Help in understanding Ignition fundamentals

Ignition
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Hello. I am production brewer that recently came across Ignition while talking to the process engineer at my current employer. We have been using an automated plc system to run most of our operation and are starting to look at ways of managing and analyzing all of the data we are collecting. From what I have gathered it seems like this program is more than capable of handling what we would be looking for, especially in the beginning.

While I have gained a working knowledge of our current automation software, mostly from the operator side of things, I have very limited knowledge in the field of programming and IT. That said, I am looking to get into this field and would like to ask those of you willing to offer a little advice on the subject what kind of training one should have to start using this software for simple data collection, charting and reports, custom alarms and alerts, etc? Are there specific programming languages (such as Python, Java) that I should be focusing on to get off the ground with this software? The main installation/setup to link Ignition to our current system will likely not be done in-house, so I am essentially just looking for information on what type of training and fundamentals an entry level operator of a SCADA software like this needs to have. Any advice will be greatly appreciated as I am obviously just starting out. Thank you for your help.

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Do the Inductive University online training first (free). It is perfect for someone new to the field.

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I second @pturmel’s recommendation to start with Inductive University. It gave me a good base to get started. This forum along with various Python and Java resources online took it from there.

It’s not clear to me from your post how far you want to go with this. Our operators aren’t expected to program at all, so they don’t need to learn anything about Ignition. They tell us what they want and it’s our job to make sure the control system they use is intuitive and easy to understand, as well as to implement any additions/changes they request. It’s in our interest to make the system easy to use as we’re the ones who take support calls from operators at all hours (usually mechanical/electrical issues, which leads us to add better fault information when possible; the goal is that they never feel the need to call us).

I started in operations before moving to engineering years ago. If you’re thinking of heading that way, a solid understanding of production is a great asset to bring to industrial programming, as are mechanical/electrical knowledge. The practical background can be more valuable than an engineering degree.

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