Factorytalk se vs me

[buddhaman001]

So Im trying to run a Machine Edition Runtime (.mer) on a server. I have activated Factorytalk View SE (what my distributor swears is the correct version, and rockwell says the trouble is my serial is registered to the distributor causing problems). However my Studio liscence has run with zero problems, and my gut tells me that the distributor actually should have given us Factory talk View ME not SE....mainly because of the error i get (attached).

Am I being an idiot, is the distributor delaying to try to make a double sale, or am I being an idiot. I looked also all over the studio software to see if maybe i should have exported the program as a display configuration or whatever it was that se takes but no success....

Doesnt help i have the board, a general manager, my companies vice pres and ceo, and our contractor on my hind end to get this done by tomorrow evening....sigh.

EDIT, just realised this forum scaled the pic down massevley, so here is a direct link to the image.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q415mn9zj8hqwj1/liscence.png

 

[brendan.buchan]

.MER file is a runtime file for FT View ME, not FT View SE.

You need a FT View ME Station license to run it on a PC. This is licensed by number of displays, so the amount of displays that are in the project will determine what size license you need. I think it starts at 15 displays from memory.

 

[The Plc Kid]

You picture shows it all. You have a license for FT View SE Station not ME so that won't work.

ME is sometimes ran on a PC but normally not on a server. It should work depending on the version of ME and the version of the server OS and if it's 32 or 64 bit.

If it were me and you have an existing ME project I would convert it to SE and use the SE station license you have.

Why do you wish to run ME on a server though? Seems like overkill.

 

[buddhaman001]

The client wants to be able to monitor his system and to be honest ive got about 2 weeks worth of experience on this software and system. You say convert my me project to se? what option did i miss? I have seen a few posts after reading this talking about editing files with notepad (not preferred honestly if it is alot of code).

 

[The Plc Kid]

There are lots of difference between the 3 packages and lots of options within each package. Give us your customers exact requirements and we can help in a more accurate fashion.

 

[buddhaman001]

he wants to
1) be able to access the information from anywhere

2) have it on a centralized system

3) have a monitor in the office showing constant updates from the system

4) have control over calibration and level values

I agree that from the featured i just read this morning (your sugesstion of converting my mer project to an se project started some googling and i found i may just have the wrong edition of studio, i dont get the application type dialog when i start studio it just goes straight to the machine edition editor)

that site edition is probably the best solution for him.

 

[baldone]

You picture shows it all. You have a license for FT View SE Station not ME so that won't work.

ME is sometimes ran on a PC but normally not on a server. It should work depending on the version of ME and the version of the server OS and if it's 32 or 64 bit.

If it were me and you have an existing ME project I would convert it to SE and use the SE station license you have.

Why do you wish to run ME on a server though? Seems like overkill.

Make sure you have SE Studio not just ME Studio or you will not be able to convert to SE is you choose to.

 

[buddhaman001]

Make sure you have SE Studio not just ME Studio or you will not be able to convert to SE is you choose to.

This right here. I was just logging on to check the thread and post that that was one reason i didn't know what was going on. The package my distributor gave me at first didn't install SE...just as bad as when they gave me the chinese version...

Now I have a SE version of my software, but I have lost all alarms, my macros have changed to text files and been moved, I can't find the global connections settings to use the macros, and even if i could i cant find where to activated the tag that would allow me to utilize the email activex control......

I'm almost wishing i had just whined enough they let me run the ME server, and then had the employes log in remotely with their laptops over a vlan like they curently do.

 

[The Plc Kid]

Whats the application controlling a single machine or viewing process data from multiple lines?

Me could be used or just use the SE station you have and use it with FT viewpoint that way others can connect to it using a standard web browser.

You can give each user read or read /write to the application.

Here is a link if you want to check it out.

http://www.rockwellautomation.com/rockwellsoftware/performance/viewpoint/overview.page

 

[buddhaman001]

The application is controlling / monitoring about 15 sites over a 500 sq/mi area. Thanks to you guys giving me direction our project got over the first speedbump and we now have our first two sites being monitored!

This weekend it is my project to learn how to trigger emails again, im used to triggering them through a global macro and printing the alarm to a tag like in machine edition, so now i have to figure out how to do that.

I do like that alarms are much easier to setup in Site Edition though.

I so far haven't had to write a single if-then-else expression to compare my tank level values

 

[kbelyeu]

.MER file is a runtime file for FT View ME, not FT View SE.

You need a FT View ME Station license to run it on a PC. This is licensed by number of displays, so the amount of displays that are in the project will determine what size license you need. I think it starts at 15 displays from memory.

Hi Branden,

I know this is an old one but is FT View ME required to load the .MER onto the HMI? I thought I could load it to the HMI using a USB drive.

-Kurt

 

[brendan.buchan]

Hi Branden,

I know this is an old one but is FT View ME required to load the .MER onto the HMI? I thought I could load it to the HMI using a USB drive.

-Kurt

Hi Kurt,

You don't need FT View ME to load the .MER onto the HMI. It is possible to do it via USB although the easiest option is to use the ME Transfer Utility, which is a simple utility to transfer & load the file onto the HMI directly from your laptop (usually over Ethernet, if you know the IP address of the HMI).

You can download this free utility here.

Search PCDC Results

compatibility.rockwellautomation.com

Otherwise, you can use this guide to do it via USB.

PanelView Plus – .MER Runtime: Transfer To Terminal using Memory Card

So you have a PanelView Plus, PanelView Plus 6, or PanelView Plus 7, and want to copy a new .MER runtime file to it using a memory card or USB flash drive? Well in today’s article I’ll …

theautomationblog.com

 

[kbelyeu]

Hi Kurt,

You don't need FT View ME to load the .MER onto the HMI. It is possible to do it via USB although the easiest option is to use the ME Transfer Utility, which is a simple utility to transfer & load the file onto the HMI directly from your laptop (usually over Ethernet, if you know the IP address of the HMI).

You can download this free utility here.

Search PCDC Results

compatibility.rockwellautomation.com

Otherwise, you can use this guide to do it via USB.

PanelView Plus – .MER Runtime: Transfer To Terminal using Memory Card

So you have a PanelView Plus, PanelView Plus 6, or PanelView Plus 7, and want to copy a new .MER runtime file to it using a memory card or USB flash drive? Well in today’s article I’ll …

theautomationblog.com

Hi Brendan,

To expand on this, what benefit would having a licensed copy of FT View ME give me? I figured the sales guys were just trying to make a sale, but would it be advisable to have a copy?

Regards,

Kurt

 

[brendan.buchan]

Hi Brendan,

To expand on this, what benefit would having a licensed copy of FT View ME give me? I figured the sales guys were just trying to make a sale, but would it be advisable to have a copy?

Regards,

Kurt

You would really only require FT View MT if you were planning to be able to make modifications to the existing HMI program, or change firmware versions of the .MER runtime.

If you are only intending to backup/restore the .MER file to the same type of PanelView Plus HMI's then you likely don't need it, although it is always great to have on hand.

From memory the HMI's are also backwards compatible with regards to firmware versions, so if your >MER is firmware V6, your HMI on a later firmware such as V9 would still be able to run it.

 

[kbelyeu]

You would really only require FT View MT if you were planning to be able to make modifications to the existing HMI program, or change firmware versions of the .MER runtime.

If you are only intending to backup/restore the .MER file to the same type of PanelView Plus HMI's then you likely don't need it, although it is always great to have on hand.

From memory the HMI's are also backwards compatible with regards to firmware versions, so if your >MER is firmware V6, your HMI on a later firmware such as V9 would still be able to run it.

You've been very helpful, I owe you a pint if we ever cross paths!

-Kurt