Aslinger

************ We have projects with a lot of I/O. A current SLC program I'm working on has 32 motor starters, 60 photoeyes, 24 prox switches, other misc inputs, 24 SV outputs, etc. I've got a larger one to do after this one. For almost every input, we create diagnostic rungs (some simple, some complex). It is time consuming and error prone to do this manually. So, we use VBA (RSLogix500 Pro is required) to create the rungs and generate descriptions with symbols. Using VB will speed up the logic development, reduce errors, and help to standardize logic among the various engineers. ************

I've tried posting the messages written below on Rockwell Automation's site but it doesn't seem to be very active. This forum seems to be heavily used, however. Post #1 I have developed VB code for automating RSLogix500. This has been very helpful to me. However, RSLogix5000 has no VB interface. Will it ever? What are the plans? How much longer will it be? I recently heard about the .L5K export files and, yesterday, began researching it. I am beginning to think that RSLogix5000 will only use these export files instead of VB. Would it be worth investing my time to learn RSLogix5000 automation via XML or should I wait a little longer for the VB interface? I suppose a decision was made to go the XML route vs. VB. Is there a website with info and examples of RSLogix5000 automation via XML? I have printed and begun reading the "Logix5000 Controllers Import / Export" reference manual. I read somewhere about utilizing an XML development tool. Which one works best for RSLogix5000? On the other hand, can I just use VB to create the .L5K / .L5X files? Which is easier? I have so many questions about this. Thanks for any response! Post #2 I have learned a little since reading more of the reference manual. It seems that the .L5K files are not XML. Instead, only the .L5X are XML. Therefore, I can use VB to create the .L5K files. I'm already doing something similar to this with AutoCAD .SCR files. However, it would be nice to skip the .L5K file creation and just use VB directly with RSLogix5000, like I do with RSLogix500. Anyone out there using VB to create the .L5K files? How goes it? When will RSLogix5000 with VBA be available? If it is going to be a long time, I'll put in the time to write VB code to create the .L5K files. I just hate to do this if RSLogix5000 with VBA is coming soon!