PI ProcessBook is a populate way to present
time series data. And it specializes in using
that data in a really visual and realtime way.
In this video I'll be showing you all the ways that we can use
a PI ProcessBook display to really get the most out of our data.
Now this display was already built for
me. So the first thing I'll do is make sure that I'm in
run mode as indicated by this cursor icon.
In run mode I can still select things
and pull up tool tips but I won't be able to make any
changes to the display. Changes will be made
in build mode and we won't get into that in this
video.
So in run mode the first thing that we can see
is that some symbols are here to represent
data. And other symbols are here just to give that data
context. For instance things like my boiler overview
title, my piping over
here, I even have a picture of a coal mill and some
data labels. These are called static symbols
because they don't change when my data
changes. Things that change when my data changes like
this trend or my bar graph or these
black values here, these are called
dynamic symbols because they change dynamically when my
data changes. In run mode
I can interact with my dynamic symbols with my
cursor. So if I'm a process engineer
really interested in my drum pressure I can mouse over
it and see which PI Point it's
using and over the last 8 hour time interval
I can see its minimum, maximum and
its average. Now if this time interval seems arbitrary to
you, it's really not. It's decided
by the time range up here.
My time range will have a start time and an
end time. And all of my symbols
on my display that only show one value
will be using the value at the end time of the time range.
Things like my trend and my tool tip
will be using the entire time range.
So for instance if I move the start time of my time range
back in time, we can see my
trend compress as it tries to fit more and more
time onto the trend. Now if I move the time range
back in time, both my start and end time
are both going to change. So we can see here
that my values and my bar graph and my trend are all
sliding back in time. And
if I mouse over to pull up a tool tip
again we can see that I've changed my time range to be
15.17 hours over a
different time period. And then my average, minimum
and maximum are also reflecting that new
time range. If I want to see a
really specific drum pressure time range, I
can use this icon here and explicitly
set my time range. So for instance
if I'm curious about the time range of
yesterday I can type in a start time of
Y which is the PI abbreviation for yesterday at
midnight. And T for
today at midnight. I'll hit OK.
And then mousing over the drum pressure
again, I can see the time interval of
24 hours and what the average,
the new minimum and the new maximum was of all of
yesterday. Once I'm
done analyzing that, hitting revert
here will get me back to my default which is
currently set to the last 8 hours
to current time.
If that analysis wasn't quite thorough enough, I can
select my data and click view
and open the details window.
In the details
window I can see point by point all the data
that's actually in the PI Data Archive.
I can also see if that data is
questionable, has been
annotated or substituted at all.
I can also export or copy this
data to clipboard.
So for instance if this data is suspect
to me I can click here to select it
and then down here make a annotation for
it. So if I have decided that this data is unusually
low I can write a comment here,
save it and this will appear for my colleagues
when they inspect that point. I can also
see a little bit more about that point,
like the statistics over the time interval. This
will show the tool tip statistics but also things like the
range, the count and my standard deviation
that aren't on the tool tip.
Furthermore I can also see the point attributes
of what I have selected. So here are things like, is
that point archiving? How much compression is that point under?
When was that point created?
And of course my details window
will change based on what I have selected.
So if I have my bar graph selected I can
see that the data item is Sinusoid and it's
archiving.
I can also use my point attributes to really
understand why my display is displaying what it's
displaying. So for instance if I'm curious
why my drum level goes from 0 - 100
I can see that it's 0 at the bottom and it's 100 here.
That seems pretty arbitrary to me. But in
my point attributes, down at the bottom,
there is a value called 0 and span.
So my drum level is
actually using a 0 of 0 and then it's going to
add the span to that to show the top of the drum
level. And it's going to fill this bar graph with
blue based on the value of my data
item between that 0 and 100.
So it looks like it's about 65
right now. And because it's a dynamic symbol I can
mouse over it and pull up the tool tip and see the exact value.
Another way to interact with my dynamic
symbols is trends. I can see here that
my trend has some values on the left. And then
it's going to fill a line based on what that value
is. But I can also double click on it to zoom in
and really get into the nitty gritty pieces.
So here I can zoom in and out,
scale back or forward in time. And if I get
lost I can click on this revert icon
again. And I can also see my annotations
that I've made. So if I'm
curious about this valley here, I
can click and drag a box around it. And this is going to
zoom into that exact box and fill the screen with it.
Now if this still isn't specific
enough for me, moving my cursor over to the
left, I can wait until it turns into a trend cursor
icon. And click and drag one out. So let's
say I'm curious about this valley right
here. I can drop my trend cursor in it and
see the exact value at the exact time of
that trend cursor. I can also pull multiple
trend cursors out if I want to compare that
valley to maybe this valley, I can see that
this exact value and this exact value and this
exact time and this exact time if I need to make a comparison.
Of course I can always revert back to the
default to clear my trend cursors.
Finally if I double click again I can get
back to my display.
Now trends are a really good way to look
at your time series data but they don't always make
sense to show on screen at all times. If you want to
make a temporary trend, you can do that.
So if I'm trying to compare my drum pressure to my
drum saturation I can select both of these
values, move my cursor up and
click on this temporary adhoc trend button.
So now I can compare my saturation to my
pressure. I can do all the things that I could do on the other
trend like zoom out, zoom back,
revert and my annotations will
show up. But when there are multiple PI
points on your trend, you can choose to show or hide them
by clicking on them in the legend. So let's say that I've
decided that this teal line is completely
normal and I don't need to look at it anymore.
I can click on it in the legend and then run my analysis
as I normally would on this green one that I'm more interested
in. Now this
is an adhoc trend meaning
that it's open in a new window. So double clicking
on the background won't take me back to the display.
To go back to the display I actually have to
close the adhoc trend window by clicking on this
X here being careful not to actually close
ProcessBook.
Another
way that data is being presented to me right now
is actually the color of this bar graph
here. Not as a process engineer I really need to pay
attention to when the drum level gets
too high. So I ask the designer of the ProcessBook display
to really get my attention when the drum level gets too much.
So I'll show you that when I go back in time to a
point where drum level exceeded
80, they colored it bright red so it
really catches my attention. This is called a multi state
symbol because how it's being displayed is qualitatively
changed based on the value.
Another thing that was put in to make my life
easier is buttons.
Buttons can do a lot of different things.
But the designer of this display is using it to close the
window and return. So as an
example clicking on this button will close the boiler
overview and take me to my area graphical review where I can look back
at my boiler and maybe go into
my turbine, the generator or the switchyard
ProcessBook displays. I'll go back into my
boiler. Once I'm done analyzing
all of the symbols I need to make sure that I can
trust the data on my display. So I can check the health
of the data on my display by looking at the
status report in the bottom right.
Clicking on this circle will pull up this
status report. My status
report is going to show a line for each data stream on my display.
And it will show a little symbol here
and it'll be green if it's healthy. But if it's not
healthy I'll see a little red X as well as
the message maybe indicating what might be wrong with that
data stream. If I even have one red X on my
status report in the bottom right I'll also see a
red X. But because it's a green circle right now,
I know the all my data is healthy.
So now that I'm done
looking at all my dynamic symbols
and I've decided that all of my data is healthy,
I'm ready to present my display. What I'll do is
click on this full screen icon right here.
And this will really commit
all my screen real estate to my display. So I'll close
my details window, hold the control key and move
my mouse wheel in a little bit.
So now that my display is taking up the entire
monitor, it's ideal to be displayed
maybe in a building lobby. Or if I have a monitor
dedicated to it in my control room. Of course if I
need to make changes to it or see my toolbars again, I
can click my full screen mode again. And then holding the
control key and backup up the mouse wheel, I'll zoom back
out.
So far in this video
we saw all the different ways that we can interpret static and dynamic
symbols in a ProcessBook display. As well as how to
dig deeper into tool tips, details and
time ranges. In the next videos I'll show you how to
build out your own displays and we'll learn some
effective ways to organize and link our displays together.