RS View

[Guest Dark Dog]

HI all, I would like some feedback on using RS View as an interface design to run a small processing plant. We are using SLC 05/04 to run the plant and I was thinking of Wonderware I know the interface design is simple and the graphics good. Then I was saw RS View. Is it as friendly as Wonderware and how complicatred is the HMI builiding tools? The HMI will have valve opening/closing, pressures, flow, compostion, temperatures etc..I guess everything that will be monitored.

[Guest SCautoeng]

I deal with both on a daily basis. I like the RSview much more than Wonderware when dealing with AB products. RSview runs on the AB series of displays and uses RSlinks. The set up and creation processes are easy in RSview. Communication is also pretty simple too.

[panic mode 246]

I agree with SCautoeng about communication and RSLinx connectivity are major points. I am also not sure what is the status of the RSView nowdays (I think it should be version 3.0). However, last time I used it, it was ver2.0 and it sucked BIG TIME: Communication setup was nightmare since target machine had to match development station in terms of connectivity and DRIVER NAMES, cannot save, autosave or backup project, project copied by hand on another drive was detected and recognized as duplicate resulting in application shutdown, btw. project is in some stupid 20 level deep directory and it was whole tree of files and directories (dear RS and AB, give me ONE freaking file, thank you...), creation and management of tags was nightmare, creation of project from scratch was delicate process that had to follow very strict sequence (which was not quite intuitive), the whole thing was crashing every 3-4 hours, it was incompatible with everything on this planet including Windows and RSlinx (incompatibility list on RS website at a time mentioned some 5000 applications), it would run ONLY on Win2000 (actually it finaly run on ONE!!! Win2000 machine - after trying to install it on four other), it had probelms with 16 bit integres (for example multistate indicators would run ok only occasionally, if you are out of luck, try to powerdown the lousy RAC6182 few times till it seamed to be ok). IMHO price of $0.25 would be way to high for something so incomplete and flawed. I was absolutelly outraged once I've found out what a crapy job they did since it was too late for me to switch bach to PV classic or regular PC with VB. I only hope that I don't have to deal with it till it's at least version 14 or so. I do like most of Rockwell Automation products but RSView is definitelly the top rider of my black list. Hope this helps,

[Beryl 0]

Well, my RSView experience was not quite as painful as panic mode's. I deal with RSView32 V6.4 and Wonderware continuously. I think they are both very stable and user friendly. Each have their possative and negative points. I would recommend either one. My only recommendation is to know what you are going to use the software for. If you are going to be storing LARGE amounts of data you will need more than the basic package with either RSView or Wonderware. (Historian or Industrial sequal) Good Luck!

[Gerry 13]

Compare Wonderware with RSView32, not with RSViewME or RSView Studio. panic mode is obviously talking about ME/Studio. RSView Studio requires Win 2k or xp and is the development package for RSViewME which is the run-time system for Win CE devices like the RAC6182 and PanelView plus. I sympathise with panic mode's experience - having been there myself. There's minimal additional functionality over a standard PanelView and PanelBuilder32 is much easier to use. RSView32 is a mature and stable product for normal PC hardware and runs on NT, 2K, or XP. I find it powerful and easy to use.

[93lt1 0]

I also agree that RSView32 is a good PC based HMI package. I once heard that the RSView ME and SE were released a little early, before all of the early tests were completed. I have not yet had to deal with the ME/SE stuff yet except for a small introduction class held at our local AB distributor. I think it was kind of the same situation as the early releases of RSLogix5000. Some of the bugs and anomolies were very frustrating, but a lot of them are gone in the V11 and 12 releases. (notice I didn't say all)