Retrieving data from an *.RSS file

I have an *.RSS file saved from a SLC 5/04. The N7 file contains non zero data. When I perform an ASCII Export of the file, I see that the data is all zeros. Is there a way to get the data I see in the N7 file into excel?

What do you mean by "I performed an ASCII export".

I just did a quick test, where I took a SLC program, SaveAs'ed it to a Library (*.SLC) file type - making sure that that it was a Complete Program Save.

When I opened the .SLC file using Notepad, all my N7: data was there. I then cut it from notepad, save it to a .TXT file, open that .TXT file with Excel (Fixed Width), and the data was in Excel.

It could use a little tweeking still (I would need to make a macro that took the data from a 10-column format and put it into a single column with all the data in the right place), but it's there.

It took longer to post than it did to do.

Wow, Thanks Allen, neat tool. Call this "Tip of the Day"

Mickey

No fair - too fast. Mine was, print N7 to a "Generic/Text Only" printer file. I then opened the "prn" file with Notepad and cleaned it up to just the data. Finally I used Excel as Allen did.

and what about backwards process when you want to populate
N7 with values from excell?

Excel to PLC

Reverse my process.

Excel, SaveAs .TXT
Rename to .SLC
In notepad, add the Header information, like
"START 1747-L553B % 1747-L553B 5/05 CPU - 64K Mem. OS501 Series C %"

After the header, add one dummy rung:
SOR OTE B3/0 EOR

Then the data table header:
DATA N7:0

Followed by the data from Excel.

Save.

In RSLogix, do a Library Import - rather than having to create a whole project.

It will add the one dummy rung, and overwrite ALL the data table info you have in the file.

Very nice technique.

If you play around with partial saves (where the only the data that is referenced by the rungs being exported get saved), and open the .SLC files in notepad, you'll see how it can be stored in ASCII format.

The neatest thing is, when you do an import, you don't have to actually reference the data in the logic that you import in order to suck in the data. But you DO need to have at least one rung of logic, or the data tables don't get updated.

Off topic, but what I often wonder about is...

If we all have little tricks and such that we use to move this type of data back and forth, and they are all relatively simple, why doesn't Rockwell Software just add that ability to RSLogix 500?

Allen,
By ASCII export I mean I went to Tools/Database/ASCII export. However, thanks for your reply. It did what I wanted.
Bernie,
How do you print N7 to a prn file?

godfrey said:

I went to Tools/Database/ASCII export

Click to expand...

and that brings up our “Allen-Bradley buzz word” of the day tip ...

data TABLES refers to memory allocations (examples: N7:0, B3/0, S:42, etc.) ...

on the other hand ...

data BASE refers to documentation type stuff (examples: rung comments, address descriptions, etc.)