Bringing Wonderware SMC to foreground

lostcontrol · Jun 22, 2020

I think we need to understand why the OP thinks there is an issue, rather than focusing on this particular issue?
Or, get access to another VM on same network with the SMC running that can connect remotely, this just seems a battle for something that should be focused elsewhere?

SouthernStang · Jun 22, 2020

lostcontrol said:
I

Are you connecting in full screen?

Why do you suspect this? The IO Server determines the tags to access via the application config.
Unless they are loading them manually via an alias list or similar?

lc

1. Yes, I connect in full screen.

2. Long story short, I believe that, sometimes, addresses in my customers SMC are showing a status of -/W which means "Write Only". So for a quick example, you can enter a value in an input box, and the HMI will not display the new value though as far as the PLC is concerned. Everything is OK.

So when an issue like that arises, I want to jump over the the SMC and verify that is whats going on.

SouthernStang · Jun 22, 2020

NetNathan said:
Regrettably.... Wonderware tech support bailed on it...

Nathan,
We can’t get the SMC to maximize consistency using server 2016.

We can sometimes get it to maximize and sometimes minimize but it seems to stall out and peg the computer resources more often than not.

I think you will need to find an alternate way of doing this. Maybe a button that is invisible that will open the SMC if the users permissions are good enough.

Thanks for all your help though. At least now I know that this is currently something the software doesn't handle well.

lostcontrol · Jun 22, 2020

SouthernStang said:
2. Long story short, I believe that, sometimes, addresses in my customers SMC are showing a status of -/W which means "Write Only". So for a quick example, you can enter a value in an input box, and the HMI will not display the new value though as far as the PLC is concerned. Everything is OK.

Are you sure of this?

So when an issue like that arises, I want to jump over the the SMC and verify that is whats going on.

And what do you do, if anything to identify/fix?

So it sounds like your issue is that when a new value is written from the HMI to the PLC, the transaction completes but the field that had the write value reverts back to the previous value?

5618 · Jun 22, 2020

Here’s one more thing to try. I couldn’t get CTRL (^) to work but ALT (%) did work.

SendKeys “%({ESC})”;

SouthernStang · Jun 22, 2020

lostcontrol said:
Are you sure of this?

And what do you do, if anything to identify/fix?

So it sounds like your issue is that when a new value is written from the HMI to the PLC, the transaction completes but the field that had the write value reverts back to the previous value?

Yes, I am sure of this.

Yes, since the address in the SMC is set to -/w it can only write to the PLC but will not read from it, so what ever default value the tag is set to is what will remain on screen.

I first saw it when i was developing and testing the HMI on my end. I thought I "fixed it" (I ended up re importing the project) on my end, but when I installed the project on the customers end, it start showing the symptoms again. So to verify I simply just want to look at the SMC in run time and see if the address is showing up -/w again.

Plus I think this is a good diagnostic tool to have without giving operators the ability to get to the desktop (if thats what the customer wants).

lostcontrol · Jun 22, 2020

Yes, I am sure of this.

Not to question you, but how?

From the help:
Any item that has no pending write operations, because it either contains all completed write activities or has never been poked, is marked W. If write operations are pending on an item, it is marked with a -W.

I have just checked a site that I have & most are marked R/W, but some are marked -/W which are setpoints...

DaveW · Jun 22, 2020

5618 said:
Got this to work... sort of...
It don't initially work for SMC. Then I tried it with task scheduler which also uses MMC and that worked. Then SMC worked... then it didn't, then it did...

InfoAppActive and StartApp worked without trouble. The help file for 2014 R2 SP1 says ActivateApp does not work on 64 bit windows which I'm using for this.

IF InfoAppActive(InfoAppTitle("mmc"))==1
THEN
discreteValue = 1;
ActivateApp InfoAppTitle("mmc");
ELSE
discreteValue = 0;
StartApp("C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ArchestrA\aaSMC.exe");
ENDIF;

edit: ignore the discreteValue tag - used that for a troubleshooting indicator

Prior to this, I tried something that didn’t work but maybe it’ll spark another idea. I tried to start SMC with an on demand task in task scheduler with "Do not start a new instance" if task is already running. That started a new instance.

I've used something similar to this before and can confirmed this code by 5618 works on a Win7 32bits IT2014SP2 machine. Some of these script functions are OS, 32/64bits, and IT version dependent and if you're really lucky, they'll have an updated copy. What OS/IT are you actually running?

5618 · Jun 23, 2020

I’m not at a system to test right now but maybe this combination of my last two would work. If aaSMC isn’t open then open it. If it is open do a ALT-ESC. If you only have WindowViewer and SMC open it should take you to SMC. If you don’t get SMC you should at least have the start menu and task bar to navigate to SMC. When I tested earlier I tried to do a button action script CTRL-ESC with SendKeys “^({ESC})”; but that didn’t seem to work. FWIW I was remote desktop into a Win10 64 development system from a Win7 64 for that test.

IF NOT InfoAppActive(InfoAppTitle("mmc"))==1
THEN
StartApp("C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ArchestrA\aaSMC.exe");
ELSE
SendKeys “%({ESC})”;
ENDIF;

SouthernStang · Jun 23, 2020

Some little bit of progress. I got the following code to bring the SMC to the front:

IF InfoAppActive(InfoAppTitle("mmc"))==0
THEN
StartApp("smc.msc");
LogMessage ("Opening SMC");
ELSE
LogMessage ("Bringing SMC to front");
ActivateApp (InfoAppTitle ("mmc"));
ENDIF;

The issue is... the SMC has to be the last screen access before clicking executing the command....

So..

ALT-Tab to the SMC, then Alt-tab back to the running HMI. execute the command and the SMC will come to the front...

however, if I go to a different screen, say task manager and then go back to the running hmi and execute the command.. nothing happens...

so a little bit of progress but still several ????

SouthernStang · Jun 23, 2020

Ok, so this particular problem is because its is restoring the MMC in its current state.

I have a habit of minimizing screens when i dont need them, so the code as it stands is restoring the SMC in a minimized state. Need to fix that. That may have been the issue all along

Bringing Wonderware SMC to foreground

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