DirectSOFT Version

[franji1]

Rel 5 has been out for nearly a year now, but it's interesting to see what versions of DirectSOFT people are using.

[CIM]

DS500 should be better if they had used a tree structure for the ladder.
collapse and expand ladder parts.
Program gets long and missing a readable overview.

example
(+) rung 10..15 #Motor 1 control
(+) rung 20..25 #Motor 2 control

(-) rung 10..15 #Motor 1 control
 10|--|C0|---------------(C1)
 11|--|C1|---------------(C2)
 12|--|V2000 < V2001|---(C3)
 13|--|C3|---------------(C4)
 14|--|C4|---------------(C5)
 15|--|C5|---------------(C6)
(-) rung 20..25 #Motor 2 control
 20|--|C10|---------------(C11)
 21|--|C11|---------------(C12)
 22|--|V2100 < V2101|----(C13)
 23|--|C13|---------------(C14)
 24|--|C14|---------------(C15)
 25|--|C15|---------------(C16)

[Greg]

What a great idea!

As a matter of fact, we are planning on doing almost exactly that in a future release of DirectSOFT.

Thanks for the input!

[CIM]

Hopefully this will be soon. 

[AZRoger]

What a great idea!

As a matter of fact, we are planning on doing almost exactly that in a future release of DirectSOFT.

Thanks for the input!

Greg,

Here's more input. I hope it's not too late -- or better yet that you already thought of these. 

First, it would be really good if these things were just standalone comments in the mneumonic view, similar to rung numbers and addresses. They should not take any program memory locations at all. They should be tied to a specific rung or instruction only by their position in the program.

Second, it's pretty important that these things nest. They should fit well with the Stage and Block methods of organizing a program. It is likely that many of these things will "open" on the same rung though "close" on different rungs. It would be sort of like an outline. You might have to indicate a level on the tag to allow proper expanding and collapsing of the ladder view. Expanding on CIM's example

(+1) Motor Controls                         
     (+2) Motor 1 Controls                 
          (+3) Safety Checks
               Rungs of Ladder Logic
          (+3) Startup Processes
               Rungs of Ladder Logic
          (+3) Shutdown Processes
               Rungs of Ladder Logic
     (+2) Motor 2 Controls
          (+3) Safety Checks
               Rungs of Ladder Logic
          (+3) Startup Processes
               Rungs of Ladder Logic
          (+3) Shutdown Processes
               Rungs of Ladder Logic
(+1) Valve Controls

There are document and folder viewers in Windows and on the web that work this way. I don't know what sort of tags they use to make it work. I hope it's not too hard. 'Cause sooner rather than later would be good for this function.

Roger

[Gecko482]

How about DirectSOFT working under windows XP without administrator access?

My I.T. guy will not allow Administrative access on my computer, so the DirectSOFT 5 that I just purchased is now completely useless.

[Greg]

How about DirectSOFT working under windows XP without administrator access?

My I.T. guy will not allow Administrative access on my computer, so the DirectSOFT 5 that I just purchased is now completely useless.

It shouldn't be useless, but your Administrator should only have to enable you to be able to run DirectSOFT5. For example, see DirectSOFT FAQ0196 (http://www.hosteng.com/FAQFiles/DirectSOFT.htm then scroll down to FAQ0196). By giving you the proper access to the program, with the proper settings for the folder, he should be able to allow you to run it.

[Greg]

BTW, if the above link doesn't work... then:

1.  Goto (http://www.hosteng.com).
2.  Click on Support at the top of the page.
3.  Click on the FAQ icon.
4.  Click on DirectSOFT in the list.
5.  Scroll down to FAQ0196.

[jsatkanpak]

DirectSoft requests from my dept:

1) Ability to store version history/developer comment data "within" DirectSoft somehow.  We've tried NOP rungs with comments in the PLC, making .txt files, sending e-mails to each other, etc., but it would be nice to be able to store the information natively in the D/S project.

2) Wrap up the project files into a single project file.  That would be Nice.

Thanks for the great products!

[franji1]

1) Ability to store version history/developer comment data "within" DirectSoft somehow.  We've tried NOP rungs with comments in the PLC, making .txt files, sending e-mails to each other, etc., but it would be nice to be able to store the information natively in the D/S project.

File->Properties provides some of this functionality.  You could enter some history info in the predefined Description field.  You can even add your own fields if the ones listed aren't enough.  In the DS500.INI file, look for [ProjectInfoUser] and add any entries you'd like.  I think you can have up to 10 user fields.  This Properties dialog creates the .INF file for the project, containing all the project info.

Let me know if this is what you were wanting.  If you are looking for true source control type functionality, you are best off purchasing a 3rd party product that does just that.  We use SourceSafe from Microsoft - it's very good.

[Tony]

It would be nice to get rid of the 9999 BCD limit on contacts |>=| and |<|.  Have the contacts work with real numbers.  Converting between all these number systems is driving me crazy.  How about everything just works with real numbers, one number system, that's it.

[franji1]

It would be nice to get rid of the 9999 BCD limit on contacts |>=| and |<|.  Have the contacts work with real numbers.  Converting between all these number systems is driving me crazy.  How about everything just works with real numbers, one number system, that's it.

see my reply to similar post under different topic http://forum.hosteng.com/index.php/topic,30.msg581.html#msg581

[SimonH0]

How about DirectSOFT working under windows XP without administrator access?

My I.T. guy will not allow Administrative access on my computer, so the DirectSOFT 5 that I just purchased is now completely useless.
[/quote]

It shouldn't be useless, but your Administrator should only have to enable you to be able to run DirectSOFT5. For example, see DirectSOFT FAQ0196 (http://www.hosteng.com/FAQFiles/DirectSOFT.htm then scroll down to FAQ0196). By giving you the proper access to the program, with the proper settings for the folder, he should be able to allow you to run it.
[/quote]

While this answer is probably way to late to be helpful to you it may help others here or in the future.
Under Windows 2000 & XP, DirectSoft will try to install under C:\, all subfolders and project folders for Directsoft are in the same folder group. Your IT administrator would only need to change the permissions for the DirectSoft folder from Admin to User and you are done. Likewise, if you are using Hapt tools or other HMI software it is only a matter of adding the folders to the user group.
As an alternative DirectSoft can be installed in your USER area and providing that your USER area is under C:\ drive and not on a partition or network drive it will work fine, you can even move you "Project" folder to your USER area or a partitioned drive or network and it will still work.
I currently run XP pro, with DirectSoft 5.2 and until I recently replaced my hard drive all my "Project" data was left under the DirectSoft folder tree, now it is all stored separatly in my USER directory as this folder now gets backed up remotely wherever I am in the world.
The other options are functioning on my office PC with data stored on the network back up drive and at several customers sites where all PLC data is stored and backed up on a central server.

Hope this helps

[MikeS]

let me add one thing to this discussion, directsoft also needs admin privilege during the installation process. we need the ability to install any missing msvc dlls, which go in the \windows\system32 folder ... we can't get around that.

needing admin privilege to install is a fairly common thing, but needing admin to run is something we need to address.

[xuzhibang]

How can I use DirecSOFT for SH1 32-R1?