JPH04105104A - Sequence program producing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To omit the man-hour related to the application of signal names and comments to the peripheral equipments by producing a table based on the input information and outputting the table in the form of a file. CONSTITUTION:A sequence program input means (a) is provided together with a table production means (b), and a file output means (c). A table is produced based on the input sequence program information. An assembly of the input information set by each programmable controller so as to evade the duplication of these information is defined as a standard assembly among those information on the sequence program. Meanwhile other input information are set opposite to the standard information. The table produced based on the correspondence secured between the input information and the reference assembly is outputted as a file. Thus the users are not requested to apply the signal names and comments to the peripheral equipments.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a sequence program creation device, and particularly to improvements in means related to file output.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, techniques for controlling machine tools and the like using sequence programs have been generally practiced. For example, when controlling production equipment such as a transfer machine, it is necessary to arrange a plurality of programmable controllers in each unit of the transfer machine. This programmable controller is controlled according to a sequence program, and predetermined operations on the transfer machine are performed.

The sequence program is created by a sequence program creation device, and this sequence program creation device is generally provided with an operation panel that allows key input, and the user makes necessary inputs using this operation panel. The sequence program creation device displays on the screen the sequence program created in response to this input.

Further, the sequence program creation device has a function of printing out the created sequence program and a function of outputting it as a file.

FIG. 8 shows the configuration of a conventional sequence program creation device.

The sequence program creation device 10 shown in this figure has a configuration similar to that disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-271575, and has a display unit 12 that displays a ladder diagram related to the sequence program. There is.

Further, a sequence program is generally composed of command words, addresses, signal names, and comments. Among these, command words are represented by symbols such as "←←" and "-〇-→°, and indicate the d command to each contact or the conditions related to output. The signal name is, for example, a symbol related to input. The signal is expressed as "R3" and the signal related to the dummy coil is expressed as rDIHJ, and is unique in the sequence program (that is, there is no other signal with the same name). In addition, the address is uniquely assigned to each programmable controller and non-uniquely to the entire transfer machine (that is, the same address can exist in different programmable controllers), and is uniquely assigned to each signal name. , comments indicate the operation of the actual machine represented by each signal name in a readable form such as Japanese.

The sequence program creation device 10 according to this conventional example displays a sequence program as a ladder diagram on the display unit 12 as described above. Furthermore, this sequence program creation device has a function of printing out the sequence program.

There are three forms of print output as shown in FIG. That is, an output form 100 in which the instruction word and address are shown, and an output form 110 in which the signal name is shown.
There is an output form 120 in which comments and comments are shown. These forms 100, 110, and 120 are generally treated collectively as an electrical circuit diagram 130.

Furthermore, the sequence program creation device 10 has a file output function. That is, the sequence program creation device 10 creates a file 200 including command words and addresses from the input sequence program.

In the second step, the command word and address are filed as follows.
The command word and address are programmable controller 14
This is because this is the minimum amount of information required to operate the system. That is, the sequence program creation device 10 creates a file 200 containing information as shown in FIG. The command words and addresses of this sequence program are downloaded to the programmable controller 14 by the peripheral device 16, for example.

By doing so, conventionally, the sequence program created by the sequence program creation device 10 was supplied to the programmable controller 14, and the control operation of the programmable controller was performed with desired contents.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the related art, there has been a problem in that it is difficult to easily visually display signal names, comments, etc. in peripheral devices related to downloading to a programmable controller.

That is, the file created by the sequence program creation device stores only the minimum required command words and addresses for operating the programmable controller, and does not store signal names, comments, etc. For this reason, in peripheral devices, signal names and comments cannot be handled simply by reading files, and therefore, signal names and comments cannot be visually displayed.

By the way, the former is generally given to indicate the operating contact in a readable form, and the latter is in a simple readable form such as in Japanese. This results in poor usability for some people.

In order to prevent such deterioration in usability, it is sufficient to re-enter the signal name or comment in the peripheral device.

However, if such a method is adopted, a number of man-hours are required for implantation, which is inconvenient in view of the need to quickly start up the programmable controller.

The present invention was made with the aim of solving these problems, and it does not require the user to input signal names and comments into the peripheral device, and the signal names and comments can be visually displayed on the peripheral device. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a sequence program creation device that can perform the following steps.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve such an object, the present invention has a configuration as shown in FIG. 1. That is, the means a for inputting a sequence program and a set of input information set so as not to overlap in at least each programmable controller among the sequence program input information are set as a reference set, and at least one other type of input information is set as a reference set. The present invention is characterized in that the means for creating the associated table includes means C for outputting the table thus created as a file.

[Operation] In the sequence program creation device of the present invention, a table is created based on the input sequence program. This table is composed of sequence program input information. Among the input information, a set of input information that is set so as not to overlap at least in each programmable controller is set as a reference set, and at least one other type of input information is associated with this reference set. The table created by this association is output as a file.

Here, at least the input information that is set to be unique in each programmable controller is as follows:
For example, there are addresses and signal names.

Further, input information other than this includes, for example, command words and comments. Therefore, in the present invention, for example, a table in which comments are associated with addresses is output. This file is called by a peripheral device, for example, and is used for displaying the sequence program. As a result, it becomes possible to display comments and the like that were not displayed in the past.

[Examples] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings. Note that components similar to those of the conventional example shown in FIG. 8 are designated by the same reference numerals, and explanations thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a sequence program creation device 18 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The embodiment shown in this figure, like the conventional example shown in FIG. 8, has the functions of displaying a ladder diagram and printing out a sequence program. In addition, this embodiment has a function of storing a table associating command words, addresses, signal names, and comments as a file 21O.

FIG. 3 shows information to be filed as a table in this embodiment.

As mentioned above, a sequence program is composed of input information such as an address, a command word, a signal name, and a comment. Among these four types of input information, the address and signal name must be unique for at least each programmable controller. , commands and comments are non-unique.

Conventionally, only addresses and command words are to be filed as shown in FIG. 9, but in this embodiment, in addition to these, signal names and comments are also to be filed.

File 210 created by the device according to this embodiment
The contents are read out by the peripheral device 16, for example, and are displayed on the screen of the peripheral device 16. For example, if the peripheral device 16 has a function of displaying a ladder diagram like the sequence program creation device 18, conventionally only the instruction words and addresses of the ladder diagram were displayed. In this embodiment, in addition to displaying the instruction words and addresses, it is possible to display signal names and comments. Therefore, there is no need for the user to input signal names, comments, etc. anew from the keyboard of the peripheral device 16, and the number of man-hours involved in starting up the programmable controller 14, etc. is reduced.

Next, file creation in this embodiment will be explained in more detail.

FIG. 4 shows drawing information that becomes the material for filing in this embodiment.

That is, the sequence program creation device 18 uses Pi, P2°P3...P due to the need for print output, screen display, etc.
It has paged drawing information for each member of n. Each member of the drawing information is configured, for example, as a matrix of 11 rows and 12 columns. One row of the matrix corresponds to one row (one straight line) of the ladder diagram, and one grid of the matrix corresponds to at most one instruction word.

In the case of the drawing information shown in FIG. 4, the number of rows n is 11 and the number of columns n is 12. The 12th column is different from the other columns, each with 4
It is divided into two parts.

FIG. 5 shows the structure of the grid belonging to the 12th column of drawing information. As shown in this figure, the grid in the 12th column of drawing information is a portion 300 where addresses are stored.
, a section 310 where signal names are stored, a section 320 where command words are stored, and a section 330 where comments are stored.

Hereinafter, parts 300, 310, 320, and 330 will be indicated by variables Partl, 2.3, and 4, respectively. Further, in this embodiment, it is assumed that an output command is always provided for the signals used in the sequence program.

FIG. 6 shows the flow of file creation operations in this embodiment. File creation begins (40
0), first, initialization 410 of the number of pages P, initialization 420 of the number of rows m, and initialization 430 of the number of columns n are executed.

Initialization 410 and 420 of the number of pages P and the number of lines m are performed by setting the number of pages P and the number of lines m to 1, respectively,
The number of columns n is initialized by setting the number of columns to 12. That is, in the following operation, the 12th column having the configuration shown in FIG. 5 will be handled. Next, decision 440 is performed. In determination 440, it is determined whether the command word on the second page, mth row, 12th column is an output command.

If it is not an output command, the process moves to step 450, where the number of lines m is incremented.

Next, it is determined whether the last line of the page has been reached (
460), and if it has not been reached, the process returns to determination 440. If the page number P is reached, the page number P is incremented (470
), it is determined whether the number of pages has reached the maximum page Pn (
480). If the limit has not been reached, the process returns to determination 440, and if the limit has been reached, the process ends.

If it is determined in determination 440 that it is an output command, the process moves to the next step 490. In step 490,
The signal name portion 310 is read out, and this signal name is associated with the address stored in the address portion 300. That is, the signal name and address in the third FIIJ are associated with each other.

Next, step 500 is executed. This step 50
0, the part 330 related to the comment is read out, and this comment is associated with the address related to the part 30o. That is, the addresses and comments shown in FIG. 3 are associated with each other. After such processing is executed, the process moves to step 450, and the operations described above are performed.

Therefore, in this embodiment, a unique address among the input information related to the SIMIKENS program is associated with a non-unique signal name and comment.

As a result of such correspondence, a table is created in which addresses are associated with command words, signal names, and comments, as shown in FIG. This table is supplied as a file 210 to, for example, the peripheral device 16, and the signal names and comments are displayed without having to be typed.

FIG. 7 shows another operation of this embodiment.

In this operation, signal names are used as a reference set, unlike in the operation of FIG. 6, where addresses are used as a reference set, that is, a set of input information to which correspondence is made first.

That is, steps 510 and 520 are executed instead of steps 490 and 500 in FIG. Step 5
10 is a step of associating comments with signal names,
Step 520 is a step of associating addresses with signal names.

Similar to the operation shown in FIG. 6, this operation also causes the file 2 related to the table shown in FIG.
10 can be created.

In this way, according to this embodiment, there is no need for special input in order to display signal names and comments on the peripheral device 16. Therefore, the number of man-hours required for inputting is not required, and erroneous inputs that may occur in conventional inputting operations can be avoided. Therefore, the accuracy of display on the peripheral device 16 is also improved.

Furthermore, if a programmable controller that can directly handle signal name information is used as the programmable controller 14, it becomes possible to directly download the signal name from the file 210 to the programmable controller 14 via the peripheral device 16. An example of such a programmable controller is the one disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2-74521, which was previously proposed by the applicant of the present invention.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, a table is created based on input information and output to a file.
For example, there is no need for man-hours for inputting signal names, comments, etc. in the peripheral device, and it becomes possible to display signal names, comments, etc. more accurately in the peripheral device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a sequence program creation device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a sequence program creation device and the concept of file creation according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the concept of file creation. , a diagram showing a table stored in a file created in this embodiment, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing drawing information handled in this embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a grid belonging to the 12th column of drawing information. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of file creation operation in this embodiment. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another example of file creation operation in this embodiment. - A diagram showing the configuration of a sequence program creation device and the concept of file creation according to a conventional example. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the configuration of a table stored in a file in this conventional example. a... Means for inputting the sequence program b
... Means C for creating a table... Means 18 for outputting a file ... Sequence program creation device 210.
・・File Kinmei 0 information ゛Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] Means for inputting a sequence program; Among the input information of the sequence program, a set of input information set so as not to overlap in at least each programmable controller is set as a reference set, and at least one other type of input is set as a reference set. A sequence program creation device comprising: means for creating a table that associates information with elements of a reference set; and means for outputting the table as a file.