Application navigator as an alternative to the project explorer

The Application Navigator →view (alias just "application navigator") is an alternative to the project explorer of Neuron Power Engineer. The application navigator provides a different view onto the →projects, →folders and →objects. Use the application navigator as you use the project explorer to create projects, folders, objects and to open them for editing.

A typical application navigator looks as follows:

The application navigator is visible, if you open the →perspective Application Creating (Application Navigator).
If the application navigator is not visible in your Neuron Power Engineer, you can add it to the current perspective: Select Window – Show View – Other – Other... – Application Navigator.  

In this article:

Components of application navigator 

Resources in application navigator 

The application navigator displays the resources similar to the project explorer. The following table is only listing the different resources.

Icon of resource

Name of resource

Meaning

configuration-name

→configuration

Difference to the project explorer

  • The application navigator does not display PLC-objects (with icon ) that you might know from the project explorer.
    Instead, configuration, resource, task and instance from a PLC-object are displayed without the level of the PLC-object.The advantage is that you are able to manipulate these elements directly within the application navigator (e.g. renaming the configuration) without having to open the PLC-object.

  • If the configuration contains a configuration of the safety-relevant hardware devices as parameters, the application navigator displays SafeNODEs as a subfolder of the configuration. This subfolder SafeNODEs contains an item with the icon for which you are able to start the safety parameter editor.

resource-name

IEC-resource; see →resource

task-name

→task

instance-name

instance of the →program

folder name

a namespace folder
See "Turning a folder into a namespace folder" for information on creating a namespace folder.

folder name

a USING instruction (usually included below a namespace folder)
See "Assigning USING for accessing a different namespace folder" for information on creating a namespace folder.

The following resources already exist within the application navigator after you have created a project:

Resource (with icon)

Meaning

Application

folder with →POUs, →interfaces, →data types and global-objects from the project

Difference to the project explorer

  • The application navigator does not display ST-objects (with icon ), FBD-objects (with icon ) and LD-objects (with icon ) that you might know from the project explorer.
    Instead, the folders Libraries, Project blocks and Variants contain the elements from these objects but without the level of the object itself. The advantage is that you are able to manipulate these elements directly within the folders Project blocks and Variants (e.g. renaming a POU) without having to expand or open the object.

  • A data type element contains an additional piece of information after the name of the data type. This piece of information indicates the type of the data type:

    Information

    Type of the data type

    (base-type)
    Example: (BOOL)

    directly →derived data type

    (DTNV:base-type)

    data type with named values (also identified as →enums)

    (ARRAY)

    ARRAY data type

    (STRUCT)

    →struktured data type

  • If the object is declared in a namespace and this object is not located in a namespace folder, the application navigator displays a namespace behind the name of the object in (). Example: The item Motor1 (myPOUs)indicates that the  object Motor1 is declared within the namespace myPOUs.

 

Libraries

folder with →libraries

Templates

folder with templates, if they are located under the folder templates
Usually, templates are objects for the application (e.g. ST-/FBD-objects) that are not mature enough. The additional decorator  behind the object name informs that the object is a template.

The purpose of the templates

Neuron Power Engineer does not check/validate the content of the template and does not report any errors, problems, or rule violations for them (e.g. in the Problems view). The advantage is that you can prepare some content – without being "disturbed" by reported errors, problems, or rule violations. Exception: If a template is opened in an editor, rule violations are reported by a validation. As soon as the editor for the template is closed, the messages are removed from the view.
Restriction: You cannot use objects in these templates (e.g. an ST function block) in the application. If you try to do so anyway, the usage will be reported as an error in the Problems view.

If Neuron Power Engineer should not check/validate an object: Drag the resource from the respective folder within the application folder into the default folder Templates of the project.
Alternative: Open the context menu of the object and select the command Move to "Templates". In this case, the current folder structure of the object is considered. Example: If you move an object from Application\src\Motor01\ by using the command, Templates will contain the object in its sub-folder src\Motor01\

If you want to use the object in the application, drag the resource from the Templates folder of the project to another folder.
Alternative: Open the context menu of the object under Templates and select the command Move from "Templates". In this case, the current folder structure of the object is considered. Example: If you move an object from Templates\src\Ready\Motor02\ by using the command, Application will contain the object in its sub-folder src\Ready\Motor02\
Result: Neuron Power Engineer checks/validate the content of this resource. If errors, warnings, or rule violations are reported, fix them accordingly so that you can use the object in the application without errors, warnings, or rule violations.

See "Moving resources" how to drag an object from the original location to the new location.

Variants

folder with local variants

Sources for configurationand
Sources for resource

folder with POUs, interfaces and data types from the project, if they are located under the folder src\configuration-name and src\configuration-name\resource-name respectively

Configuration-Global Variables and
Resource-Global Variables

→global variables that are declared within a configuration or resource or within a global-object (in case of the required reference to the GLOBALS section)
Details: see "Declaring global variables for resource or configuration and using them" and "Creating global variables for the application within the global-variables-editor"

Context menu for application navigator

Right-clicking inside the application navigator opens a context menu. This context menu allows you to perform actions, such as copying, moving, creating resources. See "Actions in application navigator" for details.

Toolbar for application navigator

The application navigator also provides a toolbar with buttons to speed up your work in the application navigator. See "Project explorer to manage project" for these possibilities.

Actions in application navigator 

The application navigator provides actions to create, copy, move resources that are also provided in the project explorer. See "Actions with projects/resources".

Enhancements for the application navigator

 

More notes/restrictions