Release Notes
For each major and minor release, PlantStar Panorama has release notes.These release notes include:
| · | new features within the current version
|
| · | bug fixes
|
| · | known problems
|
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V E R S I O N 4 . 2 0
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V4.20 Installation
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PlantStar Panorama v4.20 can be installed as a new system or as an upgrade to PlantStar Panorama
v4.10 or later. Data compatibility with earlier systems requires the host
computer be upgraded to PlantStar Panorama v4.10 prior to installation of v4.20 as a
maintenance release.
NOTE: For those users that have installed Windows 2000, or XP the operating
system login MUST be set to have administrative privileges in order to install
ANY PlantStar Panorama client programs. In addition, we have a known issue in regards
to .dll registration on some systems that require the administrator account to run
the client software and open all screens at least once to insure proper .dll
registration. This issue is under investigation and a methodology is being
prepared to eliminate this inconvenience in the future.
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V4.20 New Features
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Browser - Process Journaling
This interface allows operators and shop floor people to record problems and corrective actions.
DCM - Flash Drives
The rtl based data collection modules now come in a diskless version. This feature uses flash memory cards instead of a harddrive.
DCM - Journaling File System
This new file system will automatically restore itself to it's previous state in the event of an uncontrolled shutdown.
Host - E-mail
We have added a new feature to our host that allows us to send e-mails from any program running on the server.
Host - Import/Export
We now provide multiple machine specific standards to be imported in any one import file. Our end-of-shift export utility can now notify you of any machines that have failed to report the end-of-shift event. Our export utility can now be set to perform an incremental export.
Automated Archiving -
The archiver program can be set-up to automatically store data over a given interval at a specified time.
Labor Required Displayed on the Schedule Board -
The total labor hours required for a given shift can be displayed on the job schedule board. This option can be enabled from the User Preferences screen in the Monitor program.
Maco 6000 Host Interface -
This protocol uses 485 based serial communication to collect process data direct from the Maco 6000 controller.
International Support -
The date, currency, and decimal numeric fields used for input and display in all PlantStar Panorama monitor screens and reports now use the locale settings that have been configured in Windows control panel.
Crystal Reports v11.0 -
All PlantStar Panorama reports have been updated to the latest version of Crystal Reports.
Voice Program -
PlantStar Panorama's voice program has been modified to eliminate delays in making announcements. Now when any event occurs that requires a voice announcement, the response will be immediate.
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V4.20 Bug Fixes
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No bugs have been reported since the release of 4.10r11.
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V4.20 Features No Longer Supported
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As of 4.20 PlantStar Panorama will no longer support the os9 style mcims. This includes EL/TS,
keypads, and REU units. If you have these style units then the hardware will need to
be upgraded before 4.20 can be applied to your system. Contact you sales representative
for further information.
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V E R S I O N 4 . 1 0 r 11
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V4.10r11 Installation
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PlantStar Panorama v4.10r11 has been released as a minor revision to make feature
enhancements and bug fixes available to PlantStar Panorama customers.
The upgrade path is the same as v4.10 in that a customer must be at v4.00
before upgrading to this version.
NOTE: For those users that have installed Windows NT, 2000, or XP the operating
system login MUST be set to have administrative privileges in order to install
ANY PlantStar Panorama client programs. In addition, we have a known issue in regards
to .dll registration on some systems that require the administrator account to run
the client software and open all screens at least once to insure proper .dll
registration. This issue is under investigation and a methodology is being
prepared to eliminate this inconvenience in the future.
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V4.10r11 New Features
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Monitor - Job Schedule Board
The job schedule board's search functionality has been expanded to search on all of the fields contained in the filter function. This allows for greater flexibility in searching for specific jobs with the schedule bard and work order list.
Monitor - Multiple Material Formula
For users with the multiple materials option, the work order/job material formula fields will allow up to 1 decimal place to be used.
Host - Backup
The maintenance backup will now optimize the database.
Host - Backup
The backup script will now disconnect any ODBC connections to the database before running. This eliminates deadlock and resource conflicts associated with backing up the PlantStar Panorama database. Any program that connects via ODBC will need to have it's connection re-established after the backup is complete. PlantStar Panorama recommends waiting at least 1 hour from the time backup starts until the ODBC program attempts to reconnect.
Host - Import
Work order import has an option added that prevents the current job from being modified.
Product standard import now allows more than 2600 product standards to be imported at any one time. It now allows the importation of multiple machine specific product standards.
Host - Export
Production export now has an option to eliminate a parent record of a family job from the export if it's data is not related to production.
DCM - Shot Tracker
A cycle logging option has been created that will timestamp and log information from the dcm for each cycle. This data is being placed into a .csv file to ease importation into most pc based spreadsheet and/or database programs. The logging files are located on the dcm's harddrive and named with the following convention, machine_name_day_shiftID.csv. This convention allows for the recording of data for the previous week to remain on the harddrive. Users can use an ftp client, or other related program to retrieve these files from the dcm's harddrive for importation and review.
DCM - Xtreem interface
An interface to the Cincinnati-Milacron Xtreem controller has been added to our already extensive collection of machine interfaces. This interface requires a Windows based pc to proxy the data between the machine controller and the PlantStar Panorama dcm. This was due to the fact that Cincinnati-Milacron uses a Windows based Active-X control to access it's Xtreem controller.
DCM - OPC client
An OPC client has been added to collect process variables from OPC compliant machine controllers and auxiliary devices. The OPC client requires a Windows based pc to proxy the data between the OPC Server and the PlantStar Panorama dcm.
Browser - Job Update screen
In response to customer's requests the Job Update browser screen at the dcm now allows for the editing of the reject multiplier as well as the editing of the actual multiplier. This gives the user one screen to adjust the cavitation of the mold in the event of a cavity no longer being used.
Browser - Reject Screen
The reject browser screen has been modified so that weights of less than 1 can be entered when rejecting parts based on their part weight instead of by part count.
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V4.10r11 Bug Fixes
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Monitor - General
An error that allowed for multiple pop-up message windows to be displayed and causing a run-time error #400 to occur has been corrected.
Monitor - Tool Change
Material Forecast
An error opening the tool change or material forecast screens when more than 200 records are being displayed has been corrected.
Monitor - OEE
The down time was being used both in the availability and productivity portions of the OEE calculation resulting in a double adjustment when a machine was down. Down time has been removed from the performance factor in calculating OEE.
Monitor - Job Schedule Board
Many non-critical errors in the schedule board were being ignored by the program causing unexpected results. These errors will now be reported by a pop-up window when encountered. If this occurs a screen capture should be taken and forwarded to PlantStar Panorama customer support so that the underlying cause can be determined and corrected.
Monitor - Work Order
An invalid default required by date has been fixed.
Host - Product Standard Import
A fix has been made to properly update or insert machine specific portions of the product standard when imported.
A problem associated with fixed length fields when parsing an import file has been corrected.
Host - Work Order Import
During import disabled machines are no longer checked when attempting to find matching jobs in the current job or queued jobs.
A problem associated with fixed length fields when parsing an import file has been corrected.
DCM - General
A memory corruption of the job queue has been found and corrected. This bug was related to unexpected/missing rejects being displayed and as the next job on the Job Summary browser page displaying a large number of "ÿÿÿ" characters.
DCM - RIO2 Driver
The driver for the RIO2 analog card has been rewritten to correctly reload the card with the proper gain and offset settings if a communication error occurs. This was seen by users as erroneous data being captured for analog process variables and as a flattening of the profile curves. In addition, an error displaying a spike in the first reading of the profile has been corrected.
DCM - Tote Count
The tote count field is now saved so that the count can be recovered in the event of a power loss or a cold start of the dcm.
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V4.10 Installation
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PlantStar Panorama v4.10 can be installed as a new system or as an upgrade to PlantStar Panorama
v4.00 or later. Data compatibility with earlier systems requires the host
computer be upgraded to PlantStar Panorama v4.00 prior to installation of v4.10 as a
maintenance release.
NOTE: For those users that have installed Windows NT, 2000, or XP the operating
system login MUST be set to have administrative privileges in order for that
workstation to install and run the View and Print Application.
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V4.10 New Features
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General
Although there have been a number of minor changes, the focus of V4.10 is Family
Tooling and Labor Tracking.
Family Tooling is designed to allow the collection and tracking of data by child
tool. Management will receive a much more detailed picture of production,
rejects, history, and pieces made for each family tool. Family Tooling allows up
to twelve child jobs running, at one time, on a machine.
Labor tracking is designed to forecast, collect, and report labor hours by
machine, job, shift, or employee. Labor is collected and tracked by personnel
logging in and out at a DCM. The same person or people can be logged onto one
or many machines at the same time depending on the work being done. For these
reasons, it is not a time and attendance system. It will provide a window to
where and how labor is used on the shop floor. Management will receive a much
more detailed picture of the time spent on setup, maintenance, idle time, wait
time and other assigned labor categories. It can also report time spent, at the
machine, by support personnel. As a job history is developed the job history
labor reports can be used to forecast staffing requirements on a shift or weekly
basis.
Monitor - Machine Status
Machine Status displays all of the child jobs on a rotating basis. The child job
displayed will start at the first child job and rotate to the next child job,
with each end of cycle. All data displayed, in the machine cell, would be for
the current child job. If no child jobs are found, the data displayed would not
rotate. It would always display the parent jobs information. The machine cell
would turn cyan if the current child job was in production exception.
Monitor - Production Summary
Production summary displays one line of summary for each child job. If child
jobs are not present, the data displayed is based on the parent job.
Monitor - Material Usage
The pieces to go displayed is a summary of all the child jobs. If child jobs are
not present, the data displayed is based on the parent job.
Monitor - Job Summary
A drop down has been added underneath machine for selecting child jobs. Job data
displayed is a summary for the child job selected. If no child job is present,
the child drop down displays "No Family Data Defined" and the data displayed is
based on the parent job.
Monitor - Reject Pareto-Pie
A drop down has been added underneath machine for selecting child jobs. Reject
data displayed is a summary for the child job selected. If no child job is
present, the child drop down displays "No Family Data Defined" and the data
displayed is based on the parent job.
Monitor - Job Schedule Board
The schedule bars now represent the length of time for the child that will take
the longest time to complete. If the job is a non-family job, the calculations
are based on the parent job. Job Summary displays the pieces to go for each
child job. A set of "Child Jobs" tabs were added to the Job Parameter Editor.
The Job Parameter Editor allows the editing of jobs opened from the Job Schedule
Board. Added the ability to assign a labor category and manning to each job.
Manning factor is the number of man hours needed to complete the job for the
selected labor category. These can be entered into a job by selecting the new
labor button at the top of the job parameters screen.
Monitor - Edit Current Job
"Child Jobs" tabs added for the editing of child jobs. Reformatted screen for
enhanced usability. Moved machine parameters onto their own grid. Now allows
the editing of queue jobs as well as current jobs. Added the ability to assign a
labor category and manning factors to each job. Added a new field "Idle". This
is a field that allows for setting of a jobs idle state from the PC Client.
Monitor - Edit Work Order
"Child Jobs" tabs added for the editing of child jobs. Reformatted screen for
enhanced usability. Moved machine parameters onto their own grid. Added the
ability to assign a labor category and manning to each job. Added a new field
"Idle". This is a field that allows for setting of a jobs idle state from the
PC Client.
Monitor - Edit Product Standard
"Child Jobs" tabs added for the editing of child jobs. Reformatted screen for
enhanced usability. Moved machine job parameters onto their own grid . Added
Add/Delete child buttons for the adding/removal of child records from a product
standard. NOTE: Child records can only be added or removed from a product
standard. The number of child records cannot be changed once created as a Work
Order, Job Queue, or Current Job. Added a product standard list that displays
all of the product standards on the left hand side of the screen. This allows
for easier navigation among product standards. Enhanced the search performance
for product standards. Product Standard searches can now be done in a much
shorter period of time. Added the ability to assign a labor category and manning
to each job. Added a new field "Idle". This is a field that allows for setting
of a jobs idle state from the PC Client.
Monitor - Tool Change
Pieces to Go and Estimated Completion Time are based on the child job that will
take the longest time to complete. If the job is a non-family job, the
calculations are based on the parent job.
Monitor - Historical Reject Pareto Pie
A drop down has been added underneath machine for selecting child jobs. Reject
data displayed is a summary of the child job selected. If no child job is
present, the child drop down displays "No Family Data Defined" and the data
displayed is based on the parent job.
Monitor - Part Count Edit
A drop down has been added underneath machine for selecting child jobs. Part
count data displayed is a summary of the child job selected. If no child job is
present, the child drop down displays "No Family Data Defined" and the data
displayed is based on the parent job.
Monitor - Material Lot Tracking
Material Lot Tracking has been modified to show tote part and tote totals for
each child job.
Monitor - Labor Status
Labor Status is a new screen that allows the viewing of current employees logged
in. Selecting a work center from the drop down, in the upper left hand corner,
will fill the grid with a list of current employees logged in, for the selected
work center. The grid displays the employees name, machine, labor category,
login date, login time, and hours worked. An additional feature of the labor
status screen is the ability to logout an employee. To logout an employee, use
the mouse to select the employee from the grid and click the logout button at
the bottom.
Monitor - Labor Forecast
Labor Status is a new screen that displays the calculated man-hours needed per
shift. The calculations are based off the manning factors assigned to the job
scheduled to run, in the selected time frame. The Labor Forecasting screen is
split into two views: Grid View and Graph View. The Grid View displays one cell
for each shift and labor category. For a given shift and labor category the cell
displays the required manning factor. The Graph View graphs the man hours
required for a given labor category. There is one point on the graph for each
shift in the selected date range.
Monitor - Labor History
Labor History is another new screen that allows the viewing, modification, and
deletion of labor records for shifts that have already completed. Labor history
records are by work center, machine, job, and shift. These are selected from
drop downs at the top of the screen. Once a valid selection has been made, the
grid will display the employee records for the selection. The grid displays the
employee name, labor category, date/time logged in, date/time logged out, down
time, reject count, and part count. All fields can be edited, except for
employee name. To delete an employee record, select the delete check box, in
the grid, on the desired record. Changes are not save until the <Save> button
has been selected. To disregard changes, select the <Restore> button.
Configuration - DCM Configuration
A new field was added to DCM Configuration called "Max. Family Size". This
allows the modification of the maximum number of child jobs allowed running on a
machine, at the same time. The range is from 1 to 12. Also, a new field was
added to show memory used with current configuration. This modification will
limit saving of data to data that does not exceed installed memory of the DCM.
The calculations for memory use do not include bin sets. Memory overrun may
still occur if the bin set used is very large.
Configuration - Labor Configuration
The Work Center screen was updated. A tabbed grid control was added to allow for
the entry of Labor category and employee information. Note clicking on the
command buttons on the bottom of this screen affects the work center not the
individual employees or labor categories. (ie. New, Delete, Restore, etc.) Also,
the DCM set-up screen was updated. A tabbed grid control was added to aid in the
setting up of DCMs correctly. A tab for COM port setup was added as well as a
tab to allow for editing contact inputs. Modifications to the DCM set-up screen
were also made to enhance error correction in the configuration process.
View & Print Reports
All reports now support family tooling. Reports display totals based on both
parent and child information.
New Labor Reports:
1. Labor by Job--Labor history by job. Selection by job and job ending date
range
2. Labor by Shift--Labor history by shift. Selection by display group and shift
starting date range.
3. Labor Definitions--Labor category and employee definitions for all work
centers.
Host - Import
All import programs now support the new field "Family Name". "Family Name"
should be assigned to each family set of records to distinguish them as a
family. Also, the "Family Name" should be the job name of the parent record.
"Family Name" must be included in import files that wish to import family jobs.
Also, all import programs now support the new field "manning factor", as it
applies to jobs. Added a new employee import program to import employees
definitions.
Host - Export
All import programs now support the new field "manning factor", as it applies to
jobs. Job Que export will export manning factors and labor categories also will
export labor history for all valid end-of-shift, as it exports data for shift
history. For this 115 has to be specified with -f option(as we specify 111 for
exporting shift history data)
DCM - RTL
The DCM-RTL now has the ability to view and track each individual child tool
production. Also, the DCM-RTL now has a popup display for entry and viewing of
Labor related data (Login, Logout, etc.). The DCM-RTL can also obtain
login/logout data from a barcode scanner.
DCM EL Menu
Also, the EL DCM's now has a popup display for entry and viewing of Labor
related data (Login, Logout, etc.). The DCM-RTL can also obtain login/logout
data from a barcode scanner.
Browser - Job Summary screen
Defaults to showing a family view of a job. This view gives a summary display of
each child in the family with color details. Added button to allow selection of
a specific child to view its details.
Browser - Job Update
For family jobs a new button was added to select each child. When child is
displayed you can modify its actual multiplier.
Browser - Reject Update
Button was added to select individual children. When selected each child's
rejected parts can be modified. The reject numbers are now entered through 2
dropdowm menus instead of a keypad, works similar to the Job Update screen. This
allows for greater compatibility with various browser software.
Browser - Job Summary, Machine Summary and Job Queue
Pieces required displayed in a job summary format will display 'Family' for all
family jobs.
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V4.10 Bug Fixes
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Browser Job Summary
Job Summary was modified to show number of parts in red when job or child in
overrun. Reject percent displays in red when percent of rejects exceeds limits.
Browser Job Setup
Job Setup was modified to allow for more than 80 columns in a single line.
Embedded links now work correctly when a 'T' is placed within the link.
Browser - Down, Assist, Reject
Button text was modified to improve alignment and consistency with previous
versions.
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V4.10 Notes
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Monitor - Job Summary
Job Summary does not changes to previous shift automatically. For example, if
you entered reject parts into Part Count Editor, your changes would not be
displayed until you press the "Build" button at the bottom. All changes to the
current shift are updated by Job Summary automatically, without a screen
rebuild.
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V4.10 Features No Longer Supported
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DCM Keypad and EL Menu
Keypad and EL Menu's do not support family tooling jobs.
Host - Reports
Host Reports are no longer supported.
REU
REU are not supported in this release.
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V4.05 Installation
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PlantStar Panorama v4.05 can be installed as a new system or as an upgrade to PlantStar Panorama
v4.02. Data compatibility with earlier systems requires the host computer be
upgraded to PlantStar Panorama v4.00 prior to installation of v4.02 as a maintenance
release.
This upgrade uses a method to significantly lower the impact on shop floor data
collection in larger systems. The older v4.00 - v4.02 software is compatible
enough with the new v4.05 system that data collection can continue on the shop
floor during the upgrade. The last step of the upgrade is to reload each DCM in
turn with the new software. Overall this may take several hours but it results
in each DCM loosing only 5 minutes of data collection time. No backups, job
schedule changes or shift schedule changes should be made during this process.
The low impact method will not be available on all future upgrades but will be
used whenever possible.
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V4.05 New Features
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General
Although there have been a number of minor changes the focus of V4.05 is labor
tracking and management. Labor tracking is designed to forecast, collect, and
report labor hours by machine, job, shift, or employee. Labor is collected and
tracked by personnel logging in and out at a DCM. The same person or people and
be logged onto one or many machines at the same time depending on the work being
done. For these reasons, it is not a time and attendance system. It will
provide a window to where and how labor is used on the shop floor. Management
will receive a much more detailed picture of the time spent on setup,
maintenance, idle time, wait time and other assigned labor categories. It can
also report time spent at the machine support personnel. As a job history is
developed the job history labor reports can be used to forecast staffing
requirements on a shift or weekly basis.
Client - Labor Scheduling
Added the ability to assign a labor category and manning to each job. Manning
factor is the number of man hours needed to complete the job for the selected
labor category. These can be entered into a job by selecting the new labor
button at the top of the job parameters screen.
Client - Labor Status
Labor Status is a new screen that allows the viewing of current employees logged
in. Selecting a work center from the drop down, in the upper left hand corner,
will fill the grid with a list of current employees logged in, for the selected
work center. The grid displays the employees name, machine, labor category,
login date, login time, and hours worked. An additional feature of the labor
status screen is the ability to logout an employee. To logout an employee, use
the mouse to select the employee from the grid and click the logout button at
the bottom.
Client - Labor History
Labor History is another new screen that allows the viewing, modification, and
deletion of labor records for shifts that have already completed. Labor history
records are by work center, machine, job, and shift. These are selected from
drop downs at the top of the screen. Once a valid selection has been made, the
grid will display the employee records for the selection. The grid displays the
employee name, labor category, date/time logged in, date/time logged out, down
time, reject count, and part count. All fields can be edited, except for
employee name. To delete an employee record, select the delete check box, in
the grid, on the desired record. Changes are not save until the <Save> button
has been selected. To back out changes, select the <Restore> button.
Client - Labor Configuration
The Work Center screen was updated. A tabbed grid control was added to allow for
the entry of Labor category and employee information. Note clicking on the
command buttons on the bottom of this screen affects the work center not the
individual employees or labor categories. (ie. New, Delete, Restore, etc.) Also,
the DCM set-up screen was updated. A tabbed grid control was added to aid in the
setting up of DCMs correctly. A tab for COM port setup was added as well as a
tab to allow for editing contact inputs. Modifications to the DCM set-up screen
were also made to enhance error correction in the configuration process.
Client - View & Print Reports
New Reports:
1. Labor by Job--Labor history by job. Selection by job and job ending date
range
2. Labor by Shift--Labor history by shift. Selection by display group and shift
starting date range.
3. Labor Definitions--Labor category and employee definitions for all work
centers.
Host - Import
All import programs now support the new field "manning factor", as it applies to
jobs. Added a new employee import program to import employees definitions.
Host - Export
All import programs now support the new field "manning factor", as it applies to
jobs. Job Queue export will export manning factors and labor categories also
will export labor history for all valid end-of-shift, as it exports data for
shift history. For this 115 has to be specified with -f option(as we specify 111
for exporting shift history data)
Host - Reports
The labor definitions(Labor Category, Forecast Type, Auto Logout, Multiple
Login, Labor Cost) are shown for all the work centers in host full-reports. The
manning factor for each labor category is shown for all the jobs in the host
full-reports.(Manning factor is reported only when it is greater than Zero).The
summary reports remain as before.
Host - Archiving
The archive utility will now support archiving to a CD-R, CD-RW, or a external
file.
DCM - EL & LCD
The DCM-EL and DCM-LCD now have a display screen for entering and viewing Labor
data. This screen allows login/logout and viewing the current workforce on a
machine by machine basis. The DCMs also support login/logout using a barcode
scanner.
DCM - RTL
The DCM-RTL is capable of serving web-pages containing it's job data to any
client PC running a standard browser. The data shown on the DCM-RTL is available
for viewing nearly anywhere. Along with this comes the ability (on the 12" RTL-
DCM) to place links in the Job Setup Sheet that point to web-based data of any
kind (Documents, pictures, video, etc). The DCM-RTL now has a popup display for
entry and viewing of Labor related data (Login, Logout, etc). The DCM-RTL can
also obtain login/logout data from a barcode scanner.
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V4.05 Bug Fixes
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Client - View & Print Reports
The Current Job Parameters Summary Report and the Job Queue Job Parameters
Summary Report were corrected for a problem of printing multiple rows of the
same data for machines defined in multiple display groups.
Host - Work Order Import
Fixed a problem with the work order import where it would occasionally create
duplicate work order for records that were not in the system.
Host - Archiving
The archive utility would exit with errors when it encountered incomplete job
data. The utility has been made more robust to handle missing or unexpected SPC,
shift, tote, and material lot records.
DCM
Setup sheets for the current job or next job were sometimes not available for
viewing at the DCM. The DCM would ignore auto-reject inputs on a net parts job
if the rejects would cause the shrinkage category to go negative. This is now
permitted to better handle the resets which occur at job and shift change.
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V4.05 Known Problems
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Archiving
The archive utility will not export labor history. Also, there is a limitation
to archiving the first 2000 records for each record type (e.g. spc, material
tracking, tote snap shots) that are associated with a job. The remaining
records will not be archived and will remain in the database.
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V4.02 Installation
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PlantStar Panorama v4.02 can be installed as a new system or as an upgrade to PlantStar Panorama
v4.00 or v4.01. Data compatibility with earlier systems requires the host
computer be upgraded to PlantStar Panorama v4.00 prior to installation of v4.02 as a
maintenance release.
This upgrade uses a new method to significantly lower the impact on shop floor
data collection in larger systems. The older v4.00/4.01 software is compatible
enough with the new v4.02 system that data collection can continue on the shop
floor during the upgrade. The last step of the upgrade is to reload each DCM in
turn with the new software. Overall this may take several hours but it results
in each DCM loosing only 5 minutes of data collection time. No backups, job
schedule changes or shift schedule changes should be made during this process.
The low impact method will not be available on all future upgrades but will be
used whenever possible.
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V4.02 New Features
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General
A completely updated edition of the Spanish language translations for the client
PC, DCM, and host reports has been incorporated.
Installation of the client software, including View & Print, on Windows 2000 and
Windows Millennium Edition has been tested and is now supported.
The Screen Shot utility will no longer be distributed or supported. If you
already have Screen Shot installed from a previous release, you may continue to
use it for as long as it works in your environment. For new PC's we recommend
getting one of the many shareware or commercial screen printing products.
ClipTrakker (www.cliptrakker.com) is a full featured shareware program.
PrintScreen32 (www.surf.to/provtech) is a bare bones screen printing program.
SnapShot (v2.02) systems have been enhanced to support licensing of up to 8
users and 50 machines. Also SnapShot now supports a wider variety of DCM
hardware.
When forecasting the completion or duration of a queued job the PlantStar Panorama
algorithms now use actual multiplier instead of standard multiplier to estimate
the production rate. This allows scheduling personnel to account for a known
condition that will prevent all cavities in a mold from being used.
Job Scheduler
The "justify all" button has been changed to toggle left and right like the
"justify 1" has always done.
The 4 user text fields have been added to the job summary popup window.
Machine Status Display
The machine status display now uses larger fonts in the machine status blocks
when showing only the machine name. This was done to make large display screens
on the plant floor easier to read from a distance.
Import / Export
A special utility has been developed for sending PlantStar Panorama production data to
the Data Technical Research (DTR) TMM business system. This is an optional
utility which is available for a licensing fee.
A new command line option (-a) has been added to the work order import utility
(woimp). When this option is used only new work orders processed from the import
file. Any existing work orders (either running, queued, or unscheduled) will not
be updated. This option can be helpful when there are a lot of suspended jobs
(where the pieces required get changed to pieces remaining) and change orders to
outstanding jobs are infrequent.
Another command line option (-u) has been added to the work order import utility
(woimp). This option is used when importing job queues to specific machines and
queue positions. When this option is used and the specified queue position for a
job is zero, the current job on the associated machine will be stopped and the
new, imported job will be started as the current job. This option should be used
with caution. In most cases the work order import is run automatically once per
day. New jobs will be started at the DCM as per the import file regardless of
what product is actually running at the machine. In nearly all cases it is best
for the operator to do routine job changes at the machine to confirm what the
machine is actually doing.
DCM
The new color touchscreen DCM-RTL has been fully integrated for production
tracking into the basic operation of the system. Many additional features and
improvements will be developed over the coming months.
On the DCM-RTL-10 and DCM-RTL-12 the touchscreen calibration item under the
"diag" menu is now available to update touchscreen calibrations.
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V4.02 Bug Fixes
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General PC Client
Some of the display screens, including Machine Utilization and Job Summary,
would be cut off when maximized at certain resolutions.
In V4.01 the Pieces To Go field on some workstation screens were incorrectly
changed to show 0 when the job was in overrun. These have been restored to show
the amount of overrun produced as a negative number.
Server Reports
Machines were occasionally reported missing off end-of-shift production reports.
This only applied to the server-generated text reports (not to View & Print
reports).
The Shop Floor Reports program would exit with an error when attempting to
generate a detailed product standards report.
View & Print Reports
View & Print would exit with run time error 6 when an internal sequence number
got larger than was expected.
View & Print would exit with run time error 6 when automatic reports were still
scheduled after a display group had been deleted.
Import/Export
European date formats were not being handled correctly on the work order import
utility.
*********************************************************
The work order import utility had several problems relating to the use of the
clear-and-replace (-c) option. The behavior of this feature was changed enough
that the original lower case option (-c) was changed to an upper case letter (-
C). This was done to force all installations using clear-and-replace to inspect
and re-evaluate how the option works in their environment.
*********************************************************
It was discovered that the work order import utility would not always match the
correct machine specific details when filling out an imported work order.
Job Scheduling
The job queue estimation program, which updates estimated completion times for
export purposes, had several related problems which kept it from generating
accurate and timely estimates under certain conditions.
The Job Schedule Board would sometimes not refresh itself correctly after
committing changes to the schedule. All changes would have been saved correctly
and upon exiting and re-entering the schedule board everything would appear
normal.
In the Job Schedule Board the length of individual job bars would not always
change length when the time scale was changed.
A problem was fixed which would occasionally allow a hidden space character to
be included at the beginning of the job name. This would cause errors when the
job parameters were exported to other computers at the end-of-shift.
In the various screens where job parameters could be edited there was a problem
with values from one field being transferred to another field when the job was
saved. This most often with the material name field where the word "Yes" would
overwrite the material name or the material name would overwrite another field.
Voice
Several customers have had problems with portions of their voice announcements
not playing. This problem turned out to be an incompatibility between wave file
formats as PC sound has evolved from 8- to 16- and 32-bit sound cards. Wave
files recorded with more recent sound card drivers cannot be merged with older
files. This problem has been solved by playing each file separately in sequence
rather than trying to merge them into one continuous file for playing. Newer
workstations are fast enough to handle this without pause. There is one other
side-effect which some customers may experience. Wave files recorded with
different hardware and drivers often play back at different volumes. Some may
find that portions of an announcement are too loud or too quiet compared to the
rest. The only remedy for this is to re-record the entire announcement set using
the same hardware and sound drivers.
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V4.02 Known Problems
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A last minute problem was found in the job schedule board when a large number of
jobs are placed in the queue of a single machine. The normal limit is 100 jobs
per machine on the job schedule board. However, a fatal exception would occur in
the program before this limit was reached. As a temporary patch for v4.02 the
limit has been reduced to 75 jobs per machine. This problem will be corrected
and the limit restored to 100 in the next release.
Under as yet undetermined conditions some of the process thresholds on a job can
be set to 0. This can happen to thresholds that were set for alarm as well as
ones that had no limit set. The cause of this problem is still under
investigation.
All events which occur at the DCM are logged and show up in the DCM machine log
display as they should. But sometimes a few of them do not get transferred to
the server database and hence do not show up on workstation displays. The cause
of this problem is still under investigation.
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V E R S I O N 4 . 0 1
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V4.01 Installation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PlantStar Panorama v4.01 can be installed as a new system or as an upgrade to PlantStar Panorama
v4.00. Data compatibility with earlier systems requires the host computer be
upgraded to PlantStar Panorama v4.00 prior to installation as a maintenance release.
Since the DCM cold end offset between isolated and non-isolated A/D converter
has been standardized, users with the isolated A/D cards that upgrade from v4.00
to v4.01 will require the corresponding hardware modification to their isolated
A/D cards.
View & Print and Design Manager have been upgraded to support Crystal Reports
7.0. Since some of the functionality has been dropped, Crystal Reports 6.0 can
not supported. It is recommended that users of Design Manager should upgrade all
their custom report templates to avoid any adverse affects.
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V4.01 New Features
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Job Scheduler
Reload button has confirmation prompt prior to discarding changes and reloading
schedule.
View & Print
Now allows multi-select on criteria. Added work center and display group
criteria for selection of machines. Date criteria dialog boxes now default to
current date. Templates are reloaded from host when a report is run to allow
easier viewing of new templates.
Report Definitions
Standard reports templates have upload option as part of PC install program and
do not require reloading of Ingres or View & Print.
DCM
When the 'Down' menu is selected the DCM automatically jumps to the group of 20
down reasons which has the current selected down reason.
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V4.01 Bug Fixes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DCM
Blank down reasons at DCM after cold boot has been corrected.
Off-line DCM could cause a com failure on CP units. The host has been adjusted
to allow for this situation.
DCM cold end offset between isolated and non-isolated A/D converter has been
standardized. This upgrade coincides with a hardware change requirement to
isolated A/D cards.
If a machine is down at shift change the DCM display doesn't update to show the
piece counters reset to 0. This has been corrected so the display always updates
at shift change.
General PC Client
Machines that are idle and down will no longer show up on displays that are
filtering to view down machines.
"Version mismatch" when specifying INI file on command line has been fixed.
Saving a job as a product standard would give an invalid standard error on the
first try, then work on the second try. This has been fixed.
The shop floor monitor program was much slower than previous versions and had
noticeable hesitations when entering data. The program has been re-optimized to
increase speed and reduce hesitation.
The quick load option caused a "No jobs are scheduled for any machines" error
when opening the tool change screen.
The user definition window prompts to save changes on close even if the update
button was pressed.
The shop floor monitor would occasionally exit with "Run-time Error 5".
The vertical scroll bar on setup sheet edit windows was missing.
Some of the real-time display screens would immediately roll up the machine or
process selection list after it was dropped down, not allowing enough time to
select a different item.
The CAMAC-486/VSX pvar definition was expanded to allow a Convert Index of
between 0-79. Previously, it's maximum value was 29. Also, some annoying text
entry problems were cleaned up with that particular field.
Job Schedule Board
Job Schedule Board now displays machines in alphabetic order when selecting the
"<all Machine>" option.
Job Schedule Board has been improved for error recovery and number of work
orders.
Job Schedule Board shift patterns are displayed correctly after an idle period.
The Job Schedule Board dividing bar between work orders and machine schedule
would return to it's default setting after editing job parameters. Customer
setting will now be remembered.
Improvements in the Job Schedule Board were made to handle scheduling by
multiple personnel.
A 'required by' date in a prior year for which the shift schedule had been
deleted caused problems in Job Schedule Board. It displayed an error message
saying the "job will be scheduled in 1890". This has been fixed.
Resize handles were missing on the job summary popup window.
The title on the job list popup box was not showing the correct machine name.
When a work order was scheduled and then found in the job search dialog it would
still be listed as a work order instead of scheduled on a machine.
Job Schedule Board did not auto-scroll or smooth scroll.
A security hole has been corrected in the Job Schedule Board. A user with view-
only permission could change display groups and be prompted to commit changes.
View & Print
View & Print as well as the standard report templates have been extensively re-
worked to correct multiple report problems. This includes the handling of
suspended jobs and shift breaks.
View & Print will now allow database backup and maintenance to proceed without
interference.
Installation
Ingres can now run in install directory other than the default (C:\OPING).
Installation program will now retain monitor's user preferences during upgrade.
The free disk space checks during PC installation did not take into account
browsing to a different drive.
Voice
The voice application work center is preserved during upgrade installation.
The shortcuts created for the voice application in the Start menu do not have
the home folder as the working path. This causes a failure when looking for the
wave files. This problem has been fixed.
Backups
Communication problem on host computer after short backups have been resolved.
After a backup the host computer only ejects CD-R disks. Prior software also
ejected the CD-RW disks.
Archiver
The archiver program has been fixed for date range problem and Y2K issue where
every date was within the 6-month cutoff time.
The archiver program was getting fatal errors on material lot and tote box
history. This problem has been fixed.
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V4.01 Known Problems
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Screen Shot on Windows NT systems does not function when minimized or in the
background. To use with Windows NT, keep it normal size and visible on the
screen.
When View & Print displays a report on screen, printing of the report causes the
screen not to be re-painted when scrolling. This is a problem within Crystal
Report. Workaround is to view the report prior to printing.
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V E R S I O N 4 . 0 0
**************************************************************************************************
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V4.00 New Features
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General
PlantStar Panorama is now an entirely 32-bit application, and as a consequence will no
longer run under Windows 3.x. PlantStar Panorama relinquishes focus during long
operations (such as logging in) and allows the user to go to other open
applications and work until the process is done.
PlantStar Panorama is now multi-lingual (for the Monitor and Reports programs) and
supports English, French and German. At this time the Voice option and the Shop
Floor Configuration program are available only in English.
New Monitor Screen
Machine Utilization Summary
A new screen has been added under the monitor menu which displays a summary of
machine utilization for both a given date range and for any shifts started
within 24 hours of the start time for the last completed shift. Machine
utilization is defined as up time divided by the sum of up time, down time and
idle time. Scheduled utilization is a similar calculation, only idle time is
excluded. Thus it is derived by dividing the up time by the sum of the up time
and down time. The date range can be changed and the screen will be updated
when the Build button is pressed. The current machine state is also displayed
and updated in real time. A print button on this screen allows the summary to
be printed to a Windows printer. The machines displayed can be filtered by
display group, exception type, or by machine name.
Multilingual Monitor
INI file specification for language
The PlantStar Panorama Monitor now supports not only the English language, but French and
German as well. To accomplish this, the user can go to the "Preferences" screen
and choose the language that will be used by the monitor program. Simply
changing the "English" value to "French" or "German" will cause the PlantStar Panorama
program to reload those language definitions (if they are not already present)
the next time that the program starts up. The user will have to restart the
program once the language files have been loaded, as the program will be unable
to use most of the strings until it gets the definitions from the database.
After the restart, the new language should be intact. A message box will pop up
alerting the user of the need to restart the program after a language change.
DCMs
Idle job start from DCM
The operator is now able to start an idle job at the DCM (for such things as
scheduled maintenance). To enable this option, the machine must be setup in the
Shop Floor Configuration to allow this activity. Once enabled, the operator has
only to go to the "Queues" screen and press the "Start Idle Job" button. A
warning message will come up to make sure that this operation is the intended
one, and then the current job will be either suspended or ended (depending on
operator choice).
Utilities
Export programs now have AS/400 support
Both f2kexp and f2kjqexp now support the -r option, which will right justify all
non-text fields in the output. This was designed for customer that require
fixed numerical format from within a fixed-width formatted export. This feature
will not pad the numerical output with zeros, however. Also, any text field is
still left-justified.
A Note on older export templates
In one of the previous 2.3x versions, a new field was added to the database to
distinguish between varying types of exports. If you are using exports that
were written prior to PlantStar Panorama 2.30 or Portrait 1.00, you will need to contact
SYSCON Customer Service and have them update your export templates for you. If
you experience any problems with your imports or exports after the upgrade,
contact SYSCON Customer Service as soon as possible.
Multiple Logins
INI file specification via Command Line
PlantStar Panorama now supports running multiple copies of the monitor program
simultaneously. This allows users on WAN's to be logged in to multiple hosts
concurrently. For multiple host login, a new INI file should be created in the
WINDOWS directory for each host to be accessed remotely. Each of these INI
files should have the following entry placed into the "main" section:
multi_instance=yes
The multiple instance capability is OFF by default. Each new INI file should
also have its "hosts" entry set to the proper IP address or host name. To run
PlantStar Panorama for a remote host, the name of the proper INI file should then be
specified on the command line.
Add-On Features
New Custom Reports Option
A custom reports feature is now available within PlantStar Panorama. This new option
provides the ability to create custom reports using Seagate Crystal Reports 7.0
or 6.0 formats and share those reports among PlantStar Panorama workstations. This option
provides for a centralized location for all of your customized reports. This
feature augments the Standard Reports program.
Delta Type Process Variable
A new type of process variable has been introduced which allows one process
variable to represent the difference between two other process variables.
Monitor Quick-load Feature
Quick-load is a feature that bypasses some of the initialization for screens
that take quite some time to load, such as the Job Schedule Board and the
Machine Utilization Screen. If the "Enable Quick Load" option is selected in
the Monitor's "Preferences" screen, the following screens will load without any
information selected: Job Schedule Board, Machine Utilization and Tool Change.
To get them to calculate information, the user must select either a display
group, a work center, or a valid date range. These actions will cause the
respective form to reload their data.
Thermocouple Scale
A scale was added to the Thermocouple Process Variable configuration screen that
will account for a level shift on the thermocouple.
Print & View Refresh Button
A "Refresh" button was added to the report list screen to allow the user to
check for changes made via the Design Manager without logging out of Print &
View and reopening the application.
DCM Screen Saver Enable/Disable
There is now a selection on the DIAGS menu of the DCM/EL that will allow the
user to disable/enable the screen saver.
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V4.00 Bug Fixes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPC histories from ended jobs were showing 0 for the upper and lower spec limit
values. They had non-zero values when the job was current, but went to 0 (not
*) when the job ended. This has now been fixed, and all upper and lower limits
are retained after the job is committed to history.
The date format on the Machine Log screen has been changed to an internationally
ambiguous format, to account for overseas customers.
Editing a job by double-clicking it from the Schedule Board after scrolling to
the right one screen causes the shift legend to recalculate incorrectly. The
shift legend was that of the initial screen, not the current one. This has been
fixed.
When the time changes due to Daylight Savings Time, the REU's were not getting
updated with the new time. This has now been remedied.
The Work Order screen now automatically refreshes after a new work order is
saved, to eliminate the problem of a new work order overwriting the previously
selected work order if the Refresh button was not pressed.
The Process Summary screen now clears leftover color bars that were orphaned
when viewing a machine with fewer process variables than the previously viewed
machine, and that previous machine had some out-of-range values.
If a user creates a second work order by copying the previous work order, and
that previous work order was created from a product standard, and the user
changes the selected machine, they are asked if they would like the machine
portion overwritten from the product standard. However, instead of overwriting
the machine portion only, the entire work order is overwritten. This is no
longer the case. Only the machine-specific portion will get overwritten.
The backup.f2k script now handles command line typing errors in a more robust
manner. An error message is now output.
The free_check.sh script has been updated to properly monitor space on a 2-disk
system.
The work order import and product standard imports are now fully Y2K compliant.
The archiver program now only allows the user to archive data that is older than
6 months. This was to remedy a problem that was leaving partial job records in
the database, leading to inconsistent data. This also remedies a problem with
the archiver purging the entire history if the "jobs finishing prior to" date
was set to 01-01-2000.
When configuring an REU, pressing the "New" button clears all the fields,
instead of retaining the data from the previously defined REU.
All DCM programs now have adequate stack space, and all stack-related program
exits have been taken care of.
The user is now able to use the command button functionality of the main Monitor
window in the event that the "Host is not Available". Previously, only the
File->Exit option would allow the user to close the program.
The KP70 bin set now has the proper sequence number in the database.
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V4.00 Known Problems
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Currently it is possible to include SPC information for an individual job on a
machine that has an SPC History Size of 0. The Process Trend/SPC screen will
return a value of "No Data Available" and no SPC data will be returned, even
though it is asked for by the job parameters.
On Windows 95/98 when using a file server login scheme that overwrites the
AUTOEXEC.BAT file upon every successful login, the Ingres/Net Client will fail
to operate correctly. This is due to the fact that the Ingres/Net Client relies
on path statements put in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file at installation time. A
remedy can be accomplished by modifying the "main" AUTOEXEC.BAT file that gets
copied to every system. For Novell-specific fixes, please contact SYSCON-
PlantStar Panorama Customer Service for assistance.