Factory Talk ME Title Question

Quick Question....I'm using global popups w/ parameter files for common operations (manual popups for motor control, eg).

What's the best way to populate a title on the popup to indicate what device it is currently operating on? Easy to do w/ RSView32, SE and Intouch but not finding a clean way with ME.

I see there is a title bar option and you can embed a variable. So, If I embed a memory string, how can I populate it with a value? There doesn't seem to be a way in the parameter file to just assign a value to a placeholder or even a tag for that matter. I have a parameter file for each motor and that would be easiest if possible. My other thought is to create a one line macro for each motor that assigns a title value to a memory string and display that, but that seems hokey. I'm using the GOTO display button object to launch the popup w/ parameter file.

Suggestions?

PS...Another thought I had was to create a memory string variable for each title and imbed that in the display settings title, but that seems hokey and a waste of tags too.

robertmee said:

PS...Another thought I had was to create a memory string variable for each title and imbed that in the display settings title, but that seems hokey and a waste of tags too.

Click to expand...

This.
Win.
Seriously.

I started keeping all of my string tags for naming things and units and such in the PLC. Waste of tags? Nah, lots of room. And much easier to edit then anything running ME.

The attached parameter.apa is a fully functional application developed in RSView Studio ME 4.0 that will demonstrate the use of parameter files with one display.
To review the application, detach the file, and restore it on your development system.
It is configured using all memory tags and does not require a RSLinx Enterprise communication configuration.
After the application is restored just click on test application button (running man icon at the top).
As you can see when pressing the Go To Display buttons it invokes the same display but passes a different parameter file to the display. All the parameter files are doing is passing a place holder for a partial tag. If you open up the 'display1' display and double click on the string display and go to the connections tab you will see a #1 in the connections tag.
When clicking on one of the Go To Displays as runtime it will look at the parameter file that was passed and more specifically the parameter number in this case is #1. It will replace that #1 in the connections tab with the value in the parameter file. Depending on which button is pressed 'string1', 'string2', or 'string3' will be placed. At runtime you will see the value of the string tags in this case 'Valve 1', 'Valve 2', or 'Valve 3'.
Since these are only memory HMI tags, each tag is resolved and the value of each string is displayed on that string display object. In this case we have used the whole tag as the parameter place holder because the simplicity of the application and the tag. In real world applications best practices are needed. Below is a technote link to using parameters.

If you want te application sample, download it from:
http://rockwellautomation.custhelp.com/ci/fattach/get/7975/1163369473

I think that this kind of forums are meant to give solutions, not complains, I hope that this will help you.

Jose Manuel Madrid M said:

I think that this kind of forums are meant to give solutions, not complains, I hope that this will help you.

Click to expand...

/shrug. If you are referring to me, well, PV+ and FTView Studio (Especially for ME) rate #1 at the top of my list of "Bad Hardware, Bad Software, Bad Compatibility, and Bad Usability".

I will no longer purchase a PV+, and as they fail, they are being changed to ANYTHING but.

This comes from my notes of a past project, so forgive me any imprecision...

On the PopUp, insert text object. In Properties, General, insert
/*LS:15 #1*/

In the parameter file,

#1 Desired_string

The string can't have embedded spaces. As I recall, the LS:15 gives the string length.

I remember struggling with this same issue. Let us know if this does it....

Jose Manuel Madrid M said:

The attached parameter.apa is a fully functional application developed in RSView Studio ME 4.0 that will demonstrate the use of parameter files with one display.
To review the application, detach the file, and restore it on your development system.
It is configured using all memory tags and does not require a RSLinx Enterprise communication configuration.
After the application is restored just click on test application button (running man icon at the top).
As you can see when pressing the Go To Display buttons it invokes the same display but passes a different parameter file to the display. All the parameter files are doing is passing a place holder for a partial tag. If you open up the 'display1' display and double click on the string display and go to the connections tab you will see a #1 in the connections tag.
When clicking on one of the Go To Displays as runtime it will look at the parameter file that was passed and more specifically the parameter number in this case is #1. It will replace that #1 in the connections tab with the value in the parameter file. Depending on which button is pressed 'string1', 'string2', or 'string3' will be placed. At runtime you will see the value of the string tags in this case 'Valve 1', 'Valve 2', or 'Valve 3'.
Since these are only memory HMI tags, each tag is resolved and the value of each string is displayed on that string display object. In this case we have used the whole tag as the parameter place holder because the simplicity of the application and the tag. In real world applications best practices are needed. Below is a technote link to using parameters.

If you want te application sample, download it from:
http://rockwellautomation.custhelp.com/ci/fattach/get/7975/1163369473

I think that this kind of forums are meant to give solutions, not complains, I hope that this will help you.

Click to expand...

Thanks, but I'm knowledgeable on how to do the above. That's already been done, but doesn't really address how to have a dynamic title without creating additional tags for title placeholders.

jamesau said:

This comes from my notes of a past project, so forgive me any imprecision...

On the PopUp, insert text object. In Properties, General, insert
/*LS:15 #1*/

In the parameter file,

#1 Desired_string

The string can't have embedded spaces. As I recall, the LS:15 gives the string length.

I remember struggling with this same issue. Let us know if this does it....

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm already doing that...That was my 'PS' note in my original post on embedding a string in the title bar. The only problem, is that in order to do this, you have to create a tag for each title saying to pass into #1 (in your example) in the parameter file. The 'Desired_string' in your case is a tagname and cannot, AFAIK, be a string of text.

So, I bit the bullet and started creating the additional tags. I like rdrast's idea of putting them in the CLX. I've done this before for recipe handling systems where I store all the units and text in the CLX for a free-form batch system.

Lastly, I agree with rdrast and will take it a step further. ME sucks. SE sucks worse, IMHO. You would have thought that SE would have been a decent evolution to RSView32 but it's more like 32 with a ton of unneeded bloat (eg services). What's worse, is the next evolution of ME is going to follow the SE model according to the tech support guy I spoke to at RS. Give me InTouch, CiTech or Intellution anyday.

robertmee said:

The only problem, is that in order to do this, you have to create a tag for each title saying to pass into #1 (in your example) in the parameter file. The 'Desired_string' in your case is a tagname and cannot, AFAIK, be a string of text.

Click to expand...

Just going by my notes and memory that no additional tags were required. I made (2) popups for motor and valve control. Each motor / valve had its own parameter file; 2 strings were added to each parameter file for the tagname and tag description. (I'd use underscores in place of spaces in the tag descriptions).

I also put them in the PLC, as making a minor change & waiting for the PV+ to reboot was too many cups of coffee!!

So now, all my UDT's have 2x extra string elements, called Tag & Description.

I then add /*S:0 #1.Tag*/ to the Title Bar text.

Another reasion I went down this track, was to minimise the tag count for the application, I now access 95% of all items directly, rather than using the tag database. This is actually a lot faster, and reduces the application size by at least 50% by not using tags.

All products have their quirks, ME does have some ok features, we have made good use of the trending, even though it is limited to 300,000 points, that cannot be saved to the external CF...