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PI Interface for Universal File and Stream Loading UFL

Supported features

  • Last UpdatedOct 03, 2025
  • 2 minute read

Supported Features

Feature

Support

Interface part number

PI-IN-OS-UFL-NTI

Automatically creates PI points

Yes

Point builder utility

No

ICU control

Yes

PI point data types

Float16 / Float32 / Float64 / Int16 / Int32 / Digital / String / Timestamp

Sub-second time stamps

Yes

Sub-second scan classes

No

Automatically incorporates PI point attribute changes

Yes

Exception reporting 1

Yes

Outputs from Data Archive

No

Inputs to Data Archive

Scan-based

Supports questionable bit

Yes

Supports multi-character point source

Yes

Maximum point count

Unlimited

Uses PI SDK 2

Yes

PINet string support

No

Source of time stamps 3

System time or data from data source

History recovery

Yes

UniInt-based 4

No

Disconnected startup

No

SetDeviceStatus 5

Yes

Failover 6

Yes, two independent interface instances

Vendor software required on interface node or PINet node

No

Vendor software required on foreign device

No

Vendor hardware required

No

Additional PI System software included with interface

Yes: the PI UFL interface includes UFLDesigner, a GUI tool for configuring .ini files.

Device point types

Not applicable

Serial-based interface

Yes

OMF Health Messaging*

Yes

* For more information, see the "OMF Health Messaging" topic in the PI Universal Interface (UniInt) Framework User Guide.

The following are additional details on items marked with a superscript in the table:

1 Exception reporting

The LB and LBS startup flags, when enabled, suppress standard exception reporting.

Otherwise, exception reporting is configured on a per-point basis.

2 Uses PI SDK

The PI UFL interface requires the PI SDK and PI API to be installed on the interface node.

3 Source of time stamps

When writing values to PI points, you can set time stamps using data from the data source or the system time on the interface node.

4 UniInt-based features

The PI UFL interface is not based on the AVEVA UniInt framework. Notable aspects of the PI UFL interface include the following:

  • The point source command-line parameter (/PS) is not required

  • The interface can store values to PI annotations

  • The interface automatically creates new PI points and digital states, and digital state sets

  • Data-source-specific logic is isolated in separate plug-in DLLs

5 SetDeviceStatus

The device status health point, designated by the text [UI_DEVSTAT] in the extended descriptor (ExDesc) attribute, represents the status of the data source as follows:

Interface Status

Status

Description

Starting

The interface has started and initialized the plug-in, and is waiting for the first scan class.

Good

The interface is communicating properly and receiving data from its data source.

Intf Shutdown

The interface was shut down.

6 Failover

The interface does not support automated failover. You can run redundant copies against the same data source for ASCII text files or POP3/POP3S servers, but not for Serial ports.

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