Each Lon device (DynamicDevice) has an available right-click  ImportXml command in Workbench. This command provides a popup dialog that displays the specified .lnml file—as stored in the device’s “Lon Xml” property, and allows you to change it (if needed). See Figure 35.

Typically, this command is used only if programming offline, when devices (and their associated lnml files) cannot be automatically learned. This same functionality is automatically provided when you “Add” discovered Lon devices, providing that a Lon Xml file was found for the device.

Starting in AX-3.3, if the “Use Lon Objects” option in the ImportXml dialog is set to true, this results in an extra “folder” organization of a device’s LonComponents, grouped by LonMark objects. For more details, see LonObjects.

When you click OK to execute this command, Workbench reads in the specified .lnml file, and builds the various child LonComponents (nvs, ncis, cps) under the device.

If needed, you can build you own lnml files for devices, using the Lon Xml Tool in Workbench. See Lon Xml Tool for more details. After building an lnml file, you can specify it when adding Lon devices, or for devices already added use the ImportXml command command to rebuild its LonComponents.