The invention provides, in some aspects, improved apparatus for configuring a
control system. The apparatus includes a model made up of objects representing devices of such a
system, including, at least one device that defines and / or controls communications on at least a portion of a network within that
system. That device is referred to, here, as a “
bus master” and the portion of the network is referred to as a “segment.” The object (or objects) representing the
bus master can include information defining timings, port assignments and / or other aspects of the configuration of the segment. A download service transfers configuration information from objects in the model to devices in the
control system. This includes transferring to the
bus master communications configuration information for the segment. A download service according to this aspect of the invention generates—e.g., for
logging by a
change tracking system—indicia of the configuration information transferred to the bus master. The download service can likewise generate for
logging (by the
change tracking system) information transferred from the model to other devices in
control system. The invention provides improved apparatus for configuring a control system that includes a model that is made up of one or more objects representing one or more devices in the system. The objects have parameters reflecting characteristics of the devices represented by the respective objects. At least one of those parameters is associated with a “track” attribute indicating whether at least selected configuration information transferred from that object to the respective device in the control system is to be logged to a
change tracking system. A download service transfers configuration information from objects in the model to devices in the control system. Those downloads can go directly to the respective devices or can go indirectly, e.g., via other devices in the control system (such as controllers,
field bus modules, and so forth). Regardless, the download service according to this aspect of the invention generates for
logging by the change
tracking system indicia of that transferred configuration information. Generation of those indicia is governed, at least in part, by the “track” attribute associated with one or more of the parameters with which the transferred information is associated.