Point of View Productivity Series Part 3: Caveats from AutomationDirect

In the previous video we saw that Tag Integration is easy, you just export a csv file from the productivity Suite Project, and then tell Point of View where to find that file, which you would normally put in your Point of View project folder. There are a couple things you need to be aware of before using Tag integration, though. First, suppose you have an array of 500 elements in your Productivity 2000 project. If Point of view uses even one element of that array, the entire array goes against your tag count – in this example you will have just used 500 tags of your license. There are three ways around this. First, don’t make your Productivity 2000 arrays arbitrarily large – keep them as small as possible. Second, if Point of View only needs a small number of the array values, then consider copying those values to dedicated memory locations outside of the array and then use those tags in Point of View instead of the actual array values. It’s ok that the array is in the csv file, as long as Point of View doesn’t use any of the array values your tag count won’t take a hit. Finally, if you really need access to some of the array values or don’t have access to the controller software, then consider using Main Driver sheet to bring the array in. When you do it that way, Point of View only counts the array elements used, not the entire array. You can’t edit a tag that was imported using the Tag Integration method. What you import is what you get. If you need to change the tag, then you have to do it on the controller end and then export the tags again and then tell Point of View to use that new file. If you think you will need to change tags manually in point of view, then check out the next video on the Main Driver Sheet, it will show you how to do that.. You can’t scale a tag in Point of View that was brought in via Tag Integration. Again, the Main Driver Sheet for any tags you want to scale. If you accidentally delete or move the csv file so Point of View can’t find it, Point of View will DELETE all of the tags if you VERIFY the project or you select “Remove all unused tags” when you start the development software. In either case, all the integrated tags will be lost and you will have to start over. One way to help avoid this is to get in the habit of storing the CSV file in the project folder. And one general note – in the global view – you have the project specific tags – which we haven’t created any yet in this project – the built in system tags and the shared tags where you will find the tags the project is sharing with the Productivity series controller. This project is using these 5 productivity tags. If you want to see ALL of the Productivity Controller’s tags that are available to the project, then click on the object finder button which is under the home tab, over here. Black tags are being used by the project and count against the tag license you have. Gray tags are available to the project but they aren’t currently used anywhere in the project so they don’t count against your tag license. If you need any help, please call AutomationDirect’s Free, Award winning tech support during regular business hours – they will be happy to help. And don’t forget the forums – there are lots of folks there that love to share their years of experience. Just don’t post any questions directed at AutomationDirect’s support team there, they don’t monitor the forums on a regular basis.