UDT OPC Path Issues

I am having trouble making UDTs that have OPC tags that use a parameter in the path. I tried pulling the tags I want over from the OPC browser and creating a type. I then did a find and replace on the part of the tag path that I wanted replaced with a parameter. This process appears to work until I go to make an instance of the UDT and set the parameter to the correct value but the tags don’t update with the correct path. instead they are have an error and their path is " ns=1;s={PLC_PATH}{InstanceName}.ALM2" instead of being the correct path “ns=1;s=[PLC]F01_HPRD.ALM2”. It does work if instead of doing a find and replace I go into the UDT and edit the path to include the parameters instead. The Problem is This particular function udt I am making contains around 1000 opc tags I need to replace their paths with parameters for. I use to do this in ignition 7.9.10 by pulling the opc tags I wanted over to the tag tree browser doing a find and replace then using the create UDT from selected option but that doesn’t seem to be an option any more. Does anyone know a way to replace the paths with parameters without needing to do each one by hand in the new ignition 8 or is this a known bug?

For bulk edits like that we export the UDT to XML, edit, then import it back.
We also have a few excel sheets worked up for locations to use for building the XML imports for creating instances that way as well.

When we first converted to v8 our UDTs had a hard time realizing that a parameter wasn’t just a string. We just exported and re-imported the datatype.

Yeah this seems like the issue we are having. I exported and reimported but the issue is persisting.

. . . their path is " ns=1;s={PLC_PATH}{InstanceName}.ALM2"

Is everything between the quotation marks copied and pasted directly from the OPC path you're having trouble with? If that's the case, the space before the ns=1 could be your issue?

Hello, I am currently experiencing an identical issue as what is described here. Though it does not appear a solution was given. I tried exporting and re-importing the UDT and that did not fix it.

Is there a solution out there?

You’ll probably want support to look over your shoulder.

You may want to try the just released version of Ignition (8.1.17). The tag editor was refactored in this version and there were some changes made to ensure Parameter bindings were better recognized. If you are still running into issues, I would ask that you call support and walk them through the issue you are seeing so we can narrow down the cause of the problem.

Thanks,
Garth

I’m having a similar issue. I exported the UDT to a JSON file, search and replaced the OPC paths with my parameters, and it doesn’t seem to recognize the parameters. I exported the UDT as a JSON, deleted the UDT, and then imported it again. Our server is running Ignition 8.1.17.

Example

Right after import. Notice the text isn’t italicized:

Browsing to the tag, then typing the parameters in. You can see they’re italicized and the link has gone blue:

Here are my tag paths as direct copies, the one on the top is the search and replaced path and the second is when I did it manually. They appear to be identical (edit: they show a space at the end when highlighted, I’ve double checked that it is not in my tag path in Ignition, seems to be a formatting issue in the post):

ns=1;s=[{PLCName}]Program:{StationName}.{TagName}.I.MovePB
ns=1;s=[{PLCName}]Program:{StationName}.{TagName}.I.MovePB

I played around with it further, and if I delete any character and click off the OPC path field it immediately italicizes and the chain goes blue. Then I add the character back and I get my proper path.

Has anyone found a fix for this issue?

I am in a similar situation and haven't found the solution posted anywhere. In my search I found a post that said if you go to the path and delete a character, click elsewhere on the screen to lose focus, the path goes italic and the binding link turns blue. Then you add the character back in and it stays as a binding. This works but is obviously not ideal when dealing with 1000s of tags.

In my troubleshooting, I thought to use the find and replace function to change all of the identical bindings to something one character off and then change them back. That didn't work, but in the Find and Replace tool it does show the difference between the tags with and without the binding.
image

The only difference between these is that on one I went to the binding, deleted a character, then went back and added it back in. Somehow this reevaluates the string and causes it to add the "bindType = parameter", and "binding = "x"" to the string.

Version 8.1.26

A fix for this would be greatly appreciated, thank you.