ViewPoint – How to setup and use

By
Shawn Tierney
-


Rockwell's ViewPoint LogoYesterday in this article I described how to download and install FactoryTalk ViewPoint.

Today I’ll walk you through how to use FactoryTalk ViewPoint to publish content for a FTView Machine Edition application destined to run on a PanelView Plus.

NOTE: ViewPoint supports running on the PanelView Plus and ViewSE, but does not support ViewME station runtimes on a PC. For more detailed information on ViewPoint see this post from last week.

Publishing ViewPoint content to run on a PanelView Plus.

When you’ve finished your ViewStudio for Machine Edition project and wish to enable ViewPoint support, the first thing you’ll need to do is install the ViewPoint Administration Tool which we covered in yesterday’s article here.

Once installed, you’ll find a new option under the “Application” menu. Select it to start the ViewPoint Administration Tool:

FactoryTalk ViewPoint AdministrationAfter selecting it you will see the ViewPoint splash screen…

FactoryTalk ViewPoint Splash…followed by the FactoryTalk ViewPoint Administration Tool Wizard, as seen below:

FactoryTalk ViewPoint Administration WizardTo successfully publish your content to ViewPoint, you’ll start here on the default page by selecting which screens you wish to be published. You’ll also need to select an initial display which will be the first display users see when they log in to ViewPoint from their browser.

Once you’ve made those selections, select the “publish displays” button in the bottom right corner.

ViewPoint Publish Step 4Once all the selected displays have been published, click on the “security settings” option in the top red menu bar.

This reveals two new security tabs as shown in the following two screenshots:

ViewPoint Publish Step 5ViewPoint Publish Step 6NOTE: I recommend “view only” access (i.e. no control) in most situations as it would typically be improper to control a manufacturing system remotely.

Once you’ve setup the security to your system’s requirements, you’ll need to press the “save” button on the bottom right.

Now you’re finished with the ViewPoint setup and can close the ViewPoint Administration Tool Wizard.

Creating a PanelView Plus runtime with ViewPoint content

To transfer our newly published ViewPoint displays and security settings to our PanelView Plus we need to create a new Runtime File.

First, select “Application” and “Create Runtime” from the ViewStudio menu as you would normally do:

ViewPoint Runtime Create 1Next, at the very bottom of the “Create Runtime Application” pop-up window insure you have the “include ViewPoint content” checkbox checked, and that the version selected matches the version installed on your PanelView Plus:

ViewPoint Runtime Create 2Once the runtime file is created, download it like any other runtime file. Note: it may take longer to download as in now includes the additional ViewPoint content.

When the project runs on the PanelView Plus you should be able to connect to it using your PC’s web browser. When you do you should see the default display of your running project as in the example below:

FactoryTalk ViewPoint In Internet ExplorerI hope this post about how to use the ViewPoint Administration Tool to publish ViewPoint content to a PanelView Plus was helpful. If you have any comments or questions please don’t hesitate to click on 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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27 COMMENTS

  1. Hi Shawn,
    Im trying to connect to FviewPoint server but i got this error message:
    “Unable to open the Web application
    The FactoryTalk View ME application is not running on the terminal. Contact your System Administrator or try connecting later.”
    I created already the .mer aplication including the viewpoing app on FTview Studio.
    I download it to the Panelview. I also Activated the Viewpoint server on the Panelview.
    What else can i check?

    Thank you!

    • I’m honestly not sure why you’re seeing that error?

      I won’t be updating my PVPlus course for a few months, so all my PVPs are in storage as I complete my Siemens HMI course (prior to moving on to updating my A-B PLC courses.)

      If you figure it out please let us know how you solved it!

      Shawn

    • Fave,

      1) Since Internet Explorer is obsolete and not widely supported anymore, you really should try a supported/modern browser

      2) What specific devices are you using (server and client models, versions, os, software versions, etc) – without specifics like this I’d suggests you contact the vendor’s paid support staff, since they are better equipemd to walk you thought all the Q&A needed for someone to help you.

      Shawn

  3. Hey Shawn,

    I have my PLC where I can go online remotely but I can not ping my HMI IP Address unless I hook up a ethernet cable. If I have the Ethernet cable installed I can get viewpoint to work. If I unhook it then it quits working. How do I need to hook the HMI up to be able to view it wireless?

    Thank you!

    • Good morning Eric,

      Just to clarify, you can access your PLC and HMI when your PC is connected to the Wired network, but you can only connect to the PLC when wireless, and cannot ping the HMI or connect to ViewPoint via wireless?

      If that is the case I have to ask, did you setup the wireless system?

      If not, you should ask the people who did to allow access to your HMI – give them the HMI IP address and tell them you need to access it as well from the wireless network.

      Hope this helps,

      Shawn

    • Check the release notes – I think this feature was added quite some time ago – but if a feature is not in the manual or release notes, it’s not in the product.

      Shawn

      PS – If you read my reply please reply yourself to let me know – the reason I don’t do deep responses to questions here (instead I use automation.locals.com) is that most people do a “dump and run” with their questions, most of which are time consuming to answer and are also never read by the questioner, resulting in a huge waste of time on my part – sometime I avoid like the plague as I’m self-employed 🙁

  7. So I have a customer that want to access ViewPoints screen outside their network with an I-phone using his provider network. Some one told me that I needed to do a redirection so the traffic coming to the provider modem will be send to the IP of the machine running Panel View. He mentioned that I will need to use a port different than 80 for this. But I need a bit more details on this (I am not an IT person)

    • Good morning @Victor Bonachea,

      This is a common request, and I could talk about it for an hour but simply put there is only one way to accomplish this securely: Use a VPN connection.

      Anyone who’s never connected their PC directly to the internet will be completely oblivious to the fact that bots relentlessly probe all IP addresses on the WWW for vulnerabilities, day and night.

      So the only way to safely connect to any device inside any business is to use a secure VPN.

      In your customer’s case, he would want one that is compatible with his iOS device, and will allow his iOS browser to connect to the PVPlus.

      Note that if his company already has a VPN in the “front office”, his routers might not be setup to (safely) bridge his plant floor network with his office network.

      One way to check this is to see if you can connect to ViewPoint from the office PCs first, prior to trying the front office’s VPN.

      Good luck!

      Shawn Tierney,
      Instructor at http://www.TheAutomationSchool.com

  9. Viewpoint does not support Alarm Lists configured in ViewME. Does not show up in web browser. What is recommended to be used in place of an alarm list so I can view online? Or, do I need to create and manipulate alarm strings in my plc program?

    • Good morning Hernnan,

      Just want to confirm a few things:

      – Did the ViewPoint publish without errors?
      – If yes, did you create and download a new MER “with ViewPoint” content to your PVPlus?
      – Also, is it a PVPlus 6 or just a PVPlus v5.1?
      – Are you connected to the PVPlus via hardwired Ethernet, and can you ping the PVPlus?
      – What are you trying to view the ViewPoint page with – a PC running Windows 7 pro and Internet Explorer?

      Hope this helps,

      Shawn Tierney

      Join my free community to follow along! You can also become a member and support our work at: Automation.Locals.com