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Alarm Help Export/Import

Hi All,

is it possible to import/export the Alarm Help details Only?

GeloCortez

14 Replies

  • iam5113
    Yes it is. You can perform a User Defined Import to selectively update most things inside logic modules (File\Import\User Defined in DeltaV Explorer).
    The only problem with that method is that you need to work with each different alarm type separately.
    This means that you will need to create a format specification file and an import file (of the changes) for each of the standard alarms (HI_HI_ALM, HI_ALM, LOW_ALM, LOLO_ALM, FAIL_ALM, DISC_ALM and PVBAD_ALM) as well as any non-standard/bespoke ones you have in your configuration. There are plenty of format specification files on the system that you can edit to get you started (also from the File menu in DeltaV Explorer).
    A quick way of establishing what alarms you have is to use the System Alarm Management Application, which is run from DeltaV Explorer\Applications. You have to decide what alarms you want to display and then it's possible to select them all and use the print to XML feature get them electronically in a file that you can import into Microsoft Excel.
    I know I haven't went into a lot of detail here, but to achieve what you're after, you will need to learn how to use the tools and applications mentioned above, which are all available in DeltaV Explorer.
    It also helps to be fairly competent with Microsoft Excel, as you can define everything in Excel and then create a text file with your changes.
    I appreciate this is a lot to take in, but I hope it points you in the right direction.
  • GeloCortez

    In reply to iam5113:

    Thanks for the response, i was able to export the alarm help details and import it back to the system using the bulk edit toolbar.

    but was not able to successfully import back to the system when I change the status of alarm help (enable/disable) in excel. any idea about this?
  • iam5113

    In reply to GeloCortez:

    I'll give one xample, but you need this for each alarm type. The parameter for enabling alarm help for a discrete alarm is called DISC_ALM.alarm_help_enabled. It needs to be included in the format specification file and then set to T (for True) in your data file. If I could upload a file here, I could show you, but here's the first two lines from one of my data files:
    module_name DISC_ALM.PRI DISC_ALM.functional_classification DISC_ALM.alarm_help_enabled DISC_ALM.time_to_respond DISC_ALM.consequence_of_inaction DISC_ALM.user_help_text1 DISC_ALM.user_help_text2 DISC_ALM.user_help_text3
    D-UA-341B ADVISORY 0 T 10 2 Reset trip and investigate root cause. Trips defined on C&E Graphic. Pump shutdown.
    Copy and paste these into a text file and see how it matches up with the file you are trying to import.
  • Kim Van Camp

    In reply to iam5113:

    Importing alarm help with the alarm help enabled property set to False removes the contents of all of the alarm's help fields. You can observe this behavior without using bulk edit by going to DeltaV Explorer and opening (right clicking on) an alarm; say for example HI_ALM. When you click on 'Enable alarm help' on the Advanced properties tab, a new tab appears on the alarm properties window for Alarm Help. Make a few entries on the Alarm Help tab. Then return to the Advanced tab and toggle the Enable alarm help checkbox off and back on. Observe that the Alarm Help tab was removed when alarm help was diasbled, and anything you entered on the removed tab was eliminated in the process.

    In V13 there is a new bulk edit template Module_Alarm.fmt that imports/exports alarms as rows where one of the columns is the alarm name. I like using this template because it does not require creating custom bulk edit templates to encorporate custom alarm names into column names. Thus this one template can be used for all alarms of any type (Process, System, Device).

    One other thing... be sure to use the Excel Add-In for bulk edit. It's the BulkEdit_Support.xla file located in the DVData\BulkEdit folder.
  • Michael Moody

    In reply to Kim Van Camp:

    It is certainly understandable that Alarm Help text would not be available if the feature is disabled. I would like to hope that future versions would hide the text verses deleting it. Then, when later enabled, the text would not be lost.
  • Kim Van Camp

    In reply to Michael Moody:

    I agree with you and will see what I can do to have it changed in a future system release, but for now that is the way it works.
  • MPHymel

    In reply to Kim Van Camp:

    Kim, that export feature seems just the ticket, would there then be multiple rows for the same module name, with each row containing pertinent data for each alarm parameter?
  • Kim Van Camp

    In reply to MPHymel:

    Yes, one row per alarm. If a module had five ralarms there would be five rows where the columns for module name, module description, etc would be the same.
  • GeloCortez

    In reply to iam5113:

    Yup, i created a format just specific for 1 tag just to try it out. HI_ALM for example. (initially alarm help is enabled)

    HI_ALM.PRI HI_ALM.functional_classification = 0
    HI_ALM.alarm_help_enabled = T
    HI_ALM.time_to_respond = 10
    HI_ALM.consequence_of_inaction = 1
    HI_ALM.user_help_text1 = TEST
    HI_ALM.user_help_text2 = TEST
    HI_ALM.user_help_text3 = TEST

    i was able to import back to the system with all new data when i changed all the data in Excel (except HI_ALM.alarm_help_enabled). but when i changed the status to "F" to Disable the alarm help, successfully imported but still enabled.

    same scenario when i try to enable the alarm help in excel (HI_ALM.alarm_help_enabled to "T")
  • GeloCortez

    In reply to Kim Van Camp:

    Tried using Module_alarm.fmt yesterday but getting an error when I tried to import it to the system.
    "WARNING: The name 'F' was not found in this context"
    "WARNING: Unable to get alarm annunciation"
    "WARNING: IMPORT ERROR: IMPORT of MODULE with key 1F358_05A FAILED at line:22 column:58 ...... "

    HI_ALM.user_help_text1/2/3 are the only parameters that were changed using BulkEdit_Support.xla
  • GeloCortez

    In reply to iam5113:

    I maybe missing some steps. so here's what I did:

    1. Created my own format: AlarmHelp_Test.fmt

    module_name
    HI_ALM.ALARM_TYPE
    HI_ALM.PRI
    HI_ALM.ENAB
    HI_ALM.PRI HI_ALM.functional_classification
    HI_ALM.alarm_help_enabled
    HI_ALM.time_to_respond
    HI_ALM.ALARM_DESCRIPTION
    HI_ALM.consequence_of_inaction
    HI_ALM.user_help_text1
    HI_ALM.user_help_text2
    HI_ALM.user_help_text3

    2. exported the AlarmHelp content using "User-defined". (initially, alarm help for HI_ALM is enabled) AlarmHelp_Test.txt

    3. Launched "BulkEdit_Support.xla"

    4. open the file via DeltaV/BulkEdit/Open Data File

    5. Prompted "Unicode Detected", clicked "OK"

    6. Changed the following parameters

    HI_ALM.PRI HI_ALM.functional_classification
    HI_ALM.time_to_respond
    HI_ALM.consequence_of_inaction
    HI_ALM.user_help_text1
    HI_ALM.user_help_text2
    HI_ALM.user_help_text3

    7. saved the file via DeltaV/BulkEdit/Save Data File

    8. new file name: AlarmHelp_Test_ASCII.txt

    9. imported AlarmHelp_Test_ASCII.txt to the system.

    10. Successful. all the data were reflected to the system.

    Issue: when i Enable the alarm help or setting "HI_ALM.alarm_help_enabled = T", nothing is changed to the system.
  • iam5113

    In reply to GeloCortez:

    The way to test this kind of thing is to configure a module manually with alarm help for a few different alarms and leave the odd one disabled, then export this module using your format file and compare the data in this export with the file you get the error on import. Usually, you'll spot what you're doing wrong. If you're on v13, then I'd advise following Kim's advice and using the provided files (I'm stuck on v11, but I've been using bulk edit extensively since v3).
  • GeloCortez

    In reply to iam5113:

    Thanks iam5113, ill try to play around it and will get back to this thread. v12.3.1

    still stuck on why can't I disabled or enable alarm help via bulk edit. but the rest are working fine.
  • GeloCortez

    In reply to iam5113:

    deleted all exported files and format, restarted my working machine.

    there you, it is now working fine. thanks for help guys.

    cheers

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