panic mode

RSLogix5000 Controller Organizer window disapears

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Not sure if this was mentioned before and if you may have run into this but I just found about it the hard way and I am not happy about it. Everything was going according to plan until I tried to make some room and temporarily undock and float Controller Organizer in RSLogix5000 so I can see more. But the Organizer immediately disappeared. Alt+0 and clicking on Organizer icon and menu entry made no difference. Restarting application made no difference - except that now even programs I had open are gone. Restarting computer also didn't help and there was no option to rearrange windows to default view. The trouble was I was away from office (in fact i was in another country) and without installation discs or even internet access. On the plus side, operators were called to attend some training so line was shut down for about 3h. It turned out that couple of weeks ago I was using dual monitor setup to write some code. RSLogix apparently remembered window positions and as soon the Organizer was undocked, it was moved to "old place" even if that was off screen. Since this time I did not have second monitor, I could not see or access this rogue window. A colleague complained of encountering same problem with error window. The code he was working on apparently had error and would not compile and there was no way to see what the error was. Now I know not to undock windows unless I have access to external monitor (or to move all floating windows to main display when using second monitor). And if it does happen again, I know that borrowing second monitor can help resolve the issue. I hope Rockwell will do something about this and fast.
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I don't have multiple monitors on the system I'm working with right now – but I tried the following experiment and I've got a hunch that it will work in the situation you described ... basically I undocked the Controller Organizer and dragged it completely out of RSLogix5000 and as far off of the screen as I could manage ... that's as close as I could duplicate your problem without multiple monitors ... as you said, nothing that I could think of would work to bring the Organizer back from Oz ... but ... then I shut down RSLogix5000 – and then held the Shift key and the Control key down (continuously) while I restarted RSLogix again ... bingo! ... the Organizer was back home where it belongs ... note that the "Shift-Control while starting" is an old trick for resetting a Windows program back to its "out of the box" default settings – so be prepared to redo your options if you try this ... let us know how this works – maybe we won't need to round up an extra monitor if this ever crops up in the field ...
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thank you Ron, I will certainly try it, that seem to be the best option yet. regards, panic

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I have had the problem of Windows remembering when I was using 2 monitors, and placing things off the screen when using one monitor. I did a Google search and found a way to get the screen back, I cannot remember how it was done, I think it involved right clicking the tab on the bottom of the screen and using the arrow keys to bring it back onto the main screen. This gives a good explanation of how to do it including Windows 7. http://geekswithblogs.net/kjones/archive/2010/08/13/141301.aspx Alan

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hi Alan, I did that once with Cognex but RSLogix Organizer does not show up in the Task Bar so there is no way to right click on it. Another downside is that one need to recall what was the display arrangement when RSLogix was previously used. One can easily drag window in wrong direction. Also if the external display is not same resolution as laptop, there is the obstacle edge that need to be circumnavigated. panic

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Sorry for reviving this old thread but i run into similar situation again with another application (ModelSim) and I remembered this thread. The bottom line is that Ron's solution worked (I failed to report this earlier, shame on me, Thank you Ron!!!). The only downside is that it seem to reset everything to factory defaults so any customization may be gone. But this is certainly a minor issue when one is stuck.... anyway, the workaround that would not work on organizer but did for several other applications including ModelSim: one should hold shift key down while rightclicking on application in the taskbar. this opens full menu (without holding shift, one only gets very basic rightclick menu). then it is easy to choose Maximize for example...

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Reset the RSLogix 5000 Register by closing RSlogix 5000. Then Press Ctrl+Shift and open your program while pressing

 

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I completely forgot about this old trick "Guest"! In fact I didn't think it would work on newer Windows programs and systems. I undocked my error window and lost it, never to be seen again but that trick brought it back albeit I lost some customization but what the heck - I'm a lot happier getting the window back.

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I forgot about this trick too, glad I found this because my error window was lost in the abyss and I couldn't see the error that was preventing me from importing my monster program full of changes.  I am surprised by all the customizations I had set in Logix over the years, I'm sure I'm still missing a few.

FYI, after I did the CTRL-SHIFT launch of RSLogix 5k, I could not open an SFC or FBD routine without locking up RSLogix 5k.  Ladder logic routines worked fine.  I even opened an ACD from several months ago (completely unrelated to what I was doing), same lock-up.  Rebooting Windohs corrected this for me.

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Follow this path:

C> Program Files (x86)> Rockwell Software> Studio5000> Launcher

There will be a blue, Studio icon labeled "Launcher.exe". Hold the control button down, double-click the Launcher icon, and continue to hold the control button until Studio has completely opened. This will restore all factory settings in Studio 5000, including recovering any window that was lost on a dual monitor. 

They took this feature away somewhere between V30 and V32, though I don't remember which set of release notes I read that in.

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