Retrieve data using watch sets

The easiest and most flexible way to retrieve data from AVEVA Unified Supply Chain is via watch sets. These allow you to retrieve any specific value from your solution, to review it in AVEVA Unified Supply Chain or in Microsoft Excel.

Note: Watch sets are not available in the scheduling environment.

View your watch sets

To view your watch sets, open the Watch window by clicking the icon in the Home ribbon tab.

You can move and dock these windows independently within your workspace.

The Watch window grid supports all the features described in Advanced Grids. The only difference is that access to these features is via a toolbar rather than the ribbon:

• Manage columns by clicking the Column Customisation icon .

• Find items by clicking the Grid Find icon .

• Select views via the Views drop-down menu.

• Save custom views by clicking the Save as New icon . Once you have saved a custom view with a new name, the Save icon becomes available to save further changes to the custom view.

• Delete a custom view by clicking the icon.

Create and manage watch sets

You can create a new watch set, or delete an existing one, in the Manage watch sets dialog. To open it, click the cogwheel icon in the toolbar.

Note: If the check box in the Analytic column is selected, it means that the watch set is being used in an analytic, and therefore cannot be deleted.

Copy and paste watch sets

You can copy and paste watch sets across cases, or within the same case, from the Manage watch sets window.

Follow these steps:

1. Open the Manage watch sets window in the case you want to copy watch sets from.

2. Select the watch sets you want to copy.

3. Click the Copy to clipboard icon on the toolbar.

4. If you want to paste the watch sets into another case, switch to that case and open the Manage watch sets window.

5. Click the Paste from clipboard icon on the toolbar. The watch sets are pasted to the list.

When you copy and paste a watch set across cases, AVEVA Unified Supply Chain keeps all the watch items that can be applied to the destination case, and discard the rest.

Add items to a watch set

To add a watch item to the current set, select the item to add from the list in the Object Browser and do one of the following:

• Right click the item and choose Add from the context menu.

• Click the icon in the Object Browser toolbar.

• Drag the required item to the watch set.

If an item has children, all of the children are added to the watch set.

After adding the watch items, review the Watch window to ensure that all the required values are displayed. You can change the UoM for a variable by selecting the required unit in the UoM column.

By default, values may only be shown in the default units of measure, for example, mass basis. To show values in other bases, add the basis using the Object Browser Options tab. For example, if you can only see mass-based flows, add the volume-based flow option.

By default, stream properties are not shown. To show stream properties, select Properties in the Object Browser Options tab.

For Base + Delta process units, the only properties listed for inputs and outputs are those that have been added as drivers or predictions to the process model. Configure the process model in the Model Structure tab of the Process Units page.

Constraints and results in watch sets

Watch sets can contain both constraints and results:

• Constraints are values that you have somehow explicitly limited in the model. The linked watch item allows you to view the constraint's solution value, as well as update the constraint's activity as well as minimum and maximum.

• Results are solution values that are calculated as a result of the model's underlying structure. The linked watch item allows you to view the result's solution value only.

  

You can interact with constraints in the Watch Set by changing their values and viewing the result of your change after another optimization. Solution results can only be reviewed - you can not directly interact with their Watch Items, and they will only change if another constraint is changed and the model is re-optimized.

Every constraint row in the model also has a matching result row somewhere.

For example, there is implicitly a result value for the flow to a distillate hydrotreater, as a hydrotreater within the topology must have a result value (even if it's zero), then you can always view the solution as this is calculated post-optimization.

However, you may also choose to write a constraint on the flow to the distillate hydrotreater. The process unit result row still exists, but now there is also an explicit mathematical constraint on the flow which can also separately be added to a watch set. You can interact with the constraint's structure, and set its minimum and maximum via the watch set, because this is a control point for optimization. You cannot do the same with the result value.

Manage views

You can save the layout of the columns in the Watch window as a View. This allows you to quickly switch between different column configurations.

View definitions store the positions and visibility statuses of columns and bands. Column widths and sorting are not saved as part of a view.

There are two types of views:

• System: predefined views that cannot be modified or deleted.

• User: views created by you. You can edit and remove these views, and add new ones.

To switch to a different view, select it from the View drop-down menu in the Watch window toolbar.

To create a new view, modify an existing one first. Follow these steps:

6. Modify the current view as desired by moving, hiding and restoring columns and bands. See the Manage Columns topic for information on table columns and bands, and how to customize them.

   Note: If you add a column band with no columns in it, the column band will not be retained even if you save the view. You must add at least one column to the column band.

7. Click the Save as icon () in the toolbar. The Name dialog window appears.

8. Enter a name for the new view and click OK. The new view is created in the User group, and becomes the active one.

To edit a user view:

9. Make sure that the view you want to edit is the active one. The view's name should appear in the View drop-down menu of the Watch window toolbar.

10. Modify the view as desired.

11. Click the Save icon () in the toolbar. Your changes to the view are saved.

To delete a user view:

12. Make sure that the view you want to delete is the active one. The view's name should appear in the View drop-down menu of the Watch window toolbar.

13. Click the Delete icon () in the toolbar. The view is immediately deleted.

Exporting User Views

You can export user views to share them with other users. To export a user view:

14. Select the User View to export

15. Click the Export grid configuration to a file icon to save the view as a .json text file

To import a view from colleague:

16. Click the Import grid configuration from a file icon

17. Select the .json file shared by a colleague and click Open to import

Imported views can be used in any Supply Chain model.

Filter the List of Watch Variables

You can filter the Watch list using the icon. This filter dialog supports searching the Name and Formula fields.

Once you have filtered the list, click the icon to remove the filtered-out items from the Watch Set. Alternatively, right click on the list and choose Remove Filtered items from the context menu.

Tip:

You cannot change the order or Watch Items when the list is sorted.

You can only move the order of Watch Items in the list when the list is not sorted or filtered. Watch Item order depends on their index relative to their neighbors and sorting and filtering temporarily changes this. If this list is sorted or filtered, you must clear this before the items can be ordered.

To clear any sorting, right-click on the header and select Clear Sorting; to clear any filtering, right-click on an item in the watch set and select Remove Filtered Items.

Warning: The order of Watch Items is important. Items can be sorted and grouped within the Watch Window, but when the Watch Set is accessed via the Excel Add-In, the items appear in Excel in the same order as they appear in the Watch Set. Thus if you've used formula linking in Excel, and then change the order of Watch Items, the formula links in Excel will no longer be valid, which will lead to potentially unexpected behavior if using Excel to publish results.

Create watch set reports

You can export your watch sets to Excel, to create simple column-based reports:

• Export to Excel: exports the currently selected watch set to a new Excel workbook.

• Export all sets to Excel: exports all of the available watch sets to a new Excel workbook where each set is placed in a new worksheet.

  

The data in watch sets can also be accessed and, where appropriate, updated via the Excel Add-In.