This header is for providing additional information to hugo for the website generation it ignored by asciidoctor

title: "Step 0 - 4diac IDE - Overview" url: doc/tutorials/overview.html page_css_file: /4diac/css/4diac_doc.css layout: "doc-overview" sidebar: - sb-doc ---

Step 0 - 4diac IDE - Overview

This page is part of a guide that gives a walk-through over the major 4diac IDE features.

  1. 4diac IDE Overview (YOU ARE HERE!)

  2. Use 4diac Locally (Blinking tutorial)

  3. Distribute 4diac Applications

  4. Deploy Applications Remotely

  5. Create Your own Function Block Types

  6. Other Basic Features

  7. Advanced Features

  8. Deploying new FBs with the Dynamic Type Loader

  9. Deploying Applications with OPC UA

An overview is presented in this step 0 - about elements, perspectives and preferences of 4diac IDE that you need to know about to use it smoothly.

Starting up 4diac IDE

Open 4diac IDE to start the tutorial. You will be prompted to select or create your workspace. For this tutorial, we name our workspace "Tutorial". A workspace is a folder on your computer that stores one or more 4diac IDE projects.

workspace selection

After you created a workspace, 4diac IDE presents its welcome screen. From here you can:

  • Create New 4diac IDE Project – start a new IEC 61499 project with an Automation System.

  • Import Existing Projects – import 4diac IDE projects from the file system or an archive.

  • Clone Project from GIT Repository – clone an existing 4diac IDE project from a Git repository.

  • Create New 4diac IDE Example Project – start from a ready-made example project.

  • Continue to 4diac IDE – close the welcome page and go directly to your projects.

The right column provides quick access to an Overview, What’s New, and the Tutorials.

welcome screen of 4diac IDE

At first it’s best to uncheck Always show Welcome at start up in the bottom-right corner so that 4diac IDE opens directly to the workbench on subsequent launches. You can open the welcome screen again at any time via Help → Welcome.

4diac IDE Elements

Since 4diac IDE is compliant to the IEC 61499 standard, 4diac IDE provides the standard’s elements for work (you can check here to revise):

  • System System: It contains the System Configuration and its corresponding Applications.

  • Application Application: It contains the desired application in terms of a FB network.

  • Device Device: It represents a hardware device such as a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) or a microcontroller.

  • Resource Resource: It is responsible for executing control logic within its own execution context.

  • Function Blocks (FBs):

    • BFB Basic FB (BFB): The foundational blocks where you write actual control logic. Each BFB has an Execution Control Chart (ECC) — a state machine — that determines when its algorithms run. Algorithms are typically written in Structured Text.

    • SFB Simple FB (SFB): A Function Block that contains only one algorithm.

    • CFB Composite FB (CFB): Containers that hold a network of other FBs inside them, with no code of their own. Use them to package repetitive logic and keep your main application tidy.

    • SIFB Service Interface FB (SIFB): The bridge between your control logic and the outside world — hardware I/O, communication protocols (MQTT, HTTP, OPC UA), or external systems. If something can’t be done with standard IEC 61499 logic, a SIFB is how you do it.

  • Adapter Adapter: Bundles multiple event and data connections into a single plug-and-socket pair, replacing a tangle of individual wires with one clean connection. The socket sits on the receiving side and the plug on the sending side, keeping the application diagram clean and making interfaces reusable across block types.

4diac IDE Perspectives

4diac IDE is built on Eclipse and inherits its concept of perspectives — each perspective is a named arrangement of views and editors suited to a particular workflow.

To open a perspective, use Window → Perspective → Open Perspective → Other from the menu bar:

opening a perspective via the Window menu

This opens the Open Perspective dialog listing all available perspectives:

perspective selection dialog

The perspectives relevant to 4diac IDE development are:

  • System (default) – the main workspace for designing IEC 61499 applications.

  • Debug – for monitoring, watching variables, and step-debugging function blocks.

  • Type Management – for browsing and managing the function block type library.

The remaining perspectives (Git, Team Synchronizing) are standard Eclipse perspectives for version control workflows.

System Perspective

The System perspective is the default perspective when 4diac IDE opens. It is divided into the following areas:

  1. System Management area (top-left), which contains two tabs:

    • System Explorer – for managing IEC 61499-compliant applications and configuring Devices and Resources.

    • Type Navigator – lists the available function block library for every System as well as the default library.

  2. Editor area (centre), which hosts the Application editor for modeling control applications, the System editor for modeling the System configuration, and the Device and Resource editor for modeling Resource configurations.

  3. Outline (bottom-left), which provides a structural overview of the currently active editor.

  4. Properties / Problems (bottom), which allows parameterizing function block instances, Devices, and Resources, and shows any validation errors.

System Perspective

Managing Elements on the Canvas

Instance names of Function Blocks, Resources, or Devices can be changed. You can edit the name directly by double-clicking the instance name on the canvas, using the Properties view at the bottom, or by right-clicking the block and selecting Rename.

Change name of an instance

Debug Perspective

The Debug perspective is used for monitoring running applications and debugging function blocks. It is divided into the following areas:

  1. System / Project panel (top-left) – systems can be marked for monitoring by right-clicking and choosing Monitor System.

  2. Editor area (centre) – shows the Application and highlights variables currently marked for watching.

  3. Variables / Breakpoints / Expressions panel (top-right) – displays the current values of watched variables and manages breakpoints.

  4. FB Debug (bottom-left) – shows the debug state of the selected function block.

  5. Console / Problems / Properties (bottom-centre) – displays runtime console output and validation information.

Debug Perspective

Type Management Perspective

The Type Management perspective is used for browsing and editing function block type definitions. It is divided into the following areas:

  1. Type Navigator / Projects (left) – lists all available FB types and projects in the workspace.

  2. Editor area (centre) – opens FB type editors for viewing and modifying type definitions.

  3. Outline (right) – shows the structural outline of the active type editor.

  4. Properties / Problems (bottom) – shows properties and validation messages for the selected type.

Type Management Perspective

4diac IDE Preferences

Before starting the engineering process of IEC 61499 Applications, you can configure 4diac IDE to your liking.

On macOS, open the preferences via 4diac IDE → Settings… (shortcut: ⌘,):

4diac IDE Settings menu on macOS

On Windows and Linux, open the preferences via Window → Preferences → 4diac IDE.

The Preferences dialog groups settings by category. You will find 4diac IDE–specific options under the 4diac IDE section. Later in Step 1 - Use 4diac IDE locally, you’ll learn more about the preferences.

Appearance

Under General → Appearance you can configure theming (Light / Dark), color and font themes, and tab behaviour:

Appearance preferences

Colors and Fonts

Under General → Appearance → Colors and Fonts you can customise the colors used by 4diac IDE for connectors, events, data types, and other IDE elements. This is useful for adapting the editor to your display preferences or for improving contrast:

Colors and Fonts preferences showing 4diac IDE color entries

The Runtime Launcher needs to know where the run-time executable files are located. The default location can be set in the preferences. Currently two run-time environments are supported:

  1. 4diac Forte: path/forte.exe

  2. Holobloc’s FBRT: path/fbrt.jar

Where to go from here?

Go to top