let's take a look around PI system
Explorer to see where you can start
contextualizing and analyzing your PI
system data with asset framework this
will be a brief overview as most of
these topics have dedicated videos if
you're going to follow along you should
have already installed PI system
Explorer the client for AF and setup
connections to your AF server and AF
database if you have an already open PI
system Explorer you can usually find it
under the Start menu under programs PI
system and go ahead and open the 64 bit
version in the top left corner you'll
see the AF server that you're currently
connected to as well as the current
database the navigator pane in the lower
left of the window is what defines what
portion of PSE you'll be working in in
this case we're gonna start with
elements when elements is selected
notice that we can now browse our asset
framework hierarchy in the upper left
corner in this case my plant line 1 and
I can see my pumps and reactors if you
have an empty database this pain may be
mostly empty except for the parent
element this is also where you'll be
able to create new elements in the
browser pane to build your hierarchy
notice when I click on an element the
viewer pane changes in this case let's
start with the general tab when I click
on a different element you'll see that
it updates this is where you'll be able
to edit the name of an element and be
able to see what template it's created
from it's often important to know if an
element was created from a template so
you can determine if you should edit its
attributes here or if they should be
added in the template instead I'll show
you a bit later on in the library where
you can edit templates let's go ahead
and click on the child elements tab and
you can see all of the children here
which are the same as shown in the left
however this pane allows for easy
searching within this part of the
hierarchy shown here if we go ahead and
click on the attributes tab you can see
all of the attributes associated with
the element that's selected on the left
their current values and timestamps if I
click on a different element you'll see
that this pane
updates as shown here to be specific to
the element that's selected you may want
to try and create a new attribute for
this template and I'll right click here
to try and do that but it's not an
option for this specific element that's
because it's created from a template and
allow extensions is not enabled for this
specific element will instead have to go
and edit it in the template notice in
the top right you can choose how to
group items that show up in this pane
you can see that reason code is under
the category analytics and you can see
how grouping can be very useful when you
have a large number of attributes the
configuration of the attributes is
controlled in the pane which I'll open
up here and you can see the category
that it's assigned to this is also where
you can see the unit of measure you can
see that it's currently referenced as a
PI point data reference and the PI point
is shown here the notification rules tab
would show any notifications that are
currently configured this only applies
to notifications 2016 r2 or later if you
are using notifications 1x there would
be a separate tab in the Navigator panel
in the lower left and you would have to
use the 32 bit version of PI system
Explorer finally the analysis tab shows
the configured calculations running
through the analysis service for this
particular element and if they are
currently running this also includes
setting up triggers for event frames for
instance I'll click on the pump downtime
event frame click on the expression and
you'll notice here that it's grayed out
and I can't edit it that's because this
pump is created from a template to
double check that again we can go to the
general tab and notice that the template
that's used is pump we've sure been
talking a lot about templates so let's
go ahead and see where those are
configured let's go into the library tab
and the Navigator panel and let's start
with templates if I go to element
templates click on reactor and click on
attribute templates we can see the
attributes associated with the reactor
template in this case there's only one
and that is the temperature this way if
I create new reactor elements they'll
all have the same attributes that are
defined in this
this will allow me to quickly build up
multiple assets and map them to their
appropriate type PI tags or other data
references also if I edit these
templates edits would update all the
other assets made from this template as
an advanced topic we've already
mentioned allow extensions as one way to
add attributes to an element made from a
template which you can should see as an
option here another way depending on
your assets you are contextualizing
would to be instead create a derive
template in this case the reactor
template contains the temperature
attribute but we have a derived template
called reactor with outlet sensor which
contains these other attributes as well
if I create a reactor from this template
it will include the outlet sensor
attributes in addition to the attributes
associated with the base reactor
template this provides more
standardization than just using allow
extensions on these reactors templates
are also great if you need to make a
change since it's propagated to all the
existing elements created from that
template for instance if you have 100
pumps and want to create a new
efficiency calculation you can add it
once here on the analysis templates tab
and it's automatically added to all of
your pumps an additional type of
template you may be using would be event
frame templates event frames define
important time periods in your process
for instance the time frame of a
specific batch or downtime events for an
oil rig the event frame template defines
what information is collected about that
event besides just the start and end
time in this case we're collecting
additional information on reason codes
the asset line and manufacturer we're
collecting reason code information which
is configured to pull information from
an attribute at the start time of the
event frame enumeration sets can
somewhat be thought of as being similar
to digital sets and system management
tools you can configure an attribute to
have a value type of enumeration set and
it can be restricted to only be assigned
values in that enumeration set in
case on or off you can also use an
enumeration set for PI point data
references if you're taken Taine's a
value of 1 and it's assigned to an
enumeration set an AF AF will instead
display that that tag is off instead of
displaying a value of 1 tables store
information which can be referenced from
element attributes in this case I have a
table of manufacturers and serial
numbers my element templates are defined
to pull in the correct manufacturer and
serial number from this table based on
the line number and pump type if I go
back to elements and check out my Inlet
pump I can see that the manufacturer is
pump you up as was defined in the table
tables can also be linked to external
sources and this information can be
pulled in once or on a scheduled refresh
in case the external sources updating
those connections are defined in the
library under table connections and
finally categories allow you to organize
your asset framework information as we
saw earlier this may not be important to
you when you're just getting started but
can really help when the number of
elements attributes or other items shown
here need to be organized in a better
way than just as a list if I click on
attribute categories I can see that
analytics is included in this list of
categories which we saw earlier was
being used for one of the inlet pump
reason code attributes we've now gone
over the elements and library tabs in
navigator and let's quickly take a look
at a few more tabs notifications rules
for 2016 r2 and analysis can be a
enable/disable backfill or recalculated
in the management tab in previous
versions this tab was called analysis a
search feature is included in case you
have a large number of analysis and this
is very useful when you start building a
large number of assets and bulk using
templates and need to manage all the
analysis and notifications associated
with those assets if I click on event
frames tab this isn't where you'll be
setting up your analysis to create event
frames that's back under each specific
element or the element template and its
associated analysis
instead this is where you'll search for
in view event frames which could come
from other sources beyond just those
created through AF if needed you can
also create event frames manually here
normally you'd right-click on an event
frame search select new search and then
the search dialog box would come up to
define the search criteria and it's part
of standardization of assets AF can
automatically convert units of measure
so you can quickly compare your assets
even if the incoming information isn't
from the same unit of measure there are
different classes defined from which you
can convert between for your units of
measure and this is also where you
define new custom units of measure if
needed and finally there's a context tab
where you'll define the users who will
be signed to receive notifications a few
other important notes about PSE
many of the edits you'll make to
existing items are when creating new
items results in checking of the item
from the AF database
you'll need to check in the item to save
the items to the database as an example
let's create a new line under plant and
you can see in the lower left that it
says it's currently checked out to me
I'll need to go ahead and check in these
changes before anyone else will be able
to edit them which I can do right here
another useful item is to use refresh
here on the toolbar if attribute
information has updated since the last
time it was refreshed clicking refresh
on the toolbar will force it to update
with the most recent values as an
example let me click on inland pump and
we will be able to force these values to
update by clicking refresh the toolbar
also includes some commonly used buttons
depending on what is selected in the
left panes in this example when elements
is selected in the lower left the new
elements button appears in the toolbar
the available buttons will change
depending on what you're working on in
PI system Explorer at the far right of
the toolbar a search pane is available
the context in which you're searching
will change depending on what you are
working on in PI system Explorer
in elements for example this can be
useful when you need to find a specific
element in a large AF hierarchy but
you're not sure exactly where it's
located and finally under the View menu
you can able the palette which has
various options curly element templates
is selected and this allows me to drag
and drop element templates from the
palette into my AF hierarchy to create
new elements if you were instead editing
PI point data references for attributes
it might be more useful to use the take
search palette and then you can drag and
drop tags onto their appropriate
attributes now that you have a better
idea about what's possible and where you
can complete certain tasks in PI system
Explorer you can explore other videos
and playlists to learn how to implement
what's important to you to get the most
out of your PI system data using asset
framework