OPC Export

This article covers the following topics:

• OPC Export background information
• OPC Export format
• Available Data Types

OPC Export background information

An OPC Export contains a subset of the available ETS project data, this limitation applies both on Data Types as on the Group Address structure (only 2 and 3 level is possible). About the Data Types see this table below.

The OPC export feature is since the release of ETS4 no longer maintained (e.g. add new Datapoint Types). One reason is the backward compatibility with existing tool chains, which explicitly expect the ETS3 OPC format.

All project data (including the Group Addresses) can be obtained from the ETS project file (.knxproj). The description of a '.knxproj' file can be found here.

ETS licensing is not checked when triggering the OPC export. Therefore, any project size can be OPC-exported.

OPC Export format

An OPC export can be triggered via the menu 'Export Project' from the projects' main menu and then save the project as 'OPC Export'.

An OPC export creates two files:

1. An ESF (.esf) file that lists the involved Group Objects + related details
2. A PHD (.phd) file that lists the involved Individual Addresses

The character code of both these files is based on ASCII, i.e. on the Windows code page of the PC (e.g. CP-1252 or ISO 8859-1).

ESF File

• The first line indicates the ETS project name.
• The involved Group Addresses of the ETS project are listed from the second line onward, whereby the format for such a line is as follows:

[Main Group Address Name].[Middle Group Address Name].[Group Address Number] [TAB] [Group Address Name] [TAB] [Data Type] [TAB] [Priority] [TAB] [Connected Group Addresses]

Example:

ETS Project

And here is the correlation between the OPC export and the ETS Project

• [Group Address Number] is a number separated by '/' (coded as \0x20). It is listed only once, even it appears several times.
• [Connected Group Addresses] are the Group Addresses that are linked to the same Group Object (in addition to the first mentioned Group Address). This Group Object should have the 'Write flag' set.
• Group Objects that are not assigned to a Group Address are not included in the ESF file.

PHD File

This file contains a list of all involved Individual Addresses of the ETS project (the line break is a carriage return - line feed, coded as \0x0d\0x0a).

1.1.10

1.1.12

1.1.13

...

Available Data Types