# Area / PLC / tags names management

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/area-plc-tags-names-management/15788>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [October 27, 2017, 9:45am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/area-plc-tags-names-management/15788 "2017-10-27T09:45:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![valet81](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c77e96/32.png) [@valet81](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/valet81)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2017, 9:45am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/area-plc-tags-names-management/15788/1 "2017-10-27T09:45:33Z")

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Hi all,

I’ve used Ignition for a couple of years with easy and standard configurations (like a couple of PLCs on the same machine).

I’m now working on a big project with different plants over the world, various sub-departments and a lot of PLCs to link together (let’s say about 30-40 for now).

I think that at this point I need to create/name tags in a smart way following a standard scheme, to have an easy-reading software.  
I should probably use folders and also give to alarms the right attributes in order to have an easy filtering interface.  
I should also name tables with a specific name.

What do you suggest from your experience?

I know that this could be a big/infinite discussion, but I would be interested understanding your point of view before starting, trying to avoid at least obvious errors.

Thank you 🙂

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**Author:** ![richardNZ15](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/richardnz15/32/33373_2.png) [@richardNZ15](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/richardNZ15)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2017, 11:04pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/area-plc-tags-names-management/15788/2 "2017-10-29T23:04:44Z")

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In terms of Ignition Tag folder structure, i believe its best to structure this in such a way that reflects your physical plant setup, so that you can easily filter on alarms, assign certain user to areas and such.  
Are you going to have one Ignition project for all the plants over the world, or will they be on separate projects on the same gateway?  
Will you have multiple linked gateways?

I’ve employed a structure like this for tags:

```auto

Plant 1
	Line 1
		Machine 1
			Devices
			Sequences
		Machine 2
			Devices
			Sequences
	Line 2
		Machine 3
			Devices
			Sequeneces
Plant 2
etc...

```

As for actual tag names, its good to use some sort of numbering scheme. Do you have a limit on tag name length?  
I’ve tried to assign a number (one or two digits depending on number of machine centers/ lines) for each section of the plant so that its obvious from just looking at the tag where that device is physically.

For example:  
Plant 1 = 01  
Plant 2 = 02  
Line 1 = 1  
Line 2 = 2  
Machine 1 = 01  
Machine 2 = 02  
Machine 3 = 03

And each different ‘device’ set for a machine area starts from 0 again. Where a device could be a motor or a valve.  
So 2 pumps and 4 valves in Plant1, Line1, Machine 2, it would look something like:  
PP\_01\_1\_02\_001  
PP\_01\_1\_02\_002  
AV\_01\_1\_02\_001  
AV\_01\_1\_02\_002  
AV\_01\_1\_02\_003  
AV\_01\_1\_02\_004

You should probably name your PLC devices in the Ignition Gateway with a similar convention that tells you where that PLC may be.

Certainly a lot to consider for a large project like that, sounds like it’ll be an interesting one!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2017, 11:38pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/area-plc-tags-names-management/15788/3 "2017-10-29T23:38:55Z")

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Also try to organize the final folders with a reasonably consistent structure. UDTs can help here, but anything that presents common items with repeated names makes shared templates and parameterized windows much easier to deploy.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![valet81](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c77e96/32.png) [@valet81](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/valet81)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2018, 9:37am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/area-plc-tags-names-management/15788/4 "2018-01-11T09:37:04Z")

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thank you very much for your reply.

I’ve started naming tags/folders in this way and I think it’s very handy.  
I’ll probably have multiple linked gateways in the future, but at the moment I’m working on the first site.