Configure the Main tab of the Virtualflowcomputer record

The Main tab allows you to define the basic properties of a virtual flow computer (virtualflowcomputer) record. The following procedure details how to configure the Main tab of the virtualflowcomputer Row Edit dialog.

To configure the Main tab of the virtualflowcomputer record

1. Open the virtualflowcomputer record. For more information on opening a virtualflowcomputer record, see Open a Virtual Flow Computer record.

   The virtualflowcomputer Row Edit dialog appears.

   

2. In the Name field, enter a name for your virtualflowcomputer record.

3. (Optional) In the Description field, enter a description for your virtualflowcomputer record.

4. To designate the virtualflowcomputer record as safety related, select the Safety Related checkbox. Selecting this checkbox enables the Controller to filter for records that are designated as safety related.

5. In the Group field, click (...) to select a group. Group assignment will depend on which Areas of Responsibility (AOR) will provide view or control capability for this record.

6. In the Dataset field, click (...) to select a dataset. Dataset assignment will depend on how the records are to be grouped for control by distributed systems.

7. (Optional) In the Station field, click (...) to select an associated station record.

8. (Optional) In the Base Message field, click (...) to choose a message group record from the Row Select dialog. The message record holds the appropriate messages for the record being configured.

9. (Optional) In the Point Class field, click (...) to configure the VFC point class.

10. (Optional) In the Point SubClass field, click (...) to configure the VFC point subclass.

    Note: The Point Class field is used to allow the Administrator to configure alarm severity. For further information about the Point Class and Point SubClass fields, refer to Volume 1 of the AVEVA Enterprise SCADA RealTime Administrator Guide documentation.

11. (Optional) In the Remote field, click (...) and select the name of the remote associated with this record from the Remote Select dialog. This field has no effect on polling. In this instance, the remote is used to filter the table summary. The remote selected would normally be the same remote that is used by the rate points.

12. In the Input Unit Profile field, click (…) and select the name of the unitprofile record that you wish to use to assign the units of measurement.

13. (Optional) In the Product Type field, click (...) to select the prodtype record that represents the product that flows through the meter. The American Petroleum Institute (API) correction method used to make volume corrections varies depending on the product.

14. (Optional) To track the hourly, daily, monthly, yearly and total Indicated Volume (IV) and Gross Standard Volume (GSV) counters for the virtualflowcomputer record and the associated accumulators, select the Enable Periodic Aggregation checkbox. The state of this checkbox affects aggregations in the RealTime database as well as the Historical database. For more details on VFC Periodic Aggregation, see Understand VFC Periodic Aggregation.

    Notes: If this checkbox is left cleared, the system will not update VFC Aggregation fields in the RealTime tables and no records will be sent to the Historical database.
    If this checkbox is selected in the middle of an aggregation period (for example, the middle of the hour), aggregation will start volume accumulation from this point on. It will not take into consideration volume that had flown before the configuration was enabled.
    If this checkbox is cleared in the middle of an aggregation period, aggregation fields will stop volume accumulation from this point on, but the already accumulated volume will still be sent to the Historical database and reset at the end of the period.
    The inhibit state of a virtualflowcomputer record has no impact on whether its aggregated values are sent to Historical. This is entirely determined by whether VFC Periodic Aggregation is enabled.

15. (Optional) If the Enable Periodic Aggregation checkbox is selected, do one of the following:

    • Select the Use Group Top of Day Hour checkbox if you want the VFC to use the top of day configured at the Group level using the Separate Top of Day (TOD) and Averages Rollup application, rather than the Top of Day Hour configured on the virtualflowcomputer record itself.

      For detailed information on the Separate TOD and Averages Rollup feature, refer to Volume 1 of the AVEVA Enterprise SCADA RealTime Administrator Guide documentation.

      Note: If the Use Group Top of Day checkbox is selected, the VFC looks for a groupTOD record associated with the Group field. Therefore, assigning a Group to the VFC with a valid GroupTOD attached to it is mandatory, or the ADE post validator will throw an error when saving.

    • In the Top of Day Hour field, enter the hour of the day (HH) for TOD to occur for the record. The Top of Day Hour field is unavailable for editing when the Use Group Top of Day checkbox is selected.

      This is entered as a number from 0 to 23. Midnight is zero.

16. (Optional) In the Pipeline Name field, click (...) to select the batch track region associated with this virtualflowcomputer record. This field is for information only and has no effect on Virtual Flow Computer or Batch Tracking processing.

17. (Optional) In the Batch Id field, enter an alphanumeric identifier to attach to batches associated with this virtualflowcomputer record. If a Batch Id is not specified, the system will default to using the Name of the source virtualflowcomputer record for the Batch Id.

18. From the Assignment dropdown, select one of the following pipeline state types:

    • Fixed — The role the virtualflowcomputer record plays for the batch tracking pipeline does not change.

    • Variable — The role the virtualflowcomputer record plays for the batch tracking pipeline changes depending on the state of the status or multistate point.

19. Depending on the Assignment value selected, do one of the following:

    1. If the Assignment selected is Fixed, from the Fixed Assignment dropdown, select one of the following the virtualflowcomputer record roles:

       • Receipt

       • Delivery

       • Enroute

       • Pseudo

       • None

         For more information on the different Assignment types, see Understand Virtual Flow Computer (VFC) task assignment for Batch Tracking purposes.

    2. If the Assignment selected is Variable, do the following:

       1. In the Assignment Config Path field, click (...) to select the path to the status or multistate point associated with this virtualflowcomputer record.

       2. Select State Configuration to display the State Configuration dialog.

          

          The State Configuration dialog enables you to map each message set entry on the selected status or multistate point to a pipeline task state.