Creating an HMI Designer Project From iCube Engineer

Version Number	Description
1.0	Initial version

1 Supported Components

Component Name	Version
iC92xx series	≥ 2024.9
iCube Engineer	≥ 2024.9
HMI designer	≥ 4.5.2

2 Solution details

This application note describes the steps to launch a new HMI designer project from iCube Engineer.

See also How to establish OPC UA communication between HMI Designer(Client) and iC9200 Controller(Server) to accomplish the same process with the stand alone version of HMI Designer without automatic synchronization of variables between the two software.

Note:

The auto synchronization of variable described in this application note has (currently) the disadvantage of displaying the structure variable in a list without indentation compare the OPC UA discovery import described in the stand alone application note.

in iCube Engineer 2024.9 (only) the structure communication is not possible with HMI Desginer. See release Notes ID #64822

The advantage of this method compared to the OPC UA discovery is that there is no need to have an active OPC UA server to transfer variable to HMI Designer.

2.1 OPC UA server settings

Create a new project (either from scratch or use a template).
Go to the OPC UA tab under the project tree and change the settings in the “Server Settings” tab as shown in the screenshots below.

Please note:

The variable synchronization only works from iCube Engineer to HMI Designer NOT backwards.
Only the variables with the CheckBox ’OPC’ checked will be synchronised when ’Marked’ was selcted under ’Visibility of variables’.
For safety reasons it is recommended to setup a security policy under security settings, even though from a technical point of view it is not necessary.
Some of the following steps will depend on the settings made here (Server certificate, Security Policies, Application…). In this Application Note we will use the settings as seen in the screenshots above.

Go to the PLC Data List and mark the variables which should be synchronized as ‘OPC’.

Find the ‘HMI Project’ file in the catalog in the ’components’ area and add it to the ‘Plant’ by dragging and dropping it onto the ‘HMI’ node. (Network -> iCube Engineer ->Devices -> Yaskawa -> HMI)

If needed, change the location and the name of the HMI project in the settings tab.

Note: in case the HMI Designer project is saved under another name later. The HMI designer project MUST be saved in a folder called iCube_<project name>, otherwise the new project version will NOT be synchronized with iCube Engineer.

Example: initial project name = "Project1" saved in path "C:\Downloads\iCube_Project1", when saving the HMI designer project with a new name "TestProject", this new HMI Designer project must be saved in a folder called "iCube_TestProject". Example of new path :"C:\Downloads\ iCube_TestProject ".

Write and start the PLC project to the controller.

2.2 Web Based Management

Optional: add new user
Note: Yaskawa recommends adding a new user dedicated for the communication with the HMI. This step is technically not necessary, but much safer.

Edit the user with the following roles:

Certificate Manager
Service
Data Viewer
Data Changer

After creating a new user, log out as admin from the WBM and log in as the new user.

Download the OPC UA self-signed certificate from the identity store. This certificate is required in the HMI designer to connect to the OPC UA server of the iC9200 Controller.

2.3 HMI designer

Open the HMI project from ICE by right click on the HMI – project node in the ‘PLANT’ area and select ‘Open project…’.

The project is not yet existing, so a window will pop up asking if you want to create a new one, click yes to do so.

In ‘HMI Designer’: The project wizard will open automatically. Click ‘Finish’ to create the project.

Setup protocol:

The integration will create an OPC UA protocol for you automatically, we just need to change some settings. To do so, open the configuration of that protocol.
Open the ‘Protocols’ window under ‘Configuration’.
Click on the little rectangle next to the Configuration (see screenshot).
Setup the OPC UA client.

Use the IP Address to connect to the Server.
Select the Security Policy.
Add the OPC UA certificate that was downloaded from the controller in the server certificate field.

Open the ‘Tags’ window. The former created variables can be seen (greyed out).

Mark the variables and click ‘Import Tags’

Note: Variables will be synchronized when:

The name is changed
The datatype is changed
A new variable is created
An existing variable is deleted

To link a Tag to a widget:

Open a page
Add a widget and edit the value:

When clicking the little plus sign in the properties of the widget, the following window will open. Please select the desired variable to display here.

Start simulator:

Click F12 or go to the run tab and click ‘Start Simulator’

After starting the HMI Simulator, go to simulator settings and uncheck the 'Use Simulation' Mode, this will update the tag values to the values shared by the OPCUA Server.