Edit %MW data externally in Control Expert?

[dnordenberg1]

Hi!

I can't find a way to export/import a range of %MW data and edit that with some other tool externally i.e Excel? .DTX/.DAT seems to be a closed binary format so that seems to be impossible to edit. Any other ways to export register values as .csv or something which you can later import back?

[GeoffChisholm]

This was part of an improvement suggestion I made here

https://community.se.com/t5/Modicon-Ideas-new-features/Control-Expert-Improvements-to-Save-and-Resto...

[ciupol]

Go to C:\Users\Public\Documents\Schneider Electric\Control Expert 16.2\Extras or Start Menu\Ecostruxure Control Expert\Extras Control Expert. You will find there folder Excel Import Export  Tool. There will be an Excel spreadsheet that you can use to edit variables. There is also a manual there how to use it.

[dnordenberg1]

Haha I even liked and commented that post 😆

Still no improvement 😔

I can't understand having this fundamental functionality not already built into such mature software 😔

[dnordenberg1]

First, this Excel tool stopped working for me ages ago with Office security enhancements 😞

Second, those XSY files does not contain realtime values, would have been great if they did (and allowed import back).

[ciupol]

Not sure why it does not work for you. I have a modern Office 365 and it works for me without problems. I use it a lot. Please keep in mind that you have to enable macros in your Excel as this file is in XLSM format.

Not sure how would the realtime values be available in excel file export. Those change constantly when PLC is running so the excel file would have to be somehow connected to PLC.

That being said it is not impossible. You can create an app in VBA in Excel that can talk modbus to your CPU, pull the real values, and then write back whatever you edit. I personally do not see a use case for this but if you have one that is possible.

[dnordenberg1]

hmm, our IT might have blocked .XLSM, it seems I can't do anything with that file so it might not be a office 365 update after all...

I don't mean it should be updated in realtime in the excel file, those values would be "snapshot values" from a certain time from the PLC.

Not they will not change "constantly" if the registers contains something like settings or statistics.

HMIs often call this kind of functionality "recipe". But it is a bit troublesome to setup a HMI just to be able to get those values exported, updated and imported back. VBA might be another way yes but not a 5 min job either as it should have been.

I see may use cases. For example, imagine you want to change datatype of something, maybe you had minutes stored before but now you want second precision of all your time settings and loads of settings has to be multiplied by 60 in memory. Then maybe you also need to change some stored values from 16 to 32 bit (maybe int to real too) and all the settings will require another memory location (like setting1 MW1 int16, setting2 MW2 int16, setting3 MW3 int16 to setting1 MD1 int32, setting2 MW3 int16, setting3 MW4 int16). This would be a piece of cake if you had the values available in excel together with the corresponding MW adress or variable name.

[GeoffChisholm]

One of the main uses I see for data accessibility would be recording a set of setpoints. Imagine a plant with a set of tuning parameters exporting those values from the PLC would allow quick and reliable verification or generation of reports with those settings, ideal for Factory Acceptance Testing and reporting. Exporting a spreadsheet with the commissioned values could then at any time allow easily checking which setpoints have been changed since the plant was commissioned.

Another important use is to take the data from one PLC and transfer it to another different type of PLC, for example from a Quantum CPU to an M580 when an upgrade is performed. A dtx will not transfer from different PLCs or even different plc programs. 

[dnordenberg1]

Absolutely. There are so many uses for this.

And I think there may be two relative but slightly different wishes for functionality here, one is for export/import raw %MW data that I was talking about in my original post. That might be less useful for the cases like you mention now but the other might be to do it from the data editor and include a snapshot of the the "current value" in a .XSY file so you can get variable names and data from unlocated ones too. This might relax the need for the raw %MW export/import since you could easily create located variables over the areas you need so it would be a more "generic" functionality with broader uses. I think it would also mitigate the effects of the restrictions you mention of a .DTX file since you could then do it with a .XSY instead which would be hardware agnostic.

[AmitGolan]

Dear dnordenberg1

A solution for your request is waiting for approval. As soon as it will be published you will be able to download and test it. Another solution still with the same status allows data save and restore based on tag names. You might find it useful when it will be published. Best Regards - Amit Golan, Ex. SE employee for 11 years as PAC PAE.

[ciupol]

@dnordenberg1 

I am not sure why I haven't though about it back in June when we exchanged our posts but reading the posts again today and especially post from @GeoffChisholm I realized I have a tool that would partially meet your requirements. It works only for variables that have modbus %MW address and not unlocated variables or other type of located variables but it is always something. In fact I received this tool from my Schneider application engineer for exact reason that @GeoffChisholm described. I used it when I was updating my Quantum CPUs to M580.

The tool is attached. It saves all the register values to CSV file and it can restore those values from CSV file.

[ciupol]

@AmitGolan  wrote:

Another solution still with the same status allows data save and restore based on tag names.

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Have this been published yet? I am very curious about this?