The following diagram illustrates the use of the functional configuration application with EEC.
Virtual mechatronic components facilitate the functional configuration of machines and plants. Parameter values that are ultimately used in order-specific project documents are derived from mechatronic parameters, for example, the address E2.3.
If the project documents that are created contain errors or are incomplete, model-driven configuration dictates that the documents themselves should not be edited. Changes should always be made to the resources or the information model. New versions of the project documents should then be created in each case.
Although the procedure presented here admittedly requires changing how work is organized, it yields significant advantages:
- Once standards and rules have been formally registered by means of structure generators and virtual mechatronic components, complex, manual configuration work is no longer necessary. Furthermore, interdisciplinary modeling enables parameters such as the IO addresses presented in the Use of functional configuration diagram to be automatically assigned by an IO generator. The same holds for machine-specific error texts, etc.
- Manual configuration work inevitably involves a certain percentage of errors, e.g. clerical errors. By contrast, automation significantly increases the quality of design documents.
- Moreover, automation saves time, which reduces turnaround times.
- The example presented in the Use of functional configuration diagram further illustrates how virtual mechatronic components enable work that previously was performed sequentially to be parallelized. Software and hardware are configured simultaneously.