If your configuration contains either of the following you must run the Simulate Conversion utility before you run your simulation:
The references must refer to a valid existing I/O parameters in the database before you run the conversion.
A block that has its I/O assigned to a fieldbus device does not execute when assigned to a PC for simulated execution. To simulate these block use the Simulate Conversion utility to convert these blocks to their equivalent DeltaV blocks.
Parameters that directly reference I/O channels cause modules to have Bad status when assigned to a PC. The Simulate Conversion utility redirects the references to I/O channels in parameters, calculation blocks, and so on, to parameters of a module named M_nodename created by the Simulate Conversion utility. This module contains parameters that represent the converted I/O references. Applications may read or write the external reference values and status by accessing these parameters in this module through OPC.
The Simulate Conversion utility truncates the name of the module it creates to 16 characters. Make sure that the node names in your configuration that will be converted will result in unique module names when truncated.
To convert external I/O references and blocks assigned to fieldbus I/O, from DeltaV Explorer select the PC node the blocks are assigned to, then select Simulate Conversion from the context menu. The SimulatePro application accesses the modules in the database and then converts these modules as required.
To create a training system from a configuration, you must run the Simulate Conversion utility once on every node with assigned modules that contain blocks assigned to fieldbus I/O or external I/O references.
Note that both conversions modify the configuration database. SimulatePro does not include a utility to convert training system files back. The Simulate Conversion utility performs a one way transfer in which the actual system configuration is always the master configuration. The training system configuration can always be easily and quickly created from the actual configuration using the Simulate Conversion utility.