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Spanish_Student

Scada software extensions?

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Hello there, as my name says I'm a Student from Spain who is right now dabbling in home automation. I have been assigned to make a presentation about SCADA and while information about the software is plenty I'm having trouble to find the extension it uses to save the configurations of the systems. I don't know if I'm explaining myself properly, english isn't my mother tongue, I mean things like .jpg or .mp3 but for SCADA. Thanks in advance! More questions might come if one again find myself with doubts that wikipedia can't answer.

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Hello,

Each SCADA/HMI would save to whatever file extension it selected. While a some file extension "can" indicate file data content (i.e. txt, bmp, pdf, etc..) it is not required. A file is just a stream of data bytes. The format can be published or not. This applies to all programs that save data to a file.  Any program can create/save to any extension it chooses. A program could save to a bmp extension and work without any problems. Other programs that use the extension to speculate the file data format would not work with the file.

File extensions are only a hint at the file data format.

 

 

 

 

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Yes but what kind of extensions can you select? If you for example are working in controlling the energetic efficiency of an entire building and you using SCADA can control the lights and other peripherals when you have the diagram that controls everything in which extension is it saved? Sorry if I'm making confusing statements, I know pretty little about SCADA

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Any program can create/save to any extension it chooses.

In other words the extension has no importance. It could be saved in any file name extension you can create.

I am unsure why you think the file extension has any relevance. A file extension is a device to allow programs some measure of predicting the file data format but, the extension does not guarantee the file format. Most SCADA/HMI program choose different file name extensions for different files, depending on the content.

If you think all SCADA/HMI use the same file name extension, that is not correct. There is no common data file format or file name extensions for SCADA/HMI applications. 

Edited by Mark-

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Alright thank you, seems like I was confused and wrong since the beginning. Simply my teacher asked me to know the extension that you need to use in case you want to upload a blueprint into the SCADA software, I'll tell him what you told me. 

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1 hour ago, Spanish_Student said:

Simply my teacher asked me to know the extension that you need to use in case you want to upload a blueprint into the SCADA software...

That is not what I read in your initial post or subsequent post.

The question seems to be what graphic file format a SCADA/HMI can import/export. BMP, PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF, WMF, EMF are common. You would need to verify with each SCADA/HMI application as to what graphic file formats it can process, which is different from "...save the configurations of the systems."

Frequently a file is imported and then saved in whatever database/file the program uses. That means the SCADA/HMI may or may not save the imported graphic image in the same format as it was imported.

As to export that also varies.

Most SCADA/HMI graphic screens are not standard static file formats. The graphics are altered when the SCADA/HMI is monitoring the system. So a JPG might be used for the background but, the JPG is not altered to display dynamic data. The changing graphic are, generally, rendered on the screen/window using direct calls to the OS.

 

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Quote

my teacher asked me to know the extension that you need to use in case you want to upload a blueprint into the SCADA software

Most blueprint files can be converted to .bmp or .jpg formats.  If this a requirement for your assignment I would suggest the concept of screen capture. (CTRL+PrtScn).

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