The database consists of a hierarchy, where each level of the hierarchy contains tables that are specific to that level. The highest level of the hierarchy is the Admin schema. On the next level of the hierarchy, there is a Domain schema for each domain you initialize in the database. For an engineering company domain, the hierarchy can be represented as follows:
Within each domain, there are plant hierarchy levels. By default, each domain has three levels as follows: <plant>, <area>, and <unit>. When you perform an upgrade, the Admin schema is updated first, then the software prompts you to upgrade domains (one domain at a time).
The following table shows most common types of data you can define at each level of the hierarchy:
Level |
Table Data Included |
Note |
---|---|---|
Admin schema |
Users, user groups, naming conventions, access rights |
|
Domain schema |
instrument types and other supporting tables, spec forms, reference wiring data |
|
<Plant> |
Wiring data, custom fields |
|
<Area> |
None |
Used as a container only |
<Unit> |
Loops, instruments |
The software checks uniqueness at the <unit> level |
There is a connection between the data settings at each level of the plant hierarchy, for example, an instrument tag includes data from various tables at the following levels:
-
COMPONENT table (contains instruments) at the <unit> level
-
Supporting tables at the domain level
-
PD_GENERAL table (contains process functions, such as pressure, flow, temperature, and so forth) at the <unit> level
-
SPEC_SHEET_DATA table (contains specification data) at the <unit> level