Restore Panelview .mer files

Dear All,

I have uploaded a .mer file from a PV terminal and when I try to restore it to .apa file, it gives me an error, "cannot restore the runtime file, it is protected" is there any way how to open this .mer file.

Thank you,

any comment will be appreciated

Regards,
Abdul

First, you do not actually want to restore from a .MER to a .APA. The .APA is a compressed backup. You want to restore from the .MER to a Machine Edition Development (.MED). That is the file you will open up on your PC to make additions and modifications.

But, before we get that far.....

The .MER files may or may not allow this type of conversion. Older versions of the development software did not support this capability. Newer versions do support this feature, but it can be protected with a password or the developer could even prevent this conversion.

So we will need to know what the revision of this application is. Based on the message you quoted it potentially sounds as though the application is older and does not support this feature.

If you still have access to the PanelView terminal then in the Terminal Settings menu there is an option to find the revision on the terminal. This doesn't actually tell us the revision of the application itself, but it is a starting point.

So please supply us the following:

• The revision of FactoryTalk View/RSView Machine Edition you have on your computer
• What operating system you have on your computer
• Is that operating system 32 or 64 bit
• The firmware version of the PanelView terminal

OG

The error message is unambiguous; the Runtime file was specifically created to not allow it to be de-compressed into a Project file for editing.

This is generally done intentionally by OEMs who do not want the HMI project to be modified. The best approach is to get the *.APA file from the original authors of the application.

Some of the project might be recoverable by running the Runtime file on a computer licensed for RSView ME Runtime, then manually copying the *.GFX files and other runtime files that are decompressed out of the *.MER. But you'll never get the full project tag database or the Alarming files or the Macro files.

I have a Panelview Plus I want to make changes to. I believe I made the last changes. But when I try to restore says it is protected. Neither one of us has ever password protected a file. He retired June 1st. I did have a computer crash in between the time I made the changes to now. I can't find the APA file, on his laptops or mine. I know it was version 5.1 Am I missing something?
Thanks
George