Control system and method for a technical plant, in particular a production or process plant, includes an operator station server and an operator station client connected to the operator station server, wherein the operator station client, at runtime of the plant, receive an instruction specified by the operator for an operator activity relating to the plant and a condition specified by the operator and which relates to an internal state of the plant for the instruction and transmit them to the operator station server, and the operator station server stores the instruction and condition received from the operator station client in memory and checks whether the condition is met, such that operators can adapt flexibly and efficiently to the operation and monitoring of the plant, particularly if it is formed in a modular manner for plant configurations that change during its life cycle.

Operator System and method for identifying and displaying operator accesses to process objects within the scope of process management and process monitoring such that an efficient coordination of operator accesses is achieved.

A display method includes: displaying, in a first screen area, a line segment indicating a passage of time from start to end of a manufacturing process in each of process, with time axes being aligned in a same direction between the processes, in a state being segmented for each process in order of execution of the process, for each of one or more products manufactured by a manufacturing system; and displaying, in a second screen area, a graph indicating a passage of time from start to end of a manufacturing process, with time axes being aligned in a same direction as time axes in the first screen area, based on information of a start time and an end time of a manufacturing process in one or more manufacturing facilities included in a selected first process among the processes, for each of the manufacturing facilities in the first process.

A computer implemented method of dynamically updating an interactive diagnostic schematic overlay comprises displaying a first drawing comprising a plurality of static graphical objects, each static graphical object corresponding to a design element of a complex system and identifying a diagnostic schematic overlay comprising a plurality of dynamic graphical objects, wherein each dynamic graphical object is aligned with a static graphical object of the plurality of static graphical objects. In an embodiment, the diagnostic schematic overlay further includes a plurality of fields, wherein each field may be populated with one or more dynamic graphical objects, and the method further includes determining a design element operating state and/or a design element operating parameter for at least some of the static graphical objects at a first instance in time and displaying, together with the first drawing, determined operating states and determined operating parameters as an updated diagnostic schematic overlay.

Operator System and method for identifying and displaying operator accesses to process objects within the scope of process management and process monitoring such that an efficient coordination of operator accesses is achieved.

Configuring graphical display views to be presented, at a user interface of an operating environment of a process plant, using multiple graphical display themes includes configuring a display theme object to indicate a plurality of themes via which the display view is able to be presented at the user interface. The display theme object includes a parameter whose value is changeable, within the operating environment, to indicate a desired theme that is to be utilized, and the display theme object is downloaded from the configuration environment into the operating environment. Thus, during runtime, changing the theme via which the graphical display view is presented is achieved without any additional downloads from or communications with the configuration environment. User controls may be provided to an operator to select different themes, and/or to override various visual aspects of themes to achieve optimum visibility. Themes may be automatically changed based on sensed conditions.

Systems and methods for presenting a watch area display view in a process plant are provided. Indications of process control display elements may be presented via a user interface of a computing device executing an operator application in an operating environment of a process plant. The process control display elements may be displayed in a first display region in a display view, with each of the process control display elements corresponding to process parameters. Simultaneously with the first display region, a second display region (not occluding any process control display elements) may be presented in the display view. An indication that a user has selected one of the process control display elements in the first display region for display in the second display region may be received. The one or more process parameters corresponding to the selected process control display element may be displayed in the second display region.

Techniques for configuring layouts and display view hierarchies and presenting display views in an operating environment of a process plant according to the layouts and display view hierarchies include providing graphical user controls at a graphical display configuration application for defining a layout. The layouts indicate a manner in which divide one or several display screens into one or several display regions, where each display region presents a display view that includes indications of process control elements. The graphical display configuration application also includes graphical user controls for defining a display view hierarchy of the display views by assigning levels of detail to the display views and designating some of the display views as subviews of other display views. An operator application obtains the defined layout and display view hierarchy and presents the display views at an operator workstation according to the obtained layout and/or display view hierarchy.

Techniques for presenting historized process parameter values in a process plant include presenting, via a user interface of an operator application, indications of process control elements in a first display region within a layout of a display view. Each of the process control elements is associated with one or more process parameters. The operator application also presents a trend display view in a second display region within the layout of the display view. The trend display view includes sets of historized process parameter values for process parameters presented in the first display region. For example, the trend display view in the second display region is linked to the display view in the first display region. In this manner, the trend display view presents charts or other graphical depictions of historized process parameter values for process parameters included in the first display region.

Techniques for configuring layouts and display view hierarchies and presenting display views in an operating environment of a process plant according to the layouts and display view hierarchies include providing graphical user controls at a graphical display configuration application for defining a layout. The layouts indicate a manner in which divide one or several display screens into one or several display regions, where each display region presents a display view that includes indications of process control elements. The graphical display configuration application also includes graphical user controls for defining a display view hierarchy of the display views by assigning levels of detail to the display views and designating some of the display views as subviews of other display views. An operator application obtains the defined layout and display view hierarchy and presents the display views at an operator workstation according to the obtained layout and/or display view hierarchy.