Frequently Asked Questions 10
Miscellaneous Topics

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Topic#: 000981

InTouch

• What is the purpose of the Wonderware^® InTouch™ file, tagname.avl, and why does it have the .avl extension?
• Is there a way to suppress a "beep" sound generated by InTouch?
• I want to print a file from my InTouch application. How can I do this?
• Why can't I delete an SPC data set in InTouch version 6.0?
• How do I create a timer in InTouch?

Serial Server

• Why doesn't my Wonderware Serial server work with Microsoft Windows for Workgroups version 3.11?

MSD Report

• How do I generate a Microsoft System Diagnostic (MSD) Report to send to Wonderware Technical Support?

Dr. Watson Program

• How do I set up the Dr. Watson program so that it generates optimal reports when I have a General Protection Fault (GPF) on my system?
• When I get an application error, The Microsoft Developer Studio debugger is launched instead of Dr. Watson. How do I get Dr. Watson to start instead?

Script

• I want to know more about the InfoFile function in a script. What is the purpose of the Trigger?
• How do I toggle a Discrete Tag from a script?

Application Message Queue

• How do I increase the size of the Application Message Queue? What do I do if I get "Post of Terminate failed" messages?

Anti-theft Device

• Is there a vendor who can supply an anti-theft device for the Wonderware Hardware Keys?

InTouch

What is the purpose of the Wonderware InTouch file, tagname.avl, and why does it have the .avl extension?

The tagname.avl file contains a Height-Balanced Binary Search Tree, so that InTouch can quickly find out if a specific tagname exists in the application database and what the corresponding tag handle is.

Height-Balanced Binary Search Trees are called AVL trees after their Russian inventors, Adelson-Velskii and Landis.

I have a Wonderware InTouch application that generates a "beep" sound every time I click a dialog box to enter data. Is there a way to suppress this beep sound in my InTouch application?

1. Bring up your application in WindowMaker.
2. Select Special/Configure/View Generic.
3. Deselect the Beep when objects touched checkbox, in the View Generic Configuration dialog box, under Miscellaneous.

I want to print a file from my InTouch application. How can I do this?

You can use the FileCopy script function as in the following example:

status = FileCopy("c:\autoexec.bat","lpt2", Monitor.Name);

This prints the autoexec.bat file on printer LPT2 and uses the Integer tag Monitor as the DoneTag.

Note: You can also use the FilePrint function that is part of the Technical Support script function library which is available on the Wonderware Knowledge Base.

Why can't I delete an SPC data set in InTouch version 6.0?

If WindowViewer is running in the background (i.e., you switch from Runtime to Development), then the SPC data sets cannot be deleted. Exit WindowViewer before you delete an SPC data set.

How do I create a timer in InTouch?

1. Use a Condition script that references a Memory Discrete tag named Flag.
2. Then create an On True script that references a tag named Counter.
1. Set the Counter to zero, i.e., initialize the Counter.

3. Set the time, While True Every xxx msec, to the desired frequency.
• The While True script should increment the Counter tag every time the script runs.

4. When Counter is greater than a preset value, set a Memory Discrete tag called Trigger to one (1).

The following is an example of a Condition script:

Counter = Counter + 1;
IF Counter >= 5 THEN
Trigger = 1;
ENDIF;

Serial Server

Why doesn't my Wonderware Serial server work with Microsoft Windows for Workgroups version 3.11?

There is a problem using Windows for Workgroups (WFW) version 3.11 with the Wonderware TSRs and 16550 UART chips. WFW 3.11 turns the FIFOs on by default and this gives the Wonderware TSRs problems. Use the following switch in your system.ini file to solve the problem:

[386enh]
Com1FIFO=0

If the server failed due to this problem, then you must reboot your computer. The TSRs get locked and they must be reloaded to work properly.

MSD Report

How do I generate a Microsoft System Diagnostic (MSD) Report to send to Wonderware Technical Support?

1. Exit Microsoft Windows.
2. From the DOS prompt, enter the following line:

MSD /P REPORT.MSD

• This will run MSD and write a full report to the file, report.msd.

Dr. Watson Program

How do I set up the Dr. Watson program so that it generates optimal reports when I have a General Protection Fault (GPF) on my system?

In the [Dr. Watson] section of your win.ini file, enter the following lines:

ShowInfo=dis loc mod
DisStack=100

This will tell Dr. Watson to generate the information you need to assist Wonderware Technical Support if you have a GPF on your system.

When I get an application error, The Microsoft Developer Studio debugger is launched instead of Dr. Watson. How do I get Dr. Watson to start instead?

Open Microsoft Developer Studio and deselect the "just in time debugging" option.

Script

I want to know more about the InfoFile function in a script. If I want to know whether a file exists once a minute while I run a condition script, then what is the purpose of the Trigger? How do I use InfoFile if I want to run it during the script which is based on the Trigger? Can I see some examples?

There are two ways you can use InfoFile to see if a file exists each minute.

1. Create a Condition script for the condition as follows:

InfoFile ("MYFILE.TXT", 1, $Minute)

• Each minute the value of $Minute will change.
• This will cause the InfoFile expression to be re-executed.
• If the file exists, then the condition script is executed.

2. Create a While Running script that will run every 60,000 msec. Then, have a test condition in the body of this script:

IF InfoFile( "MYFILE.TXT", 1, 0) THEN
{SendKeys, etc....}
ENDIF;

In this example, the Trigger can equal any value and it will not be used in the body of script.