The Integrated Development Environment (IDE) helps device manufacturers create FDI device packages for FF, HART,
PROFIBUS and PROFINET devices. Additional communication protocols have been added over time, such as HART-IP, ISA100, Modbus, and Ethernet/IP.
Essentially, the tool has four components:
- EDDs are created with the help of an editor and converted to the encoded file format by means of “tokenizing” (the binary coding of an EDD).
- The encoded EDD, the UIP developed using Visual Studio, and the attachments are combined to form the FDI Package.
- A runtime environment (RRTE reference host) imports the FDI Packages for developer testing and debugging.
- The test engine is used to automatically run FDI Package conformance tests (DPCTT).
In order to use the IDE to build FDI Device Packages, the user must have a product license. The license may include one or more protocols depending on the purchased options.
The FDI Packages that a device manufacturer creates in this manner are submitted for test and registration by FieldComm Group or PROFIBUS & PROFINET International, together with the respective device hardware.