Creating and Editing Tasks

This procedure describes how to create tasks.

This task shows you how to:


Before you begin: To perform this procedure, you must have an organizational resource containing a robot, a tool device, or a human.

Create a Tool Device, Robot, or Human Task

You can create a robot, a tool device or a human task.

  1. Select a resource and open the Sequencing panel.
  2. Click New Device Task .
    The Create Task as Service dialog box appears.
  3. Change the name of the task to something relevant to you, and click OK.

    Note: Creating a task as a service allows you to create subroutines and call them in a main program. If you uncheck Create as Service, an internal task is created. Internal tasks are local to the resource and cannot be called in the organizational resource.

  4. To define the task, in the Sequencing panel, and click on the task.
    • The Sequencing Editor appears as a blank panel.

    • The available instructions for Sequencing Editor appear in a toolbox panel at the right side of the screen.
      Note: The content of the toolbox depends on the resource type.


    • The list of the service tasks, global IOs, constants, and variables that have been defined for use in the task appears in the Usable area of the Sequencing panel.

  5. To stop editing the task, close the Sequencing Editor panel.

Create a Task under an Organizational Resource

You can create a task at the organization level to sequence the tasks of its child resources.

  1. Select the organizational resource.
  2. Click Create Task .
    The Task dialog box appears.

    In the Type list, the following task types are available:

    • Internal: An internal task cannot be executed in stand alone, it must be called from a nominal task.
    • Nominal: The nominal task is executed when you select the resource. Only one nominal task can be created inside a resource. If you already have defined a nominal task for the organizational resource, selecting Nominal in this dialog box changes the type of the previous nominal task to Internal.
    • Service: Creates a task as a service at the manufacturing cell level that allows you to create subroutines and call them in a main program.

  3. You can change the task name.
  4. In the Type list, select Nominal.
  5. Click OK.
    The task is inserted below the organizational resource.
  6. To edit the task, double-click on the task or right-click the task and select Edit.
    • The Sequencing Editor appears as a blank window.
    • The instructions of the Sequencing Editor appears in a toolbox at the right side of the screen.
    • The list of the tasks, IOs, constants and variables which can be used in the task appears in the Usable window.
    Note: The content of the toolbox depends on the resource type.

Create a Subroutine

You can create a subroutine under an existing task.

  1. Select an existing task.
  2. Select Create SubRoutine .
    The SubRoutine dialog box appears.
  3. Change the default name and click OK.

    The subroutine appears under the current task.

    The subroutine can be edited in the same way as any other task.

Reorder Tasks

When you create several tasks at the same level, you can reorder them.

  1. Select a task.


    Important: The task visibility is bottom up. To implement task calls, verify that you have correctly ordered the tasks.
  2. Click Move Up or Move Down to reorder the tasks.


    After this change, Task3 can be called by Task2.