This is a work in progress.
I have just had a few hours with the software, and have only been through most of the STEP7 part. The WinCC part has to wait a couple of days. In other words, it is quite superficial, but I think that a full review will take months, so I have started an incremental review.
Installation time is approx 1.5 hours, with 3 reboots.
General usage:
You need a large monitor. It works OK with my 24" screen plus additional 19" screen. I can put the "Properties" window on the small screen. That increases the useful area in the most important window, the editor view.
But if you have a laptop with just a small 17" screen, it will be painful.
The speed of the software seems so-so. The first time it has to create a project it takes quite a long time to create all the directories etc.
After that there seem to be a tiny bit of delay after you drag-and-drop something for example.
The interface is very mouse-intensive.
For drag-and-drop, a small niggle that reminds of WinCC Flex, is that you cannot directly select and drag an element. You have to first select with a click on the element, and then you can click and drag the selected element. Irritating. This seems to be the same for all editors and dialogs.
The hardware and network configuration:
It takes a lot of getting used to, but seems to be logically organised. It is much more slick and visual, which is nice of course.
The LAD editor:
In the declaration of variables, there is a drop down menu for the various types. Very similar to the old editor.
The IEC timer TON was not in the drop down menu.
There is an instruction menu from where you can drag-and-drop for example the TON instruction. You dont have to add the SFBs or SFCs manually which is a step forward.
The logical step would be to drag-and-drop TON from the instruction menu to the declaration list, but that does not work. However, you can just type in "TON" and the editor figures out that you mean to add the TON SFC. (this is the first example that drag-and-drop that does not work
). I am guessing that this is persistent for all multi instance FB calls, but I will have to do some further testing.
In the block editor there is a user-configurable instruction toolbar. So you can drag-and-drop you favourite instructions to this toolbar. That is fine, but it would be even better if you could assign short-cut keys to these favourite instructions. I have not found (yet) if this is possible.
The IEC timers are different to the old version. Now there is no EN or ENO. The TON block simply appears in the middle of the rung where you need it. I shall have to investigate further what that means to the functionality.
When adding an IEC timer, a dialog pops up where you can choose the IDB or the multi-instance name. Strangely you cannot browse to an already configured TON declaration. If you close the dialog, then you can manually enter, or even browse to the configured declaration. Thats a bit inconsistent.
Good is that you can save even if the code is not finished, with non-closed rungs for example.
Scrolling with the mouse is snappy. On the other hand, I cannot figure out how to quickly browse through rungs with the keyboard.
The SCL editor:
It is now not 100% text based. The declaration part is done via the declaration editor, similar as with LAD or FBD.
So you can forget about posting full code sample by simple text cut-and-paste, such as when you want to send some SCL code by email or in a document, or in a web-site. (corrected, see next post !)
THIS I DO NOT LIKE !!!!
It was really a breese to quickly edit variables before. Now you have to do the dance by moving back and forth between two windows in the editor.
It also seems that you can only edit one block at a time. Not like before where you could start with a UDT, then continue with a DB with the same UDT inside, and continue again with an FB or FC using both UDT and DB inside the FB or FC.
THIS IS A STEP BACKWARDS !!!! (I might be wrong. Maybe there is a way to edit several blocks in one editor view as before.)
And how does one create UDTs and DBs in SCL ? Has that gone too ?
There is an auto-indentation, and further goodies that assist in editing quickly. So it is not all bad.
The UDT editor:
It is logical enough. But it is just much more cumbersome than in SCL.
The DB editor:
I have absolutely no fun with this editor !
Creating DBs in the DB editor is even worse than creating UDTs. The speed with which you create DBs is down by a factor 10-20 when compared to the old method in SCL.
It is also more tedious than the old DB editor. Thats just my feeling of it.
To be continued.......
(you are welcome to correct my findings, or to add you own discoveries or opinions).
I have just had a few hours with the software, and have only been through most of the STEP7 part. The WinCC part has to wait a couple of days. In other words, it is quite superficial, but I think that a full review will take months, so I have started an incremental review.
Installation time is approx 1.5 hours, with 3 reboots.
General usage:
You need a large monitor. It works OK with my 24" screen plus additional 19" screen. I can put the "Properties" window on the small screen. That increases the useful area in the most important window, the editor view.
But if you have a laptop with just a small 17" screen, it will be painful.
The speed of the software seems so-so. The first time it has to create a project it takes quite a long time to create all the directories etc.
After that there seem to be a tiny bit of delay after you drag-and-drop something for example.
The interface is very mouse-intensive.
For drag-and-drop, a small niggle that reminds of WinCC Flex, is that you cannot directly select and drag an element. You have to first select with a click on the element, and then you can click and drag the selected element. Irritating. This seems to be the same for all editors and dialogs.
The hardware and network configuration:
It takes a lot of getting used to, but seems to be logically organised. It is much more slick and visual, which is nice of course.
The LAD editor:
In the declaration of variables, there is a drop down menu for the various types. Very similar to the old editor.
The IEC timer TON was not in the drop down menu.
There is an instruction menu from where you can drag-and-drop for example the TON instruction. You dont have to add the SFBs or SFCs manually which is a step forward.
The logical step would be to drag-and-drop TON from the instruction menu to the declaration list, but that does not work. However, you can just type in "TON" and the editor figures out that you mean to add the TON SFC. (this is the first example that drag-and-drop that does not work
). I am guessing that this is persistent for all multi instance FB calls, but I will have to do some further testing.In the block editor there is a user-configurable instruction toolbar. So you can drag-and-drop you favourite instructions to this toolbar. That is fine, but it would be even better if you could assign short-cut keys to these favourite instructions. I have not found (yet) if this is possible.
The IEC timers are different to the old version. Now there is no EN or ENO. The TON block simply appears in the middle of the rung where you need it. I shall have to investigate further what that means to the functionality.
When adding an IEC timer, a dialog pops up where you can choose the IDB or the multi-instance name. Strangely you cannot browse to an already configured TON declaration. If you close the dialog, then you can manually enter, or even browse to the configured declaration. Thats a bit inconsistent.
Good is that you can save even if the code is not finished, with non-closed rungs for example.
Scrolling with the mouse is snappy. On the other hand, I cannot figure out how to quickly browse through rungs with the keyboard.
The SCL editor:
It is now not 100% text based. The declaration part is done via the declaration editor, similar as with LAD or FBD.
So you can forget about posting full code sample by simple text cut-and-paste, such as when you want to send some SCL code by email or in a document, or in a web-site. (corrected, see next post !)
THIS I DO NOT LIKE !!!!
It was really a breese to quickly edit variables before. Now you have to do the dance by moving back and forth between two windows in the editor.
It also seems that you can only edit one block at a time. Not like before where you could start with a UDT, then continue with a DB with the same UDT inside, and continue again with an FB or FC using both UDT and DB inside the FB or FC.
THIS IS A STEP BACKWARDS !!!! (I might be wrong. Maybe there is a way to edit several blocks in one editor view as before.)
And how does one create UDTs and DBs in SCL ? Has that gone too ?
There is an auto-indentation, and further goodies that assist in editing quickly. So it is not all bad.
The UDT editor:
It is logical enough. But it is just much more cumbersome than in SCL.
The DB editor:
I have absolutely no fun with this editor !
Creating DBs in the DB editor is even worse than creating UDTs. The speed with which you create DBs is down by a factor 10-20 when compared to the old method in SCL.
It is also more tedious than the old DB editor. Thats just my feeling of it.
To be continued.......
(you are welcome to correct my findings, or to add you own discoveries or opinions).
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