Industrial plant and method for graphically representing synchronous relationships

An industrial plant comprising:

• a first control device in which a first user program is executed;
• a second control device in which a second user program is executed;
• a plurality of drives, each of said driving being at least one of controlled and regulated by the first and second user programs;
• objects within the user programs, said objects being assigned to the plurality of drives, synchronous relationships existing between the objects, and the first and second user programs having a plurality of different flow structures, which have an influence on the synchronous relationships between the objects such that a synchronous operation is one of an active synchronous relationship and an inactive synchronous relationship;
• and
• an apparatus for graphical representation of synchronous relationships between the objects, the apparatus including an analyzing tool which is configured to analyze the first and second user programs with respect to the objects and the synchronous relationships between the objects via a data link and is further configured to obtain a first data record relating to (i) the objects used from analytically determined data and (ii) a second data record relating to a temporal relation between active and inactive synchronous relationships between the objects from the analytically determined data, a preparation center existing for representation on a display which is configured to graphically represent the objects with their active and or inactive synchronous relationships based on the determined first data record and the determined second data record;
• wherein the analyzing tool is configured to browse the first and second user programs for project files in which synchronous relationships have been configured between the objects to determine a quantity of potential couplings between the objects from the project files.