Upgrading Mitsubishi Code

[DCS_GURU 0]

So we have had a change at the top with a new engineering manager and New IT guy, and they have standardised on GX IEC Developer due to it being better than GX developer and windows 7 The problem is our mitsubishi PLC's have been coded in GX Developer, Melsec Medoc, and fxwin? So the question for all you clever people is as follows, can we migrate the backed up projects from all these product to the latest version of GX IEC developer, or at least export it into some sort of importable standard, on a similiar note can I export the variable information from these legacy products for a new scada system going in? Pretty sure there must be away all the other companies have a migration path. Any help would be greatly recieved

[Crossbow 295]

Keep in mind GX IEC Developer is NOT an upgrade path. It was a parallel development undertaken by Mitsubishi Europe to have IEC style programming when Japan did not offer it. So it's not moving forward (and BTW it's not Windows 7 compliant either!). It's just as old as GX Developer. You can open GX Developer projects in GX IEC Developer, but not the other way around. And your FXWIN projects you will need to import into GX Developer format first. The same with the MEDOC. They should be looking at GX Works2 instead of GX IEC Developer. GX IEC Developer and GX Developer are effectively end of life products, with only maintenance upgrades ever to be expected. They won't go into new versions other than that.

[kaare_t 155]

Agree with Crossbow with a small note. As far as we have been told, GX IEC Developer is now EOL. There will be NO service upgrades or patches to the latest version 7.04 so you should really be looking at GX Works 2 (which also includes IEC programming editors).

[Mitsu 2]

Keep in mind, though, that Gx Works 2 doesn't support A-serie + QnA serie cpu's (and never will, i'm told). So there isn't an upgrade path to gx works 2 for those projects. Also, gx developer projects will not automagically transfer into a proper gx iec program. They are very different programs/programming methods. As has been said above, for Q projects, your best bet is to import them into gx works 2 and gradually move stuff over to structured ladder. And last, there are still some big compatbility issues between gx iec and gx works 2. For example, there are stricter rules on variable names and some instructions are missing. Edited 8 Oct 2010 by Mitsu

[Crossbow 295]

There are other things in GX IEC Developer not yet in GX Works2, like the Function Block Diagram programming language, but those are coming.

[kaare_t 155]

I agree that there are many things in GX Works2 which are a bit different than GX IEC Developer. But that is exactly the point. Since the topic starter is upgrading older projects and/or importing them into a totally new software than there's no reason to not choose GX Works2. However if someone wishes to upgrade a GX IEC Developer project, then that person must consider the "new rules" of GX Works2.

[Gambit 324]

IF you still wan't to change your GX Developer program to an IEC program there is a Tool which will help you convert the GX program to GX IEC Developer. IL converter tool

[Veganic 8]

No one seems to know of the existence of GX works 2 in the UK.

[DCS_GURU 0]

yes it took some digging to find GX Works , but I have arranged a demo copy for evaluation, IL converter tool however ware do you find that?? looked everyware is it freeware or commercial product? Second question is the export facility in GX Developer always seems greyed out any ideas why that may be ? Any help would be appreciated

[Crossbow 295]

If GX Converter isn't installed, the export in GX Developer won't work. UK is not releasing GX Works2 until some of the incompatibilities with GX IEC Developer are worked out. We've had it since the beginning of the year in the states, where GX IEC Developer isn't commonly used. The converter tool used to be in the UK site once you logged into My Mitsubishi.

[Gambit 324]

IL converter tool GX IEC Converter Tool.zip

[stl 0]

Thank you for posting the tool Gambit