Version 10.0.01
A new look, a powerful new historian and a smarter approach to configuration management.
Here are just some of the features soon to be available in version 10.
Enhanced Historian Tag
- Ability to log to SQL databases.
- Higher performance data logging.
- More robust historical synchronization.
- Ability to have multiple historians that distribute the load across multiple servers.
Configuration Management
- Configure applications without a configuration server available.
- Backup and restore application configuration from a single file.
- Return to any previously committed configuration of the VTS application.
- Transfer configuration changes between VTS workstations in a single file.
Reload tags without restarting an application.
- Reload many off-line changes to source code and properties without restarting the application.
- Quickly and easily clone existing applications.
- See an audit log of configuration changes for every computer including which users made changes to which computers.
Security & Reliability
- VTS now supports SMTP email servers that require Transport Layer Security (e.g. Google’s Gmail™) when sending email alarm notifications.
- To prevent data loss or damaged log files, VTS can perform an orderly shutdown when power from a Universal Power Supply (UPS) runs low.
- Alarms can be configured to rearm after they have been acknowledged to help ensure that operators deal with the underlying cause of alarms.
- All manual and automatic alarm dialer roster activations are now recorded as events in the alarm history.
Graphic Editing
- The bold new interface design intuitively ties together the many new powerful features that have been added over the last two years.
- Easily add attractive photo-realistic clocks and compasses to your applications with a simple click and drag.
- Use exact co-ordinates to control the size and location of the objects on your interface pages from the VTS graphic editor.
- Improve the layout of your user interface pages by adding grids of any size and color.
Performance & Ease-of-use Features
- Operators can leave highly visible and editable page notes for one another.
- VTS drivers now provide instant feedback by reading immediately after each write and not waiting for the next poll cycle.
- The code that updates on-screen displays is now up to 7 times faster than in earlier versions of VTS.
- System pages refresh faster and more smoothly particularly for busy screens with slow video cards.
- Draw target areas on your screen that display pre-defined tooltips when a mouse hovers over them.
- The calendar selection tool allows operators to quickly view operator’s notes from specific dates rather than toggling through each individual day.
- Acknowledge alarms while the application is in online configuration mode. (i.e. - The Configuration Tool Box is open.)
- The enhanced Alarm Dialer menu structure allows faster navigation through alarms and makes it easier for operators to use the alarm dialer.
- Access frequently used trends by using a hotbox or button to open a Historical Data Viewer showing pre-defined tag values over selected periods.
- Add labels to the Historical Data Viewer graph showing values of selected tags at various points in time.
- Quickly see and enable the alarm tags that are built into Analog Status and Digital Status Tags.
- Lists of configured or disabled alarms are now easier to read since they no longer include unused alarms from Analog Status or Digital Status tags.
The enhanced Multi-Write tag is now easier to use and includes two new drawing methods, created specifically for triggering writes. - The History Statistics tag lets you display a statistical calculation on a page. For example, see yesterday’s average flow rate next to the current rate.
- Now display numeric values in Decimal, Hexadecimal, Octal or Binary.
- Prevent page clutter by individually disabling tool tips, navigation menus and Historical Data Viewer pop-ups for non-control drawing methods.
- Balance VTS Internet Client load by directing new connections to the VTS Internet Server with the fewest active connections.
- The more efficient Report Tag can now recognize a specific start time rather than checking the time once a minute.
- VTS Alarm Dialer reworked so operators can now listen to the entire spoken alarm list without having to acknowledge each alarm.
Connectivity
- VTS now has its own IANA™ registered TCP/IP port.
- Faster networking, especially on slow network links.
- An integrated simple HTTP server allows VTS to display HTML files such as Google™ map pages.
- Keep hardware register values up to date by configuring the VTS DriverMux to write to both communication device drivers rather than just the primary.
- The DataRadio Diagnostic driver now provides support for ViPR™ and Phantom™ radios.
- Polling drivers now respond to external triggers allowing polling to occur on infrequent schedules or in response to operator commands.
- The new VTS SNMP driver uses the UDP-based network protocol to communicate with devices used in industries like oil & gas and broadcasting.
- VTS drivers can store the last written value for each address and can rewrite that value manually or when communication is restored.
Version 9.1.01
Here are just some of the new features now available in version 9.1.
- Fully tested for Windows 7™ - Take advantage of the faster speed and increased security that this operating system can offer.
- Performance Increased 65% - Lower overhead for executing script code significantly increases the already impressive processing speed.
- Faster Application Shutdown - Large applications that once took ten minutes to close can now, in many cases, take only ten seconds.
- Faster Execution of Multiple Applications - Time to process VTS WEB Services and start 2nd VTS applications is dramatically improved.
- More Memory for 32-bit Version - In addition to a 64-bit version, VTS 9.1 also supports up to 2 GB of additional memory for 32-bit versions.
- Enhanced WAP Interface - Remotely update analog control values and set significant digits for analog displays.
- Rate-of-change / Stale Value Indicator - Watch for rapid changes in value (e.g. leaks) or a lack of change over a period (e.g. stale tank water).
- Multi-Write Object - Set the values for up to 50 outputs with a single operator action. Useful when starting HMIs or replacing PLCs.
- Advanced Trigger Object - Trigger system events based on time or changes in values.
- Alarm Dialer Rosters more than tripled - Now up to thirty users can be notified sequentially until the alarm is acknowledged.
- Swap Rosters Using Triggers - Automatically change which sequence of users the alarm dialer contacts based on time of day or changes in values.
- Output Number of Active or Unacknowledged Alarms - Displays number of active or unacknowledged alarms sorted by priority and area. Can also activate horns in separate areas of the plant when high priority alarms are present.
- Separate Automatic Log-off Times for Each User - Customized settings maximize security with the least hindrance to the user.
- Configure Read-only Workstations - Allow specific workstations to only provide access to system data without providing system control.
- Enhanced Password Protection - Security manager can require passwords to exceed a minimum length, contain alphabetic, numeric or special characters, or expire after a pre-set period.
- Display-only Analog Control - This Data Source parameter is not written to the I/O device, but only used to display the current value of the object (not the last written value).
- Expanded Page Navigation - New button type provides more options for navigating system pages.
Ungroup Grouped Objects - Custom user drawing methods can be separated into their component objects. - Additional Debugging Tool - MemTrace application allows users to create a memory trace to assist in the debugging process. This is now part of the standard VTS install.
- Modem Discriminator for DNP3 Driver - Allows the DNP3 driver to handle remotely initiated dial-up phone calls.
Flag for Active / Unacknowledged Alarms - Returns 1 to indicate one or more active alarms meeting pre-defined conditions. - Direct Interface to Child / Grandchild Objects - Developers can easily use the VTS Graphic Editor to edit parameters for an object’s children and grandchildren.
- Enhanced Dictionary Objects - GetNextKey can step forward and backward through dictionaries based on sorted order or order-of-insertion. Dictionaries don't lose order-of-insertion information when copied.
