What is abSCADA

Product overview, its two applications and what to expect from the current release.

2 min read

abSCADA is a free desktop SCADA (GPL-3.0-or-later) written in Python with Qt. Use it to design supervisory screens, connect them to Siemens S7 PLCs, Beckhoff PLCs (ADS), Modbus TCP devices or OPC UA servers, log history, manage alarms and run the process from a dedicated operator window.

Studio: screen composition

Two applications, one project

Application	Purpose	Used by
Studio	Design screens, variables, connections, alarms, loggers and scripts	Engineering
Runtime	Operate the process with live values, alarms and trends	Operators

Studio never shows process values on the canvas: you will see — placeholders and neutral lamps. Open runtime takes a snapshot of the project and launches a separate operator window. You can keep editing in Studio; changes apply when Runtime restarts.

A project is a folder

The whole project is stored as readable JSON files and .py sources. Open it in an external editor, diff it with Git and copy it to another machine — no export step.

my-plant/
  project.json        # name and startup screen
  variables.json      # variables and PLC bindings
  connections.json    # PLCs and devices
  screens/            # screens and layouts
  faceplates/         # reusable templates
  scripts/            # project Python
  runtime/            # history and alarms (not versioned)

What the current release includes

Graphic editor with toolbox, inspector, layers, alignment, undo/redo and zoom.
Simple variables and nested structures, bound field by field.
Siemens S7 (absolute DB access), Beckhoff ADS (by symbol), Modbus TCP and OPC UA, with one worker per connection.
Analog gauges: dial, semicircle and thermometer with warning and alarm zones.
Visual states and conditions without writing code.
Persistent alarms with ACK, daily SQLite historian and trends with up to 8 axes.
Event-driven Python scripts and periodic tasks.
Versioned faceplate libraries and local Git history.

Transparency

Version 0.5 is in beta. Redundancy, industrial distribution and validation under industrial load with physical equipment remain pending. abSCADA is not a safety function: interlocks belong in the PLC.

Continue with installation.

Security and reuse

Libraries brings together standard, project and external objects. Users and roles configures accounts and permissions. OPC UA covers the encrypted client and runtime server. Try them together in the brewery.

Multilingual projects

Write project texts in several languages and switch language in runtime without restarting acquisition. The editing language is independent of the operating language. See Project languages.