General attributes

To configure the Base Point Class attributes of a PI point, click the General tab. Type a point name in the Name text box on the General tab and edit the point.

Name — Enter a name that uniquely identifies the point. Names can contain letters, numbers, certain characters, and spaces. Names have the following constraints:

• The first character must be alphanumeric, an underscore (_), or a percent sign (%).

• Control characters, such as linefeeds or tabs, are not allowed.

• The following characters are not allowed:

  * ' ? ; { } [ ] | \ ` ' "

Though you can specify any length name, some API functions truncate names to 12 or 80 characters, and PI SQL Subsystem can only process tags with at most 1016 characters.

Note: The name text appears blue if the point does not exist on the selected Data Archive server. The text appears black if the point exists, or a server is not selected, preventing validation.

PI Server — Select a Data Archive server from the list of connected servers under Collectives and Servers.

Descriptor—The descriptor field is optional.

Point Class—Select a point class from the list of point classes that belong to the server listed in PI Server.

Stored Values—Select "Real-time data" while configuring a historical PI point for real-time data, and "Future data" when configuring a future PI point for forecast data.

Point Source—Specify a point source. A PointSource is an attribute that commonly specifies which PI Interface is collecting the data for the PI Point.

Point Type — Select the point type for the point. A Performance Equation can use Point Types Digital, Float64, Float32, Int32, Int16 and String.

Digital Set — Choose a digital set from the Data Archive server. This menu is activated only if the selected Point Type is Digital. The System digital set is otherwise used.

Engineering Units (Eng Units) — Enter optional engineering units to describe the default unit of measurement for the point.

Display Digits — Enter an optional number of display digits to determine the display precision of point values.

Extended Descriptor (Exdesc)— Enter an optional extended description for the point.

Source Tag — Enter a reference to the tag name of another PI point to use that point's data stream as the source of the new PI point. A source tag is not required to create a point, but can be supplied. Click to display the Tag Search dialog box to search for points.

Note: The Source Tag attribute cannot be used to replicate data directly from one point to another.