CCW 7 SplashLast week while checking operating system compatibility of Connected Components Workbench (CCW) Version 7, I noticed Version 8 was also listed.

Curios to know if this was an indicator of it’s release, I headed over to product downloads section of Rockwell’s website and found that CCW version 8 was indeed available to download.

Choosing the free, standard package of CCW v8, I found it weighed in at a hefty 1.64gb.

Included in the download was RSLinx Classic Lite version 3.71, Adobe Acrobat 11.01, as well as several Microsoft patches and updates.

Rockwell recommends running CCW 8 on a PC with an Intel i5 and 8gb of RAM. While these are pretty steep specs for a programming package, they are unchanged from CCW version 7.

So what’s new in CCW Version 8?

Below are some highlights of the new features of this release taken from the product release notes:

Import and export entire projects

You can now import and export an entire CCW project to or from a .CCWARC file by using the new import and export options in the “File” menu.

Node Commissioning Tool and DeviceNet Enhancements.

Now that the Micro 800 supports DeviceNet, CCW has been enhanced to include a DeviceNet node commissioning tool which can be found under the “Tools” menu.

The 2080-DNET20 module now also supports a new “revision two” mode that includes a communication diagnostics view, pass through browsing of DeviceNet from either USB or Ethernet using RSLinx, as well as use of the MSG_CIPGeneric instruction without the need for UDBF’s.

SD Card Utility

Found under the “Tools” menu, the new SD card utility allows users to setup a Micro SD card to be used to flash a Micro820 to a new firmware revision.

Motion Feedback

Using the 2080-MOT-HSC with the Micro830 or Micro850, it can now be configured as a feedback axis without the need of using UDFB’s.

When used in this way, configuration pages for FBaxis, General, Motor and Load, and Limits are created automatically in the configuration tree.

Run Mode Changes

CCW 8 now supports run mode changes to a Micro 800 program while connected and online, but only in the licensed (not free) developer version of the software.

This feature includes the ability to program, test, accept, and undo runtime program changes, and can be accessed through either new toolbar buttons or yonder the “Device” menu.

Learn about other releases:

Check out our coverage of other releases of CCW below:

Find out more:

That’s it for our highlights of what’s new in CCW 8. For a complete listing of new features and corrected, see the full release notes below:

And the link to download CCW is below:

If you upgrade to version 8, we’d love to hear what you think! Just fill in the “post a comment or question” link below.

Until next time, Peace ✌️ 

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Shawn M Tierney
Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator

Eliminate commercials and gain access to my weekly full length hands-on, news, and Q&A sessions by becoming a member at The Automation Blog or on YouTube. You'll also find all of my affordable PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. We upgraded from version 6 to version 8 and had (still have) a lot of problems with controllers that we had password protected using version 6. Apparently, they changed the way passwords are handled between version 6 and version 8 and we can’t connect to any of the controllers whose passwords were created in version 6 using the new version 8 software. Since you can’t run both versions on the same pc, we had to create a virtual machine on our server to run version 6 so we can connect remotely to the older controllers and disable the password on them. After that, we have to then switch to version 8 and create the new password with it so we will be able to connect with version 8 moving forward. It’s very inconvenient and surprising that Rockwell would create software that isn’t backward compatible.