EtherNet/IP Configuration Tool User Interface

Overview

The Control Expert EtherNet/IP configuration tool user interface presents the following parts:

Main menu

Description area

Workspace area

Devices window

I/O area

Output Message window

The parts of the EtherNet/IP user interface are briefly described below.

Main Menu

The Main menu area consists of:

A main menubar with the following menu items and commands:

Menu item	Contains commands for...
File	file management and printing GUI display selections online / offline operations
Library	managing EDS files in the Device Library
Network	automatic detection of EtherNet/IP network devices online actions, including: explicit messaging pinging network devices commissioning devices via port configuration settings working with automatically detected devices in the Network Detection area
Devices	working with devices in the Devices window, including: displaying devices in the Devices window tree control commissioning devices via port configuration settings creating and configuring CIP connections for devices diagnosing devices
Items	adding, deleting, and renaming inputs and outputs in the I/O area
Help	displaying versioning information of the Control Expert EtherNet/IP configuration tool online help

3 toolbars:

Toolbar	Contains commands that relate to...
Main toolbar	file management and printing GUI display selections
Devices toolbar	working with devices in the Devices window, including: displaying devices in the Devices window tree control commissioning devices creating and configuring CIP connections for devices diagnosing devices online / offline operations
Items toolbar	adding, deleting, and renaming inputs and outputs in the I/O area

Description Area

The Description area describes the EtherNet/IP communication module and its IP address.

Workspace Area

The Workspace area consists of two tabs, containing the:

Device Library, where you can:
- view properties and EDS files for all available EtherNet/IP devices
- add a new device and its EDS file to the Device Library
- delete a device from the Device Library
- manage the display of devices in the Device Library list
- insert a selected device into the configuration in the Devices window
Network Detection area, where you can:
- automatically detect EtherNet/IP devices on the network
- take online actions, including sending explicit messages and pinging network devices
- view properties and EDS files for all available EtherNet/IP devices
- insert a single selected device into the configuration in the Devices window
- insert all detected device into the configuration in the Devices window, replacing all devices in the configuration

You can show or hide the workspace area using the File → Preferences → Workspace command.

Devices Window

The Devices window contains a tree control, containing all devices that have been added to your EtherNet/IP network configuration. In the Devices window, you can:

display and edit the properties of selected EtherNet/IP devices, including:
- EtherNet/IP communication modules
- local slaves
- remote devices
- I/O modules
commission devices
create and configure CIP connections for devices
open the I/O area and display individual inputs and outputs
diagnose device connections

I/O Area

The I/O Area displays the configuration data for each input and output, including the:

name
data type
offset within the device
offset within the connection
address where the I/O data is sent to, or sent from

The I/O area is displayed only when a device I/O connection is selected in the Devices window configuration.

Output Message Window

The Output Message window displays a sortable list of events. The Output Message window can be configured to show or hide each item’s:

date and time
event level:
- informational
- warning
- error