FTV Studio Error. Over 150 devices.

[HoldenC]

I have been designing screens for our HMI's for a while, and I have never gotten this message before. IM a little confused since nothing new has been added to the system.

Maybe I'm missing the meaning to this message. It pops up as a txt file after I create a runtime. This is on machine edition.


________________________
*** Start FactoryTalk Linx Conversion Messages ***

WARNING: Total number of devices in FTLinx topology is beyond 150. Large topology will affect CE Terminal performance or lead the system fatal.

Please consider either manually adding runtime shortcut devices or deleting unnecessary devices after copying designtime topology to runtime.

*** End FactoryTalk Linx Conversion Messages ***

Validation completed with warnings. The runtime application has been created.

 

[Ken Roach]

Exposition: "FactoryTalk Linx" is the communication driver subsystem for FactoryTalk View SE and ME. It was formerly called "RSLinx Enterprise" and is distinct from the decades-old RSLinx Classic communication drivers.

For reasons I don't fully understand, any computer running FactoryTalk Linx spends some time browsing and monitoring the automation devices on the network, in addition to serving whatever client software (FTView, Historian, etc) is requesting data from those devices.

If you have your FactoryTalk engineering workstation connected to a sizable automation network, FTLinx will automatically browse all the devices and add them to the "schema", which is displayed as an array of icons of the devices on the network.

When you create a FactoryTalk View runtime file for FTView ME (usually for a PanelView Plus), it is so common as to be a reflex to use the "Copy from Development to Runtime" button to copy the communication shortcut definitions into the Runtime tab of FTLinx, so that FTView ME has the network and device definitions it needs to communicate with the PLCs that are involved in your PanelView application. But it's not just the shortcuts used in that PanelView application that get copied: the whole schema gets copied over.

So the warning sort of means what it says: "there are a bunch of unused devices in the schema and the PanelView just can't help itself from being distracted by them. Delete the ones you don't need."

Ideally, the Runtime creation process would pare out any of the Shortcuts and Devices that weren't actually used by the FactoryTalk View application. It probably doesn't because that would involve an object-by-object search for Direct Reference shortcuts, not just a quick look at the HMI Tag Database. But FactoryTalk gives this warning message instead.