Reference Item names in Equipment editor?

Nick,

BOOL_19 is actually the item name in your example. So your tag name should look like

{equipment.IODEVICE}_HGC_BOOL_19. 

Hope this would be helpful.

~jacky

Jacky,

Bool_19, yes, is my item name. I'm trying to avoid having to re-type/paste it into the Tagname and Address field. 
So i'd like to find a syntax to be {equipment.IODEVICE_HGC_PRM_{equipment.itemName} for the tagname

And {equipment.IODEVICE}HGC.PRM.{equipment.ItemName} for the PLC address. 

The idea is, if I make 1 item, then simply, duplicate the item and rename it to the item name i want, which matches with the PLC address, I can cut down alot of time adding items/tags. 

This is a control logix PLC with ALOT of UDT's. 

Jacky,

Bool_19, yes, is my item name. I'm trying to avoid having to re-type/paste it into the Tagname and Address field. 
So i'd like to find a syntax to be {equipment.IODEVICE_HGC_PRM_{equipment.itemName} for the tagname

And {equipment.IODEVICE}HGC.PRM.{equipment.ItemName} for the PLC address. 

The idea is, if I make 1 item, then simply, duplicate the item and rename it to the item name i want, which matches with the PLC address, I can cut down alot of time adding items/tags. 

This is a control logix PLC with ALOT of UDT's. 

This is a great idea, Nick Dacek .  I don't think it's possible at the moment, though I would love to be proven wrong.  It is in the spirit of DRY programming (as opposed to WET) which I wholeheartedly endorse, having created many templates with similar patterns and had quite a few hard to track down bugs because of this.  Perhaps you could suggest it at https://citectscada.ideas.aha.io.  I'll vote for it!

Nick,

Item Name doesn't exist in the equipment dbf file so you cannot reference it in the template. In your screenshot, you are actually editing item Bool_19 that is a known value. So you have to duplicate it in both Address and Tag Name fields. Bool_19 will be added as an item name in Variable.dbf when the template is instantiated.

And now would be a good time for this idea as I believe some product development is focusing on equipment right now. I'll vote for it as well.

It's the manual editing he tries to avoid, and that makes sense. A lot of copy-paste errors and typos occur just because of that manual editing. Having a placeholder for the item name makes duplicating items much easier.

Stuart,

I had to lookup WET vs DRY programming. Thank you. I learned something today!

From what I gather from some of the salespeople I've dealt with over the years, they have the mentality that once the PLC code is done, it never changes and thats when the HMI guys do their thing. We've never operated this way and in fact we never could. PLC programmers here need to simulate their code and see how it reacts as the operators would see it react. Generally I dont start developing until their code is 70-80% done, so, while I will have to make changes, they arent drastic. But the biggest pain is always keeping that tagDB up to date. But, we do spend alot of time developing alongside each other making sure we've got a rock solid product we cant stand behind and deliver to our customers.

Whatever little tricks we could get would be beneficial. 

Now once its commissioned, running and proven itself, things rarely change.