Configuring Productivity Suite Monitor Mode and Task Navigation

Productivity Suite builds from the 2016 release era (2.1.3.2 is the version named in the answers documented here) have no tabbed ladder task windows. They do have a global Monitor Mode option and Ctrl+click multi-select on rung instructions. Work the checks below in order; each one says which check comes next.

Check 1: Read the installed software version first

Read the installed Productivity Suite version and compare it to 2.1.3.2. Every behavior below was confirmed in that release. Several items were on the manufacturer's improvement list at the time and may have shipped since, so the release notes for your installed build decide what is real on your laptop.

Check 2: Look for tabs across the top of the task window

The quick fix is to hunt for a hidden tab setting. Do not spend time on that in a build from the 2.1.3.2 era, because tabbed tasks were a planned feature and not a preference. Open two ladder tasks and look at the monitoring window.

• Tabs are present: use them and skip to Check 3.
• No tabs: your build predates the feature. Re-select each subroutine from the project directory tree. Keep the number of open task windows small, because every extra window is another one to re-pick and, with Monitor Mode on, another one to watch (see Check 4).

Check 3: Make every ladder task open in Monitor Mode

Toggling monitor on each task by hand is the slow fix. The software has a global setting for it.

1. Open Tools > Options.
2. Select the Ladder tab.
3. Under Editor display options, select Monitor Mode.
4. Confirm the dialog and reopen a ladder task.

If the option is not on that tab in your build, stop here and read the release notes for your version. Menu layouts move between releases.

Check 4: Test GUI load before making Monitor Mode the default on a large project

An open question when this option was documented: does the global setting put every open task window into monitor at once, or does monitor follow whichever window has focus? The manufacturer did not answer it directly. It pointed to help topic P243, which describes the limitation. Read that topic in your installed help file before enabling the option on a big program.

The reason to check is general engineering behavior. A monitored ladder view needs live values for every instruction on screen, so the software polls the controller for all of them. Several large tasks monitored at once mean more polled data and a slower GUI, and the load is heavier over a slow link.

1. Connect to the controller and open your heaviest task with the global option on.
2. Open the next two or three tasks you normally work in.
3. Compare scrolling and cursor response against the same tasks with the option off.
4. If response degrades, clear Monitor Mode in the same Options tab and close the tasks you are not using. Then switch monitoring on selectively.

Do not test this on a production line during a running batch. A sluggish programming PC is a nuisance; a PC that hangs while you are trying to force a value is a problem.

Check 5: Select and copy several instructions on one rung

Copying one instruction at a time is a workaround nobody needs on v2.1.3.2. Multi-select is already there:

1. Hold Ctrl and left-click each instruction. Selected instructions highlight.
2. Right-click and choose Copy.
3. Select the destination rung and paste.

Tags referenced by pasted instructions still point at the original tags. Re-address them before downloading if the copy is meant to drive different equipment.

Check 6: Cut the tag database round trips

Creating a tag from an instruction defines only the name. The tag comment and any specific attributes still get entered in the tag database, where you must find the tag yourself. That was the largest time cost reported when porting a 1100-rung program with three remote racks, and right-click navigation from an instruction to its tag entry was only logged as an improvement idea. Plan around it:

• Create tags in bulk in the tag database first, with comments and attributes filled in, then place instructions and pick the existing tags.
• Use tag comments instead of instruction comments. Tag comments follow the tag to every instruction that uses it.
• Assign System IDs before importing tags. Importing rows without a System ID was on the improvement list, not confirmed as supported, so populate that column in the import file.
• For recipe data (a request was made for a RecipeXX structure with Setting 1, Setting 2, Setting 3), check whether your build's tag editor supports structured tags. If it does not, generate numbered tag names in the import file so the naming stays uniform.

Forward and back arrows for task and rung views were also only logged as an idea. Without them, you need the directory tree and the tabs described in Check 2.

Check 7: Route alarm email around the SMTP limits on P2 and P3 CPUs

A provider that needs a non-standard port or SMTP authentication cannot be used directly from a P2 or P3 CPU as documented, because the controller's email function had neither a port setting nor authentication. One user with an authenticated SMTP service fixed it by putting a Red Lion DSP on the network as a dedicated alarm email client. Another was using a Raspberry Pi as the email relay. The manufacturer said a solution was being developed, so check the firmware and software release notes before building a relay.

A relay works because the CPU hands unauthenticated mail to a LAN device, and that device forwards it with the credentials and port the provider requires. Restrict the relay to your control network. An open relay is a security problem. Keep the relay's configuration and its host on the site backup list, because it is now part of the alarm path.

Confirm the settings behave as intended

1. Close all task windows, reopen two ladder tasks, and confirm both show live values without a manual monitor toggle.
2. Compare GUI response with the option on and off using your largest task. Record the result so the next person on the project knows whether the option is safe.
3. Ctrl+click three instructions, copy, paste on a scratch rung, and confirm all three arrive with their addresses.
4. For email, trigger a test alarm and confirm delivery end to end, including after a controller power cycle.

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