Automax 3.9

[Christoph]

We just got a new to us, used machine. It has 2 Automax racks
with 3 Drives and associated I/O. How does a person print out the blk files to
look like the function block representation? When I print I just get
the text.

 

[JeffKiper]

Do a search under my name and see if you can find any information on Automax. I did a job 15 years ago and there was a software that allowed printing out BLK thay looked like function blocks. Icant remember the software

 

[Christoph]

So the Automax software doesn't support that?

 

[alan_505]

Automax blocks are written text unless you use a version of Visio that's how it is (and once you use the Visio add on you cannot go back to editing the block file with the Automax editor).
You could use a CAD package and go through the text file and make your blocks look pretty.

 

[Christoph]

Well how did Reliance do it back when you bought an Engineered system from them?

 

[OkiePC]

Well how did Reliance do it back when you bought an Engineered system from them?

I always thought they were drawn in CAD and then converted to BLK tasks by Reliance Engineering, but Jeff's comment has me wondering if there was perhaps some tool which did that for them.

I last worked with Automax about the time the first version officially supported by Windows came along and my experiences were limited to monitoring and troubleshooting with a rare, minor edit.

I do know that I relied on those drawings to figure out what tags to monitor and we guarded those prints to ensure we'd always have them.

 

[alan_505]

Unless you bought the Visio addon and Visio then you were stuck with the text format, the Visio was just a graphical representation of the text file, it was still saved as a text file and then compiled into machine code from that text file.

If you got block diagrams when you bought the machine then as OkiePC said they would have used a CAD program or Visio with the addon.

 

[Christoph]

You know it OkiePC!

 

[JeffKiper]

There was a aoftware that converted those BLK in a dxf file so you could use Autocad to clean them up. It had a 30 day trial and I used it. I will look back at some of my old documentation and see what it was.

 

[JeffKiper]

I found an old pdf that had a note the software was VMR Software called MaxTools 4.5

 

[Christoph]

Ya Im not concerned about converting to the blk I just want to print it in the
function block lay out.

 

[Christoph]

Maxtools will have to do some searching!

 

[alan_505]

You could use the Automax editor and then use Logix5000 function block programming to make the diagrams but you will not have all the same blocks.
Automax has a multiply/divide block and RSLogix5000 has a multiply block and a divide block.
Each block in text should be easy to follow, there was a manual that you could get from Reliance that defined what each block was and also gave a picture of the block.

Also in the .blk task you can have basic programming as well.

 

[Harrstein]

Maxtools will have to do some searching!

the 30 day software isnt that hard to get. A license on the other hand is neigh impossible have I found out.

If needed I think I can give you the installer with 30 day trial.

Keep in mind that it works only on XP and before. Also it doesnt like getting installed from flash drives. Installing from a folder on the C drive works best

 

[Christoph]

Hook me up!