HMI Generator
| Note
The HMI generator is an optional add-in which has to be enabled by license using the license configurator available on the Phoenix Contact website. |
PLCnext Engineer provides an optional HMI Generator which allows you to automatically generate a complete visualization (HMI content) based on your project with only one command.
The generation of the HMI content takes two inputs: the PLCnext Engineer project that contains the IEC application code and the HMI Generator configuration file. The configuration file is a file in XML format that specifies in detail which HMI objects (pages, symbols, object groups, etc.) are created from the project's IEC application code. This allows you, for example, to generate HMI pages per program instances, FB instances, project variables, etc. and place HMI symbols on the HMI pages.
The structure and content of the configuration file is defined using an XML schema (XSD). The XSD file defines which elements and attributes are permitted and in which order, i.e., it defines the rules that must be followed when creating the XML configuration file. When adding the configuration file to the PLCnext Engineer project, the XML configuration file is validated against the XSD schema. If the file is invalid, the import is rejected (the validation errors are logged in the PCWorxNext.log file which is located in the PLCnext Engineer installation directory).
Click the following links to get further information:
- Working with HMI configuration filesHere you learn how to add and instantiate HMI configuration files, how to remove them from the project and how to execute the HMI Generator.
- HMI configuration sampleHere you learn by example how to write a configuration file for a PLCnext Engineer project.
- HMI configuration file elements and attributesThis topic provides information on the schema code and how to associate the XSD file with the configuration file. In addition, you learn which elements and attributes are allowed in the configuration file.
- Working with placeholdersThis topic provides information on how to use placeholders to read properties of IEC code elements and use these properties for the generation of the HMI content.