Re: [foxboro] FoxAnalyst

Darren,

We looked at FoxAnalyst, and were even sold one license, but we were not
happy with it.  The biggest drawback that we saw was that it is completely
separate from FoxView.  You can't associate a FoxAnalyst trend with a
FoxView display, or click on a FoxView button and generate a FoxAnalyst
trend.  There are no command line arguments or any kind of API embedded into
the FoxAnalyst application.  Essentially, you run FoxAnalyst in the
background or on a separate screen, and create trend files in advance to
trend whatever you want to trend.  This is not very helpful if you want to
look at something "on the fly", or add something quickly to an existing
trend.  You can't even use the right click feature in FoxView to select a
point and dump it on a trend the way you can with existing FoxView tends.
The console guys here played with it for a while, and they couldn't figure
out how to use it in any kind of practical way.  You had to know what you
wanted to trend in advance, and have an engineer or savvy operator type
build a trend file to accommodate that need.  Then you had to able to
navigate the file structure and locate the appropriate trend file when you
wanted to look at it.  This isn't very good during emergencies or when you
are troubleshooting problems.  

The big advantage of FoxAnalyst over the existing trend faceplates is that
you can put as many as 16 trend lines on a trend, as far as I can remember.
There are also some PI-like ways to manipulate the trends, like zoom, etc.
that the FoxView trends don't have.

In general, we found FoxAnalyst clumsy to use and not as integrated into
FoxView as we would have liked.  The lack of an API or even command line
arguments was a big problem, since we couldn't use FoxView commands to
automatically populate the FoxAnalyst trends.  You may have a more
computer-savvy group of console guys or not be as concerned with emergency
operations as we are, so your results might be better.  You can probably get
a demo version before having to buy a license.

Tim Lowell
Control Systems Engineer
ConocoPhillips, Trainer Refinery
Phone:  610-364-8362
Fax:    610-364-8211
Tim.C.Lowell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Darren Edwards [SMTP:darrenedwards626@xxxxxxxxxxx]
        Sent:   Thursday, June 26, 2003 9:05 AM
        To:     foxboro@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        Subject:        [foxboro] FoxAnalyst

        Hello:

        Not everyone is satisfied with the appearance and configuration of
the basic 
        trends that come with the FoxView libraries.  I understand Foxboro
sells a 
        product, FoxAnalyst, that gets installed on the system as a separate

        software package.  Are FoxAnalyst trends any better, and does
Foxboro have 
        any other trending packages or other ways to trend process data for
plant 
        operators besides FV and FA?

        Thanks,

        Darren Edwards
        
 
 
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