Asset Properties
What are Asset Properties?
Asset properties define the link between an asset and the measurements or calculations that provide dynamic data about it.
They allow you to say:
- “This is the measurement that represents the current speed of this asset.”
- “This calculation gives the daily energy usage of this line.”
In other words, asset properties are pointers to time series that describe the live or historical data of an asset.
Why does it matter?
Asset properties give structure to how your assets expose data. They make it possible to easily access the right time series for each asset, without having to derive it, or search for it, from the measurement names.
With asset properties:
- Non-technical users can easily find the data they are looking for
- Dashboards can be easily created, templated and reused across assets
- You keep flexibility in naming or renaming
- Logic such as alerts or calculations can refer to asset properties rather than fixed measurements
How does it fit in the system?
Each asset, regardless of its level in the tree, can have a set of asset properties, and each property maps to a single measurement or calculation in the Historian.
For example, for a Mixer asset:
- Speed → maps to Mixer1.Motor.Speed
- EnergyUsage → maps to Mixer1.Energy.Total
These links are defined per asset and are used by:
- Dashboards to quickly find relevant data for an asset
- Events that retrieve data from asset properties instead of direct links to Measurements or Calculations
This design makes it possible to treat all assets of the same type in a consistent way, even if the underlying measurement names differ.
For more advanced usage, see Asset Prototypes.
Example
You have two identical filling lines with slightly different measurement names:
- Line1 uses Line1.SpeedRPM
- Line2 uses Line2.MotorSpeed
Instead of hardcoding both cases in your dashboards, you define an asset property called Speed for each line:
- Line1 > Speed → Line1.SpeedRPM
- Line2 > Speed → Line2.MotorSpeed
Your dashboard simply references asset > Speed, and it works for both lines.
When you use it
You’ll work with asset properties when:
- Setting up reusable dashboards or panels
- Configuring generic logic for events
- Refactoring hardcoded measurement names into something more maintainable
- Onboarding new production lines or machines with different signal names
Common misconceptions
- Asset properties are not static values, which can be defined using Asset Metadata. They are also not new tags; they are pointers to live data streams in the form of measurements or calculations.
- They are also not automatically generated. You must map them explicitly per asset either manually or by bulk importing.
- A measurement or calculation can be mapped multiple times to assets in the tree.
Best practices
- Define a consistent set of property names across assets of the same type (e.g., Speed, State, Throughput).
- Avoid hardcoding measurement names in dashboards or alerts. Use properties instead.
- Document which properties are required for which asset types to avoid gaps. Define Asset Prototypes in case you want strong standardization.
More information
- Creating an asset propertyCreating an asset property
- Bulk asset creation and editingBulk asset creation and editing