OPC-UA Interface Guide (Press Emulator)

Press Emulator v4.8.5741.0, Copyright (c) 2023 Global Graphics Software. All rights reserved.

Overview

The Press Emulator allows a user to emulate the performance of a printing press.

When the Open Platform Communications (OPC) server in Press Emulator is enabled an OPC node tree is published.
The nodes in this tree represent grouped areas of state and functionality.

Default address: opc.tcp://localhost:26742/spc-pressemulator

Certificates

Communication between OPC UA clients and servers require both parties to possess their own application certificate. To enable further communication each party must trust the opposing certificate. This trust can be established automatically, programmatically or manually depending on the application's configuration or implementation.
The certificate for SPC can be found in %programdata%\\Global Graphics Software Ltd\\Press Emulator\\App Certificates\\certs should you need to copy it to the Trusted Peer Certificate folder. In this release it will be a Self Signed Certificate issued by and for Smart Print Controller.

OPC Methods

Many published OPC method nodes return a String value indicating their success or error state. In all such cases a check for Success will indicate success, and any other value is an error.

Any methods returning data (E.g. JSON, comma-separated values, ...) will be explicitly documented. Callers should check the format of the returned data to see if the call succeeded (otherwise one of the above errors may be returned).

Any methods listed in this documentation include details about their required parameters (if any), and return value.

In the event of an error, please see the application log file for more information.

OPC Client Library

The following documentation provides guidance on using the Traeger Industry Components GmbH OPC client library for software developers working with Press Emulator.

Configuring Custom Message Sizes

The default maximum message sizes used by OPC clients to communicate to the server are sufficient for most use cases. However, to ensure transfer of larger data packets (such as retrieving some job thumbnail images) it may be necessary to configure the OPC client with custom values.

For example:

	Client = new OpcClient();
	Client.Transport.MaxArrayLength = 1024 * 1024 * 50;
	Client.Transport.MaxBufferSize = 1024 * 1024 * 50;
	Client.Transport.MaxMessageSize = 1024 * 1024 * 50;
	Client.Transport.MaxStringLength = 1024 * 1024 * 50;

See here for more information.

Adjusting Communication Timeouts

OPC clients regularly verify the responsiveness of the connection to the OPC server. However, in certain circumstances where the system is under heavy load, maintaining a responsive connection might not always be possible. To mitigate potential issues under such conditions, it is recommended to increase the default communication timeouts.

The example below demonstrates how to adjust the default values:

	var defaultTimeOut = (int)TimeSpan.FromMinutes(10).TotalMilliseconds;
	Client = new OpcClient
	{
	    // Don't auto-disconnect - Dispose the client to explicitly disconnect.
	    DisconnectTimeout = int.MaxValue,
	    KeepAlive = { Interval = defaultTimeOut },
	    SessionTimeout = defaultTimeOut,
	    OperationTimeout = defaultTimeOut,
	    ReconnectTimeout = defaultTimeOut
	};

Please note that the provided examples serve as illustrations, and it's important to tailor the configuration to your specific requirements.

PressEmulatorSet

The top-level set containing all available OPC nodes.

Immediately underneath this root-level node are a categorized collection of sub-nodes, each encapsulating a different area of behavior.

PressEmulator

State relating to the Press Emulator.

Properties

Methods