rslogix 5000 message problem

Hey guys,

Ok i have a few stud welders at work. I just added the logic to count the cycles on the weld head and after x ammount of cycles the machine wont cycle again untill a new weld head is scanned in and it resets the counter. This all works fine no problems. My question is i would like to display a message on my panelview once im down to 500 welds left. Im doing this now and it works fine i have message scrolls set up and a timer that indexes them through. The problem is i would like the message which is a string to update the current welds left everytime i display it. Like every 15 min untill the value is 0. Can i write a dint value into my string and display it or should i just add a text block on the panelview and animate the visibility so each time my message displays the text block will have a value in place of my message value. This message could read welds left on head (insertdintvaluehere) or should i manipulate the string and write a value into it and just display the message without adding in a text block. I want to do this without having to make a message for every value. Sorry for the long post.

You can just add a text box, then add your text and insert a plc value.
For example:
Seconds:/*N:5 {[Line3]PLC_Time[5]} NOFILL DP:0*/

You can adjust the visibility if needed.

So what Mark is suggesting what I would also suggest. Add the Text object and add the static text. Then click the Insert Variable button. Insert a Numeric variable and then browse to the tag containing the value you want inserted.

The example Mark showed is what it would look like after you insert the variable.

One quick note on that. Once the variable has been inserted you cannot modify the text portion of the variable. For example the "N:5" portion represents five digits. You cannot edit that text to change the number. Instead double-click on it and it will reopen the numeric variable editor where you can edit those settings. It isn't obvious.

OG

Ok i thought i may have to do it that way. I was thinging of inserting the value at the beginning of my message with the concat ins and just doing this every 10 min or something. Thanks

Right. Thanks guys. I know how to use the text block i was just curious if it would work well if i added the value to my message and just displayed the message every 15 min with the updated value once im under 500 untill 0. I dont want it to display the whole time just every 15 or 20 min as a reminder its getting close. Then once the head is reset it wouldnt have to do anything untill its back to 500 again