of a column, position the mouse over the thin line at the
end of the column name, then draw it to the right to make it wider, or to the left
to make it narrower.
Interestingly, you can set the width of the column to be just right for the data
currently being shown in that column by double-clicking on the thin line at the
end of the column name.
Order of Machines
The order in which the machines are shown from top to bottom cannot be
changed by a user, although it can be changed during setup.
Ticket Summary
Here is an example of how a typical ticket summary screen could look:
The idea of a ticket is to show the important production information about

dyelot in a small space.
Running Dyelot
For example, for the first machine ‘MDJ08’ here, the current main temperature
vessel is 99F, the running program is number 103, and that program has
reached the Run command on step 4. The ‘Status’ line shows that there are
just over 13 minutes of holding time left on that step.
Thankfully there are currently no alarms on the machine, and the expected
time left before the dyelot finishes is almost 5 hours.
The light blue bar represents the dyelot as it would be shown on the schedule
screen. The color of the bar is usually made to be close to the actual color
being dyed. In this example, the dyelot began running on the machine at 6:42
on Friday evening, and is expected to end at 3:12 early on Saturday morning.
No Dyelot Running
When no dyelot is running, the ticket will be mostly empty. However, if there
is another dyelot waiting to start running, then that will be shown at the bottom
of the ticket.
Profile Summary
A summary view of profiles might look like this:
As long as a dyelot is running on a machine, then a graph of the predicted

temperature profile is shown.
The profile uses the three colors red, blue and green to show how far the
dyelot has got in its program.
Red
The dyelot has already done this part of the program
Blue
The dyelot has working on this part of the program.
Green
This part of the dyelot has not yet been reached.
Because of these colors it is easy to see at a glance how far into the program
the controller has reached for all machines at the same time.
Graph Summary
An example of this view would be:
Unlike the previous profile summary view which shows the temperature profile
as predicted by the computer, this graph summary view shows the actual
temperature graphs as they have really happened on the machines.
Only the part of the dyelot up until the current moment in time can be shown –
the future actual temperature is of course not yet known, and so cannot be
shown !
Screen Summary
Here is an example of how the screen summary view might look:
Each controller of course shows information on its own screen, and this
screen summary view lets you see what is being displayed on each controller
screen.
By clicking on buttons here, you can bring up all the different screens of
information.
All Detail Views

There is only space to show detailed information about one machine at a time,
and the machine for which it is shown is the one that is currently highlighted in
the summary view at the top.
At the top of every machine detail view is the status window.
Status Window
For example:
This shows the machine, the current temperature, the dyelot running on the
machine, if any, and important messages that the machine operator should
know about.
Program Detail
Here is an example of how the program window might look while a dyelot is
running:
At the top is the theoretical temperature profile for the dyelot, showing the
expected temperature against time in hours. The red part indicates how much
of the job has been completed, while the green part shows the job-time still
left to go. The blue part shows the time being taken by the currently running
step.
In the middle of the window are shown the steps of the program, with the
current step highlighted in blue. To the left of the blue line are two columns of
numbers, with the left-hand column being the number of minutes expected to
be spent on a step, and the right-hand column showing how many minutes
have actually been spent on that step.
Underneath are buttons for ‘Run’, ‘Pause’ and so on. You can use these to
change the current step that the controller is on in its program, or even to stop
the job completely, but you should do so only with care as you are directly
affecting the production program on that machine.
Graph Detail
This shows a graph of the currently running dyelot:
If no dyelot is currently running, then this window will be blank. The vertical
red line marks the point of time of interest in the graph for which values are
shown. Much more information is available in a side-window by pressing the
‘Details’ button. You can read about all these features in the ‘History’ section
of this manual.
Mimic Detail
This shows a live picture of your machine – for example:
Your picture may not look like this example at all ! This is because the ‘mimic’
is a graphic of a particular type of machine, which may well be completely
different from the types of machines at your plant. It is not just a graphic – the
actual live inputs and outputs of the machine will be shown on it.
If you move your mouse so it is hovering over a particular object, you will see
a tooltip pop up describing that object:
I/O Detail
This window shows the current values of Inputs and Outputs on the machine.
This information is useful to an engineer, but may also be helpful if you want
to check whether, for example, a pump is currently running (‘Main Pump’
here) or a feedback input is present (‘Reel 1 Running’).
Variables Detail
This windows shows further information that is useful to engineers installing
and fault-finding your controllers.
The information is split over several ‘tabs’ – just click on a tab heading like
‘Parent’ to change the tab.
Parameters Detail
Here is an example of how the parameters detail view might look:
Parameters are values that are different from machine to machine, and are
set to suitable values at the time the machinery is installed and
commissioned.
This information can be interesting for an engineer to look at, to check how
the machine has been setup and installed.
Schedule
The schedule screen allows for production scheduling as well as many useful
instant reporting functions. In many ways it is the heart of the Plant Explorer
system.
Dyelots Display
The main information is shown, as you can see, as a graphic picture of
dyelots against machine and time. The time-scale is at the top and goes from
left to right - from the past to the future. The names of machines go down the
left-hand edge of the screen.
Colored Dyelot Bars

Each dyelot is represented by a colored bar, where the colors are usually
chosen to be close to the actual color of the dyelot being manufactured. The
length of the bar represents how much time the dyelot takes in total – the
longer the bar, the more time. The point in time where the dyelot begins and
where it ends can be seen simply by checking the beginning and end of the
bar against the time-scale.
For example:
Here the dyelot called ‘DXS0416’ is dyeing the color red, and is expected to
start on the machine around 5:30 in the morning and finish around 3:30 in the
afternoon.
Time-Scale
If you want to show more or less time on the screen, then you should use the
zoom-bar at the top:
Pressing the zoom-out button – the one on the left – will show more time,
while pressing the zoom-in button will show less time. You can also click or
drag the slider between the two buttons to get the same effect.
If you zoom out to show more time, then the dyelot bars being displayed will
become correspondingly shorter.
To move backwards and forwards in time, there are various different ways.
(1) You can click on one of the arrows at the top-left and top-right of the
screen:
to move a few hours backwards or forwards. You can click and hold the
mouse button down on either of these buttons to move in time repeatedly.
(2) You can click and drag anywhere in the time line across the top of the
screen.
(3) If your mouse has a wheel built into it, you can move the wheel up or
down.
(4) You can click on the Calendar button
and then use the calendar that is displayed to quickly choose and day, month
or year in the past, present or future:
Pressing one of the two little black arrows at the top will move the calendar
backwards and forwards by a month – hold down the buttons to repeat.
Just click on any day to move the dyelot schedule to show that date.
It is useful to note that days in the month on which no dyelots were produced
are shown in gray – in this example, there were no dyelots on the 15th or 22nd
of October.
(5) To move immediately back to the time now, just press the Today button:
Now Line
A red, vertical line called the now-line marks the time right now:
A dyelot that is currently running on a machine will slowly move from right to
left across the now-line.
Any dyelot which lies completely to the right of the now-line has not yet run on
a machine and still lies in the future.
A dyelot which lies completely to the left has been completed and of course is
now in the past.
The speed at which dyelots move across the now-line is fixed and cannot be
changed by Adaptive.
Dyelot Tooltips
If you move your mouse and let it rest over a dyelot, then a useful tooltip
window will appear:
This shows the dyelot name, machine and time duration at the top. It also
shows the beginning and end time for the dyelot, and how much overrun time
there was.
As you will see later in the programming section of this manual, every dyelot
has a predicted ‘standard’ time that is automatically calculated based on its
dyeing program steps. After the dyelot has been run on a machine it
becomes possible to compare the actual time duration of the dyelot with the
calculated standard time, and as you can see in the example there is often
some unwanted overrun time.
Show Overruns
If you press the Overruns button on the toolbar, then all completed dyelots will
display in a slightly different way with ‘red tails’:
The first part of each dyelot is shown in its normal color as before, but if the
dyelot has taken more time to run than its predicted, calculated time then that
overrun time is graphically shown in red at the end of the dyelot.
This is a very quick and easy way to see at a glance which dyelots have taken
too long to run, and how much proportionally that overrun is.
Pressing the Overruns button for a second time will remove the red tails and
restore the screen to its normal appearance.
Selecting Dyelots
To edit, delete or move dyelots you must first select them.
This is very easy – to select one dyelot, just click on it with the mouse, and a
blue rectangle will appear around it:
You can then, if you like, use the arrow keys up, down, left, and right, to
change selection to dyelots near by.
To keep this dyelot selected and also select a second dyelot, hold down the
‘Shift’ key on the keyboard whilst you click on another dyelot:
Another way to select several dyelots at once is first to click and hold the
mouse near but not on top of a dyelot, and then to drag a rectangle around all
dyelots that you wish to select:
When you release the mouse button, all dyelots that were completed or partly
inside the rectangle that you drew will be selected.
To remove selection from all dyelots, press the ‘Esc’ key on the keyboard or
just click anywhere on the main schedule window away from any dyelots.
Create a New Dyelot

To create a new dyelot, just press the New button on the toolbar
If a dyelot or machine is already selected, then Plant Explorer will know which
machine you want to create this new dyelot on. If however no dyelot or
machine is selected, then you will see this:
Simply choose the machine for which you want to make a new dyelot and then
press the OK button.
On this screen you enter all the details about the new dyelot as follows.
Dyelot and ReDye

Type into the dyelot box the name of the new dyelot you wish to create.
If you do not have a name for the dyelot, you can use one space as a blank
name.
If you leave the ReDye field empty, then a redye number of 0 is assumed.
Start Information
If a dyelot is Blocked then it will not automatically start running.
This means that if a machine is not in us, and a blocked dyelot is next to run
on it, then the dyelot will not automatically start. To start it, just remove the
block on the dyelot.
If a dyelot is Committed then it cannot be moved from one machine to
another, and no other dyelots can be brought in front of it. You can of course
manually remove the Committed status if you need to.
Dyelots are often set to committed because users want to make sure that the
dyelots run exactly as they are right now.
Program
A dyelot must have at least one, but maybe several, programs:
To begin, you can double click or start typing a number, and a list of all
possible programs will appear:
Just click on the number, or press enter after choosing a program, and repeat
if you need more than one program:
On the right of this list of programs, you will see that the corresponding
temperature profile and list of individual steps is shown for your information:
As you can see, at the top right of this display is shown the total calculated
running time of the dyelot if these programs are used – in this example, 3
hours and 7 minutes.
Dyelot Parameters
On some types of machines, there is the chance to type in some extra values
that will customize the programs that you chose.
In this example:
three of the commands in the programs can be varied – the batch weight, the
salt concentration and the rope length. You just type in the new values that
you want.
When the dyelot is started later on the machine, then the first occurrence of
BW in the program steps will be changed to use the parameter value that you
entered here, and similarly for the SC and TY commands.
If no dyelot parameters are shown, then this is not a problem – it just means
that none have been defined for this type of machine.
Notes
It is often useful to type extra information of various kinds about the dyelot.
The notes area lets you add anything of interest. These notes will live with the
new dyelot from this moment on, and can be changed or added to at any time.
Many customers use the notes to hold production related hints and warnings
for other users to see.
Color
If you press this button, you will see:
You can use this to choose a good representative color for the actual color
that the dyelot is producing. Of course, this is only to make the dyelot
schedule look good and give you a useful hint later on about what the real
color of the dyelot is.
Append, Insert or Rush

When you have entered all the above information for the new dyelot, click on
OK to create the dyelot. It will be scheduled to run last on the machine you
specified.
If you want the new dyelot to be scheduled first, then you can choose ‘Rush
New Dyelot’ from the menu instead. If you want the new dyelot to be
scheduled in front of a certain other dyelot, then first select that other dyelot
and then choose ‘Insert New Dyelot’
It actually does not matter too much if the dyelot is not scheduled to start with
in the correct place because it is so easy to move a dyelot around after it has
been created.
Edit, Delete and Rename Dyelot

If a dyelot is still in the future, then you can edit any of the details entered
when the dyelot was created.
Find the dyelot on the schedule, and double-click on it to show the same
options are described in the above section. To save any changes you make,
press OK or to keep the existing data press Cancel.
To delete a dyelot, just select it and press the ‘Delete’ key on the keyboard or
the Delete button on the toolbar. You will be asked to confirm the delete
before it goes ahead:
To rename a dyelot, click the Rename button on the toolbar:
and then just enter the new dyelot name. The redye number will be 0 unless
you enter a different value for ReDye.
Rescheduling
To make a dyelot run earlier or later than the time it is currently scheduled for,
just click on it with the mouse, hold the mouse button down and drag the
dyelot into the new position that you want for it:
Two black arrows will appear to show you the position where the dyelot will be
scheduled when you release the mouse button.
To cancel the reschedule while the mouse button is still pressed, use the
Escape key on the keyboard.
If no black arrows are appearing for the position you are trying for, this is
probably either because the new position is not valid for a dyelot, or because
you are trying to move a dyelot between machines in two incompatible
machine groups.
You should be aware that if the dyelot you are moving is not blocked, and you
move it to the front position on a machine where no other dyelot is currently
running, then your moved dyelot will start straight away on that machine.
In-Tray
Click on the InTray button on the toolbar:
The in-tray is a place to hold dyelots when it is not yet time to assign them to
particular machines,
Any dyelot that is already on a machine can simply be put back in the in-tray
by right-clicking on the dyelot and choosing ‘Send To In Tray’.
The other way round, to take a dyelot from the in-tray and put it on a machine
on the main schedule, just click and hold the mouse button on the dyelot in
the in-tray, and then drag and drop it over to the required place on the main
schedule.
New Dyelot
Press the New button on the in-tray toolbar:
You must choose the type of machine for which you wish to create a new
dyelot. After pressing OK, you will be able to enter just the same information
for a new dyelot as if you had made a new dyelot on the main schedule.
List Of Dyelots
Press the List button on the in-try toolbar to change the way information is
displayed in the in-tray to a list style:
Press the toolbar List button again to switch back to the first, graphical view.
The Print button allows this list to be printed.

Program View
Make sure that a dyelot is selected, and then on the View menu choose
‘Program’:
You will be able to see the complete temperature profile and program steps
used by the currently selected dyelot.
Delays and Alarms View

Select a dyelot that has been already run, and then on the View menu choose
‘Delays and Alarms:
Two graphics are shown.
The delays in this completed dyelot appear as a pie-chart, for which you would
hope ‘Normal Running’ to be 100% in a perfect world.
Any alarms are shown as a bar-chart, with a scale to show their extent in
minutes.
Bulked Recipe View

Select a dyelot, and then on the View menu choose ‘Bulked Recipe:
If Plant Explorer and a recipe system have been joined together, then
information will be shown here about the dyes and chemicals that are used for
this dyelot.
Find
On a system like Plant Explorer where many thousands of dyelots will be
created and used over the course of time, it is important to have powerful and
easy to use search functions to find dyelots of interest.
There are two such find functions: simple find and advanced find.
Simple Find
To the right of the Find button on the toolbar is an area where a dyelot name
can be typed:
If you know all or part of the dyelot’s name, just start typing it into this box. As
you do so, a list of all dyelots that match the name will be displayed to help
you quickly choose the right one:
Press Enter on the keyboard when you see the desired dyelot, and the
schedule will immediately select and move to show the dyelot.
Advanced Find
If you press the Find button, then the advanced find window will be shown:
Just like to the simple find, you can type in all or part of a Dyelot name, but
there are now also some more options.
The Any Field text will be compared against all text fields for this dyelot in the
database. Program Used compares against any of the program numbers
used for the dyelot. On Machine allows you to search all machines, or instead
to restrict the search just to some machines:
From Date and To Date let you search for dyelots in a range of dates:
Of course, you can set several of these find conditions at the same time, in
which case all must be true for a dyelot to match,
If you press the Find button at the end of the advanced find area you will see
that button change to allow you to Cancel together with information about the
progress of the find:
A new window will appear with the results of the find in it:
If you click on any of these dyelots, then the schedule underneath will find and
select the same dyelot. To remove the advanced find window and output,
press the Find button back on the main schedule toolbar.
A find results toolbar is also displayed:
Normally the dyelots found are shown just in the order they were found in the
database, which might not be any particular order. Pressing Sort By Date will
sort the dyelots into order with the oldest ones at the top and the newest ones
at the bottom:
The Export button allows the list of found dyelots to be saved to a text file –
maybe to be imported into Microsoft Word or Excel.
The Print button as you would expect makes a printout of all found dyelots.
Pressing the View button will change the way the list of dyelots is displayed so
that it shows columns of data for each dyelot:
In fact, many more columns can be shown. To see and choose these extra
columns, right click on any column name:
You can add whatever columns you like and drag and resize the columns to
get the layout you want. When you have added a new column, to begin with
there is no data loaded for the new column and you will see this message
telling you how to load up all the new data:
Recycle Dyelot
If a dyelot has finished and you want to do the same dyelot again, then select
it and choose Recycle:
If you say Yes, then a new dyelot will be created that is an identical copy and
has the same name. The new dyelot will always be blocked.
Append Similar Dyelot

To make a new dyelot just like a dyelot that has not yet run on a machine,
select it and choose ‘Append Similar Dyelot’ from the menu.
All the details of the selected dyelot will be copied, but you can make any
changes you like before saying OK to create.
Stoppage Reasons
When dyelots are running on a machine there are often stop times between
dyelots when no work is going on:
Plant Explorer has a reporting feature for these ‘Stoppages’ so it is a good

idea for a user to be watching out for these gaps appearing and assigning
reasons for them.
Before you can give a reason for a gap, you need to set up a list of possible
stoppage reasons by choosing ‘Stoppages Reasons’ from the Tools menu.
Here is an example of what they could be:
After creating this list, then whenever you see a gap between two past dyelots
just click in the gap and your list will be shown again to choose from:
Just choose the reason for the gap and the schedule will change to look like
this:
Now you should do the same for all other gaps between past dyelots.
The stoppages report that uses this data is described later in this manual.
History View
Built into the schedule window is a history view. To display it, press the
History button on the toolbar or double-click on any past dyelot:
The colored traces shown include the set temperature and the actual
temperature, probably also along with levels in the machine vessel. The kind
and amount of data shown on the graph is set during installation of the
machine controllers.
By clicking with the mouse in the middle of the graph, you can make a red
vertical line appear that can be used to read off the values of the lines shown
on the graph at that point:
The time to which this data corresponds is shown at the top-left:
Zoom
Pressing the ‘Zoom To Fit’ button will make the whole graph fit exactly into the
available space by either shrinking or expanding the time axis. Pressing the
‘Zoom Standard’ button makes the graph have a standard scale on the time
axis.
You can also zoom by right-clicking on the graph and holding and dragging
the mouse to draw a rectangle:
When you release the mouse, the rectangle area you chose will be zoomed to
fill the whole window:
To remove this zoom, just press ‘Zoom To Fit’ or ‘Zoom Standard’.
Alarms
Pressing the ‘Alarms’ button at the bottom of the graph will show every alarm
that occurred at some time during the dyelot, along with one or more
horizontal bars indicating the times at which an alarm was present.
To remove these alarms from the graph, just press the ‘Alarms’ button again.
Details
Showing lines on the graph is only part of the power of the history feature – if
you press the ’Details’ button, you can see versions of all the live screens for
viewing a dyelot with these screens synchronised to the currently selected
time on the graph:
The example above shows that 49 minutes past midnight the program had
reached step 25, and had already spent 33 minutes on that step.
If you choose I/O or Variables at the bottom of this details window, then you
can add or remove extra traces from the graph by simply double-clicking on
any variable.
Save As
By pressing the ‘Save As’ button and entering a file name, the contents of the
history can be saved as a file, perhaps to send as an email attachment or
keep as a separate record of the dyelot’s technical performance.
All Plant Explorer history files end with ‘.hst’.
A separate Adaptive program, ‘History Viewer’, can be used to load up these

history files and display them on another computer.
Export
Pressing the export button lets you save some of the history information in the
‘Comma Separated Values’ file format that can be easily imported into, for
example, Microsoft Excel:
As you can see in ‘Step 1’, there are many possible data fields – you should
click on the ones that you want to be exported.
Press the ‘Show Me’ button to see how the data will appear, for example:
The data will be output at whatever frequency it was originally logged. In this
example above, that was once every 10 seconds.
If you want to see data once every minute, click on the ‘Every 60s’ option:
When the data looks correct, click on ‘Save As’ and choose an output file
name.
Dyelots Report
All the instant reports built into the schedule are reached by first pressing the
Calendar button on the schedule toolbar. Alongside the calendar itself, more
buttons will be displayed:
These instant reports all appear in a calendar-type format, showing one week
at a time to start with.
Choosing Dyelots will show a week of data, with each day looking something
like this:
As you can see, this is a simple list of the dyelots and their colors that were
produced on that day.
If you double-click on one of these dyelots, then the schedule screen will re-
appear with that dyelot selected.
Alarms Report
Pressing the Alarms button will show something like this:
This shows all alarms on any machines that occurred on the day, together
with the total number of minutes for each alarm.
If you move and hover your mouse over one of the alarms, you will see a
tooltip appear:
As the tooltip says, if you click on the alarm the display will change to show all
dyelots that had that particular alarm:
In this example, dyelot ‘93388’ was the worst, with the alarm active for 80
minutes. If you now click on the bar for the dyelot, the main schedule will
appear showing that dyelot.
Delays Report
The delays report for a particular day might look like this:
While a dyelot is running, the controller decides whether the dyelot is running
normally, or whether a delay is taking place. The names and meanings of the
delays are fixed when the machine controllers are installed.
This report shows the total hours on all machines on the given day in each of
the possible delays. In this example, there have been just over 4 hours of
operator delay.
As for the alarms report, if you click on a bar you can see a breakdown of that
delay over dyelots:
And if you then click on the bar for the dyelot, the main schedule will appear
showing the same dyelot.
Stoppages Report
A stoppages report for a certain day might look like this:
The stoppages must be entered manually by giving reasons for the gaps
between past dyelots on the main schedule screen.
The different colors inside the stacked bars here correspond to different
machines.
Exceptions Report
The exceptions report looks like this:
The exceptions are just all alarms, delays, and stoppages combined.
This report shows a simple list of all problems that happened throughout the
24 hours of a day. For example, the very first item on this list shows that at 6
minutes past midnight, on machine ’25-2’, there was a ‘Fill Drain Slow’ alarm
that lasted for 3 minutes.
The colored bar on the right shows the amount of time that the exception took
place for, with colors as follows:
Green Less than 10 minutes

Orange 10 to 20 minutes
Red More than 20 minutes
Chapter 4 Programming Page 56
Programs
Although machine controllers have their own list of programs that they can
run, it is important to have a central database of those programs, both as a
backup and also as a way of keeping the programs the same on all machines.
A sample screen looks like this:
Here you can see a list of programs that have already been written, but also
note that there are a series of ‘tabs’ near the top, in this example called
‘Airtint’, ‘Atyc’ and so on. For each tab there is a separate list of programs,
needed because these tabs – called Program Groups – refer to different types
of machine.
Because of this, it is possible to have program 10 being one type of process in

one program group, and something completely different in another program
group, but we don’t recommend this. It is much easier to keep things straight
if program 10 has a similar function on all program groups
The first thing to do before you create or look at any programs is to click on
the correct tab for the program group you want.
The list of programs shows a program number (#), a name, the number of
steps, the expected running time and some notes. For example the first
program (number 1) on this screen-shot has 37 steps in it and would be
expected to run for 4 hours and 13 minutes.
Create a New Program

To create a new program, choose ‘New Program’ from the File menu.
You must enter a name for the new program, but the notes can be left blank if
you want. After entering each piece of information, press Enter.
You will then go into the screen for entering the steps of the program:
The step number is the ‘#’ column. The ‘XX’ column shows the short
command name.
It is also possible to have one or more blank lines in the program, just to
space it out nicely.
Commands
If you press the commands button, then a window will appear on the right
hand side of the screen showing all the possible commands. For example:
In this example, |0-100| means that a value between 0 and 100 is required for
this parameter value.
Entering and Editing Steps

Now that you can see the possible commands, just start typing a command
number, for instance 07 into an empty step.
You then enter a value for this first parameter – say 050 – and the step will be
completed. Repeat this with the other steps you need.
You can use the ‘Insert’ and ‘Delete’ keys on the keyboard to add space or to
delete steps you no longer need. The standard Windows functions of Cut,
Copy and Paste will also work on the steps you select using the mouse.
At any time, one or more of the steps are highlighted, meaning they are shown
in blue. To select one step, just click on that row. To select several rows,
select the first by clicking on it, then hold down the ‘Shift’ key while clicking on
a different step, to select all steps between the two chosen steps.
If you make any mistakes while editing the steps, try using ‘Undo’ to go back
to a time before you made these mistakes.
When the steps of the program are finished and correct, just press the ‘Save’
button and close this window by clicking on the red cross button at the top
right hand corner of the window.
Profile
A program with many steps in it might look like this after we have pressed the
profile button:
The blue color represents the part of the profile for the currently selected step.
By clicking on a different part of the temperature profile, you can move to that
step of the program.
Parameters
Back on the programs list screen, you can press the parameters button and
choose one of the machines:
This will bring up a screen that lets you edit a central copy of the parameters
for that machine:
It is easy to enter new values for these parameters, and then press ‘Save’.
The new values will not be copied to the machine controller automatically after
you have made changes – you must do this for parameters and also for
programs manually.
Send To Machine
Pressing this button will show this dialog:
Make the selections that you need and press the OK button.
The send may take a few minutes to finish if you are sending many programs
to many different machines.
Get From Machine

This option is not used as often as ‘Send to Machine’, because usually the
master copy of programs and parameters is found at the PC running Plant
Explorer:
Select the machine you require and press OK.
The information you asked for will be got from the machine controller and
shown on the screen.
To use it, you may find it convenient to copy and paste it into the main
BatchDyeingCentral database.
Index Page 63
Specifications
Plant Explorer Lite is software that runs on a single standard PC with
Microsoft Windows. Specific details of the PC hardware and version of
Windows needed follow in a moment.
You will also need a dyehouse and some LogicArt controllers to communicate
with. The controllers are connected by a simple RS485/RS232 cabling system
which will finally be connected to a serial port on the PC. If your PC has no
built-in serial port (many do not nowadays) then a USB serial adapter can be
used instead.
The Plant Explorer Lite software is protected by a blue security key looking
like this:
This key must be plugged into a USB port of the PC at all times while Plant
Explorer is running. If it is accidentally removed, the software will stop running
a short time afterwards.
Please take care of your security key and do not lose it as there will be a
charge for any replacement key that is needed.
PC Hardware
Minimum specification for the PC is as follows:
Processor: Minimum Pentium III or compatible; 1 GHz or higher

RAM: Minimum 512 MB – Recommended 1GB
Hard Drive: Minimum: 50GB – Recommended 250GB
CD: Minimum CD drive (for use during installation)
Display: Minimum: 17” – Recommended 19” TFT
Internet: Recommended – broadband, to allow remote servicing by
qualified service engineers.
PC Software
One of these versions of Windows is needed:
Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 or better

or Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or better (Home or Professional)
or Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 or better
Index Page 64
Machine Controller Models

Plant Explorer currently will work with controllers from Adaptive, Beacon,
Gaston County and LogicArt, and more are planned.
Although Plant Explorer does a good job of hiding the differences between
these different controllers, there are some specific detailed differences that
need to be explained.
LogicArt Controllers
Terminology
What Plant Explorer calls a ‘program’, on a LogicArt controller is called a
‘cycle’.
LogicArt uses the word ‘program’ to mean the list of cycles that are to be run,
one after another. Plant Explorer calls this a ‘list of programs’.
Chinese Characters In Data

The names of dyelots cannot be written in Chinese characters since the
LogicArt controllers do not support this function.
The same is true of program names, since they are also sent to the
controllers. However, other information that is never sent to the LogicArt
controller, like the notes for a program, can happily contain Chinese
characters.
Controller Locking
While Plant Explorer is communicating with them, the LogicArt controllers
normally have their functions for changing step, etc, locked out so that these
functions can no longer be achieved by pressing keys on the controller.
This is done so as to make sure all production decisions are performed

centrally using Plant Explorer. In this state, the controllers are said to be
locked, and this is indicated by a picture of a lock showing in this column.
If you stop running Plant Explorer, then the controllers will become unlocked
again shortly afterwards.
Program Size Limits

The number of actual steps in a program for a LogicArt controller is limited to
200, but it is possible to combine up to 15 programs together when running a
Index Page 65
dyelot so that the actual maximum number of steps available to a dyelot is
3000 steps.
Unlocking a Machine
If for some reason you want to unlock a controller even while Plant Explorer is
running, then right-click on the machine to bring up this menu:
and choose ‘Lock/Unlock Machine’.
You will then see this dialog box:
and if you answer ‘Yes’, then the controller will be un-locked.
To lock the controller again, perform the same actions and answer yes to this
second dialog box:
Index Page 66
INDEX
Index
A
Adding a New Program Group, 9
Adding New Machines, 10
Alarms, 30
Attaching Controllers, 6
C
Commands, 34
Create a New Program, 33
D
Details, 31
Drag and Drop Machines To Install, 12
E
Edit Parameters, 36
Entering and Editing Steps, 34
G
Get From Machine, 38
Graph Window, 24
H
History, 28
History Storing Limit, 11
I
I/O Window, 26
Installing Plant Explorer, 5
L
List of Machines, 15
M
Machine Detail, 22
Index Page 67
Machine Summary, 14
Machines and Program Groups, 8
Mimic Window, 25
P
PC Hardware, 39
PC Software, 39
Program Window, 23
Programming, 32
R
Running Plant Explorer, 13
Running Setup, 7
S
Search LogicArt Serial Network, 12
Selecting a Dyelot, 28
Send To Machines, 37
Specifications, 39
Starting a Dyelot, 19
Status Window, 22
T
Temperature Profile, 35
U
Unlocking a Machine, 18
V
Variables Window, 27
Z
Zoom, 30

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© 1998-2007 Adaptive Control Inc. All rights reserved.

This manual may not be reproduced either in whole or in part, by photocopy or

Trademarks used in this document are acknowledged.

Find us online at www.adaptivecontrol.com

Document Revision: 20070427

** Includes free copy of Plant Messenger **

Plant Mimic – draggable with mouse

Running Plant Explorer

Three Main Windows

Here is a typical screen-shot from a plant:

Two Tab Selectors

List, Ticket, Profile, Graph, Screen

while the options on the bottom, detail selector are:

Program, Graph, Mimic, I/O, Variables, Parameters

The machine is not communicating with Plant Explorer. Perhaps the

The machine is online. No dyelot is running on it at the present time.

A dyelot is running normally without alarms.

A dyelot is running, but it has been paused – this means that

A dyelot is running, but there are alarms on the machine. These

Adding a New Column

This will display this dialog:

Interesting Live Variables To Add

Many of these are worth double clicking on to add as a column on the

Program Number And Name

Step Number And Text

If the name of the column is wrong, or needs shortening, then choose

Moving and Resizing Columns

The idea of a ticket is to show the important production information about

As long as a dyelot is running on a machine, then a graph of the predicted

All Detail Views

At the top of every machine detail view is the status window.

Colored Dyelot Bars

(4) You can click on the Calendar button

Create a New Dyelot

Dyelot and ReDye

Append, Insert or Rush

Edit, Delete and Rename Dyelot

To rename a dyelot, click the Rename button on the toolbar:

The Print button allows this list to be printed.

Delays and Alarms View

Two graphics are shown.

Bulked Recipe View

A find results toolbar is also displayed:

Append Similar Dyelot

Plant Explorer has a reporting feature for these ‘Stoppages’ so it is a good

The time to which this data corresponds is shown at the top-left:

To remove this zoom, just press ‘Zoom To Fit’ or ‘Zoom Standard’.

All Plant Explorer history files end with ‘.hst’.

A separate Adaptive program, ‘History Viewer’, can be used to load up these

Green Less than 10 minutes

A sample screen looks like this:

Because of this, it is possible to have program 10 being one type of process in

Create a New Program

Entering and Editing Steps

Get From Machine

Select the machine you require and press OK.

Processor: Minimum Pentium III or compatible; 1 GHz or higher

Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 or better

Machine Controller Models

Chinese Characters In Data

This is done so as to make sure all production decisions are performed

Program Size Limits

and choose ‘Lock/Unlock Machine’.

You will then see this dialog box:

Includes free copy of Plant Messenger