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Software Installation
In order to install, just click on the MSIX file, which installs in just a couple of seconds to install FrameworX as a Windows App.
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When the application is running, you can right-click on its icon in the Windows Taskbar and select "Pin to Taskbar" to create a shortcut for easy access. Otherwise, when you want to execute it, type "FrameworX" in the Windows search box. |
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The first time you Edit and Run solutions after a new installation, Windows Firewall may request authorization. Just press OK if that prompt is shown. Windows Server and Enterprise 2019 and older need update to use the new .MSIX extension. In this case, it is easier to install using the FrameworX-Setup.exe application. |
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About the MSIX installationMSIX is a new Microsoft standard for installations, offering significantly faster installation times. However, the installation folder is predefined by the OS (under \Program Files\WindowsApps) and it is installed only for the current user. MSIX requires Windows 10, version 1709 or later; or Windows Server 2022 or later. Using FrameworX-Setup.exe for Server InstallationsFor computers that do not support the MSIX standard, or when installing in production environments, such as factory-floor servers or data centers, it is preferable to have more control over the installation folder and to install for all users of the computer. The traditional Setup.exe installation allows customization of the installation folder and installs the application for all users. .NET and Multi-Platform Applications To create solutions to other operating platforms like Linux, .NET 8 is required. If you receive a warning that .NET 8 is not available on your computer, it will not prevent you from configuring solutions targeting Windows only, but it will prevent multi-platform solutions. To install the .NET 8, follow the link in the installer message, or you can find the .NET 8 Desktop Runtime installer from Microsoft here: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/8.0. Be sure to pick the version that matches your CPU architecture, which is likely x64. (And don't pick the "SDK" or ".NET Runtime" or other versions - just the ".NET 8 Desktop Runtime") |
Solutions Manager and Demos
When you open the software, the first user interface you’ll see is the Solutions Manager tool, which will list the solutions on your computer and allow you to create, edit, or run them.
The list will show a few Demos that were installed with the product.
You can either use the "New" button to create your own solution, or first explore our demo solutions. You can also download additional demos and examples from Solution Examples.
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To open a demo solution, simply select it |
System Requirements
The tables below show the system requirements for the proper installation and operation of the software. Keep in mind these are the recommended prerequisites for the basic installation - depending on your project, you may need different requirements.
Installation System Requirements
Hardware
Minimum
Recommended
CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo
Intel Core i7
RAM
4 Gb
8 Gb
Operation System
Windows 10
Windows 10
Disk Space
2 Gb
10 Gb
Display Resolution
1024 x 768
1280 x 1024 or higher
.NET Framework
v4.8
v4.8
Downloading and Installing FrameworX
We commend downloading our evaluation version to start exploring our software. You can do that by filling out the form here.
We offer a FREE TRIAL with:
Two hours of resettable runtime
Multiple demo projects to use, review, and learn from
500 communication points
Access to all the features in the platform
Access to all our standard communication protocols
MQTT Broker
OPC Client and Server
The Engineering Environment is enabled to edit solutions for 30 days with no time restrictions. After the 30-day evaluation period, your project will open but with limited access to the entire solution. Solution Information access is enabled.
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You can execute Solution Examples and Demos with the Free Trial. For simple applications that show casing-specific functionality, check Solution Examples. For complete demos of typical applications, check Demo Projects Overview |
When you install FrameworX for the first time, just click Install.
When installing the software, you'll find a couple of different options. By default, "Install Windows Services" is enabled. For this quick tutorial, you can use the default installation options.
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Time Limit The Runtime will run for two hours. You will need to restart it during your 30-day evaluation period. The Runtime will not run after 30 days. Contact Sales if an additional access license is needed. |
Managing and Running Solutions
When you first open the software, you'll find a list of your current solutions. By default, you'll find all of our demos installed. Before creating your own solution, we recommend exploring our demos!
For new users, we recommend starting with the Brewery Demo. In this solution, we’ve built a brewery line from scratch, using all of the main software features. At our training site, you’ll find a free course that explains how we did this, from creating a project to adding alarming capabilities. *Update with the demo information for v10*
To open a Solution, just selectfrom the list and click "Run" to |
start executing it or "Edit" to |
see how it was created. You can also double-click the solution to load it. |
In order to know what features each demo includes, check the page Demo Solutions. When you open a Solution, you'll find the following Welcome Window:
Navigate to Runtime, and press the Run Startup button to execute the Solution. |
Creating a New Solution
If you want to create your own solution, simply click "New" in the Solution Manager.
Creating a new Solution consists of three phases. First, you must choose which version of the Product Family you'll use and click Next. The features included in your selection will be represented by the icons on the bottom of the page.and follow the wizard steps.
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Our platform doesn't require a license for you to explore the Engineering engineering space! With the demo evaluation version, you'll be able to run the solution for only 2 hours, but has there are no limitation limitations on the engineering time. |
Then, you'll move , you must choose what kind of solution you'll build, Windows or Multi-Platform.
Finally, add a title and a description and choose a location on your computer to install this solution (we install it inside the Documents folder, by default). You can choose a template for your solution here as well, but for this example, we won't select anything. When you're ready, simply click "Create New Solution".
Creating a new solution may take a minute - once loading is complete, you'll see our Home Page, that contains all of the basic information for this solution.
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By default, our Solution Explorer Navigation is filtered by All Modules and Features. If you wish to work with a simplified version of the platform, simply change the filter in the first box. |
In the homepage you can also change the Theme you'll be using: we offer five different options (Light, Dark, Indigo, Blue and Live). By default, Light will be selected. On the right side of the screen, you'll find the common steps to start exploring our platform, from DataExplorer to Runtime. We'll explore those basic features in this quick tutorial.
Data Explorer Tools
The DataExplorer tools allow you to easily perform data mining and monitoring from various data sources, including MQTT Brokers, OPC-UA, PLCs and SQL databases. Here, let's see how you can connect to our MQTT Simulator to browse its data.
Go to Data Explorer → MQTT Tools to start. You can connect to your own broker, if you wish, but our system has a native SpartkplugB MQTT Built-In Broker that you can use.
Out platform also offers a MQTT Publisher Simulator, that has customizable data being published. Simply click both of the green "start" buttons to start the Broker and Simulator.
Once you've done so, click Connect to see and browse the generated data.
If you have any PLCs in your network, you can automatically connect to browse its data structure.
We'll be using this simulated data to make it easier to build a simple solution. Select DeviceD1, from the list of simulated data, and click Map to Solution. This will create a new Data Model with the device properties. In this example, we named the new Data Template SolarPanel. In the Module option, we'll leave the first option selected, which represents the more typical behavior of mapping tags to external devices, but we can also do dynamic connections with the ExternalTags functionality.
Creating a Unified Namespace and Tags
In the Unified Namespace section, you'll be able to define the data models you'll use in the solution. When building a new solution, a good practice is start by creating Data Templates. In this case, the SolarPanel data template will have already been created, since we exported it from the MQTT Simulator. You can also create your data templates manually or import from csv or other libraries.
Once you have your Data Model, the next step would be to create tags and map it to a Device. This was already done automatically, but once again, you can do it manually if you wish. Here, you'll find the tag DeviceD1 has already been created, with the type "DataModel1", that contains all of the properties of the device from the MQTT Simulator.
To create a New Tag, simply click the "New Item" option in the Tags menu.
Field Communication: Mapping Data to Devices
The next step is creating the connection with the field. For this, we offer over 50+ native communication protocols installed by default with the product.
When creating a new connection with the field, the first step is to create a Channel. Here, you can a instance of one protocol. You can have many channels connecting to the same protocol if you wish. Once you have a protocol defined, you can create a Node. The final step is to create Points, where the data in your data model is mapped to the specific address on the device. This creation may also be done by importing from csv or other libraries (check).
In this case, since we mapped the MQTT Simulator to the solution, the system already created everything automatically, as seen below.
As an exercise, you may also create your own tags and map it to a device. Simply click to create a new Tag1 in the upper menu of the Points section and create a new Tag1 as a "SolarPanel" type.
Once you do that, add it to Points table and map it to a specific Address. You can either type or browse the available data. A important thing to consider is that you only need to map at the device level, as the system will automatically read all of the properties associated with that device.
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On Asset Tree, in the Unified Namespace module, you can change the hierarchy of the tags, by creating or importing folders and dragging and dropping tags as necessary. By default, new tags are added to BaseTags. |
Creating a Simple Display with Symbols
Let's start by exploring the Draw Environment. To access, go to Displays → Draw, or simply click the Draw button at the top menu.
This will open the main Draw Environment. By default, the first page created will be the MainPage, where your main content should go.
On the left side of the screen, you'll find all of the components you can use to build your display. They're categorized by different types of graphical components, such as icons, charts, navigation and symbols (incluindo high-performance graphics). You can also search for something specific in our library using the search input.
To add a component to your display, simply click and drag to the drawing environment. In this example, we'll grab a simple button from the Symbol library. If you double click the symbol, you'll open a popup box where you can map the component's properties to your tags. In this case, the button only has one property (IsPressed), which will map to the device status. To find a specific tag, you can either type "Tag." and it'll show you the options or click the three dots next to the input to navigate on your Asset Tree.
Another way of creating your UI is by dragging tags directly into the display. On the right side of the screen, you'll find all of your tags - if you drag them into the display, it'll automatically create a text output, but you can also map them to specific symbols to create those automatically.
To do that, select the tag (or the whole Device) you'd like to map and click Map to Symbol. You'll then be able to select symbols you've created to display your data. Once that's done, if you drag the tag into the Display, it'll automatically create a symbol. In this example, I already added a CircularGauge to my library to showcase the device temperature.
Another unique feature of our platform is the ability to customize any symbol with a great number of dynamic properties. Those include custom Actions, Scripts, Visibility, Rotation, and more.
For this example, add a simple rectangle to the display and double click it to look at the available properties. For this example, I created a simple expression to change the fill color depending on the value with a simulation tag in the expression.
You can create a new symbol combining those two components and save it into your Symbol Library. To do that, first break apart the button symbol and then select all parts and select "Create New Symbols with Select Elements". This gives you more flexibility to use our library as a base to create custom symbols that fit your industrial application.
As you make changes, make sure to save your display by clicking on the button on top of the page.
Create a Real-Time Alarm
To test out the Alarming functionalities in the platform, let's create an alarm.
On Alarms → Items, simply type on the first line of the table to create a new Alarm. Type "DeviceD1." and you'll see the available properties associated with that Device - for this example, establish a condition, limit, select a group (there will be a few available as default) and a message to showcase when that limit is reached.
In the Draw Environment, search for AlarmWindow and drag it into the display.
Then, search for button on the graphical components and insert one under the AlarmWindow object and give the name “Warning” by editing it in the Drawing Properties on the right side of the screen.
Double-click on the button and configure the dynamic property:
Do we need More? Suggestions for this step:
- Trends
- Reports
- Scripts
- Layouts
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The first step is to select the Product that the solution is intended to use. To facilitate multiple scenarios in a cost-effective way, FrameworX has its product line organized into families and models. More information can be found in Product Family.
Once you've selected the product, you must choose what kind of solution you'll build, Windows or Multi-Platform.
Finally, you can add a description and choose a template for your solution here as well. For this example, you can select "HeaderLayout". When you're ready, simply click "Create New Solution".
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Once loading is complete, you'll see the Designer homepage, the main UI for editing your solutions.
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→ Go to Solution Configuration for a step-by-step guide on adding content to your first solution. |
Licensing And Registration
To deploy into production and run without time limitations, you'll need a license. Information about your license and links to activate it can be found on the Solutions Manager page, where you can choose between online and offline activation. See more about Licensing and Activation.
Running your Solution
It's time to run your solution by clicking on the Runtime module (or selecting the shortcut on the top of the page). In this page, you'll find information regarding the solution, including redundancy settings and command lines and URL for the clients.
To run your solution, simply click "Run Startup".
Note: I can't actually run anything with the current Alpha, so update this section later.
Licensing And Registration
To get the full capabilities of our platform and start building your real solutions, you'll need a License. The information about your license and the links to activate it can be found in the Solution Manager page. There you may choose between online and offline activation. You can learn more Licensing and Activation here. If you don't have a license yet, feel free to reach out at sales@tatsoft.com.
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Click on the "Your License" title, at the left side, to navigate to the Page License Information, with all the information about your current license, and the to tool to add or modify the license. |
Next Steps, Exploring More Features
With these steps, you've learned the basic on working with FrameworX and you're ready to continue your journey.
In this chapter, you'll find more basic information to get you started.
Page Tree
Once you're ready, we recommend you:
- Learn how to start designing your solution in Solution Configuration.
- Look the Platform Overview to learn about the overall features of the platform.
- Explore the Tutorials for more comprehensive exercises on the platform.
- Explore the User Guide, that goes into detail on each module.
- Sign in at the Training Site to access free videos and training courses
- Check out Take a look at our Solution Examples, that showcase showcasing different aspects and functionalities of the platform.
- Join our community forum and exchange ideias!
You can also schedule a an introductory meeting with one of our onboarding specialists here.
Feedback
Please provide us with feedback on our software and documentation.
Share your ideas for new features or specific training topics on our website.
We look forward to engaging with you and making progress together.
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