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Integrated Development Environment

KAS comes with a powerful Integrated Development Environment (IDE"Integrated development environment" An integrated development environment is a type of computer software that assists computer programmers in developing software. IDEs normally consist of a source code editor, a compiler and/or interpreter, build-automation tools, and a debugger) (commonly named KAS IDE) which provides machine builders with all the necessary tools for designing, programming, configuring, debugging and maintaining machine applications. KAS uses the same interface, tools, and libraries to create applications for various types of KAS controllers (PAC"Programmable Automation Controller" PAC is a compact controller that combines the features and capabilities of a PC-based control system with that of a typical programmable logic controller (PLC). A PAC thus provides not only the reliability of a PLC, but also the task flexibility and computing power of a PC. Additionally, because they function and communicate over popular network interface protocols, PACs are able to transfer data from the machines they control to other machines and components in a networked control system, Programmable Drives)

With the KAS IDE, system engineers can:

Create new application projects using predefined or custom application templates
Define the machine hardware architecture (motion bus, fieldbus, controllers, drives and motors) as well as the machine program (HMI"Human-machine interfaces " Also known as computer-human interfaces (CHI), and formerly known as man-machine interfaces, they are usually employed to communicate with PLCs and other computers, such as entering and monitoring temperatures or pressures for further automated control or emergency response panels, IEC"International Electrotechnical Commission" IEC is a not-for-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies 61131-3 programs and function blocks, motion blocks, profiles and axes) from a centralized Project Explorer which is based on a tree-structure
Develop PLC programs, functions and function blocks using the five IEC 61131-3 programming languages (ST"Structured text" A high-level language that is block structured and syntactically resembles Pascal, IL"Instruction list" This is a low-level language and resembles assembly, FFLD, FBD"Function block diagram" A function block diagram describes a function between input variables and output variables. A function is described as a set of elementary blocks and SFC"Sequential function chart" It can be used to program processes that can be split into steps. The main components of SFC are: - Steps with associated actions - Transitions with associated logic conditions - Directed links between steps and transitions), the IEC 61131-3 standard library and KASFunction Block libraries dedicated to motion, communication and monitoring
Centrally manage all IEC 61131-3 variables with KAS variable dictionary and map logical variables to physical inputs and outputs
Create and organize your own libraries of functions and function blocks
Easily set up HMI panels by means of graphical objects that are part of the HMI control library; and map graphical objects to IEC 61131-3 variables
Graphically design advanced multi-axis relations using Kollmorgen's graphical motion programming environment - also called the Pipe Network - with its tool generating code automatically
Use ultra-fast IEC 61131-3 compiler to validate the syntactical correctness application code
Configure hardware devices via an integrated set of configuration tools (for instance AKD drives, EtherCAT I/O terminals, Profibus, etc.)
Access controller devices to download, start and stop the application, watch log messages and send shell commands to the target device
Debug the application by inserting break points and stepping into the code or by monitoring internal values (IEC 61131-3 variables, motion positions, drive's internal values) directly in the editors or with KAS advanced softscope tool
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