This sample application shows the difference between using the ABCIP driver to read several tags using a Main Driver Sheet compared to reading the tags using Standard Driver Sheets instead.
Main Driver Sheet will create what InduSoft calls VIRTUAL READ GROUPS which in fact are Standard Driver Sheets created automatically by the driver considering the BLOCK SIZE from the protocol.
The only advantage using the STANDARD DRIVER SHEET is that you can control the Read and Write from the Worksheets by trigger.
In the other hand using MAIN DRIVER SHEET means that InduSoft will automatically create all the Standard Drivers Sheets for you based on the protocol block size specs. (if you use SDS, you need to be carefull asking for more data that the protocol can handle, otherwise you'll have block size errors)
The best scenario is to have everything configured on the MAIN DRIVER SHEET (even if you have several PLCs). Then you configure the Simultaneous Driver Request with the Maximum field being how many PLCs you have on your network (and configured on the driver), and the Maximum per Request, would be how many connections each PLC can handle.
The Simulataneous Driver Request will create a separated thread of communication for each PLC if configured that way.
Attention for Recipes (where you need to write all values together), special read priority, special trigger necessity. For those you'd configure all of that on separated STANDARD DRIVER SHEETS.
That would be a rule for almost ALL drivers (pooling protocols).
Specifically for ABCIP (CIP Protocol) there is an advantage, where you can specify the MODE (Physical or Symbolic). The Symbolic implementation was created first, but it is very slow, because all the tag names need to be transferred together in the protocol. So even the TAG NAME size (amount of chars) will affect the communication performance.
After sometime InduSoft introduced the Physical mode (I believe it was on version 10 on), which consists to download the whole tag map, and index all tags in the first communication. Then you are able to communicate with it using IDs instead of the real tag names, which will make InduSoft to be able to send and receive more values in a single request.
The problem with the Physical Mode is that every now and then, Rockwell changes its specs (on newer firmware releases), and the driver will not communicate properly (with that newly released firmware). So we need to open a ticket with InduSoft support with that information (Firmware number used on the PLC) so InduSoft can create test cases for those firmwares. All firmwares tested are described on the Technical References (Driver Help file);
Hopefully I have responded all of your questions! =)
The best documentation on how to setup your ABCIP worksheets is available on your driver help file. You can access the help file by right-clicking the ABCIP driver than HELP. Or if you go to HELP->Communication Drivers->ABCIP and double click it.
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