RSLogix5000… Some Descriptions Grayed Out

kstiles1499

Member
Join Date
Nov 2022
Location
St. Louis, MO
Posts
10
Hi all.. first time posting here :)

I have a small question about my controller tags. When monitoring alias tags, some of the descriptions are grayed out. Picture attached. I’m trying to figure out what is causing this? They aren’t unused tags.
The reason I’m investigating is because I recently exported the tags to an excel spreadsheet and I had to manually fill in the descriptions for the ones that are greyed out. I know the standard tags have a white background and the safety tags have a gray background but I’m talking about the text itself on the safety tags.

Thanks in advance for the help!

3C70D0E4-D62E-4FA0-9B61-569D31967403.jpg
 
Welcome to the PLCTalk forum community ! You have chosen an excellent question for your first post.

The answer is surprisingly simple: the description text that appears in gray is for the Base tag, not for the Alias that links to it.

Because there is descriptive information attached to the base tag, RA figures you might want to know about it because you created an Alias, so it's shown in the Tag database view. It's just more subtle, in-the-background, soft-toned. Like a blue-gray October sky.

But it's not present when you Export because it's not actually attached to the Alias tag.
 
Welcome to the PLCTalk forum community ! You have chosen an excellent question for your first post.

The answer is surprisingly simple: the description text that appears in gray is for the Base tag, not for the Alias that links to it.

Because there is descriptive information attached to the base tag, RA figures you might want to know about it because you created an Alias, so it's shown in the Tag database view. It's just more subtle, in-the-background, soft-toned. Like a blue-gray October sky.

But it's not present when you Export because it's not actually attached to the Alias tag.

Thanks, Ken! I’m more green to 5000 than I am to Logix 5 & 500.
I’m going to watch some more videos on tags.
 
Because there is descriptive information attached to the base tag, RA figures you might want to know about it because you created an Alias, so it's shown in the Tag database view.

Quick follow up as I’m thinking more into this.

1. Would it be correct to say that in this case, the programmer created a base tag and listed its i/o location, wrote a description for it, then later created an alias tag off of that base tag, listed an alias name, but then did not write a description for the alias?

2. If so, what would happen in the tag database if both the base and the alias had two different descriptions? My gut tells me it would just list the alias description in normal text.
 
Quick follow up as I’m thinking more into this.

1. Would it be correct to say that in this case, the programmer created a base tag and listed its i/o location, wrote a description for it, then later created an alias tag off of that base tag, listed an alias name, but then did not write a description for the alias?

2. If so, what would happen in the tag database if both the base and the alias had two different descriptions? My gut tells me it would just list the alias description in normal text.

You're correct on both.

A DINT works the same way. If you describe a DINT then the description is shown on all bits of the DINT. If you provide a description for a bit, then it will be shown. Using the bits in the program will show the DINT overall description if the individual bit does not have its own. It will also show "grayed out" in the rung logic but if you click the description to edit, it will be blank.
 
You're correct on both.

A DINT works the same way. If you describe a DINT then the description is shown on all bits of the DINT. If you provide a description for a bit, then it will be shown. Using the bits in the program will show the DINT overall description if the individual bit does not have its own. It will also show "grayed out" in the rung logic but if you click the description to edit, it will be blank.

When I saw the title of the thread, this was what I assumed the answer was going to be. For example, if you have a DINT tag called TEST and you put "This is a test tag" in the description for that tag and expand it, you will see that TEST.1, TEST.2...TEST.31 will all have "This is a test tag" in light grey text in the description field. You should then be able to overwrite individual bit descriptions, e.g. make the description of TEST.1 "This is a different description than the overall DINT."
 

Similar Topics

I've noticed that for nested UDT's in RSLogix5000 (v20), only the top-level description is passed through. Can this be changed so that the...
Replies
0
Views
1,810
Hello everyone, I have an RSLogix5000 project which is running live in the factory but I need to make some changes to the logic. I want to test...
Replies
0
Views
1,097
Good Morning Everyone, I'm looking to use the GSV instruction to get I/O fault codes for my project so I know if there's a comms issue in my E/IP...
Replies
5
Views
810
The machine is running production. When trying to go online with the laptop the whole machine looses communication and faults out. Drives, HMI...
Replies
13
Views
1,867
Hello, is it possible to create a data block, something like shared datablock in Siemens STEP 7, in the RS Logix5000 PLC project? I would like...
Replies
3
Views
1,049
Back
Top Bottom