I'm always re-organizing

I find myself spending so much time reorganizing the task, programs, and routines... HOURS!


Will this phase ever pass? When will I find contentment with the layout and stop always finding a better way to do it, better way to name something, better way to structure it, etc.

I try very hard to stay uniform with everything I do, especially with tagnames. When I'm midway in a project and I have to create new tags and aren't uniform with I have already... I will spend hours renaming and restructuring logic!

Is this the nature of the trade or do I have some form of OCD?

Any organization tips and tricks?

life is like a box of chocklate, you never sure what your gonna get - forrest gump

despite your best efforts, it happens.
May I suggest that to keep your job and sanity, you plan as best you can.
if you can redo your work in an hour or 2, ok.
if its as you say, days or even a week, you will drive yourself crazy second guessing yourself.

finish the job, then look at your work and see what could have been done better.

that's what I ended up doing and kept my sanity.

james

James Mcquade said:

life is like a box of chocklate, you never sure what your gonna get - forrest gump

despite your best efforts, it happens.
May I suggest that to keep your job and sanity, you plan as best you can.
if you can redo your work in an hour or 2, ok.
if its as you say, days or even a week, you will drive yourself crazy second guessing yourself.

finish the job, then look at your work and see what could have been done better.

that's what I ended up doing and kept my sanity.

james

Click to expand...

I'll give it a try. Maybe I should read the book "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F***"

that's what I ended up doing and kept my sanity.

Click to expand...

I tried to have a sanity clause included in all my contracts, but as Groucho once said 'there ain't no sanity clause'. One for December 1st.

Many a year ago, things became a lot easier for me when I started creating User Data Types (UDT's) for all machine functions. Mostly built up of smaller UDT blocks.

That certainly helps in keeping things consistent, and makes code re-use a breeze.

There are still times when I will refactor, usually on new equipment, but not significantly. Always just adding a member or more, so that the re-factored UDT can be applied even to the oldest equipment if I'm working on it.

Bloody tags - hate them - give me numbers! Way easier if you have your wits about you.

Mr. Snap,
When you are finished with your 'Subtle Arts' correspondence course, use this as your splash screen -- with a disclaimer.

BobB,

+1

I use UDT's for alarming, vsd Logic, sequence, ramping etc. Makes programming much easier and standard.

Plant Pax uses the library of process objects. (AOI)Add on instructions make programming easy. Re-using code and making changes with little engineering effort.

Use KEEP (SET/RESET) for alarms and mutes and BCNT (Bit count) to tally them up and compare - way easy.

Bob,

I work with both numerical based systems (micrologix, old modsoft quantums) and tag based systems (compactlogix, M340 and M580).

Some applications lend themselves to the numerical approach. Machines where there is limited duplication within the machine for example.

However when you have a plant with 100 pumps, 20 tanks, 150 valves etc.. then using tag based systems can cut programming time (and errors) dramatically.

I just did all the unit control logic for a small water plant with 20 valves, 12 pumps, 25 analog instruments and 117 digital instruments in around 1 hour.

Since i have standard UDTs for all the types, as well as DFBs for their control, i generate my tag list in excel and import into Unity. I set up a few DFBs on a page, export to XML and then script the rest using macros in excel.

I still do the process control manually as that depends on what the process guy gives me.

Saffa - if you have standard routines that is fine - i do not - every job is different. I generate my tags in Excel as well and just copy and paste - no import - straight back into CX-Programmer. A great thing is if I am copying and pasting my alarm routines there is a facility to increase the I/O number on each copy and paste - saves so much time. I have developed ome FBs for some routines that are now becoming standard and that saves heaps of time. Not a huge fan of Unity Pro unless they have fixed it. Have not used it for 2 years.

Snap25 said:

When will I find contentment with the layout and stop always finding a better way to do it, better way to name something, better way to structure it, etc.

Click to expand...

Establish/adopt standards before building a database, naming data, and writing code.

Strive for excellence in your work, NOT perfection. Your vision of perfection will invariably not be universally appreciated.

Ask yourself if the hours you spend reorganizing and renaming can be better spent to add value to the business of your company or client.

BobB said:

Bloody tags - hate them - give me numbers! Way easier if you have your wits about you.

Click to expand...

Tags are the best. When you add unique tags you don’t have to worry about searching to see if it’s already being used or read by another device.

I try to follow this approach where possible:

http://literature.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/rm/ia-rm001_-en-p.pdf