What should be considered when planning a new Ignition project?

General Discussion
1

Hi everyone,

I’m relatively new to the Ignition community and I’m interested in learning more about how experienced users approach a new Ignition project from the beginning.

When starting a project that involves PLC communication, databases, historical data, and a Perspective-based interface, what are the main architectural decisions you recommend making early?

For example, how do you normally approach decisions around tag structure, UDTs, database design, historical data, security, and project organization?

I’d also be interested to hear about any common mistakes you’ve seen people make when starting their first Ignition project.

Any practical advice or lessons learned from real-world projects would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

2
  1. Use UDTs to reduce tag hierarchy maintenance. Do not use UDT UI Properties.
  2. Design all reusable views and/or templates/windows to use a string tag path parameter, so the reusable UI element does its own (indirect) tag bindings. This enables the use of bidirectional bindings, and avoids the performance hang-ups of UDT props.
  3. If your PLC is browseable, do not drag and drop the whole thing (or large fractions thereof) into the Ignition tag browser. That will crush your comms performance in most cases.
  4. Design your Ignition tag hierarchy (folders/UDTs/member names) to facilitate UI element reuse. Do not mimic the PLC's tag hierarchy unless it was carefully structured to go with your intended UI. (Extremely unlikely.)
  5. If not too late, point your PLC programmers at the comms optimization topics on this forum before you start the Ignition work. Some PLC problems cannot be worked around.
  6. Use a competent DB. TimescaleDB by Tiger Data should be your first choice (now an IA Strategic Partner). PostgreSQL should be your second choice. (I avoid MS SQL Server like the plague--because it IS the plague.)
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FYI, 99% sure OP is a spambot based on a post in another thread I just had to nuke, and this was just useful camouflage. That said, it could still generate useful discussion, so if anyone wants to spin off an actually useful thread, feel free.

4

Lots of good advice in this thread: