FactoryTalk RSView HMI check for broken tags

[clementcbc 0]

Hi Guys! I was wondering whether you know of a non-painful way to check whether all the tags used in a FactoryTalk RSView project are broken or not? We have several people working on the PLC and the HMI. Sometimes, PLC guys change tag names without knowing it is referenced by HMI. Is there a way to check whether all the HMI tags to PLC are still intact? Thanks!

[PMersault 1]

Depending on how many HMI tags you've got, you could put them into a test datalog model. When the model's turned on, it should report which tags it can't communicate with. Turn it back off, repair any bad connections. I think you can have a max of 10,000 tags per model, probably just create more models if need be.

[clementcbc 0]

Thanks for the suggestion. I had a quick try of the method. To select which tags to the Data Log Model, you pick from the list of all tags in the PLC, not the ones used in the HMI. So I don't think that does the trick. I'm hoping to detect the case where an HMI button refers to {::[PLC Local]Program:Module1.SomeVariable} but PLC does not have that variable name. Close but no cigar? Thanks!

[JohnM 1]

If you are talking SE - check the Rockwell Knowledge Database #32953. They have a little ActiveX that you can use to validate the entire HMI database with the controller(s). I know of nothing for ME.

[PMersault 1]

Just to clarify, you can select both HMI and PLC tags for a datalog. Right-click in the tag browser and select "Show Server Names" - that'll show the data server for PLC and the HMI server for HMI tags. Sounds like the above posted ActiveX might be a better solution, though.