S7 Saving with errors

mjoha266 · Jan 30, 2008

Hello. Is there any setting that let's me save and quit even though I get a compilation error?

It's very irritaing when the bus is about to go home and I eather have to throw away all the work since the last save, or miss the bus to get the chance to make the thing compilible?

(ie. if I call a variable that dosn't exist it gets red. That is good, but if I try saving it complains about variable missing...)

/Thanks

L D[AR2P#0.0] · Jan 30, 2008

That's the way it is I'm afraid. I got into the habit of saving every 15 minutes or so.

S7Guy · Jan 30, 2008

I get in the same boat sometimes, and the only way around it is to cut and paste your work into a text editor. If you are strictly a ladder guy, this can be a pain if you have changes in a bunch of networks, but it works pretty well with STL since I tend to use only one network while developing.

STL??? · Jan 30, 2008

i use either // for stl or if its ladder - view in stl & cut and paste into the comment area then save.

mjoha266 · Jan 31, 2008

Well thats just amazing!
I just have to ask here... Have you choosen to use S7 because it's a really good devkit if you are programming STL and that you have almost total controll? or have you choosen it because it's a really delight overall to work with? or have you not choosen it at all?

STL??? · Jan 31, 2008

I use all sorts of PLC software daily, out of them all i prefer S7.

The learning curve is a steep one though, not that i'm an expert like the other 2 guys who replied to this thread....

Jeebs · Jan 31, 2008

STL??? said:
i use either // for stl or if its ladder - view in stl & cut and paste into the comment area then save.

I'd also suggest this. Fast and easy copy/paste in comment area.

ProDave · Jan 31, 2008

mjoha266 said:
Well thats just amazing!
I just have to ask here... Have you choosen to use S7 because it's a really good devkit if you are programming STL and that you have almost total controll? or have you choosen it because it's a really delight overall to work with? or have you not choosen it at all?

No I use it because my employer decided, before I joined the company, to use Siemens S7 PLC's, so I'm stuck with it.

At least that's how I first got started with S7. Now I know it, warts and all, I stick with it. Better the devil you know.

At least it's a MAJOR improvement over my first encounter with PLC's, that was an early version of Step 5 a Siemans programming terminal (which I think ran a version of CPM from two 5 1/4" floppies). That really WAS quirky to work with.

JesperMP · Jan 31, 2008

mjoha266 said:
Well thats just amazing!
I just have to ask here... Have you choosen to use S7 because it's a really good devkit if you are programming STL and that you have almost total controll? or have you choosen it because it's a really delight overall to work with? or have you not choosen it at all?

I actually were partially responsible for selecting S7 at a time when we had to switch to a newer PLC platform.
I am still satisfied with that decision, but every now and then I hit my head on one of STEP7's many quirks.
The inability to save "draft" code is one of the most irritating deficiencies in STEP7.
I hope that Siemens look over our shoulders when we talk about these things, and then go back and fix the problem.

Oh by the way ProDave. That was a PG675, and I know that beast very well too

ProDave · Jan 31, 2008

JesperMP said:
Oh by the way ProDave. That was a PG675, and I know that beast very well too

I think so, that number rings a bell.

It was an all in one unit, with the keyboard being a hinge down "front panel" that then revealed the the CRT and the two floppy disks. Monochrome crt if I recall correctly.

The keyboard was a custom layout, with a lot of coloured function buttons. My memory of it's quirks is a bit vauge now, but I seem to recall something like to download a block to the plc you had to use the "input" function or something like that, which completely defied any logic at all.

PeterW · Jan 31, 2008

mjoha266 said:
Well thats just amazing!
I just have to ask here... Have you choosen to use S7 because it's a really good devkit if you are programming STL and that you have almost total controll? or have you choosen it because it's a really delight overall to work with? or have you not choosen it at all?

I like it because its probably the best PLC system out there at the moment.

Currently I'm using ControlLogix, which I feel is not a patch on S7.

mjoha266 · Feb 1, 2008

Ok

Many of you say that it's the best plc... But WHY??? Is it the Devkit that you really like, or is it the performance of the CPU, or is it that the STL language is really flexible and that you can do very specific solutions? (A little bit like C# or C++, C# is maby simpler and faster to do a little neat app however you are a little locked by some things, while in C++ you can do whatever you want, but it's harder)

Honestley I can appreciate the STL and that it seems like you can have really strict control over what you do. But I thing that both the FBD and the Graph as well as the DBEditor is really poor and awkward to work with.

Reflections?

JesperMP · Feb 1, 2008

ProDave said:
The keyboard was a custom layout, with a lot of coloured function buttons. My memory of it's quirks is a bit vauge now, but I seem to recall something like to download a block to the plc you had to use the "input" function or something like that, which completely defied any logic at all.

There was a "break" button that looked sortof like -//-
And there was an "accept" button that looked like <I>

mjoha266 said:
Many of you say that it's [S7] the best plc... But WHY???

I didnt say it was the best. We decided to go with S7 for a number of reasons. Basically it is the combination of price level, market pressence, worldwide support, hardware reliability, functional capabilities, etc. The (un)friendliness of STEP7 weighed not so much in that decision.

About STL, well compared against PLCs that are basically Ladder only, then it is certainly nice to have several languages to choose from. STL is not so important to me as it is to others. I prefer LAD and SCL, with a nib of STL.

Apart from that, don't feed the trolls.

spaderkung · Feb 1, 2008

If only (DB) variables are red with FBD one solution is to replace them with tempvars of the correct type. Save, catch the bus, and don't forget to correct.

L D[AR2P#0.0] · Feb 1, 2008

OT Nostalgia:-

S7 Saving with errors

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