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Document the SCADA application

For a school I work on three small PLC controlled processes supervised by separate VTScada applications to manage
some food processing equipment (evaporator, powder dryer machine, autoclave) that the students have to learn to work with.

Is there a report tool for VTScada that enables me to document the details of the tags of these applications in an organized way for the project documentation?

For a school I work on three small PLC controlled processes supervised by separate VTScada applications to manage some food processing equipment (evaporator, powder dryer machine, autoclave) that the students have to learn to work with. Is there a report tool for VTScada that enables me to document the details of the tags of these applications in an organized way for the project documentation?

I had tried to export before but failed because I have no Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access installed on the PC with the VTScada application and I need "an application capable of opening these files on this machine" for this option to operate properly.

Thanks to your suggestion I have tried again and it surely helps.

This is what I did to make the export work.

  • Use a "Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file" as output type failed. Unchecking the "Open file after export tab" tag open does not work, and installing the Microsoft XLS viewer does work neither.
  • Use the "Microsoft Access database file" as output type was successful after unchecking the "Open file after export tab" tag. I can read the exported mdb file via the Online Access DB opener at https://www.mdbopener.com/ and downloaded the result as excel file. Finally I read (and edit) this file via Google docs.

Thanks for your help!

I had tried to export before but failed because I have no Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access installed on the PC with the VTScada application and I need "an application capable of opening these files on this machine" for this option to operate properly. Thanks to your suggestion I have tried again and it surely helps. This is what I did to make the export work. - Use a "Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file" as output type failed. Unchecking the "Open file after export tab" tag open does not work, and installing the Microsoft XLS viewer does work neither. - Use the "Microsoft Access database file" as output type was successful after unchecking the "Open file after export tab" tag. I can read the exported mdb file via the Online Access DB opener at https://www.mdbopener.com/ and downloaded the result as excel file. Finally I read (and edit) this file via Google docs. Thanks for your help!

The result of the export function contains lots of information and to filter for relevant data I wrote a small AWK script. (If not familiar with AWK use google. You can install and run it on WIN10)
Input for the script are the CSV files you get as result from the online database viewer

Steps to get result:

  • make sure that (G)AWK is installed on your PC
  • Select Export/Sync tags in Application configuration
  • Select Output type: Use a Microsoft access database file and push the export button
  • Convert the resulting mdb file via an online viewer to CSV format
  • (Unzip and) Store these files in a directory
  • Make sure that a file with below script is also in this directory
  • Open the Windows Powershell and go go the directory
  • Command at the Windows power shell : awk '-fconvert.awk' *.csv > result.txt
  • Import the result.txt file in Google Sheets

convert.awk contains below script

# Read and filter the VTScada export tags via a GAWK script for relevant records
# Only the "Use a Microsoft Acces database file" works on my PC (No Excel installed)
# I convert the resulting access database via an online viewer to a bunch of  CSV files
# e.g. (https://mdbviewer.herokuapp.com/ 
#
# 14-feb 2020
# Pieter de Vries
# 

/Export/ { y = $0 }  # All first records start with the word Export. Save this record in variable y                       

/Clusius/ {                             # Filter by the Area field (replace with your own) 
if (FNR > 1) {                          # If not the first line
  if (y != "" ) {                       # If y not empty
      split ( FILENAME,x,"." )          # remove the csv extention
      print x[1]                        # and print the name 
      print y                           # print the first line
        y = ""                          # clear the first record variable
        }
  print $0                              # print the relevant record
 }
}
The result of the export function contains lots of information and to filter for relevant data I wrote a small AWK script. (If not familiar with AWK use google. You can install and run it on WIN10) Input for the script are the CSV files you get as result from the online database viewer Steps to get result: - make sure that (G)AWK is installed on your PC - Select Export/Sync tags in Application configuration - Select Output type: Use a Microsoft access database file and push the export button - Convert the resulting mdb file via an online viewer to CSV format - (Unzip and) Store these files in a directory - Make sure that a file with below script is also in this directory - Open the Windows Powershell and go go the directory - Command at the Windows power shell : awk '-fconvert.awk' *.csv > result.txt - Import the result.txt file in Google Sheets convert.awk contains below script # Read and filter the VTScada export tags via a GAWK script for relevant records # Only the "Use a Microsoft Acces database file" works on my PC (No Excel installed) # I convert the resulting access database via an online viewer to a bunch of CSV files # e.g. (https://mdbviewer.herokuapp.com/ # # 14-feb 2020 # Pieter de Vries # /Export/ { y = $0 } # All first records start with the word Export. Save this record in variable y /Clusius/ { # Filter by the Area field (replace with your own) if (FNR > 1) { # If not the first line if (y != "" ) { # If y not empty split ( FILENAME,x,"." ) # remove the csv extention print x[1] # and print the name print y # print the first line y = "" # clear the first record variable } print $0 # print the relevant record } }
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