Method for Computer-Aided Analysis of an Automation Plant

An apparatus for computer-aided analysis of an automation plant to which a plurality of networked devices are assigned, comprising:

• an acquisition device configured to acquire information pertaining to each of the plurality of networked devices, the information comprising device types and interconnections;
• a generation device configured to generate a network topology representing networking of the plurality of networked devices;
• an assignment device configured to assign a respective device of the plurality of networked devices according to its device type to a hierarchy level of a plurality of hierarchy levels defined for the automation plant;
• a user interface configured to display a topology of the automation plant and upon which a section is provided for each hierarchy level of the plurality of hierarchy levels, devices of the plurality of networked devices assigned to a respective hierarchy level being disposed as elements in the section provided for the respective hierarchy level of the plurality of hierarchy levels and being interconnected based on networking according to the network topology.

A non-transitory machine-readable media encoded with a computer program having a program code which, when used on a computer, causes computer-aided analysis of an automation plant to which a plurality of networked devices are assigned, the computer program comprising:

• program code for acquiring information pertaining to each of the plurality of networked devices and generating a network topology representing a networking of each of the plurality of networked devices, the information including device types and interconnections of the plurality of networked devices;
• program code for assigning a respective device of the plurality of networked devices according to its device type to a hierarchy level of a plurality of hierarchy levels defined for the automation plant;
• and
• program code for displaying a topology of the automation plant on a user interface upon which a section is provided for each of the plurality of hierarchy levels, devices of the plurality of networked devices assigned to a respective hierarchy level being disposed as elements in a section provided for a respective hierarchy level and being interconnected based on the networking of the plurality of networked devices according to the generated network topology.