Create PI points manually

If you choose Store in Available Points database for Points Not in PI, this section presents one procedure that you can follow to create PI points for available points found by PI APS. This procedure assumes that Excel and PI TagConfigurator are installed on the PI APS node. If Excel is not installed on the PI APS node, this procedure can be adapted to use the piconfig logs instead.

1. In the PI APS Configuration Utility, select the interface instance that searches for available points.

2. If the interface instance is configured for manual synchronization, click Sync Now on the toolbar and wait for the synchronization to complete.

3. Do one of the following to export available points to an Excel file:

   • If PI APS is already configured to create Excel format log files, click Log Files on the Tools menu to open the Synchronization & Point Logs for interface dialog box. Select the Point Logs tab (see Point Logs tab). Double-click the newest point log file to open it with Excel.

   • If PI APS is not configured to create Excel format log files, click Export on the Tools menu to open the Export Points to File dialog box. Use this dialog box to export the available points in Microsoft Excel format, and then open the export file with Excel.

4. In Excel, change the PointSource and/or interface instance-specific ID attribute for each point to assign it to the appropriate interface instance. If you do not want to create a point, either delete the "x" in the first column or delete the row.

5. Review the DigitalSet attribute for each digital point to be created. Ensure that each DigitalSet exists before you perform the next step.

   PI Tag Configurator is not capable of creating digital sets. If a point to be created references a digital set that does not exist, the digital set must be created (using some other tool) before PI Tag Configurator can successfully create the new point.

   If PI APS is configured to create Excel format log files, PI APS also creates a companion piconfig script that contains the commands for creating and editing digital sets for the points in the Excel format log.

   Note: Carefully review the piconfig script before using it. This script can edit an existing digital set to match a state list from the data source, which may not be the appropriate state list for other PI points that are using the digital set. Remove any unneeded or undesirable digital set changes or change the digital set names. This is particularly important with the SYSTEM digital set and the PI to PI_APS Connector.

6. Click Export Tags on the PI-SMT menu in Excel to create the points in PI Server.

7. Return to the PI APS Configuration Utility. Select the interface instance that searches for available points. For every point that was created in another instance, hide that point from the currently selected instance.