Jump to content

About revision control and comparing projects for Enhanced Versions


Recommended Posts

Is there a way to do this with Unintronic's visilogic?

I see that there is a tool called VisiDiff, which does not support enhanced PLCs.. which is a shame.

First of all, I work mainly with 2 PLC models V700 and V570, and the production facility that ran with my software is constantly requiring changes and new features. The tools were built in-house and the main purpose of me working here is to keep making a reality whatever crazy idea other engineers came up with for the sake of improving the process.

Basically, I do:

R&D -> bench testing -> production testing -> version release -> rollout

so, said this proper version control is very tedious work:

  1. I create a new project in a folder on which I will keep the project files (source code) for v570 & v700 usually the "Demo" version for each one the only difference for production once is released is to replace a sub-routine that simulates the analog inputs. I came up with a naming convention that tells me for which PLC, the consecutive version if the changes were bug fixes o new features all within the 8 characters, and that name is stored in the plc so I can track what was installed on each one.
  2.  
  3. I randomly pick v700 o v570 to start and eventually once finished I will port to the other one. usually, v570 first is easier because I can export the screens and resize them, other way around whatever is off the screen is lost.
  4.  
  5. Eventually once completed porting is tedious work that needs to be done checking line by line sub by sub, screen by screen, operator by operator, and sometimes when porting I found something else that I miss in the original version so the changes could be back and forth.
  6.  
  7. When a version is ready to be released I compile a Unitronics.UDC file to be used with Unitronics downloader that file will be having the same name as the project and since it is not editable there isn't any risk of changes made on that specific software. then the project file is archived and I create a new folder for the next revision. So whenever I need to troubleshoot some tool I can see what version of the software was in the tool then open the matching project file and use online mode.

whenever possible I work on subroutines that could be easily exported/imported to make everything modular, and I also try to keep the changes on a text file and comment on everything and update a spreadsheet of the subroutines and if new were added or changes were made.

 

but you know.... sometimes the inspiration strikes and by the time I ended something that was supposed to be a small tweak I already replaced some operators, optimized some logic, fixed an unnoticed bug .... stuff like that and It is just too hard to keep track of every minor change.

 

As I said it is a pain in the ...A$$, and even more if you add the features that won't be passed to production that are tweaked for specific experiments or versions that have features that won't be implemented in a near future. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • MVP 2023
On 7/29/2022 at 11:47 PM, Fernando Castro said:

sometimes the inspiration strikes and by the time I ended something that was supposed to be a small tweak I already replaced some operators, optimized some logic, fixed an unnoticed bug .... stuff like that and It is just too hard to keep track of every minor change.

Exactly.......!   

Re Visidiff, sadly the only sure way of doing this that I use is running 2 (or more) instances side by side and visually comparing, which on a big program is very tedious.  The other thing I do is use some of things available under View and Build to see if anything is obviously different, but these aren't surefire.  VisiDiff only working on standard models is annoying when you have your situation.

There might be a way to display all used operands, but I don't know of it.  I'm hoping that other's answers to your question might show me how wrong I am on this!  Other brands I work with do this.

cheers, Aus

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...