twstevic

Crossbow - The software could hide this requirement. A string of 'ABCD' has a length of 4. Having to declare it with a length of 5 is a PITA. Andy_P. - Yes! Yes! Yes!  

When running the simulator, if there is a variable, STR1 of type string[4], the modify field in the watch window will only allow 3 digits to be entered.

In a watch window, when adding a tag, the pick list opens on top of the tags already registered. Would be helpful if the pick list could be detached and allowed to float. When running in the simulator, if you have a boolean tag registered, say Input_00, then modify the value to true or false, then change the tag, say Input_01, the modify button retains the state of the previous tag. For example, if I modify Input_00 to be TRUE, the I change the tag to Input_01, the TRUE button stays green, but the actual value of Input_01 is not true.

It would be very helpful to be able to select a range of tags and change the Network Publish attribute all at once.   

Some new dislikes: (cntl)+F brings up the search panel. After you type what you want to search for, you need to click on one of the search buttons. EVERYONE else allows you to type the term you are looking for and press enter to find the next instance of the search term. The structured text line "TempString3_1:=GetDayOfWeek(_CurrentTime);" returns a value of _MON, _TUE, etc. The enumerated data of TempString3_1 can not be elegantly converted to a string value if you want to display the day of week on an HMI.   If you have a variable JUNK as a STRING[4], if you want to modify the value on a watch tab, the maximum number of characters that can be entered is 3, not 4.  

I do not think IEC 61131 has any directives about how the ladder editor works. I could be wrong...  Using a touch pad to drag and drop on a laptop (while balancing it on your leg) when working in a plant is not my idea of efficiency. Perhaps it is because I am old, but programming with hot keys, or keyboard shortcuts is how I normally work. I still type commands in Autocad. I know 61131 is not going away. Reasons it is 'good' are debatable. The original goal to make software that can be written once and run on any platform will only make everything equally stupid (IMHO). 

  I have version 1.15. If you have time, I would be interested if other versions have this bug also. Make a boolean array, make some of the bits outputs of a rung, turn on the constant attribute. Build the program, remove the constant attribute and rebuild.   True, I can still make any kind of ladder rung I desire, but making complex rungs takes a lot more thought and planning. Sysmac Studio is to close to RSLogix and too far from CX Programmer.  

To Bits and Bytes. This is free form ladder.

To Andy_P. No, that is not what I mean. In CX programmer you can add horizontal lines '_' and vertical lines '|' where ever you like. you can put contacts anywhere you like and then connect them at will. As long as a valid ladder diagram results, the software is happy. In the attached file, the first rung can not be made into the second rung by simply adding the new horizontal line. You have to insert a parallel then drag contacts the make the rung you want. To many steps.

If you select the Constant attribute for a variable, and then deselect it, the software seems to not know the constant attribute was removed. I (accidently) selected the Constant attribute for a 1000 element array. After a rebuild, the error 'No value can be written to a variable with the constant attribute' showed up 200+ times. I deselected the check box and rebuilt the program. The same error repeated. The only way I could fix this was to recreate a new array with a different name then delete the original. I was lucky to have only used a few hundred bits in the original. This is a BUG and needs to be fixed. 

I have found several issues I don't care for in Sysmac Studio. The most annoying for me is the lack of free form ladder diagram creation. I haven't had to plan out rungs in advance this much since I was programming with mnemonics.

I am looking for the way to trigger a VBA event in InteractX based upon the value of a bit tag. If anyone knows how to do this, I would greatly appreciate learning the magic code.

File Name: AB DINT_to_ASCII_Hex File Submitter: twstevic File Submitted: 11 Aug 2015 File Category: PLC Sample Code A routine to convert a DINT value into HEX and then an ASCII string. Click here to download this file