Create the heat pump elements

Before you create heat pump elements, you need to Create the heat pump templates.

PI AF elements are objects that represent assets. Follow this procedure to create a parent element, Heat Pumps, and ten child elements, Pump1 through Pump10, with PI Builder. The parent element is a container element that provides structure in your overall framework, and the child elements contain information about individual pumps. You will use the element template that you created in the previous procedure.

1. Open a new Microsoft Excel worksheet and click the PI Builder tab.

2. In the Connections group, open the database in which you created the template:

   1. From the Asset Server list, select the PI AF server that contains your database.

   2. From the Database list, select the database.

3. Add the needed column headers to the worksheet:

   1. In the Resources group, click Headers to open the Select Object Types and Column Headers window.

   2. From the Object Type list, select Element.

   3. Click Clear All to clear selected object types except those in the Required Columns group (you cannot clear the required columns).

   4. In the Object Types list, expand the Element group, and select the Template check box.

      

   5. Click OK to add the selected column headers to the worksheet.

      

4. Define a parent element and its children elements in the worksheet:

   1. In the second row of the worksheet, in the Name column, type Heat Pumps.

   2. In the third row, enter the following values for a new element:

      Column	Value
      Selected	x
      Parent	Heat Pumps
      Name	Pump1
      ObjectType	Element
      Template	Heat Pump Template

      The worksheet should look like this:

      

      Note: The Heat Pumps element is the parent element for the other elements. PI Builder creates the elements in the order they appear in the worksheet, so you must enter parent elements above their child elements.

   3. Select cells A3 through E3, and then drag the fill handle to cell E12.

      Excel copies the selected cells and fills in the pump name with sequential values. The worksheet should look like this:

      

5. Publish the objects to create the elements in PI AF:

   1. Click Publish to open the Publish Options window.

   2. From the Edit Mode list, select Create Only (you could also select Create and Edit).

   3. Select the Create or update PI points check box to automatically create the PI point referenced by the attribute of each element.

      If you do not select this check box, you must create the corresponding PI points in PI System Explorer.

   4. Click OK.

   PI Builder creates the elements in the database. The Publish Selected Objects window shows the operations completed. PI Builder automatically checks in the changes.

   1. Click Close.