WinCC Graphics Desigener and Explorer

[Tomo453]

Hello, I was editing the properties of a button on a .pdl file in WinCC v7.2. This project is on the line HMI, and I was editing directly on line HMI that is the server for the other HMIs. All the HMIs are Beckhoff industrial PCs running Windows 7. This information may be mute but I add it anyway. After making the changes, the software prompted me to save the file, and I did. After this, the HMI displayed an incomplete screen of the one I had edited. I performed a reboot and regained a functioning HMI and network. However, now Graphics Designer and WinCC Explorer are unresponsive. I cannot access any .pdl files, and I cannot navigate to any listing in the drop down list on the left such as User Administration. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[Thomas_v2]

Editing a pdl on the Server should be no problem. I've done it in this way on many WinCC projects without problems. There are possible different setups of WinCC clients with or without a project. But it should not make a difference that the server is unresponsible.
Have you tried to bring back the original pdl file if it may caused the problem? WinCC creates automatically a backup (.sav) of the old version before saving the file in the GraCS folder. If you rename it back to .pdl you get the old file back.

I've never had such a problem. WinCC writes a lot of logfiles into the directory C:\Program Files\Siemens\WinCC\diagnose\. I'd check some of the latest entries and see if you get any hints there.

 

[Tomo453]

Editing a pdl on the Server should be no problem. I've done it in this way on many WinCC projects without problems. There are possible different setups of WinCC clients with or without a project. But it should not make a difference that the server is unresponsible.
Have you tried to bring back the original pdl file if it may caused the problem? WinCC creates automatically a backup (.sav) of the old version before saving the file in the GraCS folder. If you rename it back to .pdl you get the old file back.

I've never had such a problem. WinCC writes a lot of logfiles into the directory C:\Program Files\Siemens\WinCC\diagnose\. I'd check some of the latest entries and see if you get any hints there.

When I open Graphics designer or WinCC explorer I cannot click on anything. I will check the log files. Also, I did not save the project when I exited. I only saved the .pdl . I am new with the WinCC.

 

[Thomas_v2]

When I open Graphics designer or WinCC explorer I cannot click on anything. I will check the log files. Also, I did not save the project when I exited. I only saved the .pdl . I am new with the WinCC.

You don't have to save anything in the WinCC explorer. The pdl files you edit inside the Graphics designer are only file based (if you save here it only saves the single file), where most of the other configurations like tags, alarms and archives are stored in the project MS-SQL database. So unless you haven't done really crazy things in the pdl file, this should not hang up the WinCC explorer.

Have you configured an autostart of the project? Check if project you have edited is the same which is started in runtime.

 

[Tomo453]

You don't have to save anything in the WinCC explorer. The pdl files you edit inside the Graphics designer are only file based (if you save here it only saves the single file), where most of the other configurations like tags, alarms and archives are stored in the project MS-SQL database. So unless you haven't done really crazy things in the pdl file, this should not hang up the WinCC explorer.

Have you configured an autostart of the project? Check if project you have edited is the same which is started in runtime.

There is an autostart configured, but if I remember correctly it did not autostart when I rebooted the HMI. There is only one WinCC project on the desktop, and I started the runtime with this. I will shutdown and boot this machine again to se if it autostarts with the project on the desktop.

 

[Thomas_v2]

You can also use a WinCC client as an engineering station to modify the project on the WinCC server. I don't know if it would be a problem when a client has the server project opened, and you open the WinCC explorer after this directly on the server. If you don't have setupt the complete project, I'd check the clients and whats going on there.

In WinCC there are many ways setup a project, especially a client/server configuration allows a lot of configurations, clients with or without project, redundant servers, multi-clients which are connected to many servers and so on.

 

[Tomo453]

You can also use a WinCC client as an engineering station to modify the project on the WinCC server. I don't know if it would be a problem when a client has the server project opened, and you open the WinCC explorer after this directly on the server. If you don't have setupt the complete project, I'd check the clients and whats going on there.

In WinCC there are many ways setup a project, especially a client/server configuration allows a lot of configurations, clients with or without project, redundant servers, multi-clients which are connected to many servers and so on.

I am able to access and navigate in WinCC explorer and Graphics Designer from one of the clients. I notice that the changes in the properties of the button do not show when I pull up the .pdl on the client. The WinCC explorer is still frozen on the server.

 

[Thomas_v2]

Check in the project root directory if there is a file like "wincc.lck" or "ProjectOpened.lck", when the project is closed. If the project and the WinCC Explorer is closed, it should not be there. The files are created when the project is opened, maybe it remained because the project was not closed without problems. You can delete the files manually.