I'd just like to mention that I've also been trying to find a way to pass files (in my case containing logged data) from the same model of HMI/PLC to a PC. I also wanted to do this without going into the UniApps, and encountered the same surprise when asking for support (i.e. why didn't want to use UniApps?).
It seemed pretty clear to me that if you have a simple program running on the PLC, that you want to make copying files across to a memory stick ("DOK") or to another computer via FTP an equally simple matter. That is to say, if this could be done via the ladder or some other type of "normal programming", it could transform a complex set of actions to a simpler one - the action of doing this via UniApps is currently:
hold down the top right of the screen (to go to UniApps), chose a particular tab, then press a particular button, then press a particular folder name, then press a particular button to go into that folder, then choose a particular file (noting that only one file can be moved/copied at a time), then press a particular button to move/copy, then agree to the message, and so on for each file (and then if moving/copying to a DOK, go to another part of UniApps to "Safely Remove DOK" - another four tab/button presses).
This could be changed to (if file details etc. could be exposed to the ladder "code") to:
press a button.
That argument is in terms of complexity of the file move/copy task compared to the complexity of the programs that might be written on the PLC for doing the "main stuff" that it does, but I also agree that you don't want to encourage the users to go fiddling around in UniApps as so many settings can be changed in there and that would make subsequent (perhaps remote) support of any problems that might arise a nightmare.
So I can see that it's fine to use UniApps if I'm only writing PLC programs for my own use, but I wouldn't want to place that extra complexity on a non-technical user just to get hold of some data - it would be far more complex than the other interactions in the program I'm writing and would expose the PLC to being changed into an unwanted and unsupportable state.
I'm still having trouble trying to find a simple way to transfer files, but even asking them to ftp to the PLC and download files one at a time via a web browser, or setting them up with a way to log in via FileZilla (or similar) so they can simply drag and drop / move / delete files to from the SD card from their own PC seems an easier task than the use of UniApps.
Really it'd be nice to just press a button and have all of the files copied off the SD card to a memory stick, then release the stick, or just squirt all files to a PC via ftp, but that doesn't seem to be possible, from what I've been told.
