Wonderware Tag Editor

Does anyone know of a way to edit Tags in Wonderware other than the Tagname Dictionary.
Is there a DBF file or something similar where a record of all the Tags are saved that can be changed as you can do with Citect in the variable.DBF.

If you can help me you are an absolute star

Select the project you want to edit. Then you can do a DBdump to a .csv excel file. You can then edit the excel file. Once you are done editing do a DBload of the .csv file you edited.

Thanks cciblazer.
That makes things a hell of a lot easier.

The Db dump works good if your tag names don't change. I need to do a 90% tag name change in a project does anyone know of an easier way then.

open window
select all (F2)
special -> substitute tags... (ctrl + E)


or

special -> tagname directory...
"change the name"
save

I realize this is a very old post but the most relevant I have found.

buck2825 said:

The Db dump works good if your tag names don't change. I need to do a 90% tag name change in a project does anyone know of an easier way then.

open window
select all (F2)
special -> substitute tags... (ctrl + E)


or

special -> tagname directory...
"change the name"
save

I realize this is a very old post but the most relevant I have found.

Click to expand...

Yes, that is the best manual way. For a project where I had to change 4,000 tag names (they changed Tank numbers from 7xxx to 9xxx for the whole section of the plant), I wrote a VB program that did something like this:

1. Open a Script window
2. Paste the old tag name
3. double click it (or was it send "enter"? to bring it up in the Tag editor
3. Paste the new tag name into the tag name entry area, after sending Tabs to the window to position the cursor correctly.
4. Press Enter, Enter, to exit the Tag editor.
5. Repeat all above for 4K tags.

That took 3 hours to run as I was sending key strokes to the WW windows and put in enough delays to allow WW to process. But it worked, there were no typing errors, nor any tags not changed.

How different are your new tags from your old tags?

If it is only minor differences, using DBdump, then "find/replace" in excel makes quick work.

For example:

TK10XX needs to change to TK101XX, excel will do that for you in the blink of an eye.

If you need a complete different tag structure...
TK10XX - TANKXXXXX, then there isn't much of a short cut.

I think "generic" HMI tags work well, then all you need to do is change the IO mapping of the generic tag. Copy and paste from your IO list, or get creative and write some VBA to automatically create your DBLoad file for you based on your IO list.

theDave2 said:

Yes, that is the best manual way. For a project where I had to change 4,000 tag names (they changed Tank numbers from 7xxx to 9xxx for the whole section of the plant), I wrote a VB program that did something like this:

1. Open a Script window
2. Paste the old tag name
3. double click it (or was it send "enter"? to bring it up in the Tag editor
3. Paste the new tag name into the tag name entry area, after sending Tabs to the window to position the cursor correctly.
4. Press Enter, Enter, to exit the Tag editor.
5. Repeat all above for 4K tags.

That took 3 hours to run as I was sending key strokes to the WW windows and put in enough delays to allow WW to process. But it worked, there were no typing errors, nor any tags not changed.

Click to expand...

theDave2,

would you mind sending my a copy of your script, if you still have it. It sounds just like what I need.

Paully's5.0 said:

How different are your new tags from your old tags?

If it is only minor differences, using DBdump, then "find/replace" in excel makes quick work.

For example:

TK10XX needs to change to TK101XX, excel will do that for you in the blink of an eye.

If you need a complete different tag structure...
TK10XX - TANKXXXXX, then there isn't much of a short cut.

I think "generic" HMI tags work well, then all you need to do is change the IO mapping of the generic tag. Copy and paste from your IO list, or get creative and write some VBA to automatically create your DBLoad file for you based on your IO list.

Click to expand...

Paully's5.0,
DBDump does not do what I need, if I change all the tagnames then import the CSV it will create new tags. I would still need to go and substitute every tag on every screen and every script.

Paully's5.0 said:

How different are your new tags from your old tags?

If it is only minor differences, using DBdump, then "find/replace" in excel makes quick work.

For example:

TK10XX needs to change to TK101XX, excel will do that for you in the blink of an eye.

If you need a complete different tag structure...
TK10XX - TANKXXXXX, then there isn't much of a short cut.

I think "generic" HMI tags work well, then all you need to do is change the IO mapping of the generic tag. Copy and paste from your IO list, or get creative and write some VBA to automatically create your DBLoad file for you based on your IO list.

Click to expand...

DBLoad won't change tag names, just update their details or create new ones. Doing what you suggested above would create new tags with the new names, which isn't a bad idea as long as you do the "F2, Ctrl-E, Replace" after and delete the unused, old tags.

bjh,

my point exactly.

You are correct.

I guess my suggestion is to focus more on developing generic tags for use in your InTouch application. If your windows and scripts use a generic tag all you need to do is a DBdump, change the details of the generic tags and DBload into your application as an update to the tag database. You're good to go, no need to change the window tags if you got the mapping correct in your tag database. Granted if your system is not a true "duplicate" you will always have some manual intervention with screens and scripts.

It's all about design philosophy. I've done systems both ways, where windows and scripts have specific tags based on the IO tag of the system, and I've worked on systems with generic tags. At first the generic tags are harder to keep straight, but when it comes to building the next project, the generic tags make things easy as I don't have to mess with screens and scripts.

Sorry I missed the part of changing the windows and scripts in my initial response.

my system will not be a duplicate at all it is a complete remap of how the tags are addressed. right now the system has 9000 tags and they are scattered throughout 300 DB in a S5. we are looking to move the data into 20 or so DB for data transfer ease and clean up. the item name and tag name are the same DBXXDBYXXX.X so it would only make since if we move the data to a new DB then to change the tag name to match.

any thoughts?

Thanks again,

buck2825

buck2825 said:

theDave2,

would you mind sending my a copy of your script, if you still have it. It sounds just like what I need.

Click to expand...

I'll take a look for it.