JP2009104434A - Method for displaying ladder diagram on monitor screen - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable switching between simple display and detailed display of data stored in a ladder component such as a shift register etc. while enabling automatic registration of data of the ladder component. <P>SOLUTION: This method includes: when a monitor range of data storage areas in the ladder component is not specified, simply displaying data stored in a data storage area corresponding to the start and end addresses of the ladder component, and when the monitor range of data storage areas in the ladder component is specified, displaying the data stored in the specified data storage area in detail. Further, an input condition description display area can be horizontally scrolled. Even a ladder component in a row portion which is not displayed in the input condition description display area due to the horizontal scroll and can not be recognized by a user, can be automatically registered in a data view dialogue. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for displaying a ladder diagram on a monitor screen.

  The ladder program is a program that defines a control sequence by the programmable controller, and is described in a ladder diagram. In the ladder diagram, commands corresponding to the state of various devices such as push buttons, switches, sensors, etc. are displayed in contact shape on the parallel connection lines that connect the two vertical buses on the left and right ends in the horizontal direction. In addition, commands to various devices such as a relay coil, a timer, and a shift register are displayed in various shapes.

  And when a control system is constructed with a programmable controller and a load, the programmable controller has a CPU, a system control program (firmware), a program memory such as a ladder program, an input / output memory, an internal relay memory, a data memory, And the like are interconnected via an internal bus, and the CPU executes a ladder program in accordance with the system control program, thereby controlling the controlled device via the input / output device. In this control, the CPU executes the ladder program while referring to various data stored in the internal memory.

  When such a ladder program is corrected or executed, a ladder diagram monitor device composed of a personal computer that monitors the state of the ladder program has been proposed. The ladder diagram monitor device has a ladder diagram display area on a monitor screen. The ladder diagram display area further includes an input condition description display area for describing an input condition and an operation output description display area for describing an operation output according to the input condition. In the input condition description display area, various devices such as push buttons, switches, and sensors are displayed with contact-shaped ladder parts along with the device number, and in the operation output description display area, various devices such as relay coils, timers, and shift registers are displayed. Are displayed on the ladder parts with the corresponding shapes.

  By the way, when a ladder part having a plurality of addresses inside the ladder diagram, for example, a shift register is arranged, when the user checks the status data inside the shift register on the display screen, on the conventional monitor screen, The data in the data storage area at the start address and end address in the shift register is simply displayed on the monitor. Therefore, even if it is displayed that the status data of the start address destination is OFF and the status data of the end address destination is OFF, the status data of the address destination in the middle is unknown. Note that the ladder component consisting of the shift register on the monitor screen is a ladder component having a plurality of data storage areas (shift digits) that can store data indicating the internal state during program execution by assigning addresses internally. The data storage area for each digit stores data stored in the internal memory so that the user can recognize it on the monitor screen.

  For this reason, in the conventional display method of the monitor screen, the data stored in the data storage area of all the shift digits in the shift register cannot be confirmed, so that it is difficult to correct or execute the ladder program.

  On the other hand, regarding the ladder parts displayed on such a ladder diagram, it is necessary to register data such as the type, device number, attribute, etc. in order to specify each of the ladder parts. Therefore, a technique is provided in which a personal computer is connected to the programmable controller, a data view dialog for registering various devices to be monitored is displayed on the window screen of the personal computer, and data is registered in the data view dialog ( Patent Document 1). In this Patent Document 1, a device type, a current value, a set value, contact ON / OFF information, coil ON / OFF information, a comment, and the like are registered in a data view dialog. In this registration, click the device displayed in the ladder diagram with the mouse and drag it as is to register it in the data view dialog. On the display screen, enter the device type, device number, etc. using the keyboard. It is a method of inputting and registering in a batch in the data view dialog.

However, in this conventional registration method, the former is not a whole ladder diagram row, but is registered by drag and drop for each device, and the latter is data required for each ladder component. The registration operation is extremely complicated and time-consuming.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-11260

  Therefore, a problem to be solved by the present invention is to make it possible to display in detail the data stored in a ladder part such as a shift register.

  Another problem to be solved by the present invention is to enable automatic registration of ladder part data in a ladder diagram row.

  The ladder diagram display method on the monitor screen according to the present invention has a plurality of data storage areas in which data indicating an internal state in program execution can be stored in the ladder diagram display area on the display screen. If a monitor part of the data storage area in the ladder part is not specified when the ladder part having the above is arranged, the data stored in the data storage area corresponding to the start and end addresses of the ladder part is displayed in the ladder diagram. A first step of displaying above, and a second step of switching to display of data stored in the data storage area within the range related to the designation when the monitor range of the data storage area in the ladder component is designated. It is characterized by having.

  According to the present invention, when a ladder part having a plurality of data storage areas, for example, a shift register is arranged in the ladder diagram, the user wants to check the state of each data storage area in the shift register. By switching the monitor screen of the ladder diagram from the first step to the second step, the status data stored in the data storage area in the shift register can be displayed. Therefore, the user can check the status data of each data storage area inside the shift register, modify the ladder program, or check the execution status of the ladder program, using a control system using a programmable controller. Necessary control can be taken more easily.

  In the present invention, a preferred aspect is that, in the second step, the data view dialog is called and data stored in the data storage area within the range according to the designation is displayed on the data view dialog.

  In this aspect, the user can simply list the data stored in each data storage area in the ladder component on the data view dialog simply by calling the data view dialog.

  In the present invention, a more preferable aspect is that the ladder diagram display area is divided into an input condition description display area and an operation output description display area, and the operation output description display area can be fixedly displayed. Each line of the ladder diagram displayed in the condition description display area can be horizontally scrolled in the area.

  In the above aspect, even if the ladder diagram line is long and the entire ladder diagram line cannot be displayed in the ladder diagram display area, ladder parts such as a shift register can be fixedly displayed in the operation output description display area and the input condition description Ladder parts in the display area can be displayed in the ladder diagram display area by horizontally scrolling the ladder diagram row.

  In the present invention, a more preferable aspect is the first step of selecting one or more ladder diagram lines to be registered in the data view dialog, and the selected ladder diagram row is displayed in the operation output description display area. The line part that is displayed in the input condition description display area by horizontal scrolling and can be recognized by the user, and the line part that is not displayed in the input condition description display area and cannot be recognized by the user is automatically recognized. And a third step of registering data indicating the internal state of the ladder part on the ladder diagram row automatically recognized in the data view dialog.

  In the above aspect, even if there is a line portion that is not displayed in the input condition description display area depending on the horizontal scroll position and cannot be recognized by the user, the line portion can be automatically recognized and registered on the monitor screen.

  According to the present invention, for a ladder part having a plurality of data storage areas to which addresses are assigned, such as a ladder part such as a shift register, the data stored in these data storage areas is monitored on the monitor screen. be able to.

  Hereinafter, a ladder diagram monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail based on a ladder diagram monitoring device that implements the method.

  The ladder diagram monitoring method of the present invention is a system that creates and edits a ladder diagram format program (ladder program), input / output, display, calculation, communication and other processes related to ladder program editing etc. It is not limited to. An apparatus for realizing the processing of the ladder diagram monitoring apparatus by software is also included in the scope of the present invention. For example, software, programs, plug-ins, objects, libraries, applets, compilers, modules, macros that run on specific programs, etc. can be incorporated into general-purpose circuits or computers, and ladder programs can be edited or related processes. Such general-purpose or dedicated computers, workstations, terminals, portable electronic devices, and other electronic devices are also included in the apparatus to which the ladder diagram monitoring system of the present invention is applied. Further, the present embodiment is not limited to a ladder diagram monitor device as a single unit, but in an aspect that functions as a part of a computer program, software, service, etc., an aspect that is called and functions when necessary, and an environment such as an OS. The present invention can also be applied to an aspect provided as a service.

  Hereinafter, a ladder diagram monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 includes a ladder diagram monitor device 1 and a programmable controller 2. The programmable controller 2 is an apparatus that connects and controls the input / output devices 3 (3a to 3d) that are devices to be controlled. The programmable controller 2 controls the operation of the input / output device 3 in accordance with a procedure defined by a ladder program created by a ladder program editing program according to a control program by a built-in CPU. The ladder diagram monitor device 1 is connected to the programmable controller 2 and can set and display the operation state of the programmable controller 2 and the input / output device 3 controlled by the programmable controller 2.

  The ladder diagram monitor device 1 is configured by a general-purpose computer, and includes a CPU 1a, a memory 1b, a display unit 1c, an operation unit 1d, an external storage device 1e, and an interface 1f. The CPU 1a performs control and arithmetic processing of each unit when operating various application programs including a ladder program editing program on an OS (operating system) installed in the ladder diagram monitor device 1. The memory 1b includes a memory such as a RAM and a ROM, and can provide a work area for data storage, temporary data storage, and arithmetic processing of the CPU 1a.

  The display unit 1c of the ladder diagram monitor device 1 includes a CRT, LCD, or a flat monitor screen such as a liquid crystal panel or an EL panel. The operation unit 1d is a device for performing an input operation such as a keyboard and a mouse. In particular, a pointing device such as a mouse is suitable for an input operation using a ladder program editing program that operates in a GUI environment. The external storage device 1e is a device such as a magnetic disk drive such as a hard disk device or an optical disk drive such as a CD-ROM drive, and includes at least a device that can read information such as a ladder program editing program recorded on a recording medium. It is out. The interface 1 f is an input / output unit that performs data communication with the programmable controller 2. The ladder program created by the ladder program editing program is transferred to the programmable controller 2 via the interface 1f and downloaded to the memory in the programmable controller 2. The ladder program editing program installed and executed in the ladder diagram monitor device 1 is executed by the CPU 1a of the ladder diagram monitor device 1.

  Referring to FIG. 2, the monitor screen 4 of the display unit 1 c includes a title bar 41, a menu bar 42, and a toolbar 43 as user interface screens. It is displayed on the ladder diagram display area 44 in a diagram format. Then, operations such as correction of the ladder diagram are performed by the operation unit 1d such as a mouse or a keyboard. The operation unit 1d is connected to the ladder diagram monitor device 1 by wire or wirelessly, or is fixed to the ladder diagram monitor device 1. Examples of the general operation unit 1d include various pointing devices such as a mouse, a keyboard, a slide pad, a track point, a tablet, a joystick, a console, a jog dial, a digitizer, a light pen, a numeric keypad, and a touch pad. Further, the display unit 1c for displaying the interface screen can be used for input and operation by directly touching the screen with a hand by using a touch screen or a touch panel, or by using voice input or other existing input means. They can be used or used in combination.

  In addition to a mode in which settings are made from the operation unit 1d connected to the ladder diagram monitor device 1 in which the ladder program editing program is installed, a ladder program editing program and hardware are incorporated in the programmable controller 2 and set on the programmable controller 2 side. You may be able to do.

  In the ladder diagram display area 44 of the monitor screen 4 shown in FIG. 2, the ladder diagram displays an input condition description display area 44a for displaying a part describing an input condition, and an operation output description display for displaying a part describing an operation output. The area 44b has a screen configuration. A boundary line 45 is colored in the vertical direction between the input condition description display area 44a and the operation output description display area 44b. A horizontal scroll operation unit 46 is displayed at the lower end of the input condition description display area 44a, and a vertical scroll operation unit 47 is displayed at the right end of the operation output description display area 44b.

  In the input condition description display area 44a, a bus M1 is displayed in the vertical direction on the left end side, and a plurality of horizontal row lines L11, L12, L13, L21,... Are displayed from the bus M1 at equal intervals in the row direction. On the horizontal row lines L11, L12, L13, L21,..., Input devices such as push buttons, switches, sensors, etc. are symbolized in the form of input contacts along with device numbers C11, C12,. These horizontal row lines L11, L12, L13, L21,... Constitute ladder diagram rows n1, n2,... When the ladder program is displayed on the monitor screen 4 in a ladder diagram format. The configuration of the input conditions by various circuits such as AND, OR, NOT, etc. by combining these various input contacts and their combination is omitted in the present embodiment, and all are displayed in the same contact format. In the input condition description display area 44a, the device numbers C11, C12,... Are shown on the horizontal row lines L11, L12, L13, L21,. Therefore, there are device numbers thereafter, and the horizontal row lines L11, L12, L13, L21,... Are long and are not displayed in the input condition description display area 44a. Therefore, the horizontal row lines L11, L12, L13, L21,... Can be displayed in the input condition description display area 44a by scrolling horizontally as described later.

  In the operation output description display area 44b, horizontal row lines L12, L22,... Are displayed individually corresponding to the horizontal row lines L11, L12, L13, L21,. On the horizontal row lines L12, L12, L13, L22,..., A ladder coil OUT that is an operation output device such as a relay coil, a lamp, a motor, and an actuator, a timer TM, a counter CT, a shift register SR, etc. Ladder parts are displayed. In the embodiment, the relay coils OUT1, OUT2, and the shift register SR are representatively displayed.

  Each of the horizontal row lines L12, L12, L13, L21,... Constitutes the same ladder diagram row n1, n2,.

  When the vertical scroll operation unit 47 is operated downward as shown in FIGS. 2 to 3, for example, the ladder diagram horizontal lines L11, L12, L13, L21,... And the operation output in the input condition description display area 44a are output. The ladder diagram horizontal lines L12, L12, L13, L22,... In the description display area 44b are vertically scrolled in synchronization.

  Next, when the horizontal scroll operation unit 46 is moved to the right as shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, for example, the horizontal lines L12, L22,... Of the ladder diagram in the operation output description display area 44b are fixed to the respective rows. The horizontal row lines L11, L12, L13, L21,... In the input condition description display area 44a are scrolled synchronously in the left direction while being always displayed. As a result, in the input condition description display area 44a, the contacts of the device numbers C11, C12,... Disappear from the input condition description display area 44a on the horizontal row lines L11, L12, L13, L21,. Are displayed on the input condition description display area 44a. Further, when the horizontal scroll operation unit 46 is moved to the right, the horizontal row lines L11, L12, L13, L21,... Are scrolled to the left and the next device number contact is displayed.

(Simplified display and detailed display of ladder parts)
Next, the monitor display of the data in the shift register SR will be described with reference to FIGS. The shift register SR has a plurality of serially connected data storage areas (shift digits) that can store data, and is a ladder component that sequentially shifts data stored in each data storage area. An address is assigned to the area. When the data stored in the data storage area in the shift register SR is displayed on the monitor screen 4 on the monitor screen 4, when the monitor range of the data storage area is not designated, the start address C1 and the end address C7 are supported. As shown in FIG. 2, the data stored in the data storage area is displayed as “OFF” on the ladder diagram. The above is a simplified display of ladder parts.

  Next, when a mouse cursor (not shown) is focused on the shift register SR and the detailed monitor button IC1 on the toolbar 43 is selected and clicked, the data view dialog DW1 is called on the display screen 4 as shown in FIG. In this data view dialog DW1, addresses C1, C2,... Of each data storage area of the shift register SR are displayed, and the state of data stored in the data storage area corresponding to each address C1, C2,. Has been. In FIG. 5, the shift register SR is a ladder component having seven vertically connected data storage areas that can store data indicating the internal state in program execution by being assigned addresses C1 to C7. . In the embodiment, the data stored in the data storage areas corresponding to the addresses C1 to C4 and the addresses C6 and C7 are all “OFF”, and the data stored in the data storage area of the address C5 is “ “ON” is displayed in detail.

  The data view dialog DW1 allows the user to monitor the state of the data in the shift register SR in detail, so that the ladder program can be corrected and the execution status of the ladder program can be checked in detail. Therefore, it is possible to more easily take necessary control in a control system using a programmable controller.

(Data registration to the monitor screen 4)
Next, an operation for registering data to be stored in the internal memory on the monitor screen 4 will be described. The internal memory stores data indicating the state of the ladder components that make up the ladder diagram. In order to display the data stored in the internal memory on the monitor screen, it is necessary to register it on the monitor screen. In this case, it is extremely complicated and time-consuming to register each ladder component by drag and drop, or to input and register necessary data for each ladder component. Therefore, in the embodiment, the registration operation can be automatically performed at once.

  That is, assuming that the registration operation is performed, for example, for each row of the ladder diagram, first, as shown in FIG. After this selection, for example, when the menu is pulled down by right-clicking the mouse cursor and a data registration item is selected from the selection items described in the menu or when the data registration screen call button IC2 is clicked, the monitor screen is displayed. 4, the data view dialog DW2 is called as shown in FIG.

  In the data view dialog DW2, the data storage areas C1,... Of device numbers C11, C12,..., C15, OUT1, SR are displayed in the address column for each ladder component in the n1th row of the ladder diagram in the ladder order. At the same time, data indicating the state of each ladder component corresponding to each address read from the internal memory is automatically recognized and displayed. Thus, when the user automatically registers, each ladder component is registered with the ladder component of the device number C11-C14 of the horizontal row line L1 in the n1th row of the ladder diagram, and then the device number of the next horizontal row line L2. Since the ladder component of C19 is registered and the ladder component of the device number C20 of the next horizontal row line L3 is registered, the data view dialog DW2 becomes very easy to see because it is registered in ladder order.

  In this case, in the n1 line of the ladder diagram selected as shown in FIG. 7, the line part displayed in the operation output description display area 44b and the above-mentioned horizontal scrolling are displayed in the input condition description display area 44a and displayed by the user. Can be recognized, and there are line portions that are not displayed in the input condition description display area 44a and cannot be recognized by the user (C15,...). In the embodiment, by operating the registration button IC3 in the selected state, data indicating the internal state of the ladder part on the ladder diagram n1 line is automatically registered in the data view dialog DW2. The selection of the ladder diagram is n1 rows in the above description, but it goes without saying that a plurality of rows can be simultaneously selected and displayed in the data view dialog DW2.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when ladder parts such as the shift register SR are arranged in the ladder diagram display area 44 on the monitor screen 4, the data stored in the data storage area of the shift register SR. If the monitor range is not designated, the data stored in the data storage areas of the start address C1 and the end address C7 of the shift register SR are simply displayed on the ladder diagram. On the other hand, when the monitor range of the data stored in the data storage area of the shift register SR is designated, the data stored in the data storage area within the designated range is displayed in detail. Therefore, in this embodiment, the user can confirm the data in each data storage area inside the shift register SR in detail, and can modify the ladder program or confirm the execution status of the ladder program. The control system using the controller can perform necessary control more easily.

  Further, in the present embodiment, even if the ladder part is a line part that is not displayed in the input condition description display area 44a and cannot be recognized by the user, it can be automatically registered in the data view dialog DW2.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a computer, a programmable controller, and an input / output device that constitute a ladder diagram monitor device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display example of a ladder program on the monitor screen. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a case where the ladder program is vertically scrolled from the display state of FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a case where the ladder program is horizontally scrolled from the display state of FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a state in which the data view dialog is called from the display state of FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state in which the ladder diagram n1 row is selected in order to automatically register the data of the ladder part on the ladder diagram n1 row. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a state in which a data view dialog for data registration is called from the state of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

1 Ladder diagram monitor device 2 Programmable controller 4 Monitor screen SR Shift register DW1, DW2 Data view dialog

Claims (4)

In the ladder diagram display area on the display screen, when a ladder component having a plurality of data storage areas that can store data indicating the internal state of the program executed by assigning addresses,
A first step of displaying the data stored in the data storage area corresponding to the start and end addresses of the ladder part on the ladder diagram when the monitor range of the data storage area in the ladder part is not designated;
When the monitor range of the data storage area in the ladder part is designated, a second step of switching to display of data stored in the data storage area within the range according to the designation;
Ladder diagram display method on the monitor screen with.   The method according to claim 1, wherein in the second step, a data view dialog is called on the display screen, and data stored in a data storage area within the range according to the designation is displayed on the called data view dialog.   The ladder diagram display area is divided into an input condition description display area describing the input conditions of the ladder diagram and an operation output description display area describing the operation output, and the operation output description display area is fixedly displayed while being input. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein each line of the ladder diagram displayed in the condition description display area can be horizontally scrolled in the area. A first step of selecting one or more ladder diagram rows to be registered in the data view dialog;
In the selected ladder diagram line, the line part displayed in the operation output description display area, the line part displayed in the input condition description display area by the horizontal scroll and recognized by the user, and the input condition description display area A second step of automatically recognizing line portions that are not displayed on the screen and cannot be recognized by the user;
A third step of registering in the data view dialog data indicating the internal state of the ladder part on the automatically recognized ladder diagram row;
The method according to claim 3, wherein the method can be executed.

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