The Fat Controller

I wish there was some way to generate ladder logic in excel. It seems to me the only way to generate / duplicate ladder logic is copy/paste then search/replace. Very slow. Example is I have 50 instrument function blocks with different scaling inputs to program. In RSLogix5000, I create one, copy and past in excel, then generate all 50 with substitutions in excel, then paste all 50 direct into the ladder program. In CX-One, I create one then export the xml, then duplicate the XML code in excel then import back in with all 50 instruments. I cannot believe the only way is manual or do structured text, which I do not want for my function blocks. Talk about going backward. Somebody please tell me some function I do not know about to do this. ----------------------- PS: I worked out how to do it. Omron should provide a better method like in CX-One where the XML can be exported with all the tag information. The project files reside in a sub folder of "C:\OMRON\Data\Solution", and this contains files with "*.XML" extension. There is a file with ".OEM" extension, which is like an xml index. Search for a ladder file name, and next to is there is an "id=###" where ### is the XML file name. The XML file has one line per rung. I created a rung with #TAG# fields, then saved. Copied this rung to excel, and use substitutions to duplicated in excel and paste back into the XML file. Just create all the associated tags first, and link all externals, and close Sysmac studio file before changing the files.

I am new to SYSMAC. I came across this trying to work out how to convert time to real. Some handy hints thanks. Real to time is simple with "MULTIME" function. I am surprised nobody mentioned it. Simply put time units for the first variable eg T#1s or T#1h. Then put real value (or any data type) in second variable and output will be correct time variable.

@Chelton Can you confirm that you have Citect working with the EIP21 card and not the ETN21? Driver help only mentions ETN21. I assume the CPU unit would always be 0. And local network is network 0. It is clear that the IO device address should be 0/10/0/S. Do the port settings look OK to you? The only part that is unclear to me is if the -U is required. @BobB I also had the same question for BobB. I thought the OMFINS driver was the Newer, and also saves an extra licence for the SYSMAC Gateway. I am sure you have yor reasons for using FINS over OMFINS. I would like to hear them.

I came accross this old post just now when I was having the same problem, and this is the only match. Citect Version 7 will not run in demo mode if networking is enabled. Set [LAN] TCPIP = 0 Problem solved. Still communicates to the PLC fine. Just not to other servers, which is fine for development. To BobB, helpful response. I also am SI, but someone else has the dongle, and I only have an old version dongle. But I always found that the dongle is pointless for development, and 10 minute demo mode is fine for testing development. Especially as you need to restart whenever changes are made. Hopefully this post can save others the many hours of pain I have had with this problem. Why can't Citect just tell you to set TCPIP=0 in the popup that says "Software Protection Failure". They could have saved me a lot of trouble.

That is a common problem. If it finds an exact match in your project files search path, then you will not get an option to select the file. I always keep my programs in subdirectories within my search path, so I always get the choice. One more point If any rungs have been added or deleted in the online program, then the rung comments that are attached to rung positions will not line up. There is a utility under the menu (Tools -> Database -> Adjust Rung Offset) to modify the rung comment alignment. If there are a lot of changes, it can be quite difficult to get all the comments to line up correctly.

It is really not clear what you mean by "paste pass-thru". I assume you just mean to comment the sub tags of a UDT. Best is to have proper descriptions in your UDT, so the software will automatically display the UDT description + the sub tag description. If you need to put separate descriptions for each tag, then excel CSV is definitely the way to go. I often use Microsoft Access to generate the database for the CSV. The format for the CSV is best seen by exporting the CSV after you have some comments already in the program in the format you want. You will see the ones with the TYPE = "COMMENT" eg. to comment a single bit within an array of integers TYPE SCOPE NAME DESCRIPTION DATATYPE SPECIFIER COMMENT IntArrayTag Bit Description IntArrayTag[3].5 So the SPECIFIER is the address of the tag you want the description on, while the NAME is just the root UDT tag. Hope this helps.

I agree with rdrast completely. There can never be a valid argument that floppy disks are more reliable than USB. Use EVMoveCF. Get your licences off floppy and put on a GOOD BRAND NAME USB (eg Kingston, Sandisk). Or move off USB to your computer without requiring a floppy drive (like anyone has one these days). If you want to pass licences around between different engineers, you can install the licence on a USB, plug it into a computer, and run RSLogix. It will find the licence direct on the USB. It also compies with rockwell licencing.

I am running ALL rockwell software in XP mode without any problems. I have all the licences installed on the virtual machine, so I can backup the virtual image, and copy to another computer if required. The way to do this is to use EVMoveCF.EXE which allows you to move licence files on and off USB, so you do not need the master floppy disks anymore. So you get the licence onto a USB, then connect the USB into your XP virtual machine, then copy the licence onto the virtual machine. Then backup the virtual image to be safe. Easy.

I have been using all the versions installed for years. Each version on its own always works fine. However, you may experience issues if trying to run more than one version at a time. i.e. editing 2 different version files simultaneously. I recommend that you should only ever use one version at a time. Swapping between versions might take a little time to run on older PCs. I do always keep my PCs up to date. I would also agree with dmargineau that it is best to update the firmware to latest. I work for so many companies that have great fear of updating to later versions. I do not aggree with that fear, but I still must support them, hence all the versions.