Edit Cam Profiles on panelview plus?

[CanaanP 1]

Hello, I am working with a motion project, and will need to allow the operator to choose between several different cam profiles. I have this working fine, but I would also like to add the ability to add a new profile to the array I have of profiles. Is there a nice friendly way to present this to the operator on the screen? Something that looks similar to the actual cam editor window? If not, then how would you guys recommend handling this? Thanks in advance for any help offered. EDIT: Ok, I realize this was very vague... let me clarify and simply what I am needing help on - maybe then at least 1 out of 50 people that view this post will reply. All I want to do is be able to show a graph on a PV display. On this graph I want to plot values from an array. For each element in this array I have three values, only the first two of which I'm worried about showing. They are both data type REAL. These are values for a CAM profile. Does anyone know if it's possible to chart values from an array? Edited 14 Jul 2011 by CanaanP

[dmargineau 6]

If we are talking PV+ and FTVS, you could use the Trend Object which is almost similar to the RSLogix (5, 500, 5000) Trend tool. You will be able to assign the specific tags to graphic pens and then display them as a first degree function graph in real time at your chosen update rate/scaling. If I am not mistaking, the old PV1400e could also display crude trends configured via PanelBuilder 1400. I remember doing it in the very distant past.

[CanaanP 1]

This is the cam editor window inside RSLogix 5000. All I want is to provide something that looks remotely close to this... I tried trending but I don't want the graph to move or trend anything, I just want to read the points from my array and show them all at once.... I can't believe this doesn't seem to be possible.

[dmargineau 6]

I'm afraid there is no way to directly import a Cam Profile Editor Inteface screen into a FTVS application. RA doesn't give too many choices but strictly what the interface was originally intended to do: adjust a Motion Instruction Cam Profile. However, you should be able to do a "PrintScreen" on your "Maximized" Cam Profile Editor window and then Paste it into some graphics/photo processing software and then SaveAs it as a .bmp, .jpg, etc file, which then could be "Imported" into the FTVS application and then inserted within a Graphical Display. I know it's a bit of a "stretch", however, it would probably get the job done.

[CanaanP 1]

I understand all that you are saying, and I appreciate the suggestions. However, I think I'm still not getting across here... I do not want to be able to edit the profile from the screen. I already have a setup where they can choose a profile from the list and manually edit the values one at a time. All I want is to plot the points that are in there onto a graph so they can visually see what is setup. Taking a screenshot won't do me any good because after the profile has been modified then the screen shot is no longer accurate. I have an array of 30 elements, a master value and a slave value for each element. This is like XY plot. All I want is to load those values onto a graph on the screen... if the values have been changed, the graph would still be accurate once the changes were saved. EDIT: I should also mention that at this point in the program, the values are not a CAM Profile, this is an array of a UDT I created to mimic a profile, because I have 20 different "recipes" that can be selected, each with an editable profile. Since 5000 doesn't allow editing of profiles, they have to be calculated before it can be used as a motion instruction, I had to make this to allow editing on the array elements. Then, the user selects which profile to use, then that profile is copied to the actual CAM Profile, then calculated, etc. So as far as plotting these points on a graph, it has nothing to do with the cam editor, I only showed that image as an example... what I am asking for is a simple graph that plots XY values, those values need to loaded from an array that I specify. That's all. Edited 15 Jul 2011 by CanaanP

[dmargineau 6]

Well...You got me here... After some knowledge "refreshing" has been performed, it doesn't seem that your particular application could be satissfied by a strictly FTV system. A PC based SCADA system will have to be deployed in order to "pick" your recipes data, plot it graphically and then "deliver" it to FTV SE running Data Server "serviced" HMI terminal. Much ado without positive results...Sorry for the "tease"...

[CanaanP 1]

No worries... I will keep searching though. I already have the system setup where all of the profiles can be edited in FTV, but it is only in a grid view type display... the only element missing was a nice graph that had the values plotted. I'm still refining that screen... if I can't find a way to plot the stuff on a graph by the time the whole project is done, then that's the way it is I guess :)

[OkiePC 14]

If your need for this is very pressing, you might consider switching to a Red Lion G3. It has a scatter graph object that will do what you want: The above picture from the browser viewer of a Red Lion G306, is a graph of 120 points which are values in a CompactLogix tag array. I only needed one axis in this application, but the object can have four lines with four sets of data, and you could overlay them (by turning off the grid, border and background) to have as many "pens" as you wanted I suppose. Now getting text and labels to appear on the chart with Red Lion is a bit crude. You have to do them with separate text objects which can be hairy if your axis limits are dynamic. With the G3, there are other things that you would probably have to do differently, but the scatter graph does work effectively. Another option might be to roll your own graph with small animated rectangle or lines. Edited 16 Jul 2011 by OkiePC

[CanaanP 1]

That looks pretty cool, but I'm afraid Red Lion is out of the question. It's AB or Magelis for touch screens here...

[Peter Nachtwey 15]

I don't understand this. People will but 10 times more effort into working with an product that isn't suitable for the job. This is like saying you can only use a screw driver and a crescent wrench in your shop. This is a difficult project even with a G06. There are things going on that are hidden from the user in the Rockwell cam editor. The linear or constant speed sections and adjusting both the velocity and acceleration at the end point is an advanced feature where the cam editor inserts extra points to make the linear and constant speed sections happen. If you need these features then prepared to do a lot of math figuring it out. It isn't trivial. How much math can a PanelView do?

[lostcontrol 23]

What about taking the values from your 'saved' cam table, extracting them into a tag that is logged by the PV at the rate the value is extracted at, then set the trend display to be the number of values in the table? ie, if you have 60 values, then extract them into a common tag at 1sec intervals. The PV then samples at 1sec also, & the graph object is configured to display a 1min window. There would maybe be some trial & error getting the sync correct, but it may work?

[CanaanP 1]

That's actually the best answer I've heard, IMO. I will try something like that today. Peter, something that I have been trying to make clear this whole time is that I do not need to do any cam editing on the PV. I only want to show the points on a graph... I already have all of the math and code finished to allow switching from one profile to another, or customizing an existing profile, or adding a new profile. This has nothing to do with what I'm asking for... as I said, it's merely to show the points on a graph - nothing else.

[Peter Nachtwey 15]

If the cam profiles only need to be displayed then why not take a screen snap shot of the profile while in the editor and save the jpg file. Then display the jpg file. Hopefully the PV can display a jpg file.

[CanaanP 1]

Yes the PV can display jpg easily... but the problem is that this program allows for editing of the profiles via a table entry method, so once the profile is altered the screenshot is no longer accurate. That's why I need to plot the points on a graph and have it refreshed each time the profile is changed. I have been playing with the trending today, and I think I have something close enough to what will work. I created a self repeating infinite timer in my PLC program and on the .dn bit I move the next array points to a tag and trend that. It resets when the selected profile is switched from one to another and the refresh is pretty fast... not a perfect solution - but it appears to be the best that FTVS can do with this stuff.

[lostcontrol 23]

Cool, can you post a shot of what the finished product looks like?

[OkiePC 14]

Yeah, me too. I especially want to see that infinite timer DN bit go true...(j/k, I bet you meant just self resetting timer). Seriously, I am curious about your graph solution though.

[CanaanP 1]

Ok, so I worded that wrong... my bad :) Here is the logic I used to create trend values... Here is the main PV screen that shows the profile that is selected, and a [cough] visual representation of the cam editor... This screen shows my best efforts to allow the user to create or edit existing profiles by entering values in for x and y then the movement type.

[OkiePC 14]

I like it. It looks fairly easy to understand, and, while the trend may not be graphically perfect, as long as it provides the correct user feedback when they make edits, then I am sure you will get few if any complaints. Paul

[CanaanP 1]

Thanks, I appreciate your feedback :) It is impossible to show in a screenshot, but when changing profiles there is about a 2 second period where you see part of one profile and part of another on the trend. It's like a heart rate monitor... That is my only peeve about this setup. However, it is accurate data, and the only reason it's there at all is to give the operator a warm and fuzzy feeling about the chosen profile, instead of just looking at a table of numbers.

[OkiePC 14]

Perhaps you can condition the visibility of the graph until it is re-populated? Maybe even put some text like "Updating, Please Wait" behind it or with the inverse visibility condition? Still the delay exists, but it might be more eye-appealing that way...

[CanaanP 1]

I took your advice, this is what I came up with... I setup a timer that starts when the load profile button is pushed, turns out it's more like 4.5 seconds until the trend is complete... I tried to speed that up, but the faster I made it, the more "anomalies" I saw in the trend. Anyway, while the timer is timing, visibility on the trend itself is turned off. I think I may also put something in there that writes the display number to a tag, and also activate that timer whenever the display is loaded, because the weird heart rate monitor effect is also happening anytime you return to that screen.