Host Engineering Forum
General Category => Do-more CPUs and Do-more Designer Software => Topic started by: mhw on May 16, 2013, 05:34:38 PM
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I have just finished my second H2DM project and want to share some things that may lead to improvements in the DMD or my understanding of DMD. First I want to say that I am very pleased overall. I am especially pleased with how responsive Host has been to questions and problems related to this release. You have set a new high for customer service. THANKS!
There are a lot of positives, but I have chosen to highlight a few:
• The simulator is great, it virtually eliminates the need to have physical PLC for testing.
• Math is fabulous and easy.
• I love being able to create a tag name on the fly and auto assign it to the next available element
• Scan times appear to be 1/10 of similar D2-260 projects.
The following are notes that I kept while I was programming. Some of these may be the result of something that I did incorrectly or do not know how to do:
• Unable to create new Nickname when entered in a Math expression.
• Auto completion of tag name does not work in Math expression
• Output Message:" M457 Clocked/edged instruction (SETTIME) used in edge-enabled task". Who cares?
• Unable to run/enable program/task from "Data View" or "Debug".
• What are the Instruction Execution Times?
• Does not export UDT elements when using C-More format.
• Tag names need to be longer!
• Dragging the scroll bar (in ladder and data view) has no effect until released (not a live scroll).
• When status is on; it would be handy to have the tab at the top of the ladder view indicate which programs are active.
• When I hit "All Status", I would prefer that it would apply to all programs, (open now or opened later)
• When going from SIM to H2DM, or vice versa, the serial device needs to be recreated and placed in each instruction that it was used.
• Tag names shrink and are hard to see when "Status" is on.
• Cannot copy/paste individual instructions.
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Great feedback! I've commented per point, below...
• Unable to create new Nickname when entered in a Math expression.
For now, you can use F9 within the MATH expression area to create nicknames on the fly, but currently there is no mechanism for "post" entry nickname creation. We'd like to enhance this mechanism w/calculator type user interface, in addition to better support for auto completion and nickname creation.
• Auto completion of tag name does not work in Math expression
see above
• Output Message:" M457 Clocked/edged instruction (SETTIME) used in edge-enabled task". Who cares?
It's just letting you know that edge within an edge might not give you the desired behavior, specifically, what is expected behavior when task is edge-enabled 3 times, first time SETTIME input leg power is OFF, second time input leg is ON, and third time input leg is ON. Some might say 1. NOT EXECUTE, 2. EXECUTE, 3. NOT EXECUTE. Others might think it should 1. NOT EXECUTE, 2. EXECUTE, 3. EXECUTE. Since it's an edge-triggered task, the input leg edge auto-resets every time, so it will do the latter 1. NOT EXECUTE, 2. EXECUTE, 3. EXECUTE. If the TASK was POWER-FLOW enabled, and the ENTASK was enabled for 3 scans, but the SETTIME input leg was OFF, ON, ON, then you would get the FORMER behavior 1. NOT EXECUTE, 2. EXECUTE, 3. NOT EXECUTE. Just letting you know of the little nuance of edge triggered instructions inside edge-triggered ENTASK.
• Unable to run/enable program/task from "Data View" or "Debug".
Good idea. I don't see any reason why not (but probably from Debug view).
• What are the Instruction Execution Times?
Fast ;D. They are so dynamic, they are actually different based upon data cache hits vs. misses, complexity of the instruction (e.g. RAMPSOAK), parameters being INTEGER vs. REAL, etc. Gone are the days where these are simple instructions accessing RAM in a fixed number of clock cycles.
• Does not export UDT elements when using C-More format.
Only when using the individual fields. C-more does not support whole structures.
• Tag names need to be longer!
Agreed. We may revisit some day.
• Dragging the scroll bar (in ladder and data view) has no effect until released (not a live scroll).
We'll look at it.
• When status is on; it would be handy to have the tab at the top of the ladder view indicate which programs are active.
Agreed - already on our "to do" list
• When I hit "All Status", I would prefer that it would apply to all programs, (open now or opened later)
That button is state-less. We could change that.
• When going from SIM to H2DM, or vice versa, the serial device needs to be recreated and placed in each instruction that it was used.
It's actually a different device, but we'll look into it.
• Tag names shrink and are hard to see when "Status" is on.
We've heard that. It's a real estate issue. To keep it the same size, we can make the status values smaller (and harder to read) and make the elements bigger (easier to read). We presume the status value is more important - and support many zoom levels. On some monitors, the default size element is readable. On other monitors, its not. Just do Ctrl+Scroll Wheel Forward on your mouse to zoom in, or change the zoom level on the Offline toolbar. If the default text is too small (i.e. zoom level of 100% is too small), you can change the font size in the DmDesigner.ini file (see link in Applications panel of the Launchpad) and look for [Fonts] group and change Workspace Font from Arial:10 to Arial:11 (or larger).
• Cannot copy/paste individual instructions.
Already on our to-do list.
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This is going to sound odd coming from a non-very-mouse-centric kind of guy, but dragging instructions (boxes, coils, contacts) complete with addresses, plus dragging of just addresses (with valid drop zones highlighted). Also dragging branches. Very convenient.