Hi everyone!
We have developed a new pipe editor. It allows you to drag a pipe between components, and the pipe follows the components when moved. The pipes also has open/closed which are automatically calculated. You can add medium colors, like red for hot, which can be toggled on from a toolbar. The size of the pipes can also be adjusted, either to represent physical size/importance or domain (like small for electric and medium for fluid).
You can test the demo here: https://demo.openstudio.no
Here is a video from the designer:
Download the module here: Free trials | Try OpenStudio Free Trials Today ā OpenStudio
We need feedback on this tool. What are you missing?
The plan is to sell this as a third party module (see more at https://www.openstudio.no/)
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I'm assuming the UI floating on the bottom of the screen is used to adjust properties on the pipes.
Are you able to color the pipes with bindings? It varies by plant, but a lot of plants like to have pipe animations.
How does adding a valve to an existing pipe work? Do you drag the valve and just redraw pipes to connect that valve?
Can your pipes attach to custom symbols? If so, how do you configure the attachment point for your pipes?
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I'm assuming the UI floating on the bottom of the screen is used to adjust properties on the pipes.
Yes, they can set the properties of the pipe (size, color, endpoint type)
Are you able to color the pipes with bindings? It varies by plant, but a lot of plants like to have pipe animations.
Yes, you can define mediums from the toolbar. Then you can assign the color either through the toolbar or the prop panel.
In a live session the toolbar can be used to toggle colors on/off
How does adding a valve to an existing pipe work? Do you drag the valve and just redraw pipes to connect that valve?
Yes currently you need to drag and redraw. But maybe we should add the possibility to just drop it on a pipe and it would connect to the existing pipes?
Can your pipes attach to custom symbols? If so, how do you configure the attachment point for your pipes?
Yes it is possible. But we haven't put much focus on that. If it is not one of our components it would mount to the center of each side.
Simple idea, but arrows at termination points to indicate flow direction would be a common request
Are you thinking of something like this?
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Yeah, more or less. Just some form of simple indicator that can be bound to a tri-state (e.g. left, right, no flow) for those who don't like animations/color coding or other methods
I think I misunderstood how your pipe colors work. I think you're saying color animations are based on user selections at runtime rather than process conditions. I would recommend changing that to allow the pipe to be bound to tags at design time to set the colors. This allows the pipes to display the state of the system based on what's happening in the PLC and it makes all clients show the same state.
You want a single source of truth for pipe state and that should be tracked in the PLC. If an operator sets a color it is probably not setting it on other HMIs and even if it is, that should be tracked based on the process rather than a user selection.
I think you were correct in the beginning 
I wasn't all that clear. As of now we don't have any flow animation, you can only set the color of the pipe.
The colors (or medium as we have named it) is set in the designer. So the operator cannot change this. It can either be change from the floating toolbar, in the property editor or through our bind button. So it can be set dynamically by binding the mediumId.
In a web session, the operator can toggle between a dull mode (for high performance interfaces) or a mode showing medium colors. The toolbar can also be turned off from the designer.
This is from a session:
The pipe design is based on the open source OpenBridge design guideline which is an extensive collection of tools for industrial HMI development widely used especially in maritime context. https://www.openbridge.no
