Importing Studio 5K Tags into C-more Projects at AutomationDirect

C-more HMIs integrate seamlessly with any AutomationDirect PLC, but what if you’re using an Allen-Bradley PLC? Today, we’ll be showing you how simple it is to import tags from ControlLogix and CompactLogix systems to your C-more HMI. To start, we’ll need to export the PLC tags into a file readable by the C-More development software. Open your PLC project in Studio 5000. Here, you see all the tags in your project. To export, go to File and Save As. In this dropdown, elect to save this project as an L5X file. While C-More can read both L5K and L5X files, the L5X file adds the ability to import I/O module tags as well. Select your folder location and click Save. That’s all you have to do on the Studio 5000 side. Open your C-More development software. For this video, we’ll be setting up a new project. Name the project and select the panel type. Under PLC Protocol, select “Allen Bradley EtherNet/IP Client tag-based Protocol,” which will work for both CompactLogix and ControlLogix PLCs. Click on protocol setup. Add the IP address of the PLC. Under almost all systems, the rest of the default settings will work. The most common deviation is if you are using a ControlLogix system with a different CPU slot. Click Ok, then Ok. If you are setting up a PLC in an existing project, go to Protocol Manager on the Home ribbon. Right-click on Ethernet and select New. Use the same settings as before and click Ok. There are two ways to import the tags from the file. The simplest is to go to File, Import, then Tag Name Database; or click on Tag Name on the home ribbon to open the Tag database. From here, click the Import button. Navigate to and select the L5X file we created earlier. In the Import Tag dialog, under device, select the PLC. This connects the imported tags specifically to that device. If your project uses aliases, select how you want the project to handle that, and checking here will allow you to overwrite duplicate tags. If you are connected to multiple PLCs, it’s recommended to add a suffix to the tag names to avoid cross-duplication. Click Import, then OK. Scrolling down, you now see all the tags from the PLC. Another benefit of adding that suffix is that you can now filter those tags specifically from that PLC program. That’s it. Now, we can program these tags into the HMI project. As an example, we’ll add an indicator light to read a value directly from the PLC. Click on Indicator Light in the object list, select the style you want, and drag it to the screen. You can select the tag from the dropdown menu, but an easier option is to click this button to bring up the tag database. Here, you can filter by device, datatype, and name. Select the tag you want, then click Ok. Now, when running the C-More project, this object will read the tag value directly from the PLC. When done, send the project to the HMI and you’re all set! That’s how easy it is to import CompactLogix or ControlLogix tags to your C-More HMI project. And if you have any questions or need any further help, remember C-More HMIs come with free, lifetime technical support. To learn more about the C-More HMI, click here. Click here to subscribe so you don’t miss out on any future tutorials, new products, or other automation solutions.