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HMI

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The operator screens, on the same tags.

A SCADA and HMI builder that binds to the ladder program's tag table rather than a second one kept in step by hand. Pick the panel, draw the mimic, define the alarms, and press run: the same scan engine that drives the simulator drives the screen.

Open HMI
One tag table, read from both sidesLADDERONE TAG TABLEHMI SCREENStartBOOLMotorBOOLLevelINTT1.ACCTIMERbuttonlampbartrendNo import step, no second table, and no way to bind to a tag the controller does not have.
The ladder writes a tag, the screen reads the same tag by name. There is no second table between them to fall out of step.

In short

Is there an HMI or SCADA builder that uses the PLC's own tag table?

LADX HMI binds screens directly to the ladder program's tag table rather than a second list kept in step by hand, so a screen cannot reference a tag the program renamed. Pick the panel size, draw the mimic from eighty seven symbols, define alarms to ISA-18.2, and press run: the same scan engine that drives the simulator drives the screen.

The problem

The HMI is built in a different tool, against a tag list exported the week before, by somebody who cannot run the logic. The screen and the program disagree, and the place that gets found out is site.

What it does

  • One tag table, not two

    Screens bind to the controller's tags by name. There is no import step and no second list, so a screen cannot reference a tag the program renamed three weeks ago, and the tools that check the program check the screen too.

  • The panel first, because a panel does not reflow

    Fourteen real panel sizes, from a 4 inch 480 by 272 up to a 21 inch 1920 by 1080, stated as resolutions rather than model numbers. A graphic drawn for a 15 inch and deployed to a 7 inch is cut off, not scaled, so the glass is the first decision.

  • Alarms to ISA-18.2

    A real state machine: unacknowledged, acknowledged, returned but unacknowledged, shelved, suppressed, out of service. Deadband and on-delay so a value sitting on a limit does not chatter. Acknowledging never clears an active alarm, which is the rule most implementations get wrong.

  • Bulk alarms, on a tag table you already have

    Pick forty analogue tags and get hi, hi-hi, lo and lo-lo limits as a percentage of span, with escalating priorities and a preview before anything is written. The alternative is defining them one at a time, which means most of them never get defined.

  • Eighty-seven symbols, and your own artwork

    Vessels, pumps, valves, conveying, instruments and switchgear, in a flat ISA-101 style or a shaded realistic one. Any symbol can be replaced with your own SVG or photograph, sanitised on the way in, so the screen can show the actual machine.

  • It runs against the program

    Press run and the ladder solves, the HMI writes land at the top of the scan the way a real controller reads them, the trends fill and the alarms evaluate. A start button on glass starts the motor in the logic. Nothing is mocked.

  • Screens from a description

    Describe the screen and it is drawn against your real tag table, then checked: every binding resolved against the tags that exist, every rectangle clamped to the glass, and a warning if a stop button was written the wrong way round. Or lay the whole tag table out with no model at all.

  • Drawn for handover

    The connection is configured and exported rather than dialled: OPC UA, Modbus TCP, EtherNet/IP or S7, with rack, slot, unit id, poll rate and word order recorded. Word order in particular is a commissioning day nobody enjoys.

What it doesn't do

Listed because you would find out anyway, and finding out later is worse.

  • It does not talk to plant equipment. The runtime is the simulator, which is what makes a screen testable at a desk; the driver settings are recorded for handover, not dialled.
  • It does not deploy to a panel. There is no download to a TP1500 or a PanelView, and an application is exported as its own document rather than as a vendor project file.
  • Scripting is a small expression language over tags, not a programming language. It has no property access, no functions of its own and no way to reach the page, which is deliberate.

Questions

Can I design an HMI screen without the PLC hardware?
Yes, and that is the point of it. The runtime is the ladder simulator, so a start button on glass starts the motor in the logic, the trend fills and the alarms evaluate, all at a desk with no controller and no panel present.
Does LADX HMI support ISA-18.2 alarms?
It implements the state machine: unacknowledged, acknowledged, returned but unacknowledged, shelved, suppressed and out of service, with deadband, on delay and shelving that expires. Acknowledging never clears an active alarm, which is the rule most implementations get wrong.
Can it deploy to a Siemens or Allen Bradley panel?
No. It designs, proves and documents the screens, and the connection settings are recorded for handover rather than dialled. Export to a panel runtime is the next thing on its list, and the product page says so rather than implying otherwise.