TrendMiner 2024.R1.0

26th of March 2024

The 2024.R1.0 release contains the following new functionality and improvements:

TrendMiner 2024.R1.0 continues to build upon event analytics capabilities. While previous releases delivered quick navigation to reporting periods and shifts of interest, the latest release returns its focus to ingesting and analyzing event data.

In 2024.R1.0, the new plug ‘n play connector for Eschbach Shiftconnector® enables users of both software to seamlessly access shift and event data in TrendMiner as Context Items and effortlessly transition to time series analysis of those events. In addition to data synched from Shiftconnector®, the latest release allows you to explore search results in greater depth and dimension.

The new Event Analytics modal is available to visualize distributions of calculated event data and relationships between them. Bolstering the previously released histogram visualization and refinement, the parallel coordinates plot allows you to visually identify different operating modes and relationships between event variables. The parallel coordinates plot allows you to take more dimensions into account than an X-Y plot. This is fitting for processes that have several manipulated and response variables that are expected to impact one another. Utilize these plots to identify optimal operating ranges and to visually identify anomalies.

Finally, Dashboards and Views configured for monitoring operations will now be more easily used by everyone in the plant with the new Shared Space User. This user role extends the maximum session time for an account used for continuous display of information. This avoids repetitive sign in and set up of the display. The Shared Space User is ideal for conference rooms, control rooms, and break rooms where there may be different groups of people throughout the day monitoring the same areas or metrics. Contact your account executive to make an amendment to add Shared Space Users to your existing contract.

Innovation Highlights

  • The Parallel Coordinates Plot – utilize a new visualization type to further analyze search results and refine them to a relevant event set. Search refinements have been replaced by Event Analytics, where you can visualize aggregated values of any TrendHub search as histograms or as a parallel coordinates plot. Both modes can be used to further refine your search results.
  • Plug 'n Play connectivity to Eschbach Shiftconnector® – access registered events from Shiftconnector® as TrendMiner context items to quickly dive into process operations during those events.
  • Shared Space User – eliminate the need for regular authentication and configuration of TrendMiner each shift or day. This new user role extends the maximum session time to easily display Views and Dashboards around the clock. Contact your account executive to make an amendment to add Shared Space Users to your existing contract.
  • As of 2024.R1.1: Custom Calculations – create totalizers with conditional reset, aggregations based on reporting windows, custom KPIs, and soft sensors with the new Python environment embedded in Tag Builder. Custom calculation tags will be made available to licensed expert users.

Application Enhancements

  • Context Items on TrendHub tileContext Items on TrendHub tile – context item bubbles are now visible on TrendHub tiles.
  • Wonderware Support – Wonderware 2020 and 2023 are now supported historians.
  • APRM v14 support & Improved APRM connectivity – events without start dates will no longer be synched, while properties of all types are being synced to a Context Item in TrendMiner. Designators will now be propagated to all levels of a batch (for example, Batch ID).
  • TrendHub view details – when saving a view in TrendHub, a complete summary is provided which reflects what is saved.
  • Improved Security on ConfigHub Access – ConfigHub now uses the same authentication system as all other users and there will no longer be a default password. The principal ConfigHub admin user will now require 2 Factor authentication. Additionally, ConfigHub access can now be reset using Edge Manager.
  • System Administrator Role – a new role has been introduced to be used for ConfigHub Administration access, in addition to the existing Admin role called “Application Administrator.”
  • Structural changes related to configuration of the TM installation – SSL and license configuration have been moved to EdgeManager.
  • In-app user guide language additions - user guide is now available in Spanish.
  • Improved sorting on tables – leading spaces, punctuation and capitalization will now be ignored for a more logical alphabetical sorting on tables (e.g. ContextHub view, Work Organizer).
  • Restoring a session - opens the view directly now, instead of returning to the “Home page” first.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where in some cases a shareable URL did not open correctly with a Too many layers error.
  • Resolved an issue where filters were not visualized correctly in a DashHub Trend tile when the filter was based on an “exclude results” option of a saved filter, but the underlying search yielded 0 results for the visualized window.
  • Fixed an issue where the export of search results resulted in duplicated entries in the export file when the search was sorted on a calculated value.
  • Fixed an issue when the “Restore last session” notification would auto-close too fast. It will now stay persistent.

Known Limitations

  • Conditional formatting for the Gantt will not consider any changes to duration propagated using live mode. To see the updated coloring, you must refresh the chart.
  • External content tiles in dashboard need cookies to properly load all content (and be able to login when required).
  • When calculated tags are deleted, they cannot be created with the same name again.
  • After renaming a calculated tag linked to a context item, the component of the context item is not updated correctly.
  • The action displayed on the right-side panel of ConfigHub when a service is restarted, is no longer visible.
  • The CSV import fails when importing context items for an asset that does not have any yet.

Patch Release Updates

We release patches periodically. To receive email updates on important TrendMiner patch releases, subscribe via ​​this link​​.

End of Life Announcement

Due to a change of technologies the in-application Help Center will no longer be available in TrendMiner versions 2023.R2.0 and older from October 1st, 2024 onwards. Please upgrade to a more recent TrendMiner version timely in order to continue browsing through the TrendMiner documentation directly in the application.Keeping your TrendMiner installation up to date with the latest versions is advised to stay current with security patches and new functionality.

Outside of the application, the latest TrendMiner documentation for end-users and admins is available through:

Synopsis

Event Analytics and Parallel Coordinates plots

In previous versions of TrendMiner, search results in TrendHub could be analyzed on an aggregated level by using the Refinements options. In this release, the Refinements option has been replaced by Event analytics. Event analytics offers two visualization options: a histogram view and a parallel coordinates plot.

Both visualization modes can be used to provide ad hoc insights by evaluating how selections in one metric are reflected in the others. This allows you to test hypotheses or find possible root causes. Selections are automatically applied to all visualization modes which allows you to switch between the different graphs based on your needs.

Selections can still be applied on the search result list by clicking Refine. This will update the search result list based on applied selections, like the Refinements feature.

Accessing the Event Analytics pane

The event analytics pane can be accessed through the search result option menu.

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By default, the analytics pane will open on the Histograms tab. The histogram tab provides the same functionality as the Refinement feature. Screen real estate has been optimized to allow the analysis of all variables at once.

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Switching to the Parallel Coordinates Plot

A parallel coordinates plot is a graphical method used for visualizing multivariate data. It can be assessed by using the tab switcher in the event analytics pane.

In contrast to the histogram visualization, the parallel coordinates plot shows every single search result as a continuous line. It consists of parallel axes, one for each metric (duration, similarity score and calculations on analog or discrete tag), and lines connecting the different axes.

This type of plot is particularly useful for understanding the relationships and trends within the search results. Look for patterns such as convergence, divergence, or parallelism of lines. These patterns can reveal correlations, clusters, or outliers in your data.

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A subset of the data can be chosen by selecting on an axis (also called “brushing”). Remaining results are visualized in blue. Selections can be made on different axis to combine different criteria.

Applied (ad hoc) selections will be transferred when switching between the tabs. This allows you to iteratively select and analyze your data based on the visualization mode which is most suitable at any given point.

The reset button in the header of the event analytics pane will reset all applied selections on the histograms and parallel coordinate plot.

Refining results

The event analytics visualization can be used for ad hoc analysis or to further refine the search result list. Click Refine in the top right corner to transfer the ad hoc selections to the search result list. The search result list header will update to indicate both the number of refined results as well as the original total results.

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On re-opening the event analytics pane, selections will be re-applied based on the active refinements.

Shiftconnector®​ from ​Eschbach​​ is the leading Plant Process Management solution to organize teams & their tasks. It contains a suite of digital applications for shift handover, team communication, production management and regulatory compliance.

Shiftconnector® makes it straightforward to register events like alerts and quality issues by shift operations teams. These events are helpful during investigation and to correlate sensor data during analysis.

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Shiftconnector® - Event view

With the Plug ‘n Play integration within TrendMiner, the registered Shiftconnector® events are pulled in and converted into context items. This removes the need to manually recreate them or navigate through two platforms simultaneously during analysis.

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Shiftconnector® event as a TrendMiner Context item

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Shiftconnector® event as a TrendMiner Context item visualised in Gantt format

From the context view, the events can be selected and easily opened in TrendHub to investigate time series data related to the reported event.

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Version support: TrendMiner supports Shiftconnector® versions from 7.15 to 7.19.

Coming Soon in 2024.R1.1: Custom Calculations

In the 2024.R1.1 release the custom calculation feature will be made available to licensed expert users. This additional option in the tag builder enables you to create new TrendMiner tags based on a custom developed Python script. This will allow you to go beyond the standard tag manipulation capabilities of TrendMiner facilitating additional use cases. Once created, these tags can be displayed and analyzed as any other tag in TrendMiner.

The configuration flow of a custom calculation will be set up to enable easy iteration cycles during the development of the script. This will be achieved by providing a dedicated code editor and preview mode.

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Your custom Python script can be copied into or created from scratch in the editor on the code tab. The run button on the right side can be used to execute the current script and will automatically open the preview tab.

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You will be able to freely switch between the code and the preview tab to make changes to the script and test the output on a specific preview window. Once you are happy with the output, you will be able to save the tag, after which the tag will be indexed like any other tag within TrendMiner. All TrendMiner users will be able to use these tags in their further analyses, providing they have access to the underlying historian tags.

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