How does FT View reference UDT tags?

theColonel26

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I have never used FT View but I have a customer that is referencing a bunch of my AOI instances that are on their PLC. This is causing problems because I can't delete those instances while online because it says there is a client connected to them, which I assume is FT View. (I would delete those instances and then rename the new instances to the old names)

So to solve this problem in the future, My thought was to create another UDT that has the same member names, and then just create some code to copy my AOI outputs into that UDT that way if I need to update the AOI again it doesn't break the stuff on their HMI.

So while everything is offline can I change the type on those old AOI instances to the new UDT instance, and as long as all the names are the same except for the type name will FTView still read those tags ok, or will it get confused because the types changed?

I am basically trying to minimize or eliminate the need for the customer to change anything on their HMI.

Basically

  • MyAOI
    • Member1
    • Member2

  • MyUDT
    • Member1
    • Member2
MyAOIInstance is Type MyAOI, would be changed to MyAOIInstance is Type MyUDT

Does that make sense?
 
What changes to AOIs are you making? Just code? Tags too?

You can create parameters that are aliased to internal UDT members. No matter what you re-name the underlying member, the alias will be available to the HMI. This applies to atomic types.
 
Both, Output Parameters and Logic inside.

Say I have the following AOI Type Called MyAOIType

and I have following outputs (simplified)

IsIdle
IsRunning
IsDone


If I need to update the logic inside and add another Output parameter called IsFaulted.

I would have to export my program, then update the AOI, rename the AOI type to MyAOIType2, and rename all of now MyAOIType2 instances to a new name. Then re import. Since those old instances can't be deleted because the HMI software has a connection lock on them. I now have a bunch of old AOI tags/instances that aren't being used, because all of the code now points to the new AOI tags/instances.

So the next questions is. If I have them shut down their HMI, then delete the old tags, rename the new tags to the old names, then have the start the HMI up again. Will it be able to read the new tags?



I ask all this because. I think underlying each tag is a address number and that address number would be changed on the new tags, I am pretty sure most EIP clients cache those addresses. So if you have a new tag you have new addresses.


That is not exactly what I asked first time around but I think the answer should be the same for both questions.


What I was first wondering about was instead of renaming the new AOI tags to the old tag names, I basically created a new UDT with all of the same Member names, and then changed the type on the old tags to the new UDT. That way instead of referencing the the AOI itself the HMI would be read a UDT.

I obviously would need to create some logic to copy the AOI outputs to the UDT members but that is now the relevant part.
 
If you're doing the scope of work you describe, you'd be downloading to the controller anyway. There's no way you'd be blocked by a connection lock.

If you update the existing AOI with the new output parameter, the original parameters remain addressable, provided their name doesn't change. There's no reason to create a separate iteration on the original AOI.

Logix uses symbolic addressing on tags, so the internal address could be anything - doesn't matter. If a client looks for 'IsIdle' within AOI_1 or AOI_2, and the tag exists with R/RW permissions, there should be no issue.

You'll need to just update the HMI to use the added 'IsFaulted'.
 
Last edited:
Trick for renaming "in-use" tags

One trick I think I read in another post on this forum a while back for on-line deleting/renaming in-use tags is to set the External Access to "None" for the tags in the Edit tab of the Controller Tags in Studio5000. That will force a disconnect of the FTView and allow you to rename/delete the tag.
 
One trick I think I read in another post on this forum a while back for on-line deleting/renaming in-use tags is to set the External Access to "None" for the tags in the Edit tab of the Controller Tags in Studio5000. That will force a disconnect of the FTView and allow you to rename/delete the tag.


Thanks radfahrer, but I tried it and I still get the same error message :/

Note: these aren't control tags they are Program scope tags, but I am not sure why they should matter

2021-09-23 11-12-12 CL-CTRLS-VM-ROC.png
 

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