user names and password for the panel view plus

SpikeZ · Oct 30, 2012

Hi Everyone,

I am a new electrical engineer. I am still learning PLC and HMI designs, so I need some help on one of my tasks now.

One of our clients saying there are 3 usernames and passwords in the security codes for the our panel view programs, and the client want to have these usernames and passwords from us. The programmer who did the panel view program has left, so my boss wants me to dig them out. I have the the project files including the .apa, .mer, .RSS. First I looked at the ladder logic using RSLogix 500, but nothing helps in there. So then I tried to open the .mer file to look for the HMI security codes using FT View ME Station software, but an error message shows that the HMI project contains more displays than my FactoryTalk View Me Station is licensed for, which is 15. Is there anything to do with my software, Or I looked at the wrong place for the usernames and passwords. Thanks!

dmargineau · Oct 30, 2012

In this case you will need to use the PV+ development software FactoryTalk View Studio for Machine Edition- RA Cat.No.9701-VWSTMENE .

SpikeZ · Oct 30, 2012

dmargineau said:
In this case you will need to use the PV+ development software FactoryTalk View Studio Machine Edition (ME).

Thanks for your reply! Indeed I have the FactoryTalk View Studio Machine Edition (ME), but every time I tried to open the .mer application, ME software says the HMI project contains more displays than my FactoryTalk View Me Station is licensed for, which is 15.... I am really stuck now.....

Ken Roach · Oct 30, 2012

You're probably going to find the User Names in FactoryTalk View Studio, which is the development environment for PanelView Plus applications.

First, open up FactoryTalk View Studio and see if the project is in the Existing projects list.

Usernames and Passwords for PanelView Plus are part of the FactoryTalk "local directory". I recommend looking for them on the development computer, if it was used by your previous programmer.

Navigate to the bottom of the project tree in FactoryTalk View Studio and you should see the System folder, then the Users and Groups folder, then the Users folder.

That's where the FactoryTalk Users are configured.

If there aren't any Users configured there, especially if this isn't the computer used by the original programmer, you're going to have to use the FactoryTalk Application Manager utility to Restore the *.APA archive file onto the development computer.

There will probably be a dialog that asks if you want to overwrite the FactoryTalk Local Directory. Usually I don't, but if you want to figure out what the usernames are in that Archived project, you're going to have to.

What you won't be able to do is retrieve the passwords. Like with most Windows-based security systems, the passwords are hashed and encrypted. You can change them, but you can't easily retrieve them if they are unknown.

Ken Roach · Oct 30, 2012

*.MER files are Runtimes; they will automatically start the FactoryTalk View ME Station runtime, like it would run on the PanelView Plus terminal.

What you need to do is open up FactoryTalk View Studio itself.

Start -> Rockwell Software -> FactoryTalk View -> FactoryTalk View Studio.

dmargineau · Oct 30, 2012

There is something fishy here... RA is well known for this...
Only FactoryTalk View Machine Edition (used to run FactoryTalk View Machine Edition projects) has restrictions depending of the number of used displays.
On the other hand, FactoryTalk View Studio for Machine Edition, the development software, does not restrict the projects to any display usage limit.
Visit:
http://www.rockwellautomation.com/rockwellsoftware/performance/view/orderinginfo.html

for a more detailed explanation of the ambiguous "Rockwell language"...

SpikeZ · Oct 30, 2012

Ken Roach said:
You're probably going to find the User Names in FactoryTalk View Studio, which is the development environment for PanelView Plus applications.

First, open up FactoryTalk View Studio and see if the project is in the Existing projects list.

Usernames and Passwords for PanelView Plus are part of the FactoryTalk "local directory". I recommend looking for them on the development computer, if it was used by your previous programmer.

Navigate to the bottom of the project tree in FactoryTalk View Studio and you should see the System folder, then the Users and Groups folder, then the Users folder.

That's where the FactoryTalk Users are configured.

If there aren't any Users configured there, especially if this isn't the computer used by the original programmer, you're going to have to use the FactoryTalk Application Manager utility to Restore the *.APA archive file onto the development computer.

There will probably be a dialog that asks if you want to overwrite the FactoryTalk Local Directory. Usually I don't, but if you want to figure out what the usernames are in that Archived project, you're going to have to.

What you won't be able to do is retrieve the passwords. Like with most Windows-based security systems, the passwords are hashed and encrypted. You can change them, but you can't easily retrieve them if they are unknown.

Thank you Ken for the details! Now I opened up the .apa file to restore the project and the FactoryTalk Local Directory, but after a while the a pop-up window asks me to log on to FactoryTalk. The problem is I have no clues what the username and password it requires.....

Thank you again for all the help!

Ken Roach · Oct 30, 2012

Try the Administrator account name and password for that computer, or for the computer you think the project was created on. The Administrator account and its password are always added by default to the FactoryTalk user list.

Passwords can really bite you.... everybody wants security AND a backdoor they can use when they forget to write the passwords down.

SpikeZ · Oct 30, 2012

Ken Roach said:
Try the Administrator account name and password for that computer, or for the computer you think the project was created on. The Administrator account and its password are always added by default to the FactoryTalk user list.

Passwords can really bite you.... everybody wants security AND a backdoor they can use when they forget to write the passwords down.

I asked the IT staff to put the admin account name and password in there, and it seems finished restoring without any notifications. But after that I go to the HMI projects under ME folder, then I find that the restored project doesn't have all the files like other projects in the same folder, such as .mer, .acd... etc. It only contains a .med file. That is probably why I still can't probably open up the project in FT View Studio because it is lack of data. Do you have any clues what it is going on there....

I can't see how this small issue turns out such a pain..... but thanks for your help.

SpikeZ · Oct 30, 2012

dmargineau said:
There is something fishy here... RA is well known for this...
Only FactoryTalk View Machine Edition (used to run FactoryTalk View Machine Edition projects) has restrictions depending of the number of used displays.
On the other hand, FactoryTalk View Studio for Machine Edition, the development software, does not restrict the projects to any display usage limit.
Visit:
http://www.rockwellautomation.com/rockwellsoftware/performance/view/orderinginfo.html

for a more detailed explanation of the ambiguous "Rockwell language"...

That's probably how they sell their software. Only selling you part-working software, and then you just need to buy endless add-ons to make it work properly.

Ken Roach · Oct 30, 2012

*.ACD files are project files from RSLogix 5000. They will be stored in C:\RSLogix5000\ or wherever the programmers have decided to store them.

*.MER files are FactoryTalk View Runtime files. They'll be stored in that default FactoryTalk View ME\Runtime directory. That's pretty much where you leave them.

*.APA files are FactoryTalk View Archive files. They include the whole FactoryTalk View Project and the FT Local Director configuration. They are created in the FactoryTalk View ME\Archive directory by default, but can be saved and stored anywhere.

Your previous programmer probably collected all the programs together and left them in a directory or on disk.

Once you restore the project from a *.APA file, it should appear in the "Existing" tab of the New/Open Machine Edition Application window that comes up when you do a File -> Open Application in FactoryTalk View Studio.

SpikeZ · Oct 30, 2012

Ken Roach said:
*.ACD files are project files from RSLogix 5000. They will be stored in C:\RSLogix5000\ or wherever the programmers have decided to store them.

*.MER files are FactoryTalk View Runtime files. They'll be stored in that default FactoryTalk View ME\Runtime directory. That's pretty much where you leave them.

*.APA files are FactoryTalk View Archive files. They include the whole FactoryTalk View Project and the FT Local Director configuration. They are created in the FactoryTalk View ME\Archive directory by default, but can be saved and stored anywhere.

Your previous programmer probably collected all the programs together and left them in a directory or on disk.

Once you restore the project from a *.APA file, it should appear in the "Existing" tab of the New/Open Machine Edition Application window that comes up when you do a File -> Open Application in FactoryTalk View Studio.

This is what I did for this issue so far,

My boss give me this project folder with three files in it, *.apa, *.mer and *.RSS, and asks me to dig out the user names and passwords.

Since the left programmer used to working at a different site from mine, I have to work on my computer. So I use the .apa file to restore the application and the FactoryTalk directory. Then I head back to FT View Studio to open up the project, but it says this is a legacy project(v6.0.0) and asks me to use the utility called Legacy Tag Database Conversion to convert it into v6.1.0. Here the problem comes, in the utility it can't find any projects need to be converted, all the existing projects have been converted.......

I kinda feel like a moron now.....

Ken Roach · Oct 30, 2012

Take a bit of a step back.

When you open on FactoryTalk View Studio, it should present you with a dual-tabbed window titled "New / Open Machine Edition Application".

The "Existing" tab should list all the available FTView Applications on your computer. Think of this as the top level of the FactoryTalk Local Directory, where all the resident projects are listed.

The project you Restored using the Application Manager should appear on that list. You should not have to go to the "New" tab to Create or Import a project.

I haven't had to use any sort of legacy database converter when opening version 6.0 projects inside FTView Studio 6.10. I suspect that comes up when you're trying to Import a project.

If the project isn't listed in the Existing project list, you need to try the Application Manager Restore function again.

Make sure you're logged on as an Administrator when you run the Application Manager. If that means dragging your IT guy over to type in passwords for you, that's what you've got to do.

Kick-It-Up · Oct 30, 2012

SpikeZ said:
This is what I did for this issue so far,

My boss give me this project folder with three files in it, *.apa, *.mer and *.RSS, and asks me to dig out the user names and passwords.

Since the left programmer used to working at a different site from mine, I have to work on my computer. So I use the .apa file to restore the application and the FactoryTalk directory. Then I head back to FT View Studio to open up the project, but it says this is a legacy project(v6.0.0) and asks me to use the utility called Legacy Tag Database Conversion to convert it into v6.1.0. Here the problem comes, in the utility it can't find any projects need to be converted, all the existing projects have been converted.......

I kinda feel like a moron now.....

You need to convert it first on a 32bit OS then take the csv output and convert it again on the 64bit OS

See the following

https://rockwellautomation.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/450509

SpikeZ · Oct 30, 2012

Kick-It-Up said:
You need to convert it first on a 32bit OS then take the csv output and convert it again on the 64bit OS

See the following

https://rockwellautomation.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/450509

I think the problem is caused by my 64-bit OS... sigh.... it seems I need to locate a computer with 32-bit OS on it for now.

user names and password for the panel view plus

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