Concerning your first problem: I have not used it or seen it yet, but Invensys can provide something that enables FoxView graphic objects to call up alarm information that has been entered into the PAS Plant State Suite (PSS) Documentation & Rationalization module. Maybe something similar can be done for FoxRay. Concerning your second problem: We considered sending possibly sending all alarms (pri 1-5) to the CAD, having only pri 1-3 as audible, and setting CAD filters so that only priority 1-3 will show up the CADs that are considered for alarm display. The down side is that any pri 1-5 sent to the workstation will cause the "Process" button to blink, and though I have not done it, I suspect setting the filters probably has its own sets of issues. I did enter a PER to enable the alarm priorities that will cause the "Process" button to blink on a workstation to be configurable, but no telling if and when it will be incorporated into the product. It does not work for us, but if you have enough alarm groups available, you could possibly send the pri 4s and 5s to a different workstation (i.e. CAD) It is not ideal, but our path forward is to send only Pri 1-3 to the workstation (i.e. the CAD), change the CAD to sort by Unacknowledged, then priority, and they are all audible. We then also send all of the pri 1-5 alarm messages out to a RS-232 port (i.e. previously an alarm printer port) that is dedicated for each of the Board Operating areas , the messages are then transmitted to our PSS system where they are stored and displayed in semi-realtime in the Realtime Alarm Viewer. We have the Realtime Alarm Viewer filtered to show only the priority 4 and 5 messages by chronological order. Since the alarm priority is not contained in the alarm printer messages, PSS does a look-up and inserts it. The operators can have a the Realtime Alarm Viewer on a PC display constantly showing on a PC display. FoxRay probably has something similar. Only alarm priorities 1-3 are considered be alarms. Priority 4s are used instrument problem messages (BADIO, Mismatch, etc.) that are not prioritized to be an alarm, but where we want them logged for reviewing/reporting - we only send these to the alarm historian and alarm printer port. For other non-alarm messages that we want logged and viewable, we set them to a priority 5 and route them only to the alarm historian and to the alarm printer port. If something is not an alarm, but we want graphic colors to change or objects to change and we do not want the messages to be logged, then we will set them to priority 5 and route them to an empty alarm group or alarm group 0 (with ICC). Note, based on a PER we wrote, Invensys has said that they will implement the ability to configure alarm group 0 (an empty group) into IEE. For each Board Operating position, we have one of 3 alarm groups that we sent to. The first group is for alarms, and they route to the workstations (i.e. CADs), the alarm historian, the alarm printer port and possibly to a pseudo letterbug for FoxPage. The second group is for non-alarms that we want logged, and they route to the alarm historian, the alarm printer port and possibly to a pseudo letterbug for FoxPage. The 3rd group is for alarms that need to trigger graphic color or text changes, but we do not want them logged - these are routed to empty alarm group. It should be noted that since we need to be able to report inhibited alarms, we have chosen not to inhibit alarms messages as a permanent configuration solution for alarms that will not be logged, but are used to trigger control actions or graphic object changes. And yes, when you have alarms in a CP that can route to several different Board Positions, or even 2 areas at the same time like we do, then finding enough alarm groups (or stations within an alarm group) becomes difficult. Neil Martin, P.E. Huntsman Performance Chemicals Conroe & Dayton , TX. Conroe ph) 936-760-6205 Dayton ph) 936-257-4212 pager) 936-522-0052 dirk.pauwels@xxxxxxxxxx Sent by: foxboro-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 10/14/2011 10:59 AM Please respond to foxboro@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To foxboro@xxxxxxxxxxxxx cc Subject [foxboro] Alarm management We're starting an alarm management project soon, probably based on ISA 18 or EEMUA By the time the project reaches implementation we will probably be an all windows 8.4 I/A site (now we have mesh, unix&Windows 8.4) Analyzing the alarms is no problem, we have Foxray, which is a great help. Cleaning up the alarms and re-assigning priorities is no problem either. We're faced with a few items on which we need some more info. First problem: Process engineering would like to tie some kind of "what to do" - flowcharts or text to an alarmpage button. So hitting an "alarm action" button when a certain alarm is selected should produce a flowchart or plain text display related to the comp:block. I can figure out how to call a text file or a flowchart display related to a certain comp:block, but I can't imagine us creating seperate text files or displays for each block that has an alarm configured. Any one using this approach and how did you configure it? Did you go for 3th party software or did you use the I/A functions? Second problem: Now we use priority 5 for stuff that's not considered as an alarm, but does need some operator attention. These items appear on the alarm page, (which is always up) so the operator is notified. In the new approach they won't be considered as alarms anymore, Therefore they're not supposed to appear on the alarm page, but we still need some way of informing the operator these items need some attention. Does anyone uses something like this and how did you configure it? Thanks & Rgds, Dirk _______________________________________________________________________ This mailing list is neither sponsored nor endorsed by Invensys Process Systems (formerly The Foxboro Company). Use the info you obtain here at your own risks. Read http://www.thecassandraproject.org/disclaimer.html foxboro mailing list: //www.freelists.org/list/foxboro to subscribe: mailto:foxboro-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=join to unsubscribe: mailto:foxboro-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=leave _______________________________________________________________________ This mailing list is neither sponsored nor endorsed by Invensys Process Systems (formerly The Foxboro Company). Use the info you obtain here at your own risks. Read http://www.thecassandraproject.org/disclaimer.html foxboro mailing list: //www.freelists.org/list/foxboro to subscribe: mailto:foxboro-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=join to unsubscribe: mailto:foxboro-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=leave