Learn about assets in PI Asset Framework (AF)

PI Asset Framework (PI AF) enables you to build a representation of your equipment and processes that can give you tremendous insight into your data. In PI AF, the equipment and processes that you want to monitor are called assets. The PI AF representation of all your assets and processes together is called an asset model. The asset model organizes all your equipment into a structure that makes it easy to find information.

In the PI AF asset model, each piece of equipment is represented by an element. The associated data for an element is stored as attributes on the element. Attributes can hold simple values, representing fixed information, such as the diameter of a tank. An attribute can alternatively reference a PI point, a formula, a value from a relational database, a file, a photograph, and more. All relevant data about an asset is tied to the element representing that asset.

For example, suppose you have a pump with three associated pieces of data: the pressure (read from a PI point), the inlet temperature, and the outlet temperature. To model this in PI AF, you can create a PI AF element to represent the pump and then create three attributes to represent the associated data.

The following illustration shows how the data might look in PI AF. Although all the values are PI point values, the user never needs to know the names of the PI points. All the data is available directly on the element.

Video

For information on assets and attributes, watch this video: