Objects¶

What Are Objects

An object is an element that identifies a physical (a motor) or non-physical (a digital alarm) object in the project.

An object has the following characteristics:

can contain variables (see Variables)
can contain other nested objects (for example a motor can contain objects that represent its components)
has attributes that describe it

Example

In the real world, a motor is a mechanical object with specific operational characteristics, e.g. speed, torque, acceleration and power.

In UNIQO, the motor just described is represented with an object (Motor) which contains the variables corresponding to its functional characteristics (Speed, Torque, Acceleration, Power).

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Below is an example of how the same object is structured and displayed in Q Studio:

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Attributes

An object always has the following attributes:

Attribute	Description
BrowseName	Name of the object in the project
Description	Description of the object
Display name	Name of the object, translatable and usually used to be displayed in the interface at runtime
NodeId	Unique identifier, assigned automatically by UNIQO

Object types and instances

An ObjectType is a “model” object from which similar objects will be derived, called instances. However, instances can contain other specific objects and/or variables.

Creating instances is advantageous in terms of speed and consistency, as any changes made to the type are automatically made to the instances.

Important

if an object type is deleted, the instances are also deleted.

Example

Let us consider that we have a machine consisting of two identical motors.

Instead of configuring individual objects for different motors, in UNIQO it is possible to configure the object type Motor with all its functional characteristics (the Speed, Torque, Acceleration and Power variables) and use it to derive multiple instances, in the example Motor1 and Motor2.

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For details on the creation of Object Types and Instances, see Objects and Object Types.

Native and custom object types

The UNIQO default types are defined as native types. These are always available regardless of the project.

The types created within a project by users or by the application logic created are defined as custom types. These types are only available in the project in which they were created.