Recently one of our readers submitted a question asking for help migrating from a legacy Rockwell PLC (aka PLC-5 or SLC-500) to their new PAC lines (ControlLogix and CompactLogix.)

In his email he went on to say he needed help because he didn’t have a copy of the Project Migrator, previously called the Translation tool.

I’ve covered this tool many times since rebooting this site as The Automation Blog in 2013, and as I often do when I get a question on something I’ve covered previously, I went back to my most recent article on the subject to see if the procedure still worked.

What I found surprised me, as sometime over the past several months Rockwell removed the Project Migrator from the free Studio 5000 Tools download.

As explained in this free Tech Note, you can now use a new feature found inside of RSLogix 500 v12 or RSLogix 5 v10 to save these legacy programs as an Logix ACD file simply by using the “Save As” function.

Before we look at that functionality, for those who don’t have access to those newer versions of RSLogix I wanted to cover which previous versions of RSLogix and Studio 5000 come with either the older Translation Tool or Project Migrator so you can install and use it even though it’s not available as a free download.

Here’ what I found after search through the install files I have access to:

  • v19: Look in \RSLogix5000\ENU\Tools\Translate PLC-5 SLC 2.0 Tool

  • v21: Look in \Studio5000\Tools\Translate PLC-5 SLC 2.0 Tool

  • v24: Look in \Studio5000\Tools\RSLogix Project Migrator

  • v26: Look in \Studio5000\Tools\Translate PLC-5 SLC 2.0 Tool

For those who do have the new versions of RSLogix, below I’ll cover the conversion of a SLC-500 program first, followed by the conversion of a PLC-5:

Migrating SLC-500 Projects to Studio 5000 and Compact or ControlLogix:

Step 1) Open your SLC-500 in RSLogix 500 version 12 or later, and then select File – Save As:

Step 2) Change the “Save as Type” to “Logix Designer Files (*.ACD)”

Step 3) Next select either ControlLogix or CompactLogix, then choose the version. In this example I choose CompactLogix and v30:

Step 4) Next choose your Controller from the drop-down list, and select next:

Step 5) In the next window, select your IO Migration Strategy options and click on Migrate:

Step 6) After a few moments the migration will complete and you’ll have the option of opening Studio 5000 by clicking on the RSLogix 5000 button:

Step 7) Once you have the new project in Studio 5000 you can finish the convertion. In my example below you can see that the migration did not add any IO modules, so I’ll need to do that manually:

Migrating PLC-5 Projects to Studio 5000 and Compact or ControlLogix:

Step 1) Open your PLC-5 project in RSLogix 5 version 10 or later, and then select “File – Save As:”

Step 2) Change the “Save as Type” to “Logix Designer Files (*.ACD)”

Step 3) Next select either ControlLogix or CompactLogix, then choose the version. In this example I choose ControlLogix and v30:

Step 4) Next choose your Controller from the drop-down list, and select next:

Step 5) In the next window, select your IO Migration Strategy options and click on Migrate:

Step 6) After a few moments the migration will complete and you’ll have the option of opening Studio 5000 by clicking on the RSLogix 5000 button:

Step 7) Once you have the new project in Studio 5000 you can finish the conversion. In my example below you can see that the migration did not add any IO modules, so I’ll need to do that manually:

Preforming these types of migrations is something that I’ll be covering in the next edition of my Online ControlLogix and CompactLogix courses in 2022, which you can get for free for a limited time when you buy the existing courses at TheAutomationSchool.com.

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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6 COMMENTS

  2. Hi Shawn,

    I hope you are well and thank you for sharing this excellent article which has helped me a lot in a conversion from SLC 500 (RSLogix 500) to CompactLogix L33ERM controller (Studio 5000 Logix Designer version 34)!

    Well, I’ve been looking for some documentation from Rockwell Automation about this feature “save as” .ACD file to convert from Logix 500 based controllers but I could not find a word about it Rockwell website.

    The only material I could find was “Converting PLC-5 or SLC 500 Logic to Logix-Based Logic”, Publication 1756-RM085F-EN-P – March 2022, which says how to convert the program using the Project Migrator Wizard.

    So, long story short, do you know if Rockwell Automation had published any technical note to share this new form of conversion (“save as” .ACD in RSLogix 500 v12) which is even easier to work trough than using Project Migrator Wizard?

    • Good morning,

      When I wrote the article the main source of this new feature was the tech note I reference above – I’d guess they’ve also added information on this to the help files and release notes, but I’m not sure if they’ve updated the migration manual (which would be preferred) and I’m traveling at the moment so can’t check myself.

      If you do find an update please let me know and I’ll update the article,

      Thanks either way,

      Shawn