Local message display

[TVran]

Is there a way to add a local message display to Studio 5000 View Designer? If its there, I’m not finding it. I have used them in older versions and would like to use one in the new project I am working on. I’m really new with this version and I’m not finding anything in the knowledge base.
Thanks

 

[Contr_Conn]

If you are looking to make messages with text stroked locally in display and called by a tag value, similar to a multistage indicator in PV+, then in View Designer you can use a Text Display. On the Animation Tab specify the tag and different text messages. However, these messages can’t have embedded variables.

 

[TVran]

I tried a text display last week and got an error. I tried it again this morning and now it works like I wanted it to. Not sure what I did wrong last week. Now I need to make about 600 states. Thanks

 

[joseph_e2]

Yikes, 600 states...
Can you export/import with View Designer?

 

[TVran]

I have no idea as I’m very new to this software. I was retired for 16 months but got a great offer to come back to work on projects. Baby steps learning this View version. Was a lot more familiar with the older View versions.

 

[Contr_Conn]

Yikes, 600 states...
Can you export/import with View Designer?

You can prepare states in Excel and paste them to the Animation Editor.

I was retired for 16 months but got a great offer to come back to work on projects.

Haha, I am heading in the opposite (correct) direction and not planning to come back

 

[Ken Roach]

A 600-state Local Message style display ? That's going to be a challenge, and it would be neat to discuss the process and specifics here on PLCTalk.net. I am a veteran FactoryTalk View user but have only done two projects with View Designer and the PanelView 5000.

I think the first important questions hase been asked; does the display use embedded variables in the text ?

If there are background, border, or text color animations, how many different conditions are being examined ? It might be simpler to make a transparent Text Display object over an animated Rectangle object to handle backgrounds and borders.

600 different text strings might run up against a runtime or storage or performance issue. I'd be very interested in using some of the runtime status tags to examine the effect of a very big Text Object expression on the terminal's performance.

In View Designer, the object that holds the most text inside the object is the List Box indicator, which could be shrunk down to one line visible if that's sufficient text. A quick sanity check shows you *can* paste 600 comma-separated text strings into the Items field.

 

[TVran]

You can prepare states in Excel and paste them to the Animation Editor.


Haha, I am heading in the opposite (correct) direction and not planning to come back

The pay is much better here than laying on the couch

 

[TVran]

A 600-state Local Message style display ? That's going to be a challenge, and it would be neat to discuss the process and specifics here on PLCTalk.net. I am a veteran FactoryTalk View user but have only done two projects with View Designer and the PanelView 5000.

I think the first important questions hase been asked; does the display use embedded variables in the text ?

If there are background, border, or text color animations, how many different conditions are being examined ? It might be simpler to make a transparent Text Display object over an animated Rectangle object to handle backgrounds and borders.

600 different text strings might run up against a runtime or storage or performance issue. I'd be very interested in using some of the runtime status tags to examine the effect of a very big Text Object expression on the terminal's performance.

In View Designer, the object that holds the most text inside the object is the List Box indicator, which could be shrunk down to one line visible if that's sufficient text. A quick sanity check shows you *can* paste 600 comma-separated text strings into the Items field.

I probably won't need the whole 600 messages. I'm starting a new project to upgrade all the HVAC controls for our plant from a PC based system to PLC's. I've worked here for over 30 yrs but always with production equipment. I'm not very familiar with chillers, cooling towers and pumps so I'm trying to give myself lots of room in the programs for anything I don't know about as far as the controls and make my programs easily expandable for anyone that comes after me as I will be moving out of state in a few months. I'm giving each piece of equipment a range of line numbers in the text dispaly so that if they add more equipment or controls they can have room to put them in there so all the control can stay with the same piece of equipment.

On some of our production machines, our OEM uses local message displays to display alarms and machine statuses. In previous View versions, they used the same list for both the local message display and the alarm list. I can't find where I could do that in View Designer. I like the fact that everything can be in a numerical order for the text display. Also, the faults or status are in 1 ladder program. I've been working with PLC's for many years and am a lot more comfortable with them than some of our newer techs. Making things easy to find saves on a lot of 3 am work calls. A tech can go to the alarm ladder program, scroll to the message number and look at the exact code for it to turn on. Much easier than if I was bit picking from an array

There are no embedded variables in the text. It's just alarms or system status that can be seen from the main screen. I'm not finding the alarm banner tool in View Designer that was in previous versions so I'm going with the text display. The alarm messages will still be shown in the alarm summary page.

 

[padees]

On some of our production machines, our OEM uses local message displays to display alarms and machine statuses. In previous View versions, they used the same list for both the local message display and the alarm list. I can't find where I could do that in View Designer.

If they use the same list for both alarms and status, that is quite easy to do with View Designer, in fact you never have to do anything in View Designer if you use one of the alarm instructions in Logix Designer.

This is an ALMD Instruction:

It will automatically link to the PV5000 series. Play around with it a bit.

 

[padees]

To be honest with you, I never did get a good chance to explore the alarm instructions in depth, so my example could be not so refined.

The main reason I used it is because I didn't have to do anything in the PV5000, only set up in the PLC, which I use 5380. It should work with a 5370, and CLX...

 

[TVran]

If they use the same list for both alarms and status, that is quite easy to do with View Designer, in fact you never have to do anything in View Designer if you use one of the alarm instructions in Logix Designer.

This is an ALMD Instruction:

It will automatically link to the PV5000 series. Play around with it a bit.

View attachment 69182

I have ALMD instructions set up and am displaying alarm texts from an array of strings. Is it possible to use these strings in a text display? I tried it but got an error in the text display box. I'm using the hmiMessageNumBuff for the state changes in the text display.