For FactoryTalk View SE Station single workstation vs distributed

What is the main difference between the 2 licenses?
I have a lot of experience with the Machine edition but not so much with the Server Edition.
We have a customer that has 1 PC running with FactoryTalk View SE Station single workstation applications (RSVSE.25).

He wants to add a new PC that will run the same hmi page with the same control.
Can he just buy the same license on the new PC, transfer the aptransferpliucation and that it?

Or

He has to buy 1 FactoryTalk View SE distributed application and 2 FactoryTalk View SE Clients and convert his single station to the distributed server?

If you wanted to run the same application on two PVs you would create the runtime and then load it onto each PV separately. If you needed to make a change, you would have to make that change and then load it onto each PV separately. In other words, your PVs are running "their own" applications with no connection whatsoever to the other PV. They don't know the other one exists.

FTVSE local applications operate in that same manner. If you wanted to run the same application on two PCs, you would do it the same as you would for a FTVME application and they would operate completely independently. Each requiring their own FTV license. I think it is called a Station license.

If you convert the application to a Network Distributed type application then you could have one machine acting as the HMI and Data server (it can also have a client) while the other machine is simply a client. In this setup, usually we see a dedicated machine acting as the server while the clients run on separate computers. But the server machine can also run a client.

So you would need one SE Server license and then a client license for each client. You can keep adding clients very easily. Rockwell probably offers an upgrade from a Station license to a Server license. I don't know that for certain, but I would think they would.

The biggest benefit in my mind to going the network route is that your computer could have Studio installed and make changes to the application live without having to load it onto two separate machines. As soon as you save your change, all clients would be able to see that change.

Having two computers running the same Local application is probably the easiest method up front. But long term, a network application is easier to maintain. But it will require a little effort up front to convert the app. It's relatively easy, but it is a step that would have to be done.

OG

Big thanks to you, this is clear now what is the difference between the single station and distributed server.
Just for curiosity, what would be the advantage of running SE single station VS Machine edition?
Just behing able to host the application on the server?

AutomatisationBSL said:

Big thanks to you, this is clear now what is the difference between the single station and distributed server.
Just for curiosity, what would be the advantage of running SE single station VS Machine edition?
Just behing able to host the application on the server?

Click to expand...

When we say "Server", it does not literally have to be a Windows Server machine. It can be Windows 10/11. The software uses the name "server" to indicate that it is serving the data up to its clients. But commonly, you do see it running on a server, especially the distributed applications. A local application I wouldn't hesitate to use Windows 10/11.

With Local applications everything runs on one PC. The client and the server are the same computer. The server cannot send data to any other client. With Network Distributed, everything can be separate machines if we want to do that. For example, one PC can be the HMI Server. That PC stores all the graphic displays. Another PC can be the Data Server. That is the computer that makes the network connection to all the PLCs on our system. And we can have multiple other computers that are clients. The client views a screen and it gets that screen from the HMI Server. The data that is displayed on that screen comes from the Data server. By distributing these functions, we put less of a load on those computers.

You can certainly have the HMI Server and the Data Server on the same PC with the clients being remote computers. In fact, that is how most applications I have seen are set up. One server box and a bunch of remote clients.

SE has a lot more capability than ME. It has better alarming functions, data logging is a huge improvement. The ability to act on events (such as: if this happens do that), Trending is better. Macros are better. They really shouldn't even call them macros in ME. VBA is there if we want to use it. Graphically there isn't a huge difference since it is the same editor. But you have a few more animation capabilities. Simple things like pressing one button that can open two displays, launch Excel, and set a tag to a specific value. There is also a whole command language in SE that you have access to that you can't access in ME.

And yes, running it on a PC versus a dedicated terminal is helpful too. Although you can actually do that with ME applications too.

There are a lot of great software packages that are as good as, or (much) better than SE. SE gets pummeled on here pretty regularly, often fairly so. But compared to ME, it is a big improvement. I've used both for years and I definitely prefer SE over ME.

Usually it comes down to who are we creating displays for. If I am creating displays for the operator running a piece of equipment then ME is usually the tool. If I am creating displays for users in a control room that need to see current production data along with what we did yesterday or last month, then that is likely SE. Assuming Rockwell is their preference.

OG

Operaghost said:

For example, one PC can be the HMI Server. That PC stores all the graphic displays. Another PC can be the Data Server. That is the computer that makes the network connection to all the PLCs on our system. And we can have multiple other computers that are clients.

Click to expand...

Just to add on that it doesn't have to be a single computer for HMI or Data either. You can have several linked to the same project which would allow for higher processing rate (depending on how many clients and PLCs/Data Required).