Essentially, Opc uses the standard NiagaraAX network architecture. Opc components are the station interface to OPC data items in one or more OPC servers. See “About Network architecture” in the Drivers Guide for more details. For example, real-time data is modeled using Opc proxy points, which reside under an OpcDaClient “device”, which in turn resides under an OpcNetwork container in the station’s DriverContainer (Drivers).

Hierarchically, the component architecture is: network, device, points extension, points (Figure 1).

Unlike some other drivers, Points is the only “device extension” under an OpcDaClient.

You use “Manager” views of Opc container components to add all Opc components to your station, including Opc proxy points. In these views, the Opc driver provides online “discovery” of available data items (Learn Mode), which greatly simplifies engineering.