In today’s article I’ll show you how to use Rockwell’s new Ethernet/IP Capacity Tool.


The replacement for Rockwell’s discontinued Ethernet/IP Capacity Tool can now be found inside of Integrated Architecture Builder (IAB.)

Note: To learn how you can get a free copy of IAB, check out my previous article HERE.

To access the new tool, first create a new workspace inside of IAB.

Then select, “Ethernet/IP Capacity Subsystem,” as shown below:

After a few moments you should see the below screen:

The first step is to choose your Controller.

In this example I chose an L16:

After you select a Controller, if you put your mouse pointer over the question mark to the right side of your controller, you’ll see a popup that lists your controller’s specifications.

In the case of my controller, it shows the L16 only supports a total of four Ethernet Nodes:

Next, I add some I/O to the system by clicking on one of the “Select I/O” buttons:

Then I choose 1734 Point I/O, and enter a chassis count of two to indicate that I have two chassis with the same configuration.

Next I add the number of discrete and analog modules I intend to install, along with their RPIs, and then click on OK to add my I/O to the system:

Back in the main window I now click on “Compute” to calculate how much of my L16’s “capacity” these two racks of Point IO use with the results are shown below:

In the next block I add three drops of Flex I/O, each with several digital and analog I/O modules.

Note: If you attempt to add more modules to a product than it supports, you’ll see a red warning messages like the one shown below:

With my above errors corrected, I clicked on OK to close the I/O screen, and then clicked on the “Compute” button again.

Below you can see the results which show that I’ve exceeded my L16’s max Ethernet Node count of 4:

After reducing my Flex I/O racks from three to two, I decided to add four PanelView Plus HMI’s to the system, each with 1000 tags updating at 50ms:

When I recomputed the results, I found those four PanelView Plus’s exceeded the L16’s HMI “packets per second” (PPS) limit by a whopping 200%!

In an attempt to reduce the required HMI PPS, I changed the PanelView Plus update rate from 50ms to 100ms, and lowered the tag count to 800, both of which helped get my system under 100% utilization.

That said, there was very little bandwidth left, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend designing a system with limits in the “yelllow” caution zone:

The last feature I want to show is accessed using the “Generate” button:

When you click it, IAB creates a project based on your configuration:

Note: While IAB does create each drop on the network, all the I/O modules used are the defaults, leaving it to the user to update them with the desired modules.


To watch a video of the above, check out Episode 52 of The Automation Minute Season Four below:



If you found this article helpful, please consider sharing it with your colleagues and on social media.

And if you’d like to post a comment or question on the above, just click on the “Click HERE to post a comment or question” link below.

Until next time, Peace ✌️ 

Shawn M Tierney
Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator

Have a question? Join my community of automation professionals and take part in the discussion! You'll also find my PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.

If you found this content helpful, consider buying me a coffee here.

Shawn Tierney

(2,436 views)

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here