BobLfoot

Factory Talk View Studio ME - Cautionary Tale

10 posts in this topic

This is a Factory Talk View Studio ME - Cautionary Tale I share in hopes it saves someone some headache.

I had a Panelview Plus 7 Professional 1500 HMI firmware version 10 running an application built for firmware 10 with Studio ME Version 12.

We contracted a System Integrator to use Studio 12 and build a modified *.mer for the Panelview with additional functions.

Installed the MER and all ran fine.

Recently I was asked to add another Analog Display to the HMI so I uploaded the MER and retored it to my Studio 12 development station.

But it errored when I tried to edit it for - 

The database ....file name.mdf cannot be opened because it is version 904.

Technote - https://rockwellautomation.custhelp.com/app/answers/answer_view/a_id/968826/loc/en_US#__highlight speaks of an issue from 2020 where a non-standard sql was present when studio was installed.

A little digging and it turns out FTView Studio ME 12 use SQL 2012 and FTView Studio ME 13 use SQL 2019.  So even though Studio 13 built a firmware 10 mer that runs when you goto restore the Firmware 10 mer you need SQL 2019 if it was built with Version 13.

So much for passing projects backward between studio revisions by building a backward mer.

 

2 people like this

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Maybe I'm not reading this right but I'm confused. The project was built in V12, modified by an integrator in V12, and then you wanted to add another display in V12. When did V13 come into play?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Where the integrator had both V12 and V13 installed, it sounds like.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, ElectronGuru said:

Maybe I'm not reading this right but I'm confused. The project was built in V12, modified by an integrator in V12, and then you wanted to add another display in V12. When did V13 come into play?

The Project was built in V12 for a V10 Firmware Device.  Modified by the integrator in V13 and built for V10 Firmware.  Then I tried to take the V10 MER and modify it in V12 and could not.  Used to be that V9 thru V12 you could move the project around by bulding the MER and importing it.  Now once V13 touches it your stuck using V13.  In my experience at least.

2 people like this

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

@BobLfoot got it, thanks.

@pturmel my experience is that you can't have more than one version of FactoryTalk installed at a time. I screwed myself a couple of years a while back by updating to V12 when the rest of the outfit was using V10. That created some work-related issues that are neither here nor there for this thread but suffice to say, there is no "go back" button. I had to completely un-install FTView Studio and do a clean install to get back to V10. If you or anyone knows a way to have more than one version of FTME or SE on a single machine (without using a VM) I'd love to know about it. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

In the past I could build it in V12 as a FW10.MER and import the FW10.MER into V10 and modify it.  And then import the apa or mer into V12 and make a modification.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

We've known forever that once a .med is opened in a newer version of Studio than the one it was created in, it's now locked to that version or higher. But yes, in versions 9 through 12 we were able to restore a .mer or .apa to a .med and edit it, regardless of which version of FTView Studio created the original file. To make sure I'm not remembering this wrong, this morning I created a .mer on a laptop with FTView Studio V12 and downloaded it to a PanelView Plus 7 Pro with FW 8.2. I then uploaded that .mer to a different laptop with FTView Studio V10 and successfully restored it to a .med. I only got the usual warning that I'm converting an V8.2 .mer to a V10 .med, and that I won't be able to go backwards with that specific .med. 

I haven't downloaded FTView Studio V13 yet but I'm willing to take you at your word, @BobLfoot, that once V13 gets hold of a project file, that file is locked to V13. I'm wondering what surprises await us in V14, scheduled for release sometime early next year.  

1 person likes this

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Dumb idea here...can you open the med in a text editor and change the version.  You know, like an L5K for Logix? Or is it truly locked because of the different versions of SQL?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Most of the components of a .med are individually exportable and saved with their own file extensions. A couple of examples would be; displays are .gfx, global object displays are .ggfx, recipes are .rcp, etc. I think maybe one of the SQL's jobs is just keeping the whole thing grouped together in one database, hence the Tech Note stating you'd have to import the components and create a whole new application. When editing HMI code in a .med the save button is always greyed out until you make a change on whatever component (such as a display) you have open and has focus.

As you know, an L5K is an exported project and we accomplish that export by doing a "Save As", which doesn't exist in FTME or FTSE. We can only save individual components as we edit them, and import/export them using the import/export tool. 

Just for grins, I just tried to open a .med in Notepad and it looked like a lot of gibberish, with more than half the character being symbols I've never seen anywhere. 

All that to say, unless someone pulls a rabbit out of a hat, I don't know any way to make a deliberate and meaningful change to a .med with a text editor. But I sure would be willing to learn about it if it exists.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Just to pop in and clarify that if you install v13 on a computer, uninstall it, and install v12, it will have this same issue where .mer files made on said computer will not be compatible with computers with v12 that have never had v13 installed on them.

It is deeper than just SQL version; Rockwell ran into hard obselense of various Microsoft components and lost the legal ability to release new software that used those components. They had to rush release View Studio 13 in a broken state just so it could be grandfathered in, which is why you must also install a recent patch roll-up or it won't work at all. ActiveX is actually one of the bigger pieces of this puzzle with View Studio v13 probably being the very last to support ActiveX and probably meaning there will never be v13 firmware for the panels themselves.

What will be interesting is what happens with v14. It will have to be a fairly large departure from v13 and one would assume it will not support ActiveX at all.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!


Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.


Sign In Now