Industrial Engineer · phase 4 of 16
Structure / UDT
Grouped data type that combines related members under one name.
The Explain card
- Plain English
- A user defined type bundles related values under one name. A motor structure might hold its run command, its running feedback, its fault bit, its current and its hours, and every motor tag is one of those.
- Example
- Pump3 is a Motor UDT. Its run command, running feedback and fault bit all travel together under that one name, and adding a field to the type adds it to every pump at once.
- Why it matters
- UDTs are what make a large project readable and what make reusable function blocks possible. They also cross networks as one block, which is cleaner and faster than a dozen loose tags.
- Hook
- Everything about one thing, in one tag.
Where it sits in the deck
Phase 4: PLC Memory, Tags, and Instructions
The data a program moves and the instructions that move it, from a single true or false value up to a structured array.
