Citect for Windows Version 5.21

Welcome to Citect Version 5.21 for Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT (Version 4).

What's New

See the What's New in the Online Help system for details of new features for this version. For a detailed listing of problems that have been fixed in this release, see Relnotes.doc (found in the Citect 'bin' directory).

 

Upgrading Issues

  • Dial-up I/O Devices

Changes have been made to the way Citect determines whether or not an I/O Device is a dial-up service. If you are upgrading from Version 5.20, you should check the I/O Devices form to ensure you don't have a phone number specified for devices you don't want to be used as a dial-up service.

With 5.21, there are now two different types of communications schedules:

  • Scheduled Dial-up or Remote I/O Devices
  • Scheduled local I/O Devices (eg local serial)

If you want to schedule communications for a local device, you only need to configure the desired schedule on the I/O Devices form. To define a device as dial-up, you should configure the Schedule, Phone Number and Caller ID for the device.

  • Modifying Citect.ini

The Citect Version 5.21 installation program will modify an existing Citect.ini file, instead of completely overwriting it. When Citect Version 5.21 is installed, any existing [DATA] and [USER] paths will remain unchanged.

Users upgrading projects are advised to check the [DATA] and [USER] paths after the installation.

  • All Projects must be Upgraded

Please refer to the Upgrade Information topic of the Online Help for version specific upgrade information.

If, after following the upgrade procedures outlined in the Online Help, you experience problems with your project, it is recommended that you perform a full compile of the project with incremental compile turned off.

  • Updating your Protection Key

Citect requires an update to the Protection Key used for Citect licensing. Upon starting Citect Runtime for the first time, you will be presented with a series of dialogs regarding the updating of your key. To update your Citect Protection Key, an Authorisation Code is required. To obtain this Authorisation Code, you should contact Citect Support or your Citect Distributor.

A program for updating your Citect Protection Key can also be found in the KeyUpdat directory of the Citect Version 5.21 CD.

Users upgrading to Citect Version 5.21 from Citect Version 5.20 are not required to update their Protection Key.

  • Year 2000 Compliance

A number of changes were made in Citect Version 5.20 and later as part of Citect Year 2000 Compliance. In general, these changes involved correcting minor bugs in relation to time and date based functionality. In some areas, however, these changes included modifying the default behaviour of Citect in relation to dates.

  • Cicode Time and Date functions have been designed to only function for dates between 01/01/1980 and 31/12/2035. In past versions of Citect, many functions would accept dates outside of this range, however, in Version 5.20 and above, the parameters passed to Time and Date Cicode functions are required to be within the above range. Two exceptions to this are the functions DateAdd() and DateSub(), which will continue to accept dates outside this range for backwards compatibility reasons.
  • The default for the [Keyboard]LogExtendedDate and [Alarm]ExtendedDate parameters have been changed to extended date format - dd/mm/yyyy - instead of dd/mm/yy. This means that in command logs and alarm displays, extended date format will be used by default, i.e. an extra 2 characters are used. You should check to see if you need to modify the date format of your command logs and alarm displays to accommodate these extra characters. This is done using the Format field in the Devices and Alarm Categories forms. The date format is set using {DATE: n}. If n=8, the last two digits of the date may not display in your command logs and alarm displays. You will need to change it to 10 or greater.
  • Genies can become corrupted when performing an update pages

It is possible for genies to contain invalid information when updated. This can cause problems such as message boxes asking for new tags to be added and compilation errors for genies which appear to have nothing wrong with them. Ci Technologies has confirmed this to be a problem in Citect for Windows versions 5.10 to 5.20. This problem has been fixed in version 5.21, however it is disabled by default.

Generally you will not encounter this problem, but if you find any of the above mentioned symptoms occurring, modify your citect.ini file as follows:

In the [CTDRAW.RSC] section add the following parameter,

PurgeGenieLists=1

After you have restarted the Graphics Builder, perform an Update Pages on all projects which use the genies.

  • Graphics Builder may be unable to launch following upgrade

If you install Citect version 5.21 over a previous version, Citect will automatically upgrade all your projects to ensure they are compatible with the new version. (The same process can be triggered at any time by manually setting the parameter [CTEDIT] Upgrade=1 in the CITECT.INI file.)

Citect will indicate its intention to upgrade all projects with the following dialog:

Project upgrade confirmation

When you select "Yes", the project upgrade process will commence, running simultaneously with the normal start up routine. This will not cause a problem in most cases, however, if you have a large number of projects to upgrade, the startup process for Graphics Builder may time-out because of the delay, and the following error message may appear:

Graphics Builder error

On clicking "OK", you are likely to find that Graphics Builder and Project Editor have launched, but that Citect Explorer has failed to open correctly and will not relaunch. This does not have any impact on the project upgrading process, so the solution simply involves restarting Citect Explorer.

To do this you will need to perform the following:

For Windows NT:

1) Launch Windows NT Task Manager by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL
2) Select the "Processes" tab
3) Click on CTEXPLOR.EXE, and hit the "End Process" button.
4) Go to Graphics Builder and Citect Editor and close both down using the Exit button in the top right hand corner.

For Windows 95 & 98:

1) Bring up the Close Program window by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL
2) Select the entry for Citect Explorer and hit the "End Task" button
3) Switch to the Graphics Builder and Citect Editor and close both down using the Exit button in the top right hand corner.

When you attempt to start Citect Explorer you should find that it will now launch and operate as normal.

 

The Following Known Problems Exist with this Version

  • Auto-Starting of the WinRT Service

Citect configures the WinRT service to automatically start when Windows NT boots up. This can cause communication problems for other software (e.g. - PLC software) which also uses hardware configured in Citect, e.g. - Allen Bradley KT cards with RSLogix. This problem can be worked around by manually stopping and starting the WinRT service inside Windows NT.

To do this,

1. Open the Control Panel in Windows NT.
2. Double Click on the Services icon.
3. Find the WinRT service in the list and click the Stop button.
4. Run your software.
5. Once your software is running, start the WinRT Service again to allow Citect to work.

 

· ODBC Error Messages

If you experience ODBC errors after installing Citect, you should manually verify the setup of the Data Source Names on your machine. This is done through the ODBC icon in Windows Control Panel. You should have the following System DSNs configured:

DSN Driver Options
Citect_DBF Microsoft dBase Driver Select dBase IV and Use Current Directory
Citect Server Citect Driver

NOTE: The Citect Server DSN is only required if you intend to use Citect as an ODBC Server.

 

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