So "Ecostruxure Control Expert" from Schneider released

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This is apparatenly the rebranding and the new version of the Unity Pro software, and essentially the V14.



But didn't V13 release like one year ago and 13.1 like 6 months ago?


Are they going to send update copies? Do the licence still work or it is a new product? What are the changes that explain the new product name?


I feel like the 3 biggest PLC makers are releasing new versions of their softwares way too often.
 
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Disclaimer, I don't know much about Schneider, but I do have google.


When I googled it, it sounds like just a rebranding. I got the

impression that they want all products to be called Ecostruxure, in the hopes you assume that everything across all their sectors plays together nicely in an Industry 4.0 way. Kinda like how Siemens has almost every product start with SI, or at least S.


Could be something coming down the road, but from the product page, when you list versions of Ecostruxure Control Expert, you just get a pile of Unity.



Out of curiosity, how often would you like them to have software releases? Can't have new features without them....
 
Do the licence still work or it is a new product? What are the changes that explain the new product name?

What I understood is Ecostruxure Control Expert has a completely new licensing system which includes floating license also.
Unity Ver13 or 13.1 license will not work with it , you need to get an upgrade license.
Also 1 year free subscription of license upgrade is removed.
 
Out of curiosity, how often would you like them to have software releases? Can't have new features without them....


Minor updates who fixes broken things or do minor improvements are fine, but you shouldn't have different incompatible versions every year.

How are people supposed to keep up? It appear the Unity Pro 8.1 is still widely used in even new machines. People of Schneider act suprised if you don't have the latest version installed. I upgraded version of my company from 8.1 to 11 to 13 in 1 year.

In a previous job, I once had to port down the program of a colleague from TIA portal V13 to V12, the customer had specified V12, the reseller had shipped a V13 firmware CPU and HMI(its only stock) , the manager bought it and ended up rebuying later a V12 CPU since the client did not want the V13. I ran into some nice issues of blocks versions bewteen V13 and V12.


I imagine it's even worse for people working on a plant.


What I understood is Ecostruxure Control Expert has a completely new licensing system which includes floating license also.
Unity Ver13 or 13.1 license will not work with it , you need to get an upgrade license.
Also 1 year free subscription of license upgrade is removed.


Schneider usually send copy of update that work with your licence if you are subscriber. I assumed it wouldn't work that way with the rebranding.


I wonder if they are charging it like a new purchase.
 
I am not a Unity user, but I use SoMachine and SoMachine Basic.

Today, I updated my Schneider software and my SoMachine Basic uninstalled and it installed EcoStruxture Machine Expert-Basic instead. It is a new software, but it appears to operate very similar to SoMachine Basic.

Apparently Schneider is working at changing all their software names.
 
I am not a Unity user, but I use SoMachine and SoMachine Basic.

Today, I updated my Schneider software and my SoMachine Basic uninstalled and it installed EcoStruxture Machine Expert-Basic instead. It is a new software, but it appears to operate very similar to SoMachine Basic.

Apparently Schneider is working at changing all their software names.




It has some nice confusing situation potential:


Technician: I need Ecostruxure to program PLC


Project leader => Open his catalog, find Exostruxure to programm PLC


The copy ships.

Technician: But but but it's not the good software 🔨


That's marketing genius to bet on people to make the difference easily between Ecostruxure Control Expert and Ecostruxure Machine Expert.
 
Yep - marketing balony! I have it and also have Unity Pro XL. Both in VMs. New part number, new serial number the lot. You can be certain that it is not backward compatible as well. I sometimes think this is so they can keep selling you their expensive maintenance each year. Also an excuse to include new products I guess.
 
Hello. Me I had some troubles with update UNITY V13.1 XL to Ecostructure Control Expert XL V14.
When you import an archive "sta" (made with UNITY V13.1) and you make a global generation, : The software start the generation and close suddenly.
Someone had same problems?
 
Yes, all the version has change his names and some of them the licence.


UnityPro - EcoStruxure ControlExpert
SoMachine - EcoStruxure Machine Expert including SoMachine Basic
Vijeo XD - EcoStruxure Operator Terminal Expert
Everything now will be EcoStruxure
 

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