Tutorial
VTScada is a powerful program with many tools, most of which have many options. Fortunately, you don't need to know everything before you start.
This tutorial is designed to show you how to do common tasks in VTScada, learning as you go. While we recommend building the demo application in order according to the tutorial lessons, you don't have to. After you have the simulator running, you can enable the partially-built tag structure and jump in anywhere, trying any feature. Instructions are provided in a demo page within the Sample Pages folder of the simulator application.
After you've seen the basics, follow the links from the tutorial lessons to related documentation topics to learn more.
In addition to this tutorial, there are Trihedral's VTScada training courses. You're welcome to download the manuals and course files from our website and learn on your own. Or, come to one of our classes. You can find a list of upcoming courses on our website at www.trihedral.com.
People ask about that from time to time. A very good option is to watch our how-to videos, which you can find on our website. But, if you're looking for an online course... Well, if it existed, it would look a lot like this tutorial. So, why go online?
First steps:
You should look at VTScada from an operator's point of view before creating applications for them.
Most of VTScada's standard tools will be available in every application, although developers can control the appearance of, and access to those tools.
Before continuing with the topics in this tutorial, please take a few minutes to read the topics within the chapter Operational Controls.
After reviewing the operational controls, you'll be ready to start building an application. To do that, you'll need to know how to use the VAM, as described in the next topic: The VAM (Tutorial)
About the simulation
You might wonder about the source of values for the simulation, or why the demonstration pump cycles on and off automatically. This simulation uses a Modbus driver with virtual I/O addresses. Rather than send values to hardware, it stores the values in a set of variables. Look for it within tags named "Sim-###" that will be created after you have a working connection to the simulation with one or more correctly-configured I/O tags. Code then simulates (roughly) the behavior of pumps that operators can control, and a well or tank with a varying recharge rate.
If something don't work...
There's a chapter to help you figure out a solution: Having trouble? (Tutorial)
Using VTScadaLIGHT?
Fully built, the training application uses 50 tags that count towards your license limit. You can complete all the exercises, so long as you don't also have another application running or enable the demo system tags within the training application. (Or, be sure to disable those demo tags again before building the tutorial.)
Ready to continue? Open The VAM (Tutorial).
