Tagname lengths in Wonderware 10.6/2012 R2

Greetings


I am having a problem with a 10 character tagname limit in Wonderware 2012 R2. I imported a graphic. The tags are set as placeholders. When I convert the tags to local tags, it asks if I want to define the tags. When I try to define the tags I come up against a 10 character limit for the tagnames.


For example: pRTDxxx/MAX. When I try to define the tag as an indirect tag, the software pops up a message saying there is a problem because the tag length exceeds 10 characters. Is there any way around this limit as I have created several supertag templates and associated tags? Many of them are going to be more than 10 characters long. I am looking at a looming deadline and I would like to avoid creating brand new templates and all of the tags that go along with them if I can.



I didn't seem to have this problem when I created these tags for another project. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I have never come across a 10 character limit, I have a group of alarm tags that are all about 20 characters.

Is it possible something was set different when the project was created that introduced this limit?

There is no 10 character tagname limit in InTouch. There are, however, certain characters that are not allowed for a tagname. For instance, a tagname cannot begin with a number. I'm pretty sure that a forward slash is an illegal character for a tagname, since it is a mathematical operator.

Aabeck said:

I have never come across a 10 character limit, I have a group of alarm tags that are all about 20 characters.

Is it possible something was set different when the project was created that introduced this limit?

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Bit_Bucket_07 said:

There is no 10 character tagname limit in InTouch. There are, however, certain characters that are not allowed for a tagname. For instance, a tagname cannot begin with a number. I'm pretty sure that a forward slash is an illegal character for a tagname, since it is a mathematical operator.

Click to expand...

@Aabeck


I'm not sure what causes it but I have run into the issue.


@Bit_Bucket_07


A forward slash is part of the syntax created by the program when creating members of an indirect supertag.


I manually eliminated the placeholder for each of my tags. The program didn't choke when I did that, so I'll see if it works.


Thanks for the responses.

What is a super tag?
I have never come across that before, & have been using InTouch for a long time.

lostcontrol said:

What is a super tag?
I have never come across that before, & have been using InTouch for a long time.

Click to expand...

It is sort of the equivalent of a UDT in RS Logix.

The supertag template portion, the part before the slash has a 10 char limit. I don't understand how you were able to create templates with more than 10 characters? It shouldn't allow you to.

I know in versions 7.11 and older it was limited to 32 characters

JaxGTO said:

I know in versions 7.11 and older it was limited to 32 characters

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I just tried it on 7.11, doesn't work. Help file says 10 char limit. Didn't try older versions.

DaveW said:

I just tried it on 7.11, doesn't work. Help file says 10 char limit. Didn't try older versions.

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Something weird is going on, because I have a Excel sheet here I use to import tags and I use the same 20 character tags as in the PLC (SLC)

DaveW said:

The supertag template portion, the part before the slash has a 10 char limit. I don't understand how you were able to create templates with more than 10 characters? It shouldn't allow you to.

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The template portion is less than 10 characters but for some reason WW seemed to be including the entire tag in the 10 character count when I tried to convert to local tags and then define them. Instead of counting only the tagname before the slash as 10 characters, it seemed to also be counting everything after the slash.


The only other thing I can think of was that the placeholder characters ?r: were being counted as part of the template prefix name. When I manually removed the placeholder tag by tag the program looked like it accepted it. I also had to delete the indirect tags and then recreate them. I hope that does not cause a problem with the subtags associated with the indirect tag. So far everything seems to be okay but I have not had a chance to do any testing on a test rack.

JaxGTO said:

Something weird is going on, because I have a Excel sheet here I use to import tags and I use the same 20 character tags as in the PLC (SLC)

Click to expand...

I think you found a way around the limitation. It won't let you create a supertag with more than 10 chars with the tagname manager but through csv tag import, it works just fine!

EMS said:

The template portion is less than 10 characters but for some reason WW seemed to be including the entire tag in the 10 character count when I tried to convert to local tags and then define them. Instead of counting only the tagname before the slash as 10 characters, it seemed to also be counting everything after the slash.


The only other thing I can think of was that the placeholder characters ?r: were being counted as part of the template prefix name. When I manually removed the placeholder tag by tag the program looked like it accepted it. I also had to delete the indirect tags and then recreate them. I hope that does not cause a problem with the subtags associated with the indirect tag. So far everything seems to be okay but I have not had a chance to do any testing on a test rack.

Click to expand...

I tried putting a placeholder on a supertag with more than 10 char and then converting it to a local supertag and it didn't complain about the tag size. I tried it with 7.11 and 2014 with no problem. This is with the more than 10 char supertag already in the database. I'm guessing when you create a new supertag within the Windowsmaker app, it checks for the char limit. Try the csv import idea.

Okay. I imported my windows into another copy of the HMI. This time it is allowing me to convert to local tags and is letting me define them.



However, I have another question in regards to supertags. The WW 10.6 help file states that the template for supertags will not be exported along with the window. However, I noticed that the template maker did show the template that was used to create the indirect supertags. What gives? Will the template recognize the indirect tags and subtags associated to it or will the program not see them?


Also, after importation the tags require definition.My tagnames are there but the tag type and PLC tagnames in the item field have disappeared. This means I have to go over these tags again and define them as discrete, memory, indirect or what have you as well as type in all of the PLC tags that need to be pointed to?