Work with InTouch HMI applications

A Human Machine Interface (HMI) software application shows a graphical representation of a manufacturing environment. The machinery, tools, materials, and processes used to create a product appear as visual elements in the HMI application windows. Plant operators interact with a run-time application graphical interface to monitor and administer manufacturing processes.

Three core components simplify creating, building, running, and managing InTouch HMI applications. In a general workflow sequence, they are:

1. Application Manager: Create and manage InTouch HMI applications.

2. WindowMaker: The application development environment; work with sets of graphics and other development tools to build and automate your applications.

3. WindowViewer: The run-time interface for your applications.

For more information about the InTouch HMI installed environment, see InTouch HMI software environment.

Types of InTouch HMI applications

An InTouch HMI application can be standalone or managed.

• Standalone: Build standalone applications with InTouch HMI WindowMaker. A standalone application is a tag-based system.

• Managed: Managed InTouch HMI applications are created with InTouch HMI for System Platform and managed through the integrated development environment (IDE) as an object based system. Managed applications can also be created as standalone apps, then converted to managed apps.

The following table further compares the application types.

Note: This "quick deployment" section focuses on standalone applications you can install, configure, and run with minimal time and effort. Later sections of this guide will extend to larger standalone installations and topologies.