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Set up diagnostics for development

Logging information about system activity, which was previously done by the RSView Activity Log subsystem, is now performed by the FactoryTalk Diagnostics system. FactoryTalk Diagnostics continually records information about system activity for the local computer such as command and macro usage, operator comments, subsystem-related warnings and errors, and communication errors. This information can be sent to various destinations. The destinations that are available depends on how your system is set up.

Diagnostics information can be displayed in any or all of these three locations:

  • in the Diagnostics List, by default at the bottom of the main FactoryTalk View Studio window (the FactoryTalk equivalent to the RSView Activity Bar in earlier versions of RSView Studio)
  • in a Diagnostics List object in a display (the equivalent of the RSView Activity List object in earlier versions of RSView Studio)
  • in the FactoryTalk Diagnostics Viewer, accessible through the Tools menu

To set up FactoryTalk Diagnostics

  1. From the Tools menu, select Diagnostics Setup to open the editor.
  2. To set up a destination, select it in the tree.
  3. To set up which types of messages are sent to which destinations, select Message Routing.

To view information in the Diagnostics List

  • Click View in the FactoryTalk View Studio bar menu and then click the Diagnostics List item if it does not have a check mark beside it.

    The Diagnostics List appears at the bottom of the display area.

To move the Diagnostics List

By default, the list is docked at the bottom of the main window.

  1. Place the mouse pointer on the double line below the two buttons at the left of the list.
  2. Right click and drag the mouse until the Diagnostics List is where you want it to be.
  3. Double-click the Diagnostics List to float it, or, if floating, re-dock it in its last position.
  4. When the list is floating, put the mouse pointer in the title bar to move it where you want it.

You can also resize the list.

To view information in the Diagnostics Viewer, use one of the following methods

  • In FactoryTalk View Studio, from the Tools menu, select Diagnostics Viewer.
  • From Windows Start menu:
    • (Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008) Select All Programs > Rockwell Software > FactoryTalk Tools > Diagnostics Viewer
    • (Windows Server 2012) Click the down arrow and select Apps > Rockwell Software > Diagnostics Viewer
    • (Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016) Select All apps > Rockwell Software > Diagnostics Viewer

For more information, click Help in the Diagnostics Viewer's main menu.

Tip:

Diagnostic error messages may appear truncated if they are too long for the diagnostics window. To ensure that error messages are displayed in full, use the FactoryTalk Diagnostics Viewer to show these messages on the desktop terminal and at design time. For applications that run on PanelView Plus 7, PanelView Plus 6, PanelView Plus, or PanelView Plus CE terminals, configure the FactoryTalk Diagnostics Viewer to accept messages from Windows CE devices. In the Tools menu, click Diagnostics Setup, and then select Message Routing to select the check box for this option. Click Help in the Message Routing pane for more details.

See also

Set up run-time diagnostics

Keywords: diagnostics