File naming conventions and version control

OWEN.DAVID

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Join Date
Aug 2018
Location
Monmouthshire
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I am interested in good examples and best practices when choosing a project file name.

Would you expect to include all or some of the following,

* site/machine name
* last revision date
* version number
* programmer name / credentials
* firmware version
* work order number
* anything else??


I'd be keen to hear what has worked for everyone else or if there is an accepted standard for project file names.

Otherwise, I have been keeping a log of changes to the program using rung comments in a routine full of NOP instructions.

Is this the best way to add more verbose information to a project file to track dates and details of changes? Is the preference to keep this info. in the program or an external release notes document?

Interested to hear what works for everyone.

Thanks!
 
I personally use JobNumber_Customer/MachineType_Year_Month(ex. June)_Day

Then if I need to have multiple files during a single day changing things I will just add another _ after Day and then a number, 1,2,3, etc. That way when it sorts in Windows file explorer its newest to oldest.
 
This method depends on the cooperation of everyone who makes changes to the program. Use a string tag in the PLC with the machine name and date. Every time someone makes changes to the program they must change the value of the tag. The key part of the value of the variable is the date. By using the format yyyymmdd.xx the last eleven characters of the string can be converted to a numeric value which will increase for every calendar day. The two digits to the right of the decimal point are to accommodate multiple changes on a single day. If someone makes a change on first shift, use yyyymmdd.00 for the version date code. If you need to make another change later in the same day use yyyymmdd.01 for the version date code. Display the version tag on the HMI screen. If you also log it to your historian you can tell when changes were made and even if someone downloaded an earlier version.
 
It's ok having a standard for filenames & version control, but that goes by the wall a little as very often customers have their own format, so in reality if the customer has a system then very often you have to use it.
In saying that, We also had our own system but that changed over the years for example in the early days file naming sort of had to be 8.3 so limited on characters, if we had control over the convention then we used the project name/number this consisted of 2 alpha chars plus a 4 digit number this gave us more than enough for my lifetime at work for projects, the 2 alpha chars were generally AFARP the company name for example if the customer was named galaxy manufacturing then the file name would be GM0001 and every project for that company would increase by one, sometimes because of conflict of more than one company having the same initials then the alpha chars would change so another company with the same initials "Global Markers" would be GL it made no difference as all references to a particular project would contain this number from drawings to software to correspondence. In the early days the software change versions was on the first comments of the start of the program.
 

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