This tool was created as a collaboration between multiple PhD students in the PRETzel Research Group at The University of Auckland in New Zealand. It is designed to take IEC 61499 Function Blocks designs and generate executable code from them in a range of output formats.
Development of this tool is no longer active and so the project is provided "as is" where there may be bugs and/or missing features.
There are two ways to use the tool: either by compiling from source, or downloading one of the pre-generated JAR files. The procedure for each of these is outlined below.
This tool is written in Java, and uses Gradle for its build system.
Using gradle, the program can be simply called from source using gradle run and providing arguments to the compiler using the --args="" argument of gradle.
To build a new executable JAR file for distribution, run gradle build.
This will create a "fat" JAR file (including all dependencies) which will operate the same as the previous approach.
Pre-generated JAR files are available for you to use if you don't want to compile from source.
Simply download the latest release (fbc.jar) from the Releases page on Github.
Usage: java -jar fbc.jar [OPTIONS] FILE
where
FILE is the input file to be compiled (*.fbt, *.res, *.dev, *.sys), and
OPTIONS are as follows:
--ccode generates C code (default)
--cpp generates C++ code
--strl generates Esterel code
--sysj generates SystemJ code
--rmc generates LTS for Roopak's Model Checker
Options --ccode, --strl, --sysj, and --rmc are mutually exclusive.
The last option to be included is the one that would be in effect.
--string=n configures the maximum length for string variables (default n=32)
--nxt generates code from a nxtStudio specification
Includes handling of HMI, but not Watch/Alarm/Digiscope
--v prints additional informative messages during code generation
--sort generates topologically sorted code
--run generates C code that is ready-to-run (includes main function)
--altsim uses alternative lib for xml parsing for simulation
--simul:<ipaddr> generates simulator for C code with sockets
ipaddr is the IP addres of the simulator server (default 127.0.0.1)
Options --run and --simul mutually exclusive. The last option
to be included is the one that would be in effect.
--platform=<target> generates code for a specific platform target
Platforms that are currently supported are:
gnu - all GNU build environments (default)
gnu-ucos - for uCOS using GNU build tools*
iotapps - for IoTapps
ttpos - for TTP-OS using TTTech's tools*
d3 - for TTP on D3 platform*
The last specified platform is the one that would be in effect.
*Simulators cannot be generated for these platforms.
--remote=<address> remote deployment server address
--uername=<name> deployment service username
--key=<key> deployment service key
--nomake suppress the generation of makefiles
--L=<dir> adds the directory <dir> to be searched for function block files and library files
--O=<dir> sets the directory <dir> for the output files to be placed
--lib=<library files> adds a library file
--startup=<startup function> C file which contains the startup() function
--makeConfig=<JSON make config file> JOSN file which adds to the make arguments
--header=<header files> adds a header file
--version prints the version of FBC
--help prints this help message
Generate C code for the file INPUT.fbt and store it in output_dir:
java -jar fbc.jar --ccode -O=output_dir/ INPUT.fbt
Several examples are available under the examples directory.
Each of these should be immediately compilable through the tool and range from simple networks to larger ones.