Ifix 6.0

[Kratos15]

Hi everyone. I'm beginner with Ifix. I'm appreciate if you share me some document to understand how to play with Ifix 6.0. By the way, I have some question need help:
- When I open existing project, it goes directly to runtime platform. How can I open development platform to modify graphic.

- I have 4 computers, the first computer is engineer computer that was installed development version, others computer are operator that were installed runtime version. How I update runtime program on others computer from engineer computer?

Thanks

 

[parky]

some time since I did IFIX but if I remember correctly the other nodes are view nodes, in other words these you do not update the required files, when you modify the main node i.e. the development pc the view nodes grab the required files so in effect only the master node is the one you modify. perhaps others here have more experience than me. are you sure it has a development dongle ? many oem's have their own & only provide runtime dongles, however, again if I remember correctly unless it has changed it is possible to remove the dongle, modify the system as it gives you a couple of hours, replace the dongle & all should be good.

 

[Sempronio]

Hello,
I used Ifix not so much and I can only answer your first question:
From runtime to edit graphic you have to press Ctrl + W

 

[Kratos15]

Hello,
I used Ifix not so much and I can only answer your first question:
From runtime to edit graphic you have to press Ctrl + W

Good sharing. Thank guys.

 

[cardosocea]

I have good and bad news for you. The bad news, GE documentation is some of the poorest I've ever seen. You can search their website, but it's only usable if you already know iFix.
The good news is that iFix hasn't changed much since version 5.0, so a lot of posts on the internet going back nearly 20 years are still relevant today.

Good luck.

 

[TheWaterboy]

- When I open existing project, it goes directly to runtime platform. How can I open development platform to modify graphic.

once you hit ctrl-w there is a setting in user preferences to start in runtime or not called "Start Workspace in Run mode"

How I update runtime program on others computer from engineer computer?

You update the clients software like you would any other, there are also program updates called SIMS (Software Improvement Modules) you need to apply. The command "Listsims" will show you what SIMS have been applied. go to the support site to search for SIMS and make you you are on the latest versions.

If you mean the screen graphics, you copy the GRF files (and perhaps some others depending on what is needed) from the PIC directory of the development computer to the client computers.

Alternatively you can store those pics in a network location that all the clients are configured for in the SCU configuration program.

If none of this makes sense yet, you need to spend some time with the books and your rep to get a better feel for it.

 

[parky]

@ Waterboy:
[Alternatively you can store those pics in a network location that all the clients are configured for in the SCU configuration program.]
That is what I meant, the main pc is the server & probably is aready setup this way so changing anything on the master can update the clients (assuming the clients are using the master as the server).

 

[TheWaterboy]

That's possible but by no means certain. The SCU of the client will show you that.
The server will always provide the DATA but does not necessarily provide the graphics.

iFix was developed when networking was young and they have never really been able to take advantage of current networking stacks so it suffers from many networking related issues most software fixed decades ago. Because of that local graphic (PIC) storage speeds up screen load times a lot. But makes you keep them all updated manually

 

[TheWaterboy]

That's possible but by no means certain. The SCU of the client will show you that.
The server will always provide the DATA but does not necessarily provide the graphics.

iFix was developed when networking was young and they have never really been able to take advantage of current networking stacks so it suffers from many networking related issues most software fixed decades ago. Because of that local graphic (PIC) storage speeds up screen load times a lot. But makes you keep them all updated manually

 

[cardosocea]

But makes you keep them all updated manually

This is vital when you have redundant SCADA's for example as you can't really rely on a single dedicated location for the image storage.



I even had a nice little script to do that for me a few years ago.

 

[parky]

I do agree with the update time but in reality never noticed the difference (well operators did not, & the I/O server will be bottleneck). We had many systems we produced, but we always kept a complete set of PC's as backups should there be a problem. Most of our systems the PC's were located in locked in switchrooms & used reverse KVM's to monitors & keyboards etc. on the plant.

 

[TheWaterboy]

I'm (sadly) still very involved with iFix. I have a standard script that pushes them to a central location and one that pulls them to the clients. A little notification appears on the clients when there are "updates" to download. Just seems so wonky to have to do this.
Had another script to update the SIMS but network security standards now prevent me from running P.S.E.X.E.C (lol, site filtered out the letters S.E.X from within the larger word) to a remote machine and I haven't worked around that yet. SIMS are a PITA.