Over the years I’ve been asked a lot about how to migrate old RSView32 systems to FactoryTalk View SE, and in today’s article I’ll list my five top tips.

Five Things You Need To Know About Migrating RSView32 To FactoryTalk View

1) FactoryTalk View Site Edition and RSView32 are licensed differently

RSView32 TourAs discussed in Monday’s article, RSView32 and FT View SE licensing differs greatly.

To migrate an RSView32 system, you’ll need a copy of FactoryView Studio Enterprise as well as a Station (runtime) license, or one Server and (at least) one Client license.

FactoryTalk View SE is also sold by Graphic Display count, not tag count. This change was made because View SE can directly reference PLC tags and device registers, which eliminates the need to create a tag database.

For more information on how RSView32 and View SE licenses differ, follow the below link to our article on the subject:

2) Rockwell offers a “Step Forward” discount – no support contract required

If you’ll no longer need your RSView32 license after migrating, ask your local Rockwell representative to quote you the “Step Forward” price from the RSView32 you have to the View SE you would like to replace it with.

This discount, which does not require your old RSView32 license to be in support, is usually substantial and well worth your time to investigate.

3) FactoryTalk View Studio Enterprise Edition can directly import RSView32 projects.

At RSTechED 2013 I was shocked to learn some Rockwell representatives were not aware that View Studio could import RSView32 projects.

Ok, I’ve have been using RSView and RSView Studio since both their betas, so I may have a slight advantage.

But still, View Studio has been out for over ten years, so I would expect anyone who actually uses FactoryTalk View SE would know it can import old RSView32 projects (as well as View ME projects.)

4) SPC, Messenger and Recipe Pro Extensions do not import

FactoryTalk View does do a lot of things we always wished RSView32 would, but unfortunately it doesn’t do everything RSView32 did.

Case in point: The RSView32 Extensions SPC, Messenger, and Recipe Pro.

These free add-on extensions for RSView32 have no counterparts in View SE, so if you use any of those heavily you’ll want to do additional research before attempting to migrate.

5) VBA needs to be re-written

FactoryTalk View 8 SplashThe final item on my list is VBA.

I’ve always directed my clients to use VBA sparingly, only when the equivalent feature or function was not already included in FactoryTalk View itself.

That said, most all RSView32 VBA code can be modified to work in ViewSE, however two things must be kept in mind:

First, View SE’s VBA is client based, running in the client window from the graphic displays.

This is quite different from RSView32’s VBA which was server based, much like Events and Derived Tags.

Second, View SE has a very different “Object Model” than RSView32.

This means the code for accessing Tags and other components needs to be changed, and in ViewSE it can often be simpler read a value from a display’s object than access a tag directly.

I hope the above five tips about migrating RSView32 to View SE was helpful. If you would like more information about migrating RSView32, check out Rockwell’s own manual on the subject below:

And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to share them with us by submitting the “post a comment or question” link below.

Until next time, Peace ✌️ 

Shawn M Tierney
Technology Enthusiast & Content Creator

Have a question? Join my community of automation professionals and take part in the discussion! You'll also find my PLC, HMI, and SCADA courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.

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Shawn Tierney
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4 COMMENTS

  1. Hey, I’m working on several migrations from RSView32 to FactoryTalk View SE as well, and two of them are using the recipepro…. any simple suggestions?

  2. Hi thank you for sharing it was informative.
    my question is
    I am upgrading RSVIew project to studio V 12 and I m runing to an issue with some Alarm
    in RSVIEW it was used as follow ” alm_in_Alarl(tag), alm_in_Alarm was a function in RSView but it seem it is no longer exist in studio v12!!!!!
    so do you have any idea how to work around it does no longer exist or I should do an update to studio to get that function?

    thank you

  3. Good afternoon,

    Check the FTViewStudio release notes – I think you find they discontinued support for HMI TAG Alarms.

    If so, either use v11 or convert your HMI TAG Alarms to FTAE Tag Alarms.

    Good luck,

    Shawn

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