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LabVIEW TwinCAT ADS by FisoThemes - Toolkit for LabVIEW Download

Unofficial LabVIEW TwinCAT Toolkit for communicating with Beckhoff PLCs via ADS

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Version	1.2.5.13
Released	Apr 08, 2024
Publisher	FisoThemes
License	MIT
LabVIEW Version	LabVIEW>=18.0
Operating System	Windows
Project links	Homepage Repository Discussion

Description

Easy-to-use Unofficial LabVIEW TwinCAT Toolkit for communicating with Beckhoff PLCs via ADS. Features include invoking RPC methods, reading/writing PLC variables (including all standard types, pointers, references, time, strings, wide strings, structs composed of the aforementioned, nested structs, and multi-dimensional arrays of the aforementioned datatypes), introspective capabilities (retrieve symbol and type information), the ability to build your own low-level VIs via extensions, and more.

Minimum Requirements:
- LabVIEW 2018 (32/64-bit) or above
- .NET Framework 4.6.2 (installed by default with LabVIEW)
- TwinCAT 3.1.4024.10 XAE/XAR and above (haven't tested below 4024.10; might work with lower versions)

Important Notes:

Connection
1. You may notice that the `Connect.vi` is slow in connection. This is normal.
The VI is simply caching the symbols and types in LabVIEW rather than keeping them in a .NET collection. The reason for this is that lookup times on the .NET Ads-XYZ-Collection are very slow. The further I moved away from making calls to any of Beckhoff's .NET libraries the faster operations became. The penalty for doing this is a slow connection.

2. Because of the caching system, online changes are currently not supported.

3. You do not need to disconnect before disposal. The `Dispose.vi` VI will disconnect for you.

Read, Write, and Invoke Method
1. Operations involving `UNION`s and `INTERFACE`s types are not yet supported.

2. To read and write to pointers simply add the dereferencing symbol to your symbol name e.g. `pValue^`.

3. First calls to an operation (Reading/Writing a symbol or Invoking a Method) will be slow due to caching. Subsequent calls to read/write/method-invoking operations will be faster.

4. When sending numbers, arrays of numbers, or structs with numbers, enums, etc., the numbers will be coerced to the type defined in the PLC for that variable/parameter. This is by design. LabVIEW is a graphical language so switching between Single Precision Float and Doubles is an absolute pain.

5. LabVIEW Arrays don't need to be the same size as the PLC arrays to write them. Write what you need; the rest will be filled in with defaults.

Events
1. Online change is not supported. However, you can update variables on the PLC without needing to disconnect on the LabVIEW side via `Login with Download`, `Restart TwinCAT System`, and `Activate TwinCAT Configuration`. All symbols will automatically be reloaded into memory.

NOTE: Any reads or writes running during this process will produce errors; just ignore these errors until reconnection is complete. They will stop once that happens.

2. Don't forget to close the Registration Refnum after you're done. User Events references are automatically closed on disposal.

Other
1. When using extensions, please only close the .NET references with an asterisk (*) on their label at the connector pane. The ones without an asterisk are managed for you.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions, issues, or suggestions.

Release Notes

1.2.5.13 (Apr 08, 2024)

New Features:
- Added `Read PLC Type.vi`
- Added Alias names to Notifications. This means you can listen for changes to the same symbol at different rates.

Improvements:
- Speed of `Read Multiple.vi` and `Write Multiple.vi`

Fixes:
- Issue reading/writing values of symbols of pointer types that didn't end with ^(dereference character).
- Issue reading/writing non-jagged arrays.
- Issue where writing dates for DT type didn't take into account daylight savings.
- Issue reading and writing `REFERENCE TO` types greater than 4 or 8 bytes (depending on the bitness of the machine).

fisothemes was a contributor to this release

1.1.3.11 (Oct 29, 2023)

Notes:
---------
+ Preparation for VIMP.io release.

New Features:
-----------------
+ Added VI for adding multiple symbol notifications.
+ Added VI for deleting multiple symbol notifications.
+ Added VI for clearing all symbol notifications.
+ Added VI for getting the names and cycle times for all symbol notifications.
+ Added extension VI for getting notification handle.
+ Added extension VI for deleting notification handle.
+ Added extension VI for getting symbol handle.
+ Added extension VI for removing symbol handle.

Fixes:
--------
+ Fixed failure in application build due to Flatten .NET Symbol Information.vi.
+ Fixed nested function blocks not being read properly.
+ Fixed premature closure of cached .NET Symbol Information references by LabVIEW's garbage collector when calling the API's VIs in an Asynchronous VI.
+ Fixed cases where characters after the null character in strings would show.
+ Fixed case where you couldn't use the event registration refnum as a control, indicator or constant.

Improvements:
------------------
+ Read.vim automatically changes to read multiple when connecting an array of symbol names.

fisothemes was a contributor to this release

1.0.0.4 (May 11, 2023)

Notes:
-------
+ Preparation for VIMP.io release.
+ To read and write to pointers simply add the dereferencing symbol to your symbol name e.g. "pValue^".
+ References are read like normal symbols.

New Features:
---------------
+ Support for reading and writing to POINTERs and REFERENCEs.
+ Support for reading and writing FUNCTION BLOCKs as clusters.
+ Added VIs for reading and writing data as bytes.
+ Added VI for reading symbol attributes e.g. {attribute 'answer to everything' := '42'}.
+ Added VI for reading all namespaces.
+ Added high-speed reading example.

Fixes:
------
+ Fixed the issue in which you couldn't read aliases of `STRUCT`s
+ Fixed .NET reference leaks in the Read Method Information VI

fisothemes was a contributor to this release

1.0.0.1 (Mar 20, 2023)

Note:
------
+ Disconnect no longer disposes of resources.
+ Please use the Dispose VI after you you are done.
+ No need to use Disconnect before Dispose. Dispose of will disconnect for you.
+ When using Extensions do not close references without an asterisk(*), those references are used internally. They're managed for you.

New Features:
---------------
Symbols auto-update when you Login with download, Restart TwinCAT System or Activate TwinCAT whilst connected on the LabVIEW side. Online Change, however, is still not supported.
+ Events
- Read symbols with events.
- ADS state events.
- Connection state change events.
- AMS router change event.
- Symbol Version change event.

Improvements:
----------------
+ No need to match the array size with Beckhoff array size to write.
+ Improved reading and writing speeds of Time and Date types, strings, wstrings.
+ Improved reading and writing speeds of large structs and arrays of large structs.
+ Improved naming of terminals controls of indicators.

Fixes:
------
+ Showcase.vi no longer stops you from compiling code executable.
+ Fixed memory leak, caches .NET AdsDataTypeInfo were not closed on disconnect/disposal.
+ Invoke method handles now deleted disconnect/disposal.

fisothemes was a contributor to this release

0.0.0.2 (Mar 13, 2023)

Added WSTRING Byte Stream to String
Added TOD Byte Stream to String
Rearranged Advanced Subpalette
Rearranged Utilities Subpalette

fisothemes was a contributor to this release

0.0.0.1 (Mar 10, 2023)

Initial release

fisothemes was a contributor to this release

Show all release notes (+5 more releases)

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Versions

1.2.5.13 (Apr 08, 2024)

1.1.3.11 (Oct 29, 2023)