Quick Designer 3.7

Ryan_Flowers

Lifetime Supporting Member
Join Date
Feb 2019
Location
Las Vegas
Posts
55
Hi everyone,

I've been going back and forth trying to figure our how to rescue the HMI project files from some TCP quick panels we have here at our facility. We used to have an older laptop that ran windows XP and had a copy of Quick Designer 3.7 on it. We used it to upload, download, and modify the HMI programs. Problem is that it was misplaced and the files were not backed up anywhere. I bought a copy of Proficy Machine Edition, but I have yet to get it to be able to upload from the unit to create a project file. I'm thinking I must retrieve a copy of QD 3.7 and do it from another PC that has windows XP. I cannot find anyone to purchase and download this program from.

Can anyone help me?

Thanks
 
What sort of message did you get when you tried to retrieve the project from the HMI using Proficy machine Edition?
First, let me say that I'm not 100 percent sure that you can use PME to retrieve a program from the HMI that was originally created with Quick Designer. I do know you can import a Quick Designer *.prj file into a PME project.
I can think of a couple of reasons why you might have problems.
The first reason is that the Quick Panels require a special serial cable for upload/download. The port on the HMI is not standard RS232. It requires a cable with a built-in converter between the port's TTL voltage levels and RS232. You may also need a real serial port on your computer instead of a USB/serial converter.
The other reason is that to be able to extract the project file from the HMI, the original programmer must have included the project files when he/she transferred the compiled runtime file from Quick Designer to the HMI.

Edit: Here's what I found in PME Help:
QuickDesigner applications can be imported to QuickPanel targets, either from a QuickDesigner project file or from the QuickPanel target itself. This topic describes issues and incompatibilities you should know about before attempting to import a QuickDesigner project.

When importing from a project file (*.PRJ), only applications generated with QuickDesigner 3.20 or later can be imported.

When uploading directly from a QuickPanel target, the original application files must have been stored on the QuickPanel unit. That is, the Store Project in Panel option must have been enabled when compiling and downloading the application from QuickDesigner.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the info.

I do have the proper cable tool, P/N GPW-CB02 I believe. It was used with the old laptop as mentioned.

The following is in the Feedback Zone when trying to upload in PME:

Starting Upload From QuickPanel
COM port opened successfully
Connection Established
Changing BPS Rate
Unable to create upload file

I spoke with an engineer who troubleshoots customer questions in PME and he came to the conclusion that I could not recover these files using PME.


I'm having a hard time finding the Quick Designer software to use to try and rescue it that way.
 
In my experience, GE support was not a bit anal about re-registering an old QuickDesigner copy as long as you used to have a valid serial number. So if you install the trial copy from the above link and call GE with your serial number, you should be able to make it working again.

I would also suggest to find a way to install a virtual machine with Windows XP on a newer laptop and to run QuickDesigner from it. No need to rely on some old hardware bound to fail.
 
The "Unable to create upload file" could be a Windows administrator setting that it is trying to create the file in a folder that requires administrator privileges.

Try changing the default folder projects are saved to a new folder not in the Users/xx/Documents branch - like C:\HMI\

I had a similar problem with RSLogix 5 because of the default folder.
 
The I attached the TCP/GE flavour QuickDesigner V3.7 at the line below. It runs as a trial for 4 days.

https://ufile.io/3rffv


yes i have used the 4 day trial to upload then i used ge proficy me for changes, however....


older monochrome Quickpanels did not like proficyME Changes and i ended up making changes in Quick designer.


Newer color panels colors would change slightly but were otherwise the same and were fully functional.
 
Thanks everyone for your help in getting these files off. I did have to emulate windows XP on a virtual machine to get everything to work properly with Quick Designer.

Now that I have all the .prj files, I need to import them all into Proficy ME. I do not use this software at all so all the paths I'm taking to import them don't seem to work. Is there any way you gents could point me the correct direction again? Mind you, what I'm trying to do is import these Quick Designer .prj files into Proficy ME for downloading to quick panels if the need should arise.



Thanks
 
Here are the steps using PME version 7 which is what I have installed on this computer. It might be a little different if you have a newer version.

Start a new PME project. Expand the "Target Type" box and select "Quick Panel" as the target type. Don't worry about selecting the correct model as you will be overwriting this selection when you import. Give the project a name.

The HMI will appear in the project navigator as "Target1". Right click on this target and select "Import" then enter the .prj file you want to import.

I don't have any .prj files available to go any further than that. If what I've outlined doesn't work for you, post one of your files and I'll try to go through the complete sequence. If you'd rather not post your files or your company policy forbids it, send me a PM and I'll give you my email address and you can send one to me directly.
 
Thank you very much for that step-by-step. I was able to import my .prj

Sadly again I am having another issue. When I go to download to an imported file to a physical 10.5" QPI-3xxx model I get the following in the feedback zone:

Preparing for selected action...
-------------------- Validating --------------------
Validating Services
Error 4380: Invalid address [Variable, DINT1: Data Source Details : I/O Address]
Target - Target1
Target1 - HMI
Validating HMI Panels...
MAIN
Warning 2408: There are warnings from a previous validation [MAIN]
Pnl_aLARM
Warning 2408: There are warnings from a previous validation [Pnl_aLARM]
PROCSTAT
Warning 2408: There are warnings from a previous validation [PROCSTAT]
CATINPID
Warning 2408: There are warnings from a previous validation [CATINPID]
MAINTENANCE
Warning 2408: There are warnings from a previous validation [MAINTENANCE]
SCREEN_MAINT
PROC_INLET_STATIC_PID
Warning 2408: There are warnings from a previous validation [PROC_INLET_STATIC_PID]
BYPASS_PID
Warning 2408: There are warnings from a previous validation [BYPASS_PID]
PROSTAT2
Warning 2408: There are warnings from a previous validation [PROSTAT2]
DATA_LOG
MAINT_ACCESS
Validating HMI Application Scripts...
Validating HMI Alarm Groups...
Word Alarms
Bit Alarms
Validating QuickPanel Message Grids...



Compiling HMI References...
Target1 - I/O

Validating Aborted - 1 error(s), 8 warning(s)
------------------


I have the cable connected properly. Can anyone assist again?

Thanks
 
Error 4380: Invalid address [Variable, DINT1: Data Source Details : I/O Address]

I've never used Proficy, but it looks like the tag "DINT1" has an invalid address. It could be that QuickDesigner and Proficy handled PLC addressing slightly differently.

Take a look at that. If this doesn't help, maybe someone knowledgeable with Proficy can step in.
 
Your problem has nothing to do with the cable. Proficy was not able to validate the project and create the compiled runtime file. Make a backup of the project and post it here or email it to me at stephen dot bailey2 at Verizon dot net. I can take a look and see if I can figure out what the problems are. Also tell me what PME version you using.
 
I got the files. If it's OK with you I'd rather continue the discussion here in case anyone else is confronted with similar issues.
The error associated with the variable DINT1 is that it came through the import process as an integer but was addressed to the bit level (N17:1/11). When I changed it to N17:1 it validated without any other errors. When I checked, I could not find any usage of the variable DINT1 on any of the screens, so you may be able to delete it.
The rest of the warnings were about overlapping objects on screens. Warnings will not prevent downloading to the HMI.
 
Received this email from Ryan this morning
Thanks for that the error did go away. When I went to download I saw all the screens compile in the Feedback Zone and when it got to Creating Backup File it had a pop up prompt with Out Of Memory. Then the “Build in Progress” window was frozen on Creating Backup File.
I prefer to keep the discussion on the forum.
When I try to do a download from my Windows 7 computer running PME version 7 I sail through the backup creation without issues. But then it fails because I don't actually have a QP to download to. Thus it seems that the memory issue is in your computer rather than in the QP. Or else it is an issue with PME version 9.5. Are you running PME in a virtual machine? If so do you have enough memory allocated for it? Try installing to your base machine instead of the VM.
I'm running PME version 7.0 because that's the newest version I have a license dongle for. I would have to uninstall/reinstall version 9.5 to get it run in the four day grace period to see if I could duplicate your results and I still would not have a QP.
In the properties of the target, change the "Simulate" field from false to true and then try to download. That will try to download to the computer running PME.
 

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