New features wanted!! Apply here!

[Daddyo]

1. USB memory stick drive for PLC program save and downloads.
  (even if it were and additional hardware program loader device)
2. Additional cost option for PLC programing incorporated into C-more panels. (USB port use again)
3. User defined I-Boxes ( Yes I know who else does it)
4. Maybe to get higher end features into the software, a 2 tier pricing scheme would be acceptable.
    (Basic= low bucks, Advanced=more bucks) ( I would pay!)

[Daddyo]

Forgot one more thing

A visual PLC network map to point and click on to the PLC you need to work on.

[franji1]

A visual PLC network map to point and click on to the PLC you need to work on.

Can you say "J-Net" 

[stepheneltze]

I'm pretty sure this has been asked before, but;

Any Linux plans for new releases? I've done a little digging, and as I understand it, getting DS to work on a linux platform is not too much of a biggie, it's accessing the comm ports that is tricky...(?)
But with the Vista comm port issues, and the "fixes" that are needed, would it not be possible to make a flexible or possibly separate-able comms package that you could configure/download according to your chosen platform, when purchasing DS?

[BobO]

Linux? Hmmm...don't know much about developing for Linux, but my guess is it would be a pretty tall order. We don't get much expressed interest either. Not saying it would never happen, but we're pedaling pretty hard right now...so no, we have no immediate plans for Linux. Sorry.

[ATU]

What about a program archive feature?   You can keep the files that you have now for ease of troubleshooting, that is fine.  I can understand you have reasons for this. However, I would like to hit a button at anytime and all of those files get condensed to one, easy to copy file at a location that I choose.  Also have a facility to reload from the archive.  What I don't want is to have to close down the application to do this. Rockwell's Factory talk requires you to shut down the main application to copy, rename or backup the application file.  I think they also have a collection of files for the application and then archive everything into a project file.  This is really time consuming, however the end result is 1 file that is easy to backup to a USB or Network drive.

[BobO]

Working on that now, in fact. The new controller uses a new file format that is essentially a zip of all underlying temp files. We are also investigating a restore point mechanism that would provide a very robust undo function within the current session. Those same files will ge backed up automatically every time the project is saved. With the new stuff, you'll have lots of new opportunities to confusion yourself will old program versions!

[ATU]

That sounds great for the new controller. What about the current controllers? Any chance for parts of this feature to be used?

[BobO]

That's more difficult. The near term effort to create a new controller, control engine, and programming environment substantially from scratch, is a huge undertaking for a small company like Host. So for now, all resources are focused on the new controller.

Longer term, we very much hope to roll some of the new features into the legacy controllers. Some of new features simply cannot be ported due to the lack of strong typing. And some of the file features are complicated by the fact that classic DirectSoft maintains a level of file compatibility with TiSoft and S62P...other programming packages in use with Koyo controllers. We have made the decision to drop many legacy compatibilities specifically so we could do some cool new things. Engineering tradeoffs are always hard decisions.

But, as I said, we do hope to retrofit some of the nicer features as time and resources permit. Certainly a basic archive function wouldn't be particularly difficult, and we have had plans to move to a single file for years...it just always seemed to get pushed to the 'next' release. We ended up pursuing it now mostly because we had no choice...the existing files formats were simply inadequet to the task. Nothing like necessity to get you moving...

[ATU]

"The new controller uses a new file format that is essentially a zip of all underlying temp files"


Yes a simple archive feature would be great. Just being able to create a zip file inside Directsoft while the project is open would be a great thing. What I have to do now is close out the project, create a new directory to put all the files in. Copy all the correct files and hope that I don't miss one. Then copy the directory to my USB drive. It would be so convenient to hit a button and create one compressed zip type file on my USB drive with all the files and I know they are all there.  You already have a backup feature. Why not add a checkbox with a compress to one file option?

[b_carlton]

I know this isn't adding much about the new developments but, since day 1 using AD products (or PLC Direct I should say) I always began a new project in its own folder. Thus it was always easy to copy and/or zip that folder confident that I had all the files.

Actually I create a folder for the entire project and inside that a folder for the PLC, one for the display, one for any drive setup files etc. Essentially one folder for each programmable type of device on the machine. The entire zipped folder is easy to include in documentation to the end user.

[BobO]

Com'on Bernie, quit cutting the development team slack! Make 'em work for it. Crack the whip!

[ATU]

I have the same method for my files. However, everyday I create a new revision of my program under development. The origins being from the early days of directsoft when the database would corrupt so completely that you could possibly end up with unsusable documentation.  However, I have found that it is smart to have older revisions to go back and look upon in development. Keeping track of all of those files  and directories are time and space consuming. It would be so much easier to have only 1 file to deal with.

[BobO]

That's another thing we changed in the new controller...the documentation database is no longer a database at all, it's just a big flat data file that gets loaded into memory. We will be writing to temp files every time something meaningful changes, but not incrementally, always the whole file. Additionally, even though we update temp files following every relevant change, the project file itself only gets updated when you save the project. We are also hoping to be able to recover the project from the temp files if you crash out or dump Windows. It will be much less like the past DirectSoft, and much more like Word or Excel. Hopefully more intuitive, modern, and useful.

[rlp122]

One thing that I didn't see mentioned (but then I didn't read every post completely) is storing documentation files in the PLC.  This has been a wish for as long as I can remember (I've been using DirectSoft since release 2).  With memory as cheap as it is, is there really any reason not to store the documentation in the PLC?