The Tags & Attributes menu provides an overview of all active and recently used tags. You can easily hide or remove, as well as customise the visualization of your activated tags and attributes.
In the active TAGS & ATTRIBUTES list you can click on any tag or attribute to open the details and settings of that tag or attribute.
Tag or attribute details
The following information is revealed when clicking a tag (or attribute).
- Tag: This line is only shown for attributes and refers to the tag the attribute is linked to.
- Type: The type of a tag can be "Analog", "Discrete", "Digital", or "String" and is derived from the tag setting in its historian or time series database.
The analog and discrete tags can take any numerical value. Analog tags are linearly interpolated, while discrete tags are stepped interpolated. These types are typically used for sensor measurement data and set point values, respectively.
Digital and string tags will both display string values in a stepped representation. Digital tags have a predefined numerical state – string value mapping in the historian. Such a mapping does not exist for a string tag.
- Units: For all tags having units, they are displayed in the details of a tag (or attribute).
- Source: The source refers to the origin of the used tag. The origin can be a specific historian or times series database, or a TrendMiner universe tag (Formula / Aggregation / …).
- Template: For all attributes having a template value entered, this is shown in the attribute's detail.
- Indexing: The state of indexing for this tag.
Set the color of a tag or attribute
Changing the color of a tag or attribute is easily done by clicking the colored circle on the left of an active tag or attribute in the active list.
A color palette will appear where you can select the color of choice.
A default set color can be selected, as well as a more specific color using the custom color search, RGB, Hex or HSL options.
Set interpolation of a tag
This option is only available for analog and discrete tags coming from an AspenTech IP21 historian. For these tags, an extra option 'Interpolation' is shown, where the user can choose to visualize the tag linearly interpolated or stepped interpolated.
Set Y Scale of a tag or attribute
On the tag or attributes detail overview another option "Scale" can be found. This option allows you to update the minimum and maximum values that are displayed on the focus chart.
By default, the scale setting is set to "AUTO". The auto scale setting ensures minimum and maximum values are displayed for that tag or attribute in the focus chart.
Clicking this button which looks like a switch, will update the scale settings to "MAN." This stands for a manual scale setting. When set as manual, you can define the minimum and/or maximum for this tag or attribute.
Note: Scale settings are only displayed for analog and discrete tags. When these tags are grouped, the scale setting is only shown on the group level.
Shift a tag or attribute
As a final option in the tag or attribute overview, you can shift your tag or attribute on the chart by clicking on one of the four shift buttons under the scale setting.
The shifts correspond to:
- Big shift (left / right): 5% of the current chart period.
- Small shift (left / right): 0.5% of the current chart period.
There is also a custom input field where you can define a custom value more quickly. A negative value shifts to the left, while a positive value shifts to the right.
Note: When a tag or attribute is shifted, this is indicated with an arrow icon in the tags list and everywhere in the tag labels, depending on the direction of the shift.
Important note: When changing the color, scale or interpolation type, the changes are saved for your user. Meaning, in the next session, you will see the same settings you have set for those tags and attributes.
All settings of tags and attributes are saved inside a saved view. This means that when opening a view from one of your colleagues, certain tags or attributes may have alternate settings. If this is the case, your personal settings for these tags are kept if you do not re-save the shared view as one of yours.
Grouping tags and/or attributes
Sometimes it can be handy to have certain tags and/or attributes in one group. There are quite a few advantages to this; in a stacked plot for example, this allows you to combine multiple tags and/or attributes into one swim lane. These groups will have a shared scale setting, which is by default the scale setting of the first tag (or attribute) in the group.
To group on the focus chart, take one of the tag or attribute labels and move it next to another tag or attribute label (in stacked mode) or over another label (in the regular trend mode). Helper text will indicate what will happen when releasing a given label at a given location.
Once a group is created on the focus chart, you can add more tags or attributes into that group, not only on the chart, but also in the tag and attribute menu list. As with the labels, simply drag and drop the desired tags or attributes into or out of an existing group.
Note: Only tags and attributes of the type 'Analog' and 'Discrete' can be combined into a group. 'String' and 'Digital' tags or attributes cannot be combined since they can hold different states.
When a group is created, the group gets a header with a name and a color.
By default, the scale setting is set to the settings of the first tag in the group when creating the group. You can update this scale setting for the whole group.
Again, here the scale setting can be adjusted to manual minimum and maximum values by updating the button which looks like a switch to "MAN" mode.
Note: The group also receives a color which is the same as the first tag in the group when creating the group.