OPC Studio User's Guide and Reference
OPC Data Client Product Editions
OPC Data Client is a toolkit for OPC client and subscriber development.
Following table will help you to understand the features of different OPC Data Client editions, and assist in selecting the edition that is best for you.
| Product Edition: | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | Ultimate | Trial (free) | |
| Unlimited run time | The trial version delivers valid data for 30 minutes since you have started your application. You then need to re-start the process in order to receive valid data again, and so on. Paid editions have no such limitation. Contact us if you need a longer run time for your evaluation. |
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OPC Specifications |
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| OPC Data Access (3) | OPC-DA is the original specification. It is commonly used to move real-time data from PLCs, DCSs, and other control devices to HMIs and other clients, for display purposes and further processing. |
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| OPC XML-DA | OPC XML-DA specification builds on the OPC-DA specifications to communicate data in XML. It incorporates SOAP and Web services. |
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| OPC Alarms and Events (3) | OPC-A&E provides alarm and event notifications on demand (in contrast to the continuous data flow of Data Access). These include process alarms, operator actions, informational messages, and tracking/auditing messages. |
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| OPC Unified Architecture (Generic/Data) | OPC-UA is the next generation of OPC. It brings the existing specifications together with a unified data model and uses Web services, rather than Microsoft COM, for messaging. |
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| OPC Unified Architecture (Methods) | The Method Service Set in OPC Unified Architecture allows the client to make function calls on OPC UA objects. |
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| OPC Unified Architecture (Alarms & Conditions) | This standard deals with event subscriptions and notifications, Conditions, Dialog Conditions, and Alarms, including acknowledgement capabilities. Also includes specialized OPC UA Alarms and Conditions client object. |
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| OPC UA PubSub |
Subscriber functionality for OPC UA dataset messages distributed by message-oriented middleware, with support for resolution of parameters from the PubSub information model. This feature does not refer to subscriptions in OPC UA Client-Server model. They are available in all editions. |
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Development Models |
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| Imperative Programming Model | This is the traditional programming. You write code to instantiate objects, and call methods to perform the OPC operations. |
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| Live Binding Model (2) (5) (7) | Simply use the Visual Studio Designer to configure bindings between properties of visual or non-visual components, and OPC data. For Windows Forms and WPF, code-less. |
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| Live Mapping Model (1) | Allows you to write objects that correspond logically to a functionality provided by whatever is “behind” the OPC data. You map your objects and members to OPC by annotating them with attributes. |
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| Reactive Programming Model (1) | High-level abstraction that allows you to compose asynchronous and event-based programs using data streams and LINQ-style query operators. Uses Microsoft Reactive Extensions (Rx) for .NET. |
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Features |
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| Browsing Dialogs (7) | Pre-made, highly configurable OPC browsing dialogs for Windows Forms (callable from WPF or COM applications as well). Provide interactive viewing and selection features. |
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| Browsing Controls (2) (7) | Configurable OPC browsing controls for Windows Forms. Can be combined with other controls on the form to achieve the desired functionality. |
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| OPC UA Discovery | Local Discovery (LDS) |
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| Network Discovery (LDS-ME) |
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| Global Discovery (GDS) |
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| Specialized Client Objects |
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| API Services |
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Extensions |
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| OPC UA Complex Data | Encodes and decodes OPC UA extension objects, according to data type dictionaries and data type definitions in the OPC UA information model. |
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| StreamInsight (3) | Allows you to bring in streaming data from OPC sources into StreamInsight, analyze them and process them further, and even feed the results back to OPC servers. Data from OPC can be combined with data from multiple other sources. You can monitor the data for meaningful patterns, trends and exceptions. Streaming OPC data can be analyzed and correlated while they are in-flight. |
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Development Platform Targeting |
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| COM (3) | For languages or tools that supports Microsoft OLE Automation, e.g. Delphi, VB6, VBScript (such as in ASP), JScript, Perl, PHP, Python, VBA (such as in Excel), Visual FoxPro, REALbasic, Xbase, T-SQL, and many others. Also works from native C/C++. |
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| .NET Framework (3) | For languages and tools based on Microsoft .NET Framework on Windows. Typical usage is from Visual Basic (VB.NET) or C#, but other languages can be used as well (e.g. PowerShell, managed C++, or F#). |
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| .NET 6+ | Multi-platform API. Allows development in .NET languages for the .NET 6 or 8 runtime on Windows, Linux or macOS. |
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| Python | Using Python.NET, allows development of OPC applications in Python, running on .NET Framework or .NET 6 or 8 on Windows. |
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Tools |
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| Connectivity Explorer (3) | Allows to navigate through hierarchy of OPC Data Access and OPC Unified Architecture servers and data nodes. You can subscribe to data changes, and view the results live. |
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| other tools | Launcher(3), License Manager(3) (GUI and Console), OPC UA Demo Publisher, OpcCmd Utility, UA Configuration Tool(3). |
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Product Options (must be purchased as additional items) |
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Note (1): Only available under .NET Framework or .NET 6+ development platforms. Not available in COM, not available in Python.
Note (2): Only available under .NET Framework development platform (Windows). Not available in COM, not available in Python..
Note (3): Only on Windows.
Note (4): Only available under COM or .NET Framework development platforms (Windows).
Note (5):
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WPF design-time features are not available in OPC Data Client version 2024.2. This affects the ability to use Visual Studio to configure Live Binding in WPF applications, and to configure properties of OPC Data Client WPF controls. You can still use XAML editing to configure properties of OPC Data Client WPF controls. OPC Data Client version 2024.2 still fully supports WPF in run-time, i.e. the functionality of OPC Data Client WPF controls in run-time is not affected, and also existing applications that use WPF Live Binding run correctly. We are evaluating the feasibility of supporting the WPF design-time features in a future version. |
Note (6): Only available under .NET Framework or .NET 6+ development platforms. Not available in COM.
Note (7):
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In runtime, all user interface features (such as controls, dialogs, and live binding; Windows Forms and WPF) and non-visual components are supported both under .NET Framework and .NET 6+. However, "designing" them (this includes tasks like dragging from the Toolbox, or configuring in Properties window) in Visual Studio is only possible in .NET Framework projects. In order to achieve visual design for .NET 6+ projects, the developer can make two project files over the same set of source files, one targeting .NET Framework and one targeting .NET 6+, and use the project that targets .NET Framework for visual design tasks. |
The installation package and/or product packages or assemblies are the same, regardless of the product edition; the enabled/allowed product capabilities are distinguished in the license key.