VBA or other macro to expidite CLX machine design

Hello all,

Thanks for taking a look at my post. I am wondering if anyone knows of an excel tool, VBA or other macro to help speed up the programming of machines in Rockwell. Many of my machines are somewhat based on previous versions, but the hardware is always a bit different. So some kind of macro where I could configure the hardware in a spreadsheet and create an import file would be nice.

In Siemens for example, the text code can be exported to a source, and easily edited within Excel.

Rockwell uses an XML format, which is daunting because the files are so huge and full of formatting stuff.

Still, I wonder if anyone has experience with this. I would appreciate any feedback.

The L5K file that you can export/import from/to RSLogix 5000 is a text file that you can manipulate.
If you have experience with macros, VBA or any other programming language, you can get data from a text file, Excel file, etc., and insert it to the L5K file.

Excel and VBA are powerful tools, the combination does all my "grunt" work on a project. You've got a few options, use Excel/VBA to create teh .L5K, .L5X, and .CSV files you may require. There is a bit of a learning curve, but once you figure it all out you'll be making all sorts of tools for development.

Otherwise, if your machines are that similar, you may want to create "generic" program and export them to .L5X files and put them into a library, make the code modular and import what you need.

Thanks for the responses guys. Good to know that it's been done.

I don't have much experience with VBA yet, would anyone like to post an example of a tool with Excel VBA?

Otherwise, is there a workshop or book someone could recommend?

dmbartender said:

I don't have much experience with VBA yet, would anyone like to post an example of a tool with Excel VBA?

Click to expand...

Here's something that may help you:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/63885268/Code-Generation

Notes:
I tried to upload the pdf file, but its size exceeded the quota.
I noticed the link I posted requires a subscription. If anybody knows a link where the file can be downloaded for free, please post it.

Hey great, that PDF could be the hot ticket for starting to learn. Could you upload it somewhere else, like Dropbox or something? I would be very appreciative.

Otherwise, maybe you could compress it into a different kind of file and upload it here?

Thanks ahead of time

You can use this link:
http://forums.mrplc.com/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=1008

I hope it helps!

Awesome, thanks for uploading I will take a look through it and experiment on my own a bit. Cheers, Tom

I have a program that does this.. PM me if you are still looking for a solution

You might also want to take a look at this post.
http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showpost.php?p=361042&postcount=11
Its not exactly what you were looking for but it does show how to use Excel to create large numbers of rungs very fast, there may be something to help you there.