Are you talking about the Sratix 8000 switches? They are a CISCO IE3000 in a different color but do have the capability of being found with RSLinx and can be polled of there status data directly from the PLC.
Did you ever get this figured out? I'm trying to find out the same thing. I need it so that an unskilled user can easily download two different ACD files with some setting changes. I don't want him to have to keep the file names or file paths straight or remember the sequence of keystrokes and mouse clicks to download the 2 diffferent files.
IMHO RSLogix is not a tool for "unskilled users". That being said, you can save the path in the RSLogix project and write a procedure with many images. Then, your Bubba can follow that procedure without the risk of doing something wrong.
Use an external macro recorder. I use Jitbit's "Macro Recorder".
Curiously enough, the old GE Series Six had this feature since the '80's. Later on, GE was kind enough to modify LM6 for us so it would run a macro on LM6 starting up if it found a macro named "Saturn.def" in the startup directory.
I've solved this. When they hit the button on the HMI it runs a VBA routine. The routine first uses the Shell command to launch RSLOGIX with the correct file name as the only Command Line parameter. Then I use SendKeys to activate the Communication menu and initiate the Download. They have to answer "Yes" to put it back into run mode and then exit RSLOGIX. Not ideal, but they don't have to follow an involved procedure.
I'm going to leave an involved procedure as a backup in case someone screws up the RSLINX settings or some such.
Neat! It also works from a dosbox (shell) if you select the RS5000 loader rather than the Studio 5000 command line followed by the path and the filename of the file that you want to load.
Example:
Inside a Dosbox enter this:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Rockwell Software\RSLogix 5000\Common\RSLogix5000Loader.exe" -Language=English "C:\Path to File\Filename.acd"
You will need quotes around your file spec if it has spaces. And if it's a program that Studio would normally open for you, no problem, RSLogix will sort it out and load the correct environment.
It won't work with Studio (that I can see), so load a non-Studio version (like version 20) along side of Studio and use its loader. Very cool.