General panel components
ASCII file
The file selector can be set to input or output an ASCII file. You can also enter a file directly in the text field. You can view and edit this file in the operating system editor by pressing the Editor button. You can also input and output the files as an Excel table (applies to Windows only).
Import/Export
The "Import/ Export" radio box is used to specify whether to import or export data.
ASCII options
In this part, there are 2 two additional information lines for the Import/Export via the ASCII Manager panel. The first line Database shows the WinCC OA database path in the current project. The second line Connection shows the host name and the port number at which the Data as well as the Event Manager of the current project run. The information lines are important particularly for redundant projects.
In a redundant project, the text field Connection shows the Data and Event manager of the active computer. If the redundant project is in the split mode, the button Switch is shown. Through this button the connection to the Data/Event manager is switched to one of the two redundant computers. When importing data on the test system (For detailed information on the split mode, see chapter Redundancy in split mode), it is necessary to select the right host name for the connection in the panel.
Configuration
Select a saved configuration in the combo box and load it by clicking Add. You can also create and save panel settings with a specific name. Depending on what you select in "Import/Export", the program displays only output or only input configurations for selection. Click on the Delete button to remove the selected configuration.
Start
Start begins data input/output. Under Windows, the ASCII Manager launches a DOS box and under Linux a xterm console.
Under Linux, information is shown in the window in which the UI was started. The window remains open after the import.
Log file/ Info file
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"Log file" opens a file (automatically after import) containing the default WinCC OA log output (for example, including any error messages).
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"Info file" opens a file in which the ASCII Manager outputs various status and progress information.
Close/Help
The Close button closes the panel. The Help button opens the online panel documentation.