Getting Started

System Requirements

The tables below show the system requirements for the proper installation and operation of the Product.

1. 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 projects for 30 days with no time restrictions. After the 30-day evaluation period, your project will open but with limited access to the entire project. Project Information access is enabled.

When you install FrameworX for the first time, just click Install. It takes less than a minute!

2. 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.

To open a Solution, just select from the list and click "Run" to simply deploy it or "Edit" to take a look at how we created it.

It will take a minute to open the solution. Once it's successfully started, you'll find the following Welcome Window.

3. 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.

Then, you'll move , you must choose what kind of application you'll build. UPDATE, there's a grammatical error 

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.

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.

4. Creating a Unified Namespace

The Unified Namespace is the data model your solution will be using. 

This is where you'll create your tags, which represent real-time and historical data variables that modules can read, write, and subscribe to.

Tags are Local (created within FrameworX) or Remote (dynamically accessed via ExternalTags Sources connectivity). The ExternalTags Sources enable direct interaction with variables in remote systems, bypassing the need to create specific tags in the project. It establishes connections with tags sources which can be set up in a table or directly in the assets, enhancing the versatility of data access and exploration in the Unified Namespace.

Additional metadata, known as Tag Attributes (e.g., last update time, quality status, description), are automatically generated upon tag creation.

To start, we'll create one tag as example.

5. Using the Data Explorer 

The DataExplore tools allows you to easily perform data mining and monitoring from various data sources, including MQTT Brokers, OPC-UA, PLCs and SQL databases.  

Each Data Source has specific  features suitable that connection, but all tools share common look and fell, and similar workflows. This section will present those common workflows, and the specific features for each connection type, which include:

MQTT: Run Built-in Broker or the publisher simulator. Browse data from any broker.

OPC-UA: Run Built-in Server or simulator. Browse data from local or remote servers.

ControlLogix PLCs: Discover ControlLogix PLC in your network, connect to browse its data structure.

SQL Queries: Explore SQL database and build new queries visually.

6. Using Device Protocols

The Devices module implements real-item data communication with a wide variety of field devices and industrial protocols.

The Devices module supports standard interfaces like OPC-UA, OPC-DA and MQTT, Hart, and many proprietary protocols to various PLCs manufacturers.

The connectivity also includes IT protocols, like SNMP and Ping, and connection with Historian tools, such as OSIsoft PI, GE Historian, InfluxDB and Canary.

To maintain an organized and efficient communication structure, devices are grouped into channels based on their communication protocol and settings, and further organized into nodes representing individual devices or stations.

Channels are responsible for managing communication protocols and drivers, while Nodes handle multiple threads pointing to the configured Channels. Understanding the relationship between Channels and Nodes is essential for efficient data exchange.

• Channels: execute processes based on communication protocols and drivers, configuring the required protocol or driver for a specific device. To create a new channel, navigate to Devices → Channels and click on "New Channel" Fill in the necessary information in the "Create New Channel" window and confirm by clicking "OK." The new channel will appear as a row in the table.
• Nodes: perform multiple threads pointing to the Channels, ensuring efficient data exchange and minimizing latency.  To configure nodes, go to Devices → Nodes and input the required information. Columns can be added or removed by right-clicking the column heading area. Device node configuration properties include Name, Channel, PrimaryStation, BackupStation, SyncDate, SyncStation, SyncSettings, TemplateID and Description, each serving a specific purpose.

7. Mapping Tags

8. Create the Display to show the data

9. Running the application, .NET and HTML5 

10. Licensing And Registration

Exploring More Features

With these ten steps, you've learned the basic on working with FrameworX and you're ready to continue your journey.

To learn more, we recommend you:

• Explore the User Guide, that goes into detail on each module.
• Take a look at our Solution Examples, that showcase different aspects and functionalities of the platform.

If you have any questions or would like to get in touch with us take a look at Support and Resources.

You can also schedule a introductory meeting with one of our onboarding specialists here. 

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