Need my hand holding for WinCC Station Upgrade

I've asked a couple of questions about this recently... but I'm struggling with this WinCC upgrade.

Back to the beginning.

We currently have old Siemens PCs, running Windows 2000 and WinCC v6.0 SP4. The project integrates with Excel 2000 via DDE.

New PC's are windows 7 based. We have WinCC Upgrade Packages, WinCC v6.0->v7.0 and v6.2/v7.0->v7.3. Licences included.

So, for a start, I'm trying to install WinCC v7.0 on the new Windows 7 based PC from the Upgrade Package. I'm hoping I've selected all the right installation options with regards Data Monitor, Simatic Net and Connectivity Pack options. I installed straight from the Upgrade disks, as cannot install WinCC v6.0 first as it is not compatible with Windows 7. Now, the licences are for the upgrade so it still shows missing licences for a lot of the WinCC options. How do I go about sorting out the licences?

Next: The project migration. I know I must create the new OPC tag connections first. I assume it is a case of creating the tags under OPC of tag management which will replace the tags under DDE?

Now, we have a new Excel spreadsheet given to us called AutoVE.xls. In our project we also have an Excel spreadsheet called AutoVE.xls. The new spreadsheet is completely different to the old spreadsheet, different number of sheets, different named sheets, differently looking sheets. The new spreadsheet has a sheet called OPC so I assume that has the data required for the OPC server as well as the macro functions. Is the new AutoVE.xls a direct replacement of the old or do I need to copy the new sheets into the old spreadsheet?

I think once those two issues are sorted, I should be able to copy the project folder onto the new PC and then run the project migration application in WinCC v7.0.

Then I can install the v7.3 upgrade.

Please, any help will be much MUCH appreciated....

EDIT - Licence upgrades sorted on new PC. Realised we only have RT licences and not RC which is going to be an issue. We have 12 terminals, and we have purchased 12 RT upgrades and 1 RC upgrade, so will have to have a spare station set-up for any changes we wish to make. Correct?

Hi Leem,

Wow, that's a pretty big undertaking you have gotten yourself into. I cannot give you any other tips than to contact Siemens. It sounds like this is a pretty big investment and I think Siemens might/should be able to give you some support to get this up and running again.

Hi Boneless... Glad you think this is a big undertaking and I'm not just being a bit thick! haha...

Damn, hoping to get this sorted myself. Kinda took over the project someone else started. But they've gone and given me a bunch of stuff but no direction!

I am sure you will be able to get it working . But I always think that it is better to do it right the first time. Like I said, what you have doesn't come cheap, so Siemens should be lending you a hand at least.

Good luck!

I'm trying to find info on who sent us the modified Excel file, they should be able to give us some direction.

I also have the contact for our nearest Siemens Rep, who happens to be a WinCC Champion! See what advice he can offer.

Unfortunately, here things are rarely done right first time. Its have-a-go-otherwise-it-never-gets-done... and I'm keen to at least try and learn something along the way. There's no other way of learning, the company wont put us on courses!

Integrating a machine into our DCS was fun... I was keen and was the only one around with the balls to have a go. No one here has ANY DCS experience since the previous guy left. No one has done any PCS7 training. So yeah, we made mistakes along the way but got there in the end!