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CONNECT Overview

realvirtual CONNECT is the local gateway between controllers and realvirtual. It runs near the machine on a Windows IPC or edge PC, speaks the industrial protocol on one side and the realvirtual WebSocket protocol on the other, and streams live signals to browsers. Unity is not required in this path.

Because the gateway runs at your site, machine and process data never leave the local network. CONNECT can also serve the complete realvirtual viewer locally — it ships inside the executable — or supply signals to another realvirtual deployment.

realvirtual served by CONNECT: the machine, its KPIs and live alarms in one browser tab

CONNECT is deliberately signal-centric. The smallest thing it knows is a named signal — Boolean, integer or floating point. Drives, sensors, kinematics and HMI logic live in realvirtual, which keeps the gateway thin and every protocol bridge interchangeable.

What CONNECT does

Section titled “What CONNECT does”
CapabilityDescription
Virtual commissioningCloses the loop between the digital twin and a real or simulated PLC: PLC outputs move the twin, the twin’s sensors and buttons are written back to the PLC inputs — see connecting a PLC
Protocol gatewayOPC UA, Siemens S7, MQTT, TwinCAT ADS, Modbus client and server, EtherNet/IP, Bosch Rexroth ctrlX, Keba, Festo AX / PLCnext, FANUC, Denso, ABB RobotStudio and SIMIT shared memory — see supported protocols
Bundled 3D HMIThe open-source realvirtual viewer ships inside the executable and is served on the same port — or you point a hosted viewer at the gateway instead, see where the viewer comes from
CAD conversionLarge STEP and JT assemblies are tessellated locally and returned as GLB — see CAD conversion
Data recordingSelected signals are written to InfluxDB and shown as history charts — see data recording
AI error diagnosisAnswers “what does this alarm mean?” from your own machine PDFs — see AI diagnosis
MCP serverOne endpoint through which an AI assistant reads signals and operates the running HMI — see AI clients
Self-updateThe gateway replaces its own program file with a newer signed build after you confirm it — see updates

Quick Start

Section titled “Quick Start”
  1. Download and start the gateway on a PC in the controller network.
  2. Open http://localhost:5100 or use Open realvirtual WEB in the tray menu.
  3. Register once to activate the free tier.
  4. Add an interface and add its signals by browsing, importing or entering them.
  5. Load your model and confirm that live values arrive.

See also

Section titled “See also”