TwinCAT Building Automation Framework

Medium-sized or large building automation projects require a clear structure and administration of a large quantity of data points, which in most cases are distributed over several Beckhoff controllers. The TwinCAT Building Automation Framework offers support for system integrators during the development and commissioning of such applications.

To this end, all Beckhoff controllers (Industrial PC and/or Embedded PC) and the Bus Terminals and data points are entered in the TwinCAT Building Automation Manager. The links of the Bus Terminals are configured with the standard functions of the PLC program. From this information the configuration program generates and activates the I/O links for all controllers entered in the system.

A further navigation tree contains the structure of the building. A building complex is subdivided into buildings, floors and zones. Each zone may contain different functional units such as lighting, shading, heating, air conditioning, etc. The operator therefore automatically has documentation available that may be helpful for maintenance purposes.

An application program is created based on a PLC library supplied with the TwinCAT Building Automation Framework. The PLC library is structured in such a way that the parameters loaded from the Building Automation Manager into the controller are stored persistently. Specified and documented PLC variables provide an integrated interface that simplifies the connection with higher-level systems. The TwinCAT OPC Server can be used to enable a connection to the control master station, or the TwinCAT web service can be used for access from HTML pages.

The PLC program using this PLC library as a basis can be customised via TwinCAT PLC Control. The standard framework functions can be expanded with special function blocks.

The state of all sensors and actuators can be monitored in the TwinCAT Building Automation Manager. Actuators can also be switched manually.

All Embedded PCs with Windows CE are supported as target systems. The Bus Couplers (BK9000, BK9100 and BK9050) are linked via real-time Ethernet.

Ordering information
TwinCAT Building Automation Framework	Licence for using the TwinCAT Building Automation Framework for development and commissioning of building automation applications. The building automation PLC libraries are included. The Framework requires TwinCAT PLC 2.10 or higher.