# About recipes

A recipe is a set of numeric and string data values (ingredients) that can be downloaded to their associated tags at the data source. Each ingredient has a pre-set data value assigned to it. The set of data values for all the ingredients in a recipe is called a data set. The set of numeric and string tags assigned to the ingredients in the recipe is called a tag set. The ingredients, data sets, and tag sets are stored together in a recipe file.

You can create different pairs of data sets and tag sets for the same set of ingredients. Each pairing of data set with tag set is called a unit. Each unit is like a unique recipe. At runtime, the operator can select the unit (recipe) that applies to the current operation.

For example, a bakery making whole wheat bread could use the same ingredients and tag sets, but depending on the type of crust desired, could use different data sets to specify different baking temperatures. As another example, you might want to have multiple production lines baking the same bread. In this case, the data set for all the production lines would be the same, but the tags receiving the recipe information would be different for each production line. Units allow you to combine different tag sets and data sets for the same set of ingredients.

The FactoryTalk View RecipePlus system allows you to create up to 15,000 ingredients, 500 data sets, 50 tag sets, and 2,500 units for each recipe file. You can create data sets at development time, edit them at runtime, and create new data sets from tag values at runtime. You can write the data set values to tags, or write tag values to data sets.

The RecipePlus system can be used for manufacturing food and beverages, but it can also be used for any application where you want to show, edit, download, or save multiple values at once. For example, recipes are used in the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries. In the pharmaceutical industry, you could use recipes to design flexible packaging, creating recipes that specify the number of tissues to put in a box or the number of milliliters of shampoo to put in a bottle.

Units make it possible to combine different tag sets and data sets for the same set of ingredients.

As shown in the example, there are three labelers. Each one has its own set of tags which are grouped in a tag set. Each tag in the tag set is linked to an ingredient.

In the recipe, there are three different data sets of label colors: red, yellow, and blue.

Every data type within the data set is linked to an ingredient.

These three data sets can be used by any labeler because a unit is used to combine a tag set and a data set.