Start from template

The template database offers a growing number of pre-defined LNodeType, DOType, DAType and EnumType. EnumType. You can add any of them from the templates database to your project and reuse them as needed.

When you examin the template database and compare the numbers of the different types, you will notice that they grow from EnumType, DAType, DOType to LNodeType. This growth is driven by the increasing number of possibilities with each component.

EnumTypes, for example, are relatively straightforward. The Parts 7-3 and 7-4 defines many of those, and in most cases, you simply use them. You might need to reduce the number of values within your EnumType, but you will rarely define your own during this step.

For the DAType, things become a bit more complex. Here, child elements might be present or absent, or one of them must be present. Take, for example, the AnalogueValue. This could potentially have two children: a float and/or an integer attribute. This means that there are potentially three different types of AnalogueValue. This complexity increases with elements like a Vector, which consists of one or two AnalogueValue, mag and/or ang, resulting in nine different possibilities.

The complexity escalates further when dealing with DOType and LNodeType. Here, the theoretical possibilities and complexity also grow. What does this mean for OpenSCD? We cannot provide every possible combination for every data defined within the namespace of IEC 61850. This would result in an excessively large XML file that would be difficult to navigate. Instead, we offer the most common and most general types used by most users.

You can add all types from the template database:

• LNodeType
• DOType
• DAType
• EnumType

However, we suggest starting with the LNodeType. This automatically adds a valid element to your project, reduces the chance of errors, and provides the minimum required element in your DataTypeTemplates section.

Please note that in some cases, you may need to adapt the element imported from the template database. You can see here for instructions on how to do that.