Sleepy Wombat

CX-Programmer improvement requests

166 posts in this topic

Hello Panic, You can create symbols during on-line edit, as well as editing rung comments and symbol comments.

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thank you both for replies. don't take me wrong, i do like it a lot (drawing connections using arrow keys while holding ctrl, nice differentiate on just about all instructions, keystrokes are so natural and efficient etc.). it certainly beats Siemens (no contest here since everyone else easily scores against them) but this doesn't mean there is nothing to wish for. it is well rounded product with (almost) everything in just one package. my wish about BCD was... i don't know... i know it is old but... just what were they thinking? single click change of defaults would sure put this one to rest at least for me. new projects are not a problem as new devices are more flexible (come with more instructions so one can choose). i had few minuts today so i tried editing symbols online and (I know, I should read the manual...) it does seam to work when I edit rung and define new symbol (it asks for confirmation to proceed and download new symbols). i didn't have time to check if and how this works for existing symbols (replace them, double them or something else). i didn't know that one can only enter first digit (D or H...) but honestly - i don't mind typing 2 or 3 characters as long as one can avoid use of key combinations (use of alt, shift etc.) on frequently used items. one thing i just noticed again is help window - it is always in foreground. is there a way to tell it to behave as normal window? also if i'm programming particular PLC, and then hit F1 to lookup instruction help, i should not need to specify platform to lookup instruction (should default to one used in project). btw. there is no usual hotkey (like Ctrl+F1) to lookup help for highlighted instruction. help file could also provide more detail (an example complete with data before and after operation). but maybe it's all of this already there, (first have to finish the manual...). program upload doesn't seam to automatically upload data tables (prompt to make choice would be nice). undo/redo doesn't seam to work (at least online) cheers...

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Hello Panic, Correct! As far as I can remember, this was a known 'anomoly' that was deferred for a number of reasons, mostly due to the complexity of the online editing mechanism - which is not the same as editing offline! also citing "it is possible to 'undo' (read Cancel) the entire online edit anyway". Hope this bit of info helps ease some of the 'pain'!

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Hi CX-programmer improvement: Data trace with Real format. Banker

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Do you mean the useless thing that tells you that open contact is 'c' etc? I have buzzed it off and never ever darkens my doorstep. I have set up all my own shortcut keys and do not need it. Probably very handy to a newbie with Omron though. Have never tried to make it behave like a normal window - just do not use it. The darn stupid thing that appears at the bottom og the page gets closed too but once again is probably very handy for an Omron newbie or casual programmer so I do not complain - just buzz it off. Just 'D', 'H',, 'W' is quite handy and saves a lot of fiddling about. One of my great loves about CX-One is that it does not make 500 directories and leave rubbish all over your hard drive. You mentioned Siemens, boyo, doesn't that install some crap. Another great love is the size of the file which includes symbols, comments, rung comments, rung labels - the whole lot in one very small file. I have a program for a power station - 9 PLCs with lots of remotes - and CX-P saves files so efficiently that the whole power station program for the 9 PLCs is about 500k. Awesome. Obviously saves in binary as it takes a while to load a large project while CX-P decodes it. Small price to pay for 1 file so small. The programmers should be congratulated to their approach here. Interesting to see the comments though. I guess all us old hands hate it when we have to go to another brand. Schneider visited recently and apart from the fact that their discounts were lousy, the software is pretty awfull to me. I like the freedom of Omron and CX-P - particularly the choice I have when setting up short cuts the way I want them to work. One grumble here though, update the program and you lose all your settings for short cuts. Would it be possible to have a 'saettings' file that CX-P would read so that an update would not lose your settings?

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Still it would be a very useful function, especially when editing multiple rungs online. Now If I want to undo and cancel the online edit, all other "correct" changes are also lost....

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Have not found that one. Where? How? Make life much easier.

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Under Tools>>Keyboard Mapping, there is an option to save the shortcuts as a .mac macro file and also an option to load a macro file.

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Bob forgot his glasses again.

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All in good fun! I'm sure Bob understands.

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And I thought that meant a shortcut for 'Save Project'!!

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But that save is in the Keyboard Mapping Dialog.... ... oh oh ... the signs are starting to show Bob... and I am afraid there is no cure.

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hi, another improvement... or let's call it a bug in CX-P today: if you make a FB in ST and it takes your regional settings into account (. or , as decimal sign) but when you open that file on another PC with different regional settings, the FB gives compiling errors. beegee

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yes, had that problem. it is also occuring wherever the constant of real type is used since it handles decimal point.

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Hello Beegee (and Tashinz!), CX-P has to work this way. If you are used to using a "," as a decimal seperator, that is what you use. It is set in the PCs regional settings - this is what they are for. This is how CX-P works out whether or not to return compile errors. (Am I in Germany? I know, let me check the PCs Regional Settings. Yes, I appear to be in Germany. Then I'll allow a "," decimal seperator). I don't think many (mainland) Europeans would like being forced to use "." like us Brits do! Anyway, apart from which, there are problems / niggles with the seperator settings - all of which are being looked at!!! Hope this explains things a little.

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Yes but juts like Excel and other programs it should not store the value in the ST with , or . but with a sign for a decimal sign. If I open an Excel sheet from the US where they use . as a separator and we use , Excel will not bother and 100.05 from the US will apear as 100,05 in my Excel. We are working worldwide, and if I write a CXP program and send it over to the US to be downloaded in the PLC, They will either have to change their regional settings to Belgium or change the FB before they can download. So since it can be done in so many other softwares, it should be possible to do the same for CXP, anyway if you upload it from the PLC it doesn't matter wheter you have downloaded it in US or Europe. So there is already a format (in the PLC) that is Regional settings independant. Beegee

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Hi, I've finaly took to time the read this thread, there are many topics and imporvement requests here. And the fact that the developers at Omron also take notice is, in my opinion, great. One request I didn't see, surprisingly enough, is the option to select ALL when want to Set or Release the Function Block Protection. I use a lot of FB (actually all our programs consists solely of FB) and therefore I need frequently to Release the protection and after making adjustments to Set them again. Futher I use no ST but do al the programming in Ladder, a FB in ST seems to use a lot more (up to 6 time more) steps then the same FB does when created in Ladder. So perhaps is it an idea to create a better (more economic) compiler. Carol

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For me "another must" in CX-P: I believe many of you had problem working with online edit. Correcting some problems in a program, making better logic and increasing performance of a program sometimes leads to "program not working at all" or "logic is totally twisted", and you REALY WISH you could reverse the whole online edit changes you did in last 6 hours or so For me having an option for AUTOSAVE ONLINE EDIT VERSIONS every time you press send online edit changes is a must. This way you can reverse program changes to an earlier version. JinX

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I love many of the features of the CX!!! But here are a few of the ones I wish they would: 1. Floating usage files. If you are unsure of what I mean do me a favor and look at Allen Bradley layout. I can depress the usage button and bam all the bits that are currently being used are displayed with X in their slot. This can be done for all points of memory. Then, from there I have the ability to drag and drop from the floating window. This is very very useful!! I know that Allen Bradley gets a lot a crap for having to buy a multitude of software, but I do wish that Omron would "borrow" from some of their really good things they do. 2. Timers!!!! Again a reference to Allen Bradley...( let me guess backwards compatibility....) Seems to be the only thing I hear. 3. All the memory areas... I understand about backwards compatibility, which I love; however, this could have been organized much better than what it is. They could have used the same letters but just expanded the amounts of each area. 4. I also like to have the hard Inputs and Outputs(wired) separated. Just because you can only have so much of each no matter what. Even the old versions should have been this way. But I am getting used to it more so now. I tell you what I was soooo angry the first time I was trying to trouble shoot a Omron PLCjava script:emoticon('',%20'smid_10') Come to find out that whoever programmed that machine decided that instead of writting the program from scratch that they would just copy and paste from a old program and just shift all the IO to D100+ so when I set up my IO table still I had no idea what was a real Input or output... Overall I like many many of the features in Omron products.java script:emoticon('',%20'smid_5') About forgot one I really don't like... why do I have to draw the lines????? This is simple. When I start a new rung place a line all the way across. That's all for now. Edited by engineer983

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It will do this automatically for example insert a contact then insert a coil striaght after... start a new rung the and above rung will be normalised to the right most rung. Using the - (minus) sign and the Shift and pipe | sign is heaps quick...to draw connections and is way quicker then AB in this respect... On your other poitns The floating drag window is a very nice feature of AB and I wish that Omron had it also, although I tend to program by addresses/symbols any ways... it at least helps that CX has Smart text fill when programming by symbols.... The timers I can live with. Regarding Point 4.. I have seen AB programmed the same way you mentioned. I helps with portability of standard code.. However your previous programer should have at least used HR, or W, or a defined IO channel in lieu of mapping the IO to DM... Have you check out the inbuilt Data Trace/Time Monitoring capability when onlline... supa cool feature for debugging analogues and processes... Also I would suggest to chek out the switch box utility also.. needs to be improved but is an excellent commissioning tool also.

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Or h for horizontal line and v for vertical line, CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW to insert and delete a column or row...

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Note sure if this topic is still getting looked at by the developers, and also not sure if this has already been suggested (no time to trawl through all the posts ) BUT, how but adding a timer into the ST compiler? I know we can build our own, but it would be so much simpler if it was inbuilt. Allowing access with index registers to this would also be magic. Any thoughts?

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Like I said I am getting much more used to CX one, bit of a culture shock... I am liking it more and more everyday though. Still love the auto online and the fact that the newer PLC's can store comments on them!! I do like the address reference window, AB has an option to display cross reference under each instruction..Is this possible with Omron, or do you just have to use the window? The timers I can live with, but some people can live with an extra hole in their head too...LOL. But, i like all the EN, ACC, DN portion. just more flexiblility, IMO. I do like the Data trace/Time monitoring...Very Nice! Similar to Histogram. The Floating window is wonderful tool when modifying existing program, which I do a whole bunch of. Also, would like to be able to modify comments without having to do a online edit. I will check out the switch box utility. Thanks for all the shortcuts for the line drawing!! Very helpful!! Plus, I do love the Backwards compatibility, I am having to upgrade a C500 to a CS1G and the fact that I can download the program off the ancient C500 and convert it to the newer CS1 is fantastic.

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