Studio 5000 View Designer

[Bering C Sparky]

Question for those who are in the know how Studio 5000 works/compiles under the hood.
The laptop that was supplied to me is now full with no memory available. I am not even able to open an upload from a small PLC in the plant.
I have already purchased 1 TB of memory to install in the laptop but that will not happen until after this fishing season is over. So for now I am deleting some of the applications that I use the least to create some space so the laptop is at least useable again.
I just deleted Studio 5000 Logix Designer V32 which freed up >500 MB
But I see there are also 3 versions of Studio 5000 Designer showing in installed apps.
Do I need 3 versions or can I delete 2 of them?

I am assuming each version was installed at the time I installed the separate 3 versions of Studio 5000 Logix Designer (32, 33 & 34) since I did not install these as a separate download myself.
If that is the case do different versions of Studio 5000 Logix Designer need different versions of Studio 5000 View Designer to function? Or can I keep one version and delete the rest? And if View Designer is used with/installed with each version of Studio 5000 Logix Designer separately, why was one of these not uninstalled at the same time I uninstalled V32?

I am reading on the subject now, but if those already in the know could shed some light I would appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[dmroeder]

Studio 5000 Logix Designer (PLC's) and Studio 5000 View Designer (PanelView 5000 series HMI's) install together, but they can function in dependently from each other. So if you don't have PanelView 5000's on board the ship, you can remove View Designer. Logix Designer will still function.

One tip to free up space is to right click on your C: drive and run Disk Cleanup. If you have admin rights, there will be an option to clean up using admin rights, which will allow you to purge old update files. If this has never been ran on your machine, this can free up multiple GB of storage.

There is a program called WinDirStat that will help visualize where all of your storage is being used.

Oh, and another thing, Are you sure you don't need Logix Designer v32? In Rockwell land, there is no such thing as backwards compatibility, so if you have a PLC with V32 firmware, you will need v32 software installed to connect.

Edit: Pedantic I know, but memory != storage. Simply, memory = RAM, storage = disk space.

 

[Ken Roach]

I've only done a few Studio 5000 View Designer projects so I'm just getting used to it.

Like Logix Designer, you need the matching editor installed in order to make a runtime for that firmware of terminal. It's not like PanelView Plus where you could make an older Runtime with a newer Studio.

For the past two weeks I've been working on set of a dozen machines, each equipped with a PanelView 5310. They were commissioned in 2020 with Version 5 of View Designer, and I was not able to upload from them because I have only v7, v8, and v9. So I opened the last known saved copy of *.VPD file for the project, and it let me select which version to convert to. It autosaved a "_v5" copy.

As I go along updating the systems, I'm using ControlFlash to upgrade the terminals to v9, which is about a 17 minute process. They work just as well with the v32 controllers as the older firmware did. I'm sure there are some features I need newer ControlLogix firmware to support, probably related to tag-based alarming.

If given the choice I would update all the terminals I have to v9 and only keep v9 on my development PC. I've got one facility that insisted on a fixed set of software to match their own engineering computers, and for some reason they refuse to update View Designer, and I have to be able to send them modified Runtimes.

 

[Bering C Sparky]

Thanks I appreciate the info, that is what I was hoping for.

Our refrigeration plant has multiple PLC's using V31 & V32, but I have not and likely will not need to access that system this season. So V32 pulled the short straw and was chosen to be ejected.
I already spoke to the vendor who installed the refrigeration, automation and asked that we upgrade the refer system to V34 this spring when the ship is back in Seattle.
I am rotating out in a couple of weeks and just want to insure this laptop is functional enough for my counterparts to use in the two factories we have onboard, which are the majority of the AB automation we deal with on a daily basis. One factory is running V33 and the other factory is running V34. (They were installed by 2 different vendors)
I am hoping to get the vendor who used V33 to upgrade to V34 this spring as well so we have all systems onboard running the same software on the same revision.

Thanks again for the info.

 

[Bering C Sparky]

Thanks for the further details on PV5000 Ken.
I have used or even seen any of these yet.

 

[Bering C Sparky]

Missing a vital word from my last post.
Should have read, "I have not used or even seen any of these yet"

We only have PV7 HMI's onboard.

 

[jridge]

To follow up on a point @dmroeder made, I would recommend using WizTree instead. It is a newer/faster version of WinDirStat that is now my go-to.

 

[joseph_e2]

To follow up on a point @dmroeder made, I would recommend using WizTree instead. It is a newer/faster version of WinDirStat that is now my go-to.

Woah, it's a LOT faster! And has a portable version too. Definitely a keeper.

 

[Geoff White]

Woah, it's a LOT faster! And has a portable version too. Definitely a keeper.

I don't know about faster but SpaceMonger is definitely cooler