Difference between view SE and ME

My company has provided me with Studio 5000, RS5000 and 500, and motion controller software, but we haven't made a decision on HMI. We have a couple Panelview Plus 600 touchscreens and some older Panelview 1000. I don't see a need for anything beyond ME at this time, and it costs significantly less than SE. What would I be gaining with SE if I ask the company to shell out an extra 2000 dollars?

SE is only useful if you are running a true SE SCADA project in your plant. If all you are running are PanelViews, SE is not required.

SE would be used for a SCADA type system or where you wanted access to the same project in multiple places on multiple screens. It's also very handy for non SCADA applications if you have a large process line or large single machines.

SE can do more custom things with VB coding,etc.It also used where you may need a server or PC that can run additional software other than the HMI. You can install and run ME on a PC also if you buy the license but that's not done often.

SE is a distributed version ie Servers containing HMI, Tag, IO databases etc.. and ME is used on panelviews. Like the other folks stated if you are working on something local ME is the way to go. However if you are planning a large spread out factory maybe SE could be useful.
Note: You can run SE Local on a single PC if necessary before expanding out to a "more" distributed set-up.

Jasondelane said:

My company has provided me with Studio 5000, RS5000 and 500, and motion controller software, but we haven't made a decision on HMI. We have a couple Panelview Plus 600 touchscreens and some older Panelview 1000. I don't see a need for anything beyond ME at this time, and it costs significantly less than SE. What would I be gaining with SE if I ask the company to shell out an extra 2000 dollars?

Click to expand...

FTME = the old Panelbuilder , PanelView
FTSE = the old RSView32

Welcome to the forum!
If you have 10 or less HMI stations in total, stay with ME (local HMI).

Jasondelane said:

I don't see a need for anything beyond ME at this time

Click to expand...

Using SE local on a computer will only be more complicated without extra HMI benefit (based on what you said).
So your question sounds more about the difference between a local operator terminal & a distributed HMI ?

SE distributed is way more complex in what you can create with an HMI, but it comes with costs; server computers, client computers, software licenses, more training/learning, and more time in development are needed with SE. It also lets you make HMI changes on the fly, while your process/machine is running. That usually starts making sense in time/money after you have 10+ HMI stations, or if you have a process that cannot stop for updates.


ME (local): easier to use. you don't plan on making HMI changes often.
SE (distributed): not so easy to use. you DO plan on making HMI changes while things are running, for the life of the HMI.

arlenjacobs said:

Welcome to the forum!
If you have 10 or less HMI stations in total, stay with ME (local HMI).

Click to expand...

I would have to disagree. If you have more than 2-3 and there is any chance of changes happening or other factors Distributed may be better.

I have a customer who has 6 PV units running the same app and it's a real PITA when they need simple changes made and they really wish they would have went with a distrubuted option.

Also from a cost point SE can be cheaper when you consider stations can be low cost thin clients or web clients or view only clients.

It's very application centric. Basing the decision on the count of stations alone such as 10 is a poor metric to make that decision by IMHO.

I think ME has less data logging or trending capability built in? I am pretty surprised at how rudimentary the SE trend tool is though. I can't believe it isn't possible to save the trend data on the screen to a CSV file!

citect's process analyst so far the most useable to me

Both of them are horrible, outdated, broken, and more prone to crashing than anything else out there.

Given any choice, I would avoid any Rockwell HMI offering, they aren't worth the money or the hassle.

The Plc Kid said:

Basing the decision on the count of stations alone such as 10 is a poor metric to make that decision by IMHO.

Click to expand...

That's true. I completely agree.

Basing the HMI on the price alone (or station count) is not enough.
But you have to draw a line somewhere and force a chat about why that is or is not a good metric.

The Plc Kid said:

I have a customer who has 6 PV units running the same app and it's a real PITA when they need simple changes

Click to expand...

Now you're talking... maintain 1 app for different stations. That's one reason for FTView SE over PanelViews.

You've felt the pain. Many of us have too.
Jason has to translate PITA (or downtime) into $$ if he wants FTView SE with less than 10 stations.