OPC Quick Client

© 2025 PTC Inc. All Rights Reserved.

OPC Quick Client 2

Table of Contents
OPC Quick Client 1
Table of Contents 2
OPC Quick Client 3
Overview 3
Main Window 4
Server Connection 5
Group 7
Items 9
Data Types Description 11
Operations 12
Options 15
License Agreement 17
Index 18

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3 OPC Quick Client

OPC Quick Client

Help version 1.045

CONTENTS

Overview
What is the OPC Quick Client and how is it used?

Main Window
What does the OPC Quick Client do?

Server Connection
How do I connect to a server and start receiving data?

Operations
What type of operations can I perform?

License Agreement
It is recommended that users review the license agreement.

Overview
The OPC Quick Client assists in the testing and development of the OPC Data Access 1.0 and 2.0 servers. It sup-
ports both local and remote OPC server connections. Remote connections are handled through the operating sys-
tem's DCOM interface.

Note: The OPC Quick Client does not fully support OPC DA 3.0.

Client Preparation
For information on how to prepare the client, follow the instructions below.

1. To start, create a server connection (which will be used to connect to an OPC server).

2. Next, add a group to the connection that contains varying properties (such as update rate, dead band and
time bias).

3. Add items to the individual groups. The groups contain properties such as an initial active state, data type,
and access path.

Note: Active items will automatically receive data change notifications. The current value and quality will be dis-
played in the Item View.

See Also: Server, Group, and Items.

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Main Window
The following image is a view of the application.

Title Bar
The Title Bar displays the name of the loaded project file. An asterisk (*) following the name indicates that it has
been modified.

Toolbar
Creates a new project.
Opens an existing project from disk.
Saves the current project to disk.
Creates a new server connection.
Creates a new group.
Creates a new item.
Edits the properties of the selected server, group, or item.
Cuts the current selection to the clipboard.
Copies the current selection to the clipboard.
Pastes the server, group, or items from the clipboard.
Deletes the current selection.

Group Window
The Group window manages a list of server connections along with their group objects. To display a menu of
options applicable to the server / group, right-click on it. To display the property sheet for the server / group, double-
click on it. For more information, refer to Server and Group.

Item Window
The Item window displays a list of item information for the selected group. To display a menu of options applicable
to the item, right-click on it. To display the properties dialog for the item, double-click on it. For more information,
refer to Items.
Note: Clicking on the Item ID column heading will cause the item list to be sorted based on the Item ID. To
change column widths, click and drag the header for the desired column to the left or right end of the header button
until the column is the desired size.

Message Log
The Message Log window logs status messages generated by the application. As with the Item window, the
column headers may be resized. This window does not support sorting.

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Server Connection
A server connection provides a link between an OPC server and this client. Groups are added through this con-
nection. To create a new server connection, click Edit | New Server Connection. Alternatively, click the New
Server toolbar button.

Prog ID: This parameter specifies the Prog ID of the OPC Server to which the client will connect. Use the tree dis-
play to browse for registered servers. The Prog ID field can be automatically updated by double-clicking on any
registered server.

Remote Machine Name: This parameter specifies the name of the machine on which the OPC server resides. This
field should be left blank if the server is located on the same machine as the client.

Connection Type: This parameter specifies the type of connection the client should establish with the OPC server
on the local machine. The options are InProc, Local, or Any. If the server is registered as InProc, then an InProc
connection is attempted; otherwise, a Local connection will be attempted. This option is not available when con-
necting to a remote machine.

Server Properties
Once the client makes a successful connection to a server, the Server Properties dialog may be invoked by clicking
Edit | Properties.

Status
The Status tab is the default display, and details the server's current status.

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The client queries the server's status and obtains the following information:

Status Item Description

Prog ID The Prog ID of the OPC Server to which the client will connect.
Vendor A string that specifies vendor-specific information.
Start Time Time at which the server was started.
Current Time Current time as recognized by the server.
Last Update
Time that the server sent the last data update to the client on this connection.
Time
The current state of the server. Valid states are Running, Failure, No Configuration, Sus-
Server State
pended, and Test.
Major Version Major version of the server software.
Minor Version Minor version of the server software.
Build Number Build number of the server software.
Connection Type of connection with the server. This connection may be inproc, local, or any that the OS
Type chooses.

Interfaces
The Interfaces tab lists the interfaces that are required at the server level. Interfaces that are not required are con-
sidered optional. The Supported column states which interfaces are supported.

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Identification
The Identification tab allows users to enter an optional name to identify the client to the server. The default client
name is "Quick Client".

Visual / Operational Changes

When the OPC Quick Client adds, connects, or disconnects a server connection, there will be a change in its
appearance. The image that appears to the left of each server connection will change to one of the following:

The client is connected to the server.

The client is disconnected from the server.
The client could not connect to the server (the server may not be properly registered).

Group
A group is used to organize a collection of items with a common set of properties. The group also specifies several
properties, such as group name, update rate, time bias, percent dead band, Language ID, active state, and the
data connection type (among others). To create a new group, click Edit | New Group. Alternatively, click New
Group in the toolbar.

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General

Name: This parameter specifies a name that will identify the group. If it is left empty, the OPC server will generate a
unique name.

Update Rate: This parameter specifies how often the OPC server will provide updates for changing data. The
default setting is 1000 milliseconds.

Time Bias: This parameter specifies the time difference between the client/server and the actual device. The
information allows the client to convert the timestamp received by the server back to the local time of the device.
The default setting is 0 minutes.

Percent Dead Band: This parameter specifies the percent change in data required to notify the client of a data
change. When scaling is enabled for the item, the required data change will be calculated using the scaled range.
When scaling is not enabled for the item, the required data change will be calculated using the full range of the spe-
cified data type. The default setting is 0.

Language ID: This parameter specifies the language that will be used by the server when returning values as text
for operations on this group.

Update Notification: This parameter specifies the method to be used when receiving data change notifications or
initiating asynchronous requests. Valid selections are OPC 1.0 (No Timestamp), OPC 1.0 (With Timestamp) and
OPC 2.0/3.0. Data Access 2.0/3.0 servers automatically supply timestamps with all data transactions.

Active State: This parameter specifies the active state of the group. When the group is active, the client will receive
data change updates for all active items at the specified update rate. The default setting is checked.

Keep Alive Rate: This parameter specifies the amount of time between keep-alive messages sent from the server
to the client. The default setting is 0 milliseconds.

Interfaces
Once a group has been successfully added to the project, click Edit | Properties and then select Interfaces. This
will display the information on the interfaces that are required at the group level.

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Note: Interfaces that are not required are considered optional. The Supported column states which group inter-
faces are supported by the server.

Visual / Operational Changes

When the OPC Quick Client adds, activates, or deactivates a group, the appearance of the folder icon will change
to one of the following:

The group is active.

The group is inactive.
The client could not add the specified group to the server connection.

Items
Items represent data that may be accessed via an OPC server. An item specifies the following properties: Item ID,
access path, requested data type, and active state. To define an item using the Item Editor dialog, click Edit | New
Item. Alternatively, click New Item on the toolbar.

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Access Path: This parameter is required by some OPC servers to complete an item definition. To determine
whether an access path is needed, refer to the OPC server's help documentation.

Item ID: This parameter specifies the OPC server item that will be used to reference data. To determine valid item
names for the location in question, refer to the OPC server's help documentation. If the server supports tag brows-
ing, then an item can be selected by using the browse controls.

Data Type: This parameter specifies the requested data type that will be used when communicating between the
OPC server and the OPC Quick Client. This should be specified to agree with the size and type of the register or
memory location that is being addressed. For more information, refer to Data Types Description.

Active: This parameter specifies the item's initial active state. It may be changed later. The default setting is
checked.

Browse flat address space on selected branch: When checked, this option modifies the item list by attaching the
channel and device name. The default setting is unchecked.

Validate item before adding it to the list: When checked, this option validates the item before it is added to the
item list. The default setting is checked.

Add Leaves: When clicked, this button adds the item that is currently selected in the item list to the Item ID field.

Button Definitions

Applies changes to the current tag and fills the dialog with properties of the previous tag in the list.
Applies changes to the current tag and fills the dialog with properties of the next tag in the list. If no next tag
exists, the client will attempt to automatically increment the current Item ID.
Creates a new item definition.
Duplicate (decimal, hexadecimal, or octal format) current item definition up to 32,767 items (automatically incre-
ments).
Deletes the current item definition.

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Validates the current item definition.

Browsing
If the server supports browsing, the browsing controls will be available for use in searching for selected items. Fil-
ters can be applied as needed to simplify the search.

Visual / Operational Changes

When the OPC Quick Client adds, activates, or deactivates an item, the appearance of the tag icon will change to
one of the following:

The item is active.

The item is inactive.
The client could not add the specified item to the group.

Data Types Description

The OPC Quick Client supports the data types listed in the table below. Their default description is determined by
the OPC server.
Native Description
Boolean Single bit
Boolean Array Single bit array
Char Signed 8-bit value
Char Array Signed 8-bit value array
Byte Unsigned 8-bit value
Byte Array Unsigned 8-bit value array
Short Signed 16-bit value
Short Array Signed 16-bit value array
Word Unsigned 16-bit value
Word Array Unsigned 16-bit value array
Long Signed 32-bit value
Long Array Signed 32-bit value array
DWord Unsigned 32-bit value
DWord Array Unsigned 32-bit value array
LLong Signed 64-bit value
LLong Array Signed 64-bit value array
QWord Unsigned 64-bit value
QWord Array Unsigned 64-bit value array
Float Single precision floating-point value (32 bits)*
Float Array Single precision floating-point value (32 bits) array*
Double Double precision floating-point value (64 bits)*
Double Array Double precision floating-point value (64 bits) array*
String Null-terminated character array
String Array Null-terminated string array
Date YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.000
*When a floating-point value is Infinite, Indeterminate, or NaN, the following is displayed in the Value column of its
Item Properties:
l 1.#INF
l -1.#INF
l -1.#IND
l 1.#QNAN
l -1.#QNAN

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Note: By default, the Quick Client rounds the displayed value of Float data types after the second decimal place
and Double data types after the fifth decimal place. To view the full, un-rounded value, go to Tools | Options… and
check the option to display Hexadecimal values for Floats.
See Also: Options and Items.

Operations
The OPC Quick Client performs operations on an OPC server at the Server, Group, and Item level. This allows
users to test the functionality of an OPC server.

Server Operations
Connect
To establish a connection to the server, click Tools | Server and then select Connect. All groups and items will be
added.

Disconnect
To disconnect from the server, click Tools | Server and then select Disconnect.

Reconnect
To re-establish a connection to the server, click Tools | Server and then select Reconnect.

Get Error String

To obtain an error description for any valid error codes, click Tools | Server and then select Get Error String.

Note: To request an error description from the server, enter the error code and then press Apply. If the server
can translate the error code, the description will appear. An OPC server should be able to translate any OPC error
code, in addition to Win32 errors.

This operation tests the following server functionality: IOPCServer::GetErrorString ( ).

Enumerate Groups
To enumerate groups available to the server connection, click Tools | Server and then select Enumerate Groups.

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Note: The server can be requested to enumerate groups by name or by object. When enumerating by name, the
server passes back an enumeration of strings each containing the name of a group. When enumerating by object,
the server passes back an enumeration of group interface pointers (IUnknown), which the client can make use of
by querying for other interfaces. Either way, the client uses both mechanisms to obtain the same results: a list of
group names along with the properties of each group. The client can request that only private groups (groups this
client added to the server connection), public groups (groups that may have been added by another client, but are
made available) or all groups be enumerated.

This operation tests the following server functionality: IOPCServer::CreateGroupEnumerator ( )., IOPCServer-
::GetGroupByName ( ), IOPCGroupStateMgt::GetState ( ).

Get Group By Name

To obtain group properties by name, click Tools | Server and then select Get Group By Name.

Note: To request group properties by name, enter the name of the group and then press Apply. If the server can
resolve the group name, the client will proceed to obtain the properties for that group.

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This operation tests the following server functionality: IOPCServer::GetGroupByName ( ),

IOPCGroupStateMgt::GetState ( ).

Auto Create Tags

To automatically create tags from the connected OPC server, click Tools | Server and then select Auto Create
Tags. For more information, refer to Options.

Group Operations
Clone Group
To clone the selected group, click Tools | Group and then select Clone Group. The OPC server should create a
new group with a unique name and with identical properties to the group that is being cloned. If the cloned group
contains items, those items should also be cloned. The state of the cloned group and items should be set to inact-
ive.

This operation tests the following server functionality: IOPCGroupStateMgt::CloneGroup, SetState ( ),

IOPCItemMgt::CreateEnumerator, SetClientHandles ( ), IEnumOPCItemAttributes::Reset, Next ( ).

Asynchronous Refresh (Cache / Device)

To perform an asynchronous refresh from cache / device on the selected items, click Tools | Group and then select
Asynchronous 1.0/2.0 Cache Refresh or Asynchronous 1.0/2.0 Device Refresh. Refreshes done using 1.0 use
IAdviseSink to return refresh notifications. Refreshes done using 2.0 use connection points to exchange data
between client and server.

Item Operations
Set Active / Inactive
To activate / inactivate the selected item(s), click Tools | Item and then select Set Active | Inactive. Only active
items should receive on data change updates.

Note: The group must be set to active.

Synchronous Read (Cache / Device)

To perform a synchronous read from the cache / device on the selected items, click Tools | Item and then select
Synchronous Cache Read or Synchronous Device Read.

Asynchronous Read (Cache / Device)

To perform an asynchronous read from the cache / device on the selected items, click Tools | Item and then select
Asynchronous 1.0/2.0 Cache Read or Asynchronous 1.0/2.0 Device Read. Reads done using 1.0 use IAd-
viseSink to return read complete notifications. Reads done using 2.0 use connection points to exchange data
between the client and server.

Synchronous / Asynchronous Write

To perform a synchronous / asynchronous write on the selected items, click Tools | Item and then select Syn-
chronous Write or Asynchronous 1.0/2.0 Write.

Note: Both types of writes utilize the same dialog. The dialog displays the current value at a 100 millisecond
refresh rate. To send the data to the server, enter the data to write in the Write Value column and then press Apply.
To apply the write and close the dialog, click OK. To cancel the operation, click Cancel.

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Options
The OPC Quick Client is used to configure many settings. To open the Options dialog, click Tools | Options.

Automatically Build a Client Project When Launched by the Server: When checked, the OPC Quick Client will
automatically build a client project with all the tags in the OPC server when it is launched from the OPC server. The
default setting is checked.

Ignore Browse Paths Containing Leading Underscores When Auto-Building: When checked, items that belong
to browse path segments beginning with an underscore will not be included in automatically built projects. These
paths may include system or internal device tags. The default setting is unchecked (all available items are included
in the project).

Prompt to Save Project on Exit: When checked, users are prompted to save the project before exiting the applic-
ation. The default setting is checked.

Default Group Update Rate (ms): This parameter specifies the default update rate for automatically generated
groups. The update rate determines how often the OPC server provides updates for changing data. The default set-
ting is 1000 milliseconds. For more information, refer to Group.

Auto-Generated Group Name Depth: This field specifies the depth level for names of automatically generated
groups. The default setting is 3. For more information, refer to "Group Name Depth" below.

Display Date in Timestamp column: When enabled, this option ensures that the date for a data item is provided in
the display.

Show hexadecimal value for floating point numbers: When enabled, this option affects how floating point num-
bers are displayed and written.
l In terms of display, this option causes Float or Double data types to display the floating point number in
addition to the hexadecimal value. For example, "12.34 (0X414570A4)".
l In terms of writing, this option allows hexadecimal values to be written for Float and Double data types.
The hexadecimal value should be in the form "0x12345678" for Floats (8 digits) and
"0x123456789ABCDEF1" for Doubles (16 digits). Inputs that are not in a hexadecimal format will be
treated as normal floating point inputs.
Note: This option also increases the Floating Point Precision to 17.

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Use DCOM for remote security: When enabled, the OPC Quick Client, opens on next launch with system-level
DCOM security settings. When unchecked, the OPC Quick Client opens with "wide-open" DCOM security settings.
The default is unchecked.

Display Time in UTC: When enabled, the OPC Quick Client, converts all timestamps to Coordinated Universal
Time (UTC). When unchecked, the default, the timetamps remain in local time zone.

Group Name Depth

The higher the group name depth, the more sub-groups that are created. For example, tags structured like "Chan-
nel1.Device1.Tag1" and "Channel1.Device1.Group1.Tag1" in OPC server are added differently in OPC Quick Cli-
ent depending on the Group Name depth setting.

Depth
Description
Level
1 The group "Channel1" (name depth: 1) will be created. Both tags will be added to this group.
2 The group "Channel1.Device1" (name depth: 2) will be created. Both tags will be added to this group.
The group "Channel1.Device1" (name depth: 3. Tag names do not form a part of the group name) will
be created. The tag "Channel.Device1.Tag1" will be added to this group.
3
The group "Channel1.Device1.Group1" (name depth: 3) will be created. The tag "Chan-
nel.Device1.Group1.Tag1" will be added to this group.

Note: The maximum allowed group name depth is 3. In the example above, if there were any more sub-groups
inside Group1, they would be added to the OPC Quick Client group "Channel1.Device1.Group1".

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License Agreement
License and Warranty
The license and warranty refer to the OPC Quick Client provided with the OPC server. It does not refer to any other
software provided by the supplier.

The OPC Quick Client Software accompanying this license agreement is the property of supplier and is protected
by copyright law. A user's rights and obligations in its use are described as follows:
1. Users may not modify or attempt to reverse engineer the software, or make any attempt to change or exam-
ine the source code of the Software.

2. Users may not give or distribute copies of the Software or written materials associated with the Software to
others.

3. Users may not sub-license, sell or lease the Software to any person or business.

Warranty
The Supplier does not guarantee that the Software will satisfy application needs or be error free.

Disclaimer of Damages
Even if the Software does not satisfy the customer's needs or is viewed as failing to perform, in no event will the
Supplier be liable to users for any direct or indirect damages, including lost profits or lost data. The Supplier's liab-
ility shall never exceed the purchase price for the Software.

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Index

Access Path 9
Asynchronous Refresh 14

Browsing Items 9

Data Type 9
Data Types Description 11

Enumerate Groups 12

Get Error String 12

Get Group By Name 13
Group 7
Group Name 7

Item Active State 9

Item ID 9
Items 9

Language ID 7
License Agreement 17

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Main Window 4

OPC Quick Client Help 3

Operations 12
Options 15
Overview 3

Prog ID 5

Remote Machine Name 5

Server Connection 5
Server Interfaces 5

Time Bias 7

Update Notification 8
Update Rate 8

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