What is appropriate use of MM Tools?
MM Tools is not always the correct choice when building an HMI system. Frankly, it’s a lot faster to build an HMI system by configuring off-the-shelf HMI/SCADA software such as Wonderware, Intellution or RS View. For “one off” applications that require only HMI functions, no custom C programming and no RMC functionality, even I recommend using an off-the-shelf solution. There are a few circumstances where MM Tools should be spec’d over a “configured” off-the-shelf HMI system such as Wonderware: The first is when you have a system with RMC motion control. MM Tools was originally conceived as a software library for providing advanced charting and customized step table edit functions for RMC users, along with standard HMI features. Another situation where using MM Tools can be preferred over a configured HMI system is when you have multiple machine configurations that use almost the same software. With MM Tools, this job would only be programmed once, with all of the machine configuration
