# Copy OPC UA Tag Path to Excel **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Created:** [April 10, 2020, 9:43pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858 "2020-04-10T21:43:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mr.heidari63](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@mr.heidari63](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mr.heidari63)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 9:43pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858/1 "2020-04-10T21:43:38Z")
I just established OPC UA connection with my CompactLogix PLC. I’d like to copy a tag path to excel to show its value in excel cell and update the PLC as I update the cell. Where can I find the tag link (path)? tnx ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 11:01pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858/2 "2020-04-10T23:01:24Z")
I wasn’t aware Excel was an OPC-UA client. That is what you need to have a live connection as described. Edit: it isn’t, but there are third-party addons, like this: [https://opcexpert.com/opc-to-excel/](https://opcexpert.com/opc-to-excel/) ---
**Author:** ![mr.heidari63](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@mr.heidari63](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mr.heidari63)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 6:04pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858/3 "2020-04-12T18:04:48Z")
> [@pturmel](#): > > -UA client I am familier with OPC Expert but I do not know how link the OPC expert to Ignition 8 ?! ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 6:18pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858/4 "2020-04-12T18:18:48Z")
See the “Connecting with UA Discovery” section of this page in the manual: [https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC80/OPC+UA+Server+Settings](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC80/OPC+UA+Server+Settings) ---
**Author:** ![jespinmartin1](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/jespinmartin1/32/57175_2.png) [@jespinmartin1](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/jespinmartin1)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858/5 "2020-04-12T18:22:47Z")
If a connection was establish between Ignition and OPC-UA Client, just open the OPC browser in the designer, find the tag you want and drag and drop the tag folder provider. Then, edit the tag and in the property “OPC tag path”, you may read the path. If your connection is not Client OPC-UA type you may want to read the documentation for CompactLogix mapping and manually create the OPC path or use the OPC UA module and perform addressing and try my first advice. This part of Excel is the one I’m not sure how to do it. You may need to create a tag script event to read the path in a Excel file and update it if it changes. ---
**Author:** ![mr.heidari63](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@mr.heidari63](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mr.heidari63)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 7:06pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858/6 "2020-04-12T19:06:19Z")
I successfully established OPC UA connection in Ignition and it says it is connected. but I do not know how to read/write tags in Excel? ---
**Author:** ![mr.heidari63](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@mr.heidari63](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mr.heidari63)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 7:06pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858/7 "2020-04-12T19:06:59Z")
I successfully established OPC UA connection in Ignition and it says it is connected. but I do not know how to read/write tags in Excel? ---
**Author:** ![jespinmartin1](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/jespinmartin1/32/57175_2.png) [@jespinmartin1](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/jespinmartin1)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 7:54pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858/8 "2020-04-12T19:54:26Z")
If I understood. You want to update a Excel cell value and via OPC UA Ignition Module and update it to the PLC value? If so, why or how the OPC path is related if you successfully established a connection? I think the best practice for testing is to create 2 tag per wanted value. One tag that reads the OPC and the other to be independent memory tag that directly read a value from Excel then you create a script to write from the memory to the OPC tag. As I said, first try to create a memory tag that can read a value from excel probably by scripting and then solve the rest ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858/9 "2020-04-12T20:09:24Z")
Don’t know. I don’t trust Excel for any direct process connections. (I avoid it like the plague, actually.) You’ll have to dig through the documentation for whichever plug-in you chose to be the OPC client inside Excel. If it doesn’t provide browsing of the connected server, you’ll probably want to look up the OPC node addresses on the Ignition side (using the OPC Browser in the Ignition Designer). ---
**Author:** ![mr.heidari63](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@mr.heidari63](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mr.heidari63)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 8:52pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858/10 "2020-04-12T20:52:09Z")
I just established a connection inside the Ignition and can r/w PLC tags from Ignition. But I could not set up a connection with Excel to see tags’ values in Excel. My question is, how can I connect Ignition OPC UA to Excel? ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 12:07am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858/11 "2020-04-13T00:07:47Z")
> [@mr.heidari63](#): > > how can I connect Ignition OPC UA to Excel? You don't. You connect Excel to Ignition OPC UA via a plug-in. Note, Excel is the client. ---
**Author:** ![mr.heidari63](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@mr.heidari63](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mr.heidari63)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 12:11am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858/12 "2020-04-13T00:11:11Z")
You are right. What do you mean of plug-in? is it a specific software or 3rd party? please explain more if possible and give me a hint or plug-in name. ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 12:13am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858/13 "2020-04-13T00:13:07Z")
I linked to one possibility above. It’s website describes the kind of connection you need. You’ll have to figure out how to use it, using the Discovery URL of Ignition, and the node addresses exposed by Ignition into your Logix processor. ---
**Author:** ![mr.heidari63](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@mr.heidari63](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mr.heidari63)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 5:30pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858/14 "2020-04-13T17:30:35Z")
Hi pturmel, I have read both links you gave me above. I got some points but I could not figure it out how to connect Ignition OPC UA to OPC expert. As I add new server to OPC expert with that address of “opc.tcp://localhost:62541/discovery”, it says it could not connect to the address. I set all security to NONE in Ignition side. Could you help me? ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 6:00pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858/15 "2020-04-13T18:00:06Z")
Is Ignition on the same computer as OPC Expert? If not, you will have to reconfigure Ignition to listen on an exposed IP address and connect to that. You may also have to configure your network and your firewall to permit such connections. ---
**Author:** ![mr.heidari63](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@mr.heidari63](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/mr.heidari63)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 8:15pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/copy-opc-ua-tag-path-to-excel/33858/16 "2020-04-13T20:15:38Z")
OK I got the problem after contacting OPC expert tech. It was an issue with the newer version of OPC expert and they told me it is a bug in the program and they will fix it ASAP. every thing from the Ignition side is OK. Thank you every one for helping me.