Customizing VlvMotL Block Icons in PCS 7 WinCC Faceplates

Customizing VlvMotL Block Icons in PCS 7 WinCC Faceplates

The standard Siemens PCS 7 VlvMotL (Valve Motor, Large) block from the Advanced Process Library (APL) provides a fixed set of inputs, outputs, alarms, and faceplate views designed for pneumatically or motor-operated valves. In real plant retrofits and brownfield integrations, however, the field device frequently exposes additional status information that is not modelled in VlvMotL. Typical examples include Valve Jammed, Loss of Control, Torque Alarm, Number of Operations, Operating Hours, and Remote Feedback. These tags often arrive in the controller over Foundation Fieldbus, PROFIBUS PA, HART multiplexers, or hard-wired I/O.

This reference describes four engineering methods to surface these extra signals inside the WinCC Runtime faceplate of an existing VlvMotL instance: (1) APL multi-instance faceplate, (2) SelFp1 / SelFp2 select-faceplate jumpers, (3) a derived custom block type, and (4) the Industry Library JumDistributor. The article assumes PCS 7 V9.0 SP2 or later with APL V9.0, WinCC Runtime Professional V16/V17, and the CFC editor from the SIMATIC Manager or PCS 7 engineering toolset.

1. Prerequisites and Toolchain

Before customizing VlvMotL faceplates, verify the following engineering station and runtime prerequisites.

For Foundation Fieldbus integration, confirm that the FF block is imported into CFC as an instance and that its outputs (e.g. VALVE_JAMMED, TORQUE_ALM, OP_TIME, OP_COUNT, RMT_FBK, CTRL_LOSS) are available as chart I/O or as interconnected output pins.

2. Architecture of the Standard VlvMotL Block

The APL VlvMotL block exposes a fixed I/O interface. The signals relevant for motor status extensions are summarised in the table below.

The faceplate @PG_VlvMotL_Preview renders standard values from the FB and exposes operator buttons Open, Close, Stop, and a Maintenance view. The Messages view already lists ExtMsg1 to ExtMsg3 as configurable external messages; the Trends view can be extended with ExtVa104 through ExtVa106.

3. Topology of the Customization

The diagram below shows the four available integration paths. The signal source is typically a Foundation Fieldbus transducer block (TB) or a motor management relay (SIRIUS 3UF7, SIMOCODE pro) that exposes the diagnostics.

4. Method 1 — Reusing ExtMsg and ExtVa Inputs

The fastest, lowest-risk path is to wire the new diagnostics into the spare pins of the unmodified VlvMotL. This avoids any new block type and any change to the faceplate *.plf graphic.

4.1 Step-by-step procedure

1. Open the CFC chart that contains the VlvMotL instance.
2. Click the ExtMsg1 input and select Interconnection to Address or wire it to the corresponding FF output, for example:
   ExtMsg1 := "MOT_001".VALVE_JAMMED
3. Map the remaining digital alarms:
   ExtMsg2 := "MOT_001".CTRL_LOSS
ExtMsg3 := "MOT_001".TORQUE_ALM
4. Map the analog signals to the spare ExtVa inputs:
   ExtVa104 := "MOT_001".OP_HOURS   (REAL, h)
   ExtVa105 := "MOT_001".OP_COUNT   (REAL, dimensionless)
   ExtVa106 := "MOT_001".RMT_FBK   (REAL 0/1, scaled)
5. In the block instance properties of VlvMotL, set the External Messages and External Values text attributes to descriptive strings, e.g. "Valve Jammed", "Operating hours [h]".
6. Compile the OS, transfer, and verify in WinCC Runtime that the Messages and Trends tabs of the faceplate show the new entries.

4.2 Attribute text examples

The APL block reads free-text attributes that you configure on the instance. The example below is what the operator will see in the alarm line and trend legend.

5. Method 2 — Select Faceplate (SelFp1 / SelFp2)

When an additional tag already has a fully engineered APL faceplate (for example the MotSpd block, the OpHrs block, or a custom Counter block), the operator can open that faceplate from inside the VlvMotL faceplate. The mechanism uses the SelFp1 and SelFp2 inputs of the standard APL block.

5.1 Wiring the SelFp inputs

On the VlvMotL instance, open the Inputs tab. The two select faceplate inputs accept any block instance address whose faceplate is registered with the OS picture tree.

1. Create the OpHrs block instance in the same CFC chart as the VlvMotL (or in a sibling chart of the same unit). Example chart name: UNIT_101 / MOT_001_OPHRS.
2. Wire VlvMotL.SelFp1 to the OpHrs instance address:
   SelFp1 := "UNIT_101"."MOT_001".OPHRS
3. Wire the operating hours value into the OpHrs block:
   OPHRS.Value := "MOT_001".OP_HOURS
4. Repeat for the cycle counter and the motor protection block:
   SelFp2 := "UNIT_101"."MOT_001".CYCCNT
5. Compile OS, perform picture tree update. The faceplate Standard view will show a new button labelled with the user-defined text of the SelFp configuration.

5.2 SelFp button behaviour

The faceplate Additional Views section will display one button per used SelFp input. Clicking the button opens a new faceplate window at runtime, with full operator authorization scope inherited from the parent VlvMotL instance.

6. Method 3 — Custom Block Type with Multi-Instance Faceplate

This is the canonical method described in the APL Styleguide. A custom FB is generated that contains the VlvMotL as a multi-instance (static instance) together with one or more "shadow" FBs that hold the extra signals. A single custom faceplate renders all values.

6.1 Step-by-step procedure

1. In the S7 program, create a new FB (e.g. FB1180 "VlvMotLDia") with the following data layout:
   

   FUNCTION_BLOCK VlvMotLDia
   VAR
     VlvMotL_inst : VlvMotL;     // static instance of APL block
     OpHrs_inst   : OpHrs;       // runtime counter
     CycCnt_inst  : CycCnt;      // operations counter
     Jam          : BOOL;        // digital alarm 1
     CtrlLoss     : BOOL;        // digital alarm 2
     TorqueAlm    : BOOL;        // digital alarm 3
     RmtFbk       : BOOL;        // remote feedback
   END_VAR

2. Inside VlvMotLDia, copy the input / output / static variable interface of the original VlvMotL into a new chart interface so that CFC chart I/O appears on the wrapping chart.
3. Add chart I/Os for the extra diagnostics. Use the same symbol naming convention as the plant standard: JAM_AH, CTRL_LOSS, TRQ_ALM, OPHRS_PV, CYCCNT_PV, RMT_FBK.
4. Compile the FB as a block type using Block > Compile > Type in the SIMATIC Manager. Provide the FB number, version, and attribute flags:

6.2 Building the custom faceplate

1. Open WinCC Graphics Designer and copy the standard faceplate @PG_VlvMotL_Preview.pdl to a new name, e.g. @PG_VlvMotLDia_Preview.pdl.
2. Insert additional APL Status Display and APL Bar Graph objects in the Standard view, configured to the new structure elements: Jam, TorqueAlm, OpHrs_inst.Value, CycCnt_inst.Value, RmtFbk.
3. Update the variable mapping in the property dialog: Configuration > Tag > Linked Structure > VlvMotLDia.
4. Insert an additional APL Message Line in the Messages view that references the new digital alarms with their own message class (e.g. AH_Valve for jam, AH_Drive for torque).
5. Save the faceplate and register it in the OS picture tree under the parent Motors / Valves node.

6.3 Compiling the OS

1. In PCS 7, open the OS project and select OS > Compile OS. Activate the option Update picture tree from plant view.
2. Watch the compilation log for warnings such as "No faceplate found for type VlvMotLDia". This indicates a missing or misnamed *.plf / *.pdl file.
3. Transfer the OS to the target server, then start the runtime and verify the new faceplate opens without "Type unknown" errors.

7. Method 4 — Industry Library JumDistributor (SelFp Jump-Distribution)

The Industry Library (IL) is a paid PCS 7 add-on. One of its blocks, JumDistributor, can call up to five child faceplates from a single parent faceplate via a configurable jump list. It is functionally similar to SelFp but supports runtime reordering and per-jump authorisation levels.

The Industry Library documentation, page 132 of the function manual, lists the available SelFp variants and the operator authorisation matrix that the JumDistributor enforces.

8. Mapping the Requested Diagnostic Tags

The original engineering request listed six specific tags. The mapping below shows which method covers which tag, and the recommended interconnect.

For the analog values (operations counter, operating hours), the APL trend object can be embedded directly in the faceplate by mapping the trend to ExtVa104 (operating hours) and ExtVa105 (operations). A sample CFC snippet that converts an FF counter pulse to an engineering unit is shown below.

// CFC code (structured text excerpt) for cycle counter
IF "MOT_001".CYC_PULSE AND NOT "latch_prev" THEN
    "UNIT_101"."MOT_001".CYCCNT.VALUE := "UNIT_101"."MOT_001".CYCCNT.VALUE + 1.0;
    "latch_prev" := TRUE;
ELSE
    IF NOT "MOT_001".CYC_PULSE THEN
        "latch_prev" := FALSE;
    END_IF;
END_IF;

9. Verification and Acceptance Test

Run the following checks before signing off the customization. Each row must be ticked in the FAT/SAT protocol.

10. Troubleshooting Matrix

11. Performance and Lifecycle Considerations

Each additional SelFp target increases the runtime memory footprint of the OS faceplate cache by approximately 4 to 8 KB per instance. For plants with several thousand valves, prefer Method 1 (ExtMsg / ExtVa) and avoid the multi-instance faceplate for the bulk of I/O. Reserve the custom block type for critical assets such as ESD valves and high-cycle modulating drives.

The Foundation Fieldbus block driver from the Fieldbus Integration catalog of PCS 7 must be re-imported whenever the field device firmware is updated. After import, recompile the CFC chart, then re-compile the OS to refresh the picture tree.

12. Frequently Asked Questions