Direct tags import from Allen Bradley PLCs (ETHERNET IP)¶

This driver supports the direct tags import from Allen Bradley PLC. The driver supports two types of files for the importation of variables: “*.CSV” and “*.L5K”. Files of format “*.CSV” are used to import variables of the following types of PLC: PLC-5, SLC 500 and MicroLogix, while “*.L5K” files are used to import tags of the following controllers: CompactLogix, ControlLogix and FlexLogix.

Import from “*.CSV” files

The requirement is a valid “*.CSV” file (formatted text), that can be easily produced using the “Export” function of the Allen Bradley programming environment.

The format obtained from the exporting is the following: Address,[Ignored],Symbol,[Ignored]

Where the “Address” field is related to the address of the variable on the PLC and the “Symbol” field is related to the variable name. Other fields are ignored and any other information will be not considered.

The address field should be as Allen Bradley standard addressing.

Example

B3:0/0,0,OFF,"","","","","",0,,,0,
B3:0/1,0,ON,"","","","","",0,,,0,
F8:3,0,F8_3,"","","","","",0,,,0,
N7:0,0,N7_0,"","","","","",0,,,0,
N7:10/2,0,N7_10_2,"","","","","",0,,,0,

Import from “*.L5K” files

The requirement is a valid “*.L5K” file, that can be easily produced using the “Save As…” function of the Allen Bradley programming environment RSLogix 5000.

Add-On Instruction

In projects Allen-Bradley, and consequently in L5K files that are generated, you can manage the function blocks, called “Add-On Instruction” as if they were a user declared data type.

So for every “Add-On Instruction” will create a structure containing the local data. A fully imported structure is associated with a dynamic link type “Input/Output”. In this case, it will be responsibility of the designer to set the necessary restrictions on the controls to which you attach the members that in ADD-ON are declared as “Read Only” or “Output Parameters”.

Importing Tags directly from PLC

The driver supports the import of tags directly from the PLC. In the import dialog window, the button is pressed, the tags defined in the PLC program are shown. The address and the model of PLC, corresponding to the selected station, are displayed in the title of the window.