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An HMI screen can look wonderfully polished and still be horrible to use.
Tiny buttons. Confusing colours. Pop-ups covering important values. Somewhere in the corner, a flashing red alarm that tells the operator almost nothing. Anyone who has worked around older industrial equipment has probably seen worse.
The Udemy course HMI Programming & Design – FactoryTalk View ME SCADA PLC teaches students how to build functional operator interfaces using Rockwell Automation’s FactoryTalk View Studio Machine Edition.
I believe it is a very good course for electricians, maintenance technicians and beginner automation engineers who want a practical introduction to Allen-Bradley HMI development.
[HMI Programming & Design – FactoryTalk View ME SCADA PLC]
What Does the Course Cover?
The course contains approximately 6 hours and 45 minutes of video spread across six sections and 35 lectures. It is taught by Vladimir Romanov and focuses mainly on creating standalone HMI applications in FactoryTalk View ME.
Students learn how to:
- Create and manage HMI displays
- Add text, images, shapes and buttons
- Connect HMI objects to PLC tags
- Configure screen navigation and pop-ups
- Create numeric and string displays
- Work with
.APAand.MERfiles - Configure users and access permissions
- Use parameter files
- Build recipes and process screens
- Transfer and test an application on a physical HMI
The course starts with the basic software layout before moving into complete projects. That is a sensible approach. FactoryTalk View Studio contains plenty of menus, windows and settings, and blindly clicking around can feel like exploring an unfamiliar warehouse with the lights switched off.
Practical HMI Projects
One section walks through the creation of a conveyor-based HMI application with motors, sensors, counters, navigation buttons and a control pop-up.
Later, students build a larger chemical-process interface involving tanks, valves, level displays, heating and cooling controls, recipes and reusable faceplate-style objects.
These projects are the strongest part of the course.
Instead of learning each FactoryTalk feature in isolation, you see how individual objects come together to form an operator interface that could resemble something used on an actual machine.
Does It Require Hardware?
You do not need physical HMI or PLC hardware simply to follow the lessons. However, the instructor recommends practising with FactoryTalk View Studio, an emulator or real equipment whenever possible.
Watching someone create an HMI is useful. Building one yourself, breaking the communication shortcut and spending half an hour wondering why every value shows an error—that is where the lesson tends to stick.
Basic computer skills and a general understanding of control systems should be enough to begin.
Who Is This Course For?
This course should suit:
- Industrial electricians
- Maintenance and controls technicians
- Electrical engineers
- PLC programmers
- Manufacturing operators
- System integrators
- Students learning industrial automation
It is especially relevant for people working with Allen-Bradley PLCs and PanelView terminals.
Important Limitations
Despite the course title mentioning SCADA, the curriculum mainly concentrates on FactoryTalk View Machine Edition. It is not a detailed FactoryTalk View Site Edition course covering distributed SCADA servers, databases or large plant-wide systems.
Another drawback is age. The Udemy page lists the most recent course update as November 2019. The core HMI concepts remain useful, but parts of the interface and software workflow may differ from newer FactoryTalk releases.
The course is therefore best treated as a practical foundation rather than a complete guide to every modern FactoryTalk feature.
Final Verdict
HMI Programming & Design – FactoryTalk View ME SCADA PLC is a very good introductory course for learning how to create practical Allen-Bradley operator interfaces.
It covers display design, PLC communication, navigation, security, recipes and complete HMI projects without drowning the beginner in unnecessary theory.
The material is somewhat dated, but the underlying design principles still matter. Clear navigation, sensible controls and useful process information do not suddenly go out of fashion.
Check the current course price and availability here: