Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue Need to edit StruxureWare Building Operation Reports Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment SmartStruxure Report Server Report Builder 3.0 Cause Users wish to directly edit or create customized versions of existing reports. Resolution Open Microsoft Report Builder In the Menu, Select Options Change the database path to "http://localhost/reportserver_SQLEXPRESS' Where localhost is changed to the PC name or IP address and SQLEXPRESS is changed to the installed instance of SQL Click OK You can now open existing files on the server and save new files directly to the Reports Server. You must Synchronize the StruxureWare Reports Interface for newly published reports to be available from the StruxureWare Interface.

Issue When attempting to log on to an Automation Server with Workstation receive error: Can not continue because server is offline or temporarily unavailable. Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Automation Server  StruxureWare Building Operation Workstation Cause This error message indicates that the Automation Server can not communicate with the Enterprise Server that it was associated too.  The Automation Server has been associated to an Enterprise Server where a new default (StruxureWare) domain has been added / created. The image below shows a second domain that has been created and been set as the default, this can be seen by the tick box on the second domain entry. When attempting to use the default admin account (by leaving the Domain blank) the Automation Server attempts to contact the Enterprise Server to authenticate the user.  If the Enterprise Server is offline or you are working with a database away from the Enterprise Server then you will receive this message. Resolution Two possible resolutions exist for this: Re-establish the communication for the Automation Server with the Enterprise Server to allow authentication for the user attempting to log in to be verified. Log on with a known "Local" domain or admin account.    Note: The domain name is case sensitive, even the Local domain. Make sure to type the name of the domain with appropriate capitalization. In this example, when trying to login to the Local domain, typing "local" fails to login, where typing "Local" logs into the AS correctly.

Issue Tam32 error message appears when Editing a Function Block program. When editing the program, this error appears and elements are removed from the program. Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Function Block/Menta Editor Found when files created in an older version are used in a newer version of StruxureWare Building Operation. Cause This error message is literal. The line indicated as an error is a corrupted part of the function block program. You can determine this line by editing the file in a text editor such as Notepad++ and viewing the indicated line. NOTE: These programs will continue to work as originally programmed. Resolution To identify the part of the program causing the error: Edit the Program that is in error When the message appears, note the line number and file before you press ok. Do not edit or attempt to save the program. Locate the file specified in the error message. In this case tempaut1 The AppData folder is usually hidden, so you will need to manually type the file path into Windows Explorer Edit the file with notepad++ or another text editor Find the indicated line and determine what type of object is in error. In this example, the line indicated in the error was 116. It is a comment. Method 1: Compare the error line to another other line of the same type in the document and correct any abnormalities. In this case, I removed an extra comma. If it is a Comment, note that @ = carriage return and should be left in, but remove any other symbols or uncommon characters from the comment. You may just want to replace all of the comment text between the : and } with filler text. DO NOT delete the line of code. Save the edited file to the desktop, be sure not to save it as a .txt If needed, right click>edit the program from the system tree and click OK when the error appears. Select File>Import Import the edited file saved on the desktop. Check to see if the changes you made have corrected the application and Save. Method 2: May be used if the build the file was created in is significantly different than the current build. Edit the program Copy the indicated tempaut file to the desktop Install the version of SmartStruxure which the function block was created on or locate a PC at an older revision Import the files to an AS or ES at the original build Edit the program Remove the objects in error. Export the edited files and re-import in the current build Add back any removed elements that are required for the program to function.

Issue Need to know how many network variables have been created underneath the Local Node. Environment Workstation LonWorks Network Cause Currently as of SmartStruxure version 1.4.1, the Local Node can only have 400 network variables. The number of network variables that have been created may need to be known for engineering purposes. Resolution To find the number of network variables under a Local Node: Select the Local Node in the system tree. In List View, double click on the DeviceTables object. Click on the Selector Table tab. Navigate to the bottom of the table and take note of the last number in the Index column. Subtract one from this last number to get a total of network variables under the Local Node.

Issue The following time change errors are appearing in the trend data from b3 controller.     Environment Trend logs Cause b3 firmware was at 4.500029.  Current release is 4.500076 Resolution The issue was corrected by upgrading all b3 controllers to 4.500076.

Issue BACnet Alarm User Actions, Attachment and Presentation Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Alarm handling and Presentation Server BACnet User Action, Attachment and Presentation Cause If the BACnet Alarm User Actions appear to be working incorrectly, the "Alarm handling and presentation" setting may be incorrect Resolution BACnet Alarm Enrollments only If the User Action, Attachment and Presentation from the Alarm itself are required then Alarm handling and presentation should be set to "Intrinsic" as below If the User Action, Attachment and Presentation from the BACnet Notification are required then Alarm handling and presentation should be set to "BACnet Notification object" as below NOTES When a b3 is created or a 3rd party device uploaded within Building Operation, the Alarm Enrollments and Alarm Notification Objects include Alarm handling and presentation properties (Presentation, User Action(Cause note, Action Notes, Comments, and Checklist) and Attachments tabs). These properties are stored only in the Building Operation Server (AS or ES) database. To use these properties, the "Alarm handling and Presentation" (in "Properties" tab “Basic”) should be set to "Intrinsic", as above, top example. The settings are saved only in the Building Operation database - as part of the notification class proxy, or the event-enrollment (or point object in the case of intrinsic alarms) proxy. Cause notes, action notes, comments, and checklist are Building Operation specific data, not part of the BACnet protocol. So there is no way for it to be sent to the device (b3, 3rd party or otherwise).

Issue Deleting a point from an MNB controller in StruxureWare Building Operation results in the following error Environment StruxureWare Building Operation: All versions up to and including 1.5.x I/A Series Micronet BACnet Controller Cause StruxureWare Building Operation does not support the deletion of points in the Application Folder of a MNB device.  Resolution To delete a point, disconnect the MNB controller from the network. Once StruxureWare Building Operation server is unable to communicate with the MNB device, it will allow the deletion of the point in the Application folder. Take note that even though the point has been deleted from the AS Application folder, the point still exist in the MNB controller.

Issue On a old MNL project, a MNL-MI device was found. Is it required to integrate into SmartStruxure? Environment SmartStruxure with MNL Cause Outdated LON product Resolution The MNL-MI provided network-level management functions for a network of MNL controllers.  An RS-232 port on the MNL-MI provided for a connection to a computer running the MicroNet Tech Tool or MicroNet View software (both obsolete).  It is not required for a SmartStruxure integration and can be removed from the LON trunk.

Issue Can a schedule or calendar be printed? Environment StruxureWare Building Operation site Cause Desire to print a schedule or calendar either from AS or ES Resolution Neither Schedules nor Calendars can be printed from Workstation or Webstation using Building Operation

Issue When there are multiple panels or graphics assigned to a Workspace, sometimes the layout will be in a mess when viewing it. Environment SmartStruxure Cause The layout for Workspace needs to be manually arranged and saved. Resolution After manually arranged the layout for Workspace, you need to click on the View menu and select "Save workspace layout" to save it. This work needs to be done per user, which means if you have multiple users using this Workspace, you need to log on with each user and save them separately. To set the layout back to the default, go to the View menu and select "Reset workspace layout".

Issue In Function Block and Menta Editor programming, once the unit of a function block has been set to a specific type, there is no option at the top of the list to set it back to "blank". Environment Function Block Programming Cause In TAC Vista Menta, the first option in the list of units for a function block is just a blank field. The blank field means that there is no unit type selected. Function Block and Menta Editor programming in SmartStruxure do not have a blank field that can be selected. Resolution Instead of using a blank field to signify that there is no unit type, SmartStruxure programs use a "NoUnit" designation. "NoUnit" can be found in the list of units alphabetically.

Issue Viewing the Foreign Device Table in an ES or AS. Environment BBMD FDT Foreign Device Table Cause Unable to locate where the Foreign Device Table can be viewed. Resolution The Foreign Device Table is located  under the server  in the System/Modules/BACnet Devices/FDT folder First create the BBMD, which will be located under the BACnet Interface/IP Network folder.        The Foreign Device Table can then be viewed by going to System/Modules/BACnet Devices/FDT. Note that the foreign device table is read-only, it displays information about what other devices have been configured as foreign devices pointing to this device (the BBMD).     NOTE: In 1.5 the Foreign Device Table has been moved as a new tab on the BBMD object.

Issue Looking at the Status Information on the MSTP network object under the BACnet Interface of the Automation Server, the status read online FALSE Environment Automation Server - AS Cause The AS is not being passed the network token. If the Automation Server sees the token being passed on the bus but it never receives the token the AS will tag the MSTP network status as OFFLINE.. Resolution Possible reasons/solutions. CAUSE: Baud rate mismatch with third party devices. SOLUTION: If device does not support auto-baud change the speed of the MSTP to that of the device. CAUSE: A device on the MSTP is using the same mac id as the MSTP port. SOLUTION: Resolve the duplicate id issue. CAUSE: A defective device on the MSTP SOLUTION: Identify the defective device and replace it.

Issue HotFix best practices Environment Site with StruxureWare Building Operation Cause Is it supported to have a Hotfix applied to ES/Workstation, but not the AS? Is it supported to have different HotFixes applied to the same site? In other words, HotFixes can be applied to select AS, but can you have different HotFixes on different AS, with perhaps a different HotFix applied to the ES/WorkStation?   Resolution The hot fix readme details what is necessary to install a Hotfix, generally they can be mixed as necessary on the one site, if there is any dependency’s (i.e. you need to install WS with the ES) this again will be detailed in the HotFix readme file. Remember HotFixes are now consolidated (all in the one hot fix) and the build numbering of the HotFix shows this, i.e. 1.6.0.xxx is based on fixes consolidated in consolidation point 1, again the readme tells you which fixes are included. Also remember that you can only apply a hot fix when the build number is greater than the current installed build. As a general rule you should be able to have different hot fixes on a ES, on an AS and on Workstation. However, installing a new hot fix on top of a previous hot fix for any of these will remove the previous hot fix, if the read me file for the new hotfix doesn't specify that the previous hot fix is included. It will specify this not in terms of hot fix builds but in terms of fixes for ALM defect ID's. Therefore, one needs to look at the read me files for the combination of hot fixes used at any specific site to make sure all hot fixes needed are effective and not have been overwritten by a later hot fix. The above is true for read me files whether or not a hot fix is considered to be a consolidated hot fix or not. Note, the guidelines seem to imply that all hot fixes are consolidated, which is no true.   Version of firmware on an AS: Note: Not all HotFixes apply to all sites. HotFixes eliminate issues observed and defined in a particular defect.   

Issue The binding variable "variable.OFFLINE" does not reflect an offline state. Environment Script Program Binding Attribute Offline Release 1.4.1 Cause A program has been written which uses this attribute to confirm that an I/O is online, but the state does not change. Resolution Web-Help - describes the use of the Binding Attributes Forced, Invalid, Offline and Overridden.     These attributes were originally intended to be available, but it was decided that they would not be implemented at this stage of the SmartStruxure development. This information will now be removed from the documentation, until the Binding Attributes are correctly introduced in a later release.

Issue When opening an exported .doc file from Web Reports, Word gives the following error: Word experienced an error tying to open the file. Try these suggestions: *Check the file permission for the document or drive *Make sure there is sufficient free memory and disk space. *Open the file with the Text Recovery converter. Is Microsoft Office 365 supported with Web Reports? Environment StruxureWare Building Operation Report Server (Web Reports) Microsoft Office 365  Cause Web Reports has not had any extensive testing with the Microsoft Office 365 components, but the export documents are produce for compatibility with Office 2003. Resolution In some cases the issue may be resolved by performing the following steps outlined in- Microsoft Knowledgebase article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2749199

Issue Unable to save a Function Block or Menta program that contains a module named "IO" in StruxureWare Building Operation 1.4.1 Environment Function Block program Menta program SmartStruxure 1.4.1 Cause A bug prevents using "IO" as a module name in Building Operation 1.4.1 Resolution Changing the module name will allow you to save. However, this bug is fixed in Building Operation 1.5.

Issue Is there a way to populate an array in the declaration line as in other programming languages i.e. Numeric numbers[4] = {1, 2, 4, 8}? Environment StruxureWare for Building Operation Script Editor Cause When defining an array in Script Editor the user may wish to populate the array with initial values. Resolution The way to populate an array in Script Editor is to initialise each element individually.

Warning Potential for Data Loss: The steps detailed in the resolution of this article may result in a loss of critical data if not performed properly. Before beginning these steps, make sure all important data is backed up in the event of data loss. If you are unsure or unfamiliar with any complex steps detailed in this article, please contact Product Support Services for assistance. Issue Deleting reports built in Reports Builder using Building Operation WebReports Environment SmartStruxure Building Operation running Reports Server and Microsoft Report Builder Cause Reports built using SQL interface such as Microsoft Report Builder cannot be deleted using the Manage Reports in Building Operation WebReports Resolution Building reports on the SQL side must be deleted on the SQL side.   From the first screenshot below, you can see that when using WebReports, in the Manage Reports tab, custom reports which are made are considered System Reports and the Delete button is grayed out.  Here I have created Top Alarms Test 1 report, which has been selected. Using SQL Server Management Studio, I penetrate to the tb.ReportGroups and see the isSystemOwned is True for the report Top Alarms Test 1 The isSystemOwned is changed to False for the selected report(s) Top Alarms Test 1 Viewing WebReports, in the Manage Reports tab, the Top Alarms Test 1 report is selected and the Delete option is available.

Issue Need to have a button on a Graphic that upon user click will launch Windows Explorer to show the contents of a particular folder in the PC Environment Enterprise Folder WorkStation Windows Cause Documentation Resolution Add a button to the Graphic In design mode go to the Snippets components and drag the 'Execute' snippet to the button Under the Script Block Execute specify the full path to the program to run (in this case C:\Windows\Explorer.exe and the ProgramOptions in this case the folder location to display.