InteractX vs. RSView

As simple as that. Sorry for putting two names against each other.

We are lookig into a relatively simple "upper-level" HMI project. Six machines with Yaskawa MP PLCs in them, one PC (Win 2000). The purpose is to have a centralized recipe storage as well as means to configure new recipes on the PC - and to have them downloaded to the machines.

Looked at few packages and so far, the best overall impression was left by InteractX and RSView. Both can communicate to Yaskawas by means of KEPWare Ethernet driver. Both look pleasant on the screen (although in a somewhat diferent way). Both vendors are willing to work the prices.

Nevertheless... I did not find much info on InteractX here. Mostly it was "I did not use it but heard it was nice" stuff. There is obviously much more on RSView, but it is hard to form an opinion for someone who has never worked with either.

Could anyone share his experiences and feelings about these? Any hidden bugs, pitfalls and caveats?

Thanks in advance.

I have had a little experience with both products. Our plant is 98%AB....keeping that in mind, it takes a lot to break that mold....economic reasons really. I had a 1/2 day hands on training seesion with interact x.....I spec'd out a CTC computer/HMI and interact x software.....it priced out well, but due to the large percentage of AB stuff in our plant it didn't make long term sense.

I am constantly torn on HMI's....there are many out there, I want to try them, but doesn't make long term sense to save a little money up front and then end up having to stock many differnt types of spare components.

In short, interact x seemed a little superior to RSView...especially in terms of interoperability.

Greg

The capability for recipe storage and the ability to create recipes was the reason we used CTC/Interact on our machines. We used a couple of different methods before settling on one. However, the way we implemented the data interface on our machines became a little quirky with their built in data tools. Rather than use Interact's data tool for managing data (which in spite of my not using it, is very good), I wanted to have operators enter some data, then do some processing on that data to do a couple of things. In one case, I limit the tooling they can choose from a list. In another case, I graphically display the tooling configuration. I chose to do this on the same screen they enter the data. So this precluded using the built in Interact tool. The result is that doing a "Save As..." is kind of cumbersome because you have to go to a screen with the data tool in order to Save or Save As. The cumberson part is this tool also lists all the data that I have distributed on a number of screens. I did all this with the DOS version of Interact.

When InteractX came out I asked CTC for help getting a Save and Save As button without using the data tool. They showed me how to use Visual Basic to customize the tools. It looks very promising, but I have not yet had the opportunity to try it. So, depending upon how you want to set up your data interface, this may or may not be a problem for you. I'd either ask your rep to demonstrate how they would implement you application or use the demo to do it yourself.

One really nice thing that I like is that I can write directly to the compact flash disk in my laptop's PCMCIA slot. Not only is this nice on the floor, but when I do an upgrade for a customer, I don't need any hardware on my desk to write the application to the CF disk. I can't do this with Siemens - I need to have a touch screen on my desk to do it (or I don't know how to do it).

I have not used RSView, so I can't compare capabilities, but I think the CTC product is very nice and I have had good experiences working with the people from CTC.

Thank you very much, guys. Sorry for not responding promptly - a hot project is not leaving me much time these days to check out this forum...