Friday, March 9, 2012

RSView Enterprise File Viewer Utility

How do I read and save ME, SE Datalog files, ME Alarm Log files, RecipePlus files and dBASE files with the RSView Enterprise File Viewer Utility?
Note: With this Viewer, once the log file is open the file can be saved as a CSV file. You can only access the datalog files if they are closed, as a result you must stop a running RSView ME application or RSView SE Datalog in order to be able to access the file.
This utility is used on Win32 (desktop) only. To read ME files from PanelView Plus CE or PanelView Plus terminals, copy the files to a compact flash card or SD card and move them to the desktop where the utility resides. These log files are in a non-standard format.
The RSView Enterprise File Viewer utility can be used to read and save the following files:
  • SE Datalog file (*.DAT, *.OBF)
  • ME Datalog file (*.LOG)
  • ME Alarm Log file (HISTORY.ALM)
  • dBASE file (*.DBF)
  • ME RecipePlus file (*.RPP)
The SE Datalog files, ME Datalog files, RecipePlus files and ME Alarm Log file can be saved as CSV or DBF files.

SE Datalog File

  1. Pick SE Datalog file in Files of Type
  2. Select the DAT or OBF file to open in the Viewer.

ME Datalog File (ME Station)

  1. Pick ME Datalog File in Files of Type.
  2. Select the LOG file to open in the Viewer.
  3. In the Set Time Zone dialog, select the time zone you would like the file to be converted in.

ME Alarm Log File 

Note: During runtime, four .ALM files are generated from an ME application with alarms: embedded.alm, history.alm, reset.alm and status.alm. Of these files only the history.alm can be opened by the File Viewer. The history.alm file is the main data table for alarm information, some additional information is saved to other .ALM files. If information is needed from the other files, such as embedded variable information, the File Viewer will automatically open the required files after opening the history.alm file. Any attempt to open the other .ALM files results in This ME Alarm File cannot be open and Convert log file error error messages.

FactoryTalk View Machine Edition Data Logging Best Practices.

FactoryTalk View Machine Edition Data Logging Best Practices - Understanding Data Logging

This information is applicable only to the native Data Logging of RSView Machine Edition and does not apply to the DataStore or DataStore Plus ActiveX controls.
NOTE: The following information applies to version 5.x and older terminals. Testing has shown that a current, typical application will run faster and have less memory constraints on the 6.x platform.

What Does the RSView ME Data Log Model Do?

  • Logs tag data to a storage file during runtime
  • Historical Trending

Data Log Model (Design Time)

  • Studio allows the creation of multiple Data Log Models. However, only 1 Data Log Model can be configured during runtime.
  • Maximum number of tags allowed in a model is 100:
    • The model will not log data for string tags, array tags, parameters or expressions, and you cannot use tag placeholders in your data log model.
    • External Compact flash path is configured as \Storage Card2\log.
    • USB drive path is configured as \USB Storage\log.