Configure More Meaningful Topics for Clients That Are Easier To Use

Topic aliases for SuiteLink and DDE are automatically generated

By default the access path for an OPC connection is <ChannelName>.<DeviceName> for dynamic tags and for static tags and groups the access path is <ChannelName>.<DeviceName>.<GroupName>.

Automatically created alias names for
topics that can be used in SuiteLink and DDE client applications such as AVEVA InTouch replace the dot with an underscore.

Since those can be quite long depending on your channel, device and group naming conventions, the Alias Map provides the flexibility to create shorter, more meaningful topics for use in any client application.

Configuring a new custom topic alias

The Alias Map should show up in the left-hand tree view in the TOP Server Configuration by default. (If Alias is not visible, go to the View menu and enable Alias.)

Highlighting Alias will display any currently configured aliases. (If you're looking for system-generated aliases and they are not visible, right-click on Alias and select Show auto-generated aliases.)

To create a new alias, simply right-click on Alias and select New Alias.

• Name - This is the topic alias that you will use in your client application.
• Description - This is an optional description for the topic alias.
• Mapped to - This is the channel, device and optional group that the topic alias represents in your project.
• Scan Rate Override (ms) - This overrides the default scan rate specified by SuiteLink and DDE client applications. Leave this at zero to allow the client to control the scan rate.