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Nick

Pro-tip: Imports and Exports in Programming

Pro-tips are posts dedicated to helping you stand out in your career. Or, in this case, get home on time.


One difference between you and the competition can be time. If you take half the time of everyone else, you might be able to do more and still leave earlier. A crucial part of this is the ability to import and export things.


Rockwell, InTouch and Siemens all have options to import tags from a spreadsheet into your system. If you are converting from ControlNet to EthernetIP, this can take weeks off your job and make sure points are less likely to be missed. Read the manual and figure out how to do this. I have seen guys spend two days changing alarm setpoints manually, rather than using one spreadsheet for your upload.


Ideally, you can compare this spreadsheet between uploads. For instance, if you have one upload in the HMI and another to your PLC, you may be able to generate both from the same document. It's hard the first time, but not after that.


If you read deeper into Rockwell documents, you will find that you can import ladder using a text file. If you a client allergic to AOIs, you might want to check that out!


Read the manuals and keep up the good work!




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