FTView SE and ME assistance

Hello,

I'm not a SCADA guy. Rather, I'm a regular IT monkey trying to fix a SCADA system. My organization hired a contractor to design a SCADA system to run a water system here. The contractor did so, and provided what appears to my eye to be a full set of Rockwell Automation software. They then went out of business after completion of the contract, taking many of the license keys with them. This was several years back.

The water plant ran basically unaided until recently, when a hard drive failure took the control PC out of commission. Lacking the contractor support, they asked me to try to fix it. I was able to restore the computer, reinstall Rockwell's software, and use the transfer utility to pull the .MER file running the plant from the PanelView Plus units in the plant. However, it appears I am either missing some license or a critical step in the recovery process, because the computer is trying to run the application as a "ME Runtime" application, and then complaining it does not have a license for same. Rockwell was able to find a license for "SE Runtime", and instructed me to convert it, but they are unable to tell me how to do that without a support contract, which we do not have.

How do I convert an .MER or set it so it runs in "SE Runtime", or whatever that is? I appreciate whatever assistance you can provide.

Hi. You can run MER project in FactoryTalk Viem ME Station. Its like a PanelView Emulator. But I think you must have backup of some SE project and open it in FactoryTalk View Site Edition. So my opinion is, try to find backup of SE project if you have that license for "SE runtime"..Sorry for my English..

Hello Johan,

Thanks for the ideas! The organization had been backing up parts of the system, but not running a full backup. They somehow had missed the application itself, unless it is stored in some format I am unfamiliar with. How do I run an application from the SE side? From what I've seen, the View Studio is the "SE" part, but when I load what I have it opens in ME Station like you indicated - and then complains about a license. If I can get the file to open in the SE application, how do I run it from there?

If your project has a .mer File that was created by FTVME.

If your project has a .cli File that was created by FTVSE.

Your Activations should be located in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Rockwell Automation\Activations

This will depend on whether your running XP or Win7. But being an IT Guy I sure you can find it.

Once there you should see files with .lic extension. They will open with Notepad and you will find the license number for the activations in there.

Once you get the License numbers you can get Tech Support to Rehost those files so you can get a New License Activation for your new PC. These activations are tied to the DISK_SERIAL_NUMBER or Mac address of Ethernet cards. That's the reason you get the warning on the new machine.

I do not believe you need a tech support contract for Activation help. Others with more detailed information will surely chime in later in the day.

Good luck with you project and Welcome to the forum.

So, you have a PanelView Plus and a control PC. But, the PC failed and you no longer have the project that was on there.
And it sounds like you were running FTView SE stand-alone on the PC.

It would be a big step to assume that the PC and the PanelView Plus ran similar projects; they likely were different. But the operators can tell you how similar/different they were.

If you really want to import your PVP (*.mer) file into a FTView SE project, that's possible. But it would be easier to just trade/buy your SE license into a FTView ME Station license for the desktop PC, then run the *.mer project unchanged on the PC.

Thanks for the help! I was able to recover the activations by using the serials I had on the physical disks the plant had and working with Rockwell. However, I didn't have every license they make, nor was Rockwell able to recover all of the licenses that weren't printed on the cases (notably Transaction Manager, whatever that does). The old PC's hard drive crashed hard - I live in one of the most hostile environments on earth (not Seattle) and microscopic grit gets in everything. All I have from it was the partial backups my predecessors had made, which sadly did not include the Documentation folder. They didn't know.

The read is correct on the setup - three PVP units running two programs. One was made by the contractor and from what I have seen was... basic in the extreme. I did see it in operation on the control PC exactly once, and while it was running under ME's license grace period the plant operators assured me it was exactly like pre-crash. It doesn't even adjust for resolution, so they have to keep the PC's resolution minimized to keep the display easily legible.

The other project seems to be an off-the-shelf solution by a major chemical company that I've seen in multiple industries. That program broke utterly when copied back from the PVPs, but the operators aren't too concerned with it. It still works on the PVPs and is not their primary function.

If I can figure out how to import the .mer into a SE project, that is ideal. That way any future issues can be resolved without any hijinks, and possibly I can figure out a way to make their PC variant scale with resolution (or just be larger in general). Also, anything involving financial transactions and my organization is convoluted at best, and usually takes durations measured in months. So the solution that takes more work from me and less from my organization is ideal.

In your searching for licenses, did you find one for FactoryTalk View Studio? Rockwell requires to you buy client licenses for all machines that will run a FTView program as well as a buy a license for the programming/development software. To be able to convert the program and change the resolution, you need FactoryTalk View studio.

If it was me, I would call your RA distributor and talk to them. They can likely send someone out to help you for "free".

Yes, I have licenses for FTView Studio (ME), FT View Enterprise (which I assume is SE?), Studio SE Runtime, RSLinx, RSLogix 5000 and the various RSNetworks parts. It's an odd mix. Rockwell's activation support was able to get me the product key and serials for those by finding the original order.

As for on-site, Rockwell does not have a sales representative or any apparatus in this part of the world. We would have to set up a new contract with some third party deal to get any support here at all. I'm effectively on my own. I think eventually the organization will need to get another contract, but the longer I can keep them running the easier that is to stomach.

Eyedolon said:

Thanks for the help! I was able to recover the activations by using the serials I had on the physical disks the plant had and working with Rockwell. However, I didn't have every license they make, nor was Rockwell able to recover all of the licenses that weren't printed on the cases (notably Transaction Manager, whatever that does).

Click to expand...

check this link for more information on Transaction Manager

http://www.rockwellautomation.com/rockwellsoftware/products/factorytalk-transaction-manager.page

So what do I need to do to transfer the .mer (or the .apa I made) into a .cli that polls the right application? I've been hunting through the user's guides (which are incredibly detailed, don't get me wrong) and have not found an applicable section.