GE Fanuc iFIX OPC Client Version 7.35 Release Notes 04/18/2006
Contents
A. Required Software
A1. Important Information about Windows XP Firewall
B. General Information
C. Known Issues
D. Troubleshooting
D.1 Automatically Starting the OPC Client
D.2 USING LICENSING SOFTWARE
A. REQUIRED SOFTWARE
The OPC Client driver requires the following software:
* Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2 or greater, Windows XP,
Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 5 or greater, or Windows Server 2003.
A.1 IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT WINDOWS XP Firewall
There are Firewall settings that must be configured before you
can access remote OPC servers. For more information, refer to the OPC
Client online help topic Setting Up Windows XP Firewall for Remote OPC Servers.
B. GENERAL INFORMATION
* The OPC Client should be stopped before importing, reloading, or
generating a process database.
* 7.x drivers no longer use the Period field in Mission Control.
* The OPC Client has an Overruns field in the Power Tool at the
driver, server, group, and item statistics level. You
can use this field as a troubleshooting tool to assist in
optimization. The presence of overruns do not necessarily
indicate a problem. Any of the following conditions can cause
overruns:
* Bandwidth saturation on your network.
* Turnaround delays in the PLC.
* Overflowing message queues in the process hardware.
Please refer to the OPC Client Help for more information on
overruns. You can find information on overruns by displaying
the driver statistics in the Power Tool, selecting the Overruns
field, and pressing the F1 key.
* Do not install or uninstall a new version of the OPC Client
while an old version is running. Always stop and exit the driver
before installing or uninstalling new version of the OPC Client.
C. KNOWN ISSUES
The OPC Client driver has the following known issues:
* Analog Register and Digital Register blocks in iFIX databases do not
support exception-based processing. In addition, the OPC Client does
not support using the Text block with exception-based processing.
* The OPC Client does not support exception-based processing for
database blocks that reference items configured as data arrays.
* Do not overlap data arrays when using RS-Linx v2.3 or greater. If you do
overlap arrays, modification of arrays element may change elements
that you do not intend to overwrite. Consequently, we recommend if
you require data arrays to overlap, use RS-Linx v2.2.
* If you shut down iFIX before shutting down the OPC Client Power Tool,
you will not be able to restart iFIX. Shut down the OPC Client
Power Tool before restarting iFIX.
D. TROUBLESHOOTING
Only use the OPC Client server window for troubleshooting.
When you are not debugging a problem, disable all debug messages and
close the server window. Leaving debug messages enabled or leaving
the OPC Client server window open degrades driver performance.
If you experience difficulty installing the OPC Client, refer to
the following sections for information on how to resolve the
problem.
D.1 AUTOMATICALLY STARTING THE OPC CLIENT
When you install the OPC Client, the installation program creates
a driver configuration file called nodename.OPC. FIX uses this
file when you automatically start the server. If you subsequently
change the name of your SCADA server after installing the OPC
server, FIX cannot automatically start the server because the name
of the node does not match the name of the configuration file. To
correct this, rename the configuration file to match the name of
your SCADA server. For example, if you change the name of the
SCADA server from SCADA1 to SCADA9, rename the configuration file
from SCADA1.OPC to SCADA9.OPC.
D.2 USING LICENSING SOFTWARE
You must use the latest GE Fanuc Licensing software to avoid problems
with key checking when the OPC Client launches an GE Fanuc OPC Server.
The GE Fanuc Licensing software is available from the GE
Fanuc support web site at http://globalcare.gefanuc.com.