JPH07146643A - File transfer controller to programmable controller - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To prevent file selection errors to be transferred to the programmable controller and improve file selection workability. [Structure] A file name / header information setting unit 51 for setting an arbitrary file name and heading information for information accumulated in the storage medium 40, and a corresponding file from the storage medium 40 based on a path designated by a user. A file name / heading information search unit 52 for searching for a name and heading information, and selecting a file to be transferred to the programmable controller 20, saving the file transferred from the programmable controller 20, or a storage medium 40 and a programmable controller 20. It is configured such that when a file collation between the two is performed, the candidate file name and its heading information are searched from the storage medium 40, and these are displayed in association with each other.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a file transfer control device for controlling transfer of programs and parameter information to a programmable controller.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a program and parameter information given to a programmable controller (hereinafter referred to as a PC) are arbitrarily selected on a host machine and exchanged.
One PC is applied to various controlled objects. In this case, the program and parameters given to the PC are stored as a file in a storage medium such as a floppy disk, read on the host machine, and transferred to the PC.

By the way, normally, a number of files are collectively stored in a storage medium such as a floppy disk. Therefore, when transferring a file from the host machine to the PC, the user selects the desired file from among many files. At that time, generally, each file name is displayed on the display device of the host machine,
A method has been adopted in which the user selects the desired file name from among them.

However, for example, when the number of files stored in one storage medium increases, a number of similar file names may appear on the screen, resulting in confusion for the user. Therefore, a method of setting the file name itself to an expression that implies the content of the file can be considered. However, in this case, it is inevitable that the file name itself has a large number of characters, which is not suitable for a system in which a file name character string by key operation is input to perform file access. In addition, when a storage medium storing a file is shared by a plurality of users, the file name alone causes confusion when selecting a file.

[0005]

As described above, the file contents cannot be sufficiently grasped only by displaying the file name. Therefore, even if the file selection is erroneous or the file selection is not erroneous, there is some delay in the work. There was a problem that it appeared in the form and the efficiency decreased.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem. When a file to be transferred to the programmable controller is selected, the header information indicating the file content is displayed together with the file name so that the file selection can be performed accurately. Another object of the present invention is to provide a file transfer control device for a programmable controller that can be efficiently performed.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a file transfer control device for a programmable controller of the present invention stores a plurality of programs and parameter information for controlling the programmable controller with arbitrary file names. Storage means, setting means for setting heading information indicating the contents of the file in the file, registration means for registering the heading information set by the setting means in the storage means in association with the corresponding file,
Display means for retrieving the heading information of each file from the storage means based on a command from the outside and visually displaying them together with the file name of each file, and selecting means for selecting an arbitrary file from the display contents of the display means And access means for accessing the file selected by the selection means, and transfer means for transferring the file accessed by the access means to the programmable controller.

[0008]

According to the present invention, when selecting the program and the parameter information file to be transferred to the programmable controller, the file name of each file stored in the storage means and its heading information are simultaneously displayed so that the user can be informed of the file content information. By providing visually, confusion such as an error in file selection can be eliminated, and operability can be improved.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a control system that employs a file transfer control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, this control system is
The host machine 10, a programmable controller (hereinafter, referred to as a PC) 20, and a control target 30 of the PC 20. Here, a plurality of programs and parameter information to be given to the PC 20 are stored as files in a storage medium 40 such as a floppy disk. The host machine 10 is, for example, a floppy disk drive 11
The information is read / written to / from the storage medium 40 via the PC, and the target file is transferred to the PC 20 or the PC 2
Control such as saving the program and parameter information held by 0 in the storage medium 40 as a file is performed.

2a and 2b are diagrams showing the structure of a file. FIG. 11A shows a parameter file. The area of the parameter file is roughly divided into a heading information area 41 and a management information area 42. Headline information area 41
The heading information in which the content of the file is expressed by a character string is stored in. In this example, at the beginning of the file
A heading information area 41 of 20 bytes is secured. In the management information area 42, parameter information such as checksum and memory capacity to be transferred to the PC 20 is stored as management information. Further, FIG. 6B shows a program file. The program file contains the main program, sub program, fixed-cycle interrupt program, and I /
An O-period interrupt program, a subroutine program, etc. are stored. FIG. 3 shows the structure of the current directory. As shown in the figure, file names 43 of all files stored in the storage medium 40 are stored in this current directory, and each file name 43 has an extension 44 and its recording position information (see FIG. (Not shown)
Are associated with. Here, the extension 44 is for distinguishing the attribute of each file, and here, the attribute of the file, for example, parameter information (PRM), program
(PGM), comment (CNT), and registers (RW to F).

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the file transfer control device in the host machine 10. In the figure, 50 is a file transfer control device and 60 is a storage medium 40.
The parameter file 70 is a program file. The configuration of the file transfer control device 50 is as follows.

Reference numeral 51 is a file name / heading information setting section. The setting unit 51 sets an arbitrary file name and heading information indicating the file content for the information to be stored in the storage medium 40 during the transfer from the PC 20 to the storage medium 40. That is, the character string input through the keyboard 12 of the host machine 10 is regarded as a file name and heading information, and these settings are made. The file name is registered in the current directory together with its extension, and the header information is the header information area 41 of the parameter file 60.
Be registered with.

Reference numeral 52 is a file name / heading information search unit. The search unit 52 is a transfer target (parameter information (PRM) + program (PG
(M), comments (CNT), registers (RW to F), and all of the above) are searched and displayed on the display device 14. Further, based on the heading information display instruction given through the keyboard 12, the heading information corresponding to the displayed file name is displayed in the parameter file 60.
The file is read from the in-file header information area 41, and displayed on the display device 14 in association with the file name.

Reference numeral 53 is a file search unit. The file search unit 53 reads the corresponding parameter information and program from the parameter file 60 and the program file 70 of the storage medium 40 using the file name selected by the user as a path, and stores them in the transmission buffer 54.

55 indicates the contents of the transmission buffer 54 to the PC 2
It is a transmission processing unit that transmits to 0.

A reception processing unit 56 receives the parameter information and the program of the PC 20 and stores them in the reception buffer 57.

Reference numeral 58 is a file storage processing section.
The file storage processing unit 58 stores the parameter information and the program stored in the reception buffer 57 in the storage medium 40.
The process of saving to.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing an operation procedure at the time of transferring a file to the PC 20. In this case, the user first uses the keyboard 12 to instruct the transfer target, and specifies that the file to be searched is parameter information (PRM) + program (PGM) (step 501). At this time, the extension (PRM) (PG
M) is automatically set.

Upon receipt of this instruction, the file name / heading information retrieval unit 52 first inputs the extension (PRM) or (PGM) input.
All the file names added with are searched from the current directory (step 502), and these are displayed on the display device 14 (step 503). FIG. 6 shows a display example of the file name at this time.

After that, when an arbitrary file name is designated using the keyboard 12, the file search unit 53 is activated. The file search unit 53 specifies the parameter file 60 and the program file 70 by using the designated file name as a path, reads out the parameter information and the program from these files, respectively, and reads the transmission buffer 54
(Step 505).

Subsequently, the transmission processing section 55 is activated, and the information in the transmission buffer 54 is transferred to the PC 20 (step 506).

When the user cannot specify the transfer file only by displaying the file name, the user uses the keyboard 12 to instruct to display the heading information (step 5).
07). Then, the file name / heading information search unit 52
Is the heading information area 41 in each corresponding parameter file 60 for each file name currently displayed.
The headline information is read out from each of them and displayed in association with each file name on the display device 14 (step 508). The appearance of the display at this time in FIG. 7 is shown. As a result, the user can easily recognize the file contents that cannot be identified only by the file name.

Thereafter, when a file name is designated (step 504), the parameter information and programs of the parameter file 60 and the program file 70 to which the file name is added are read out (step 50).
5) and transferred to the PC 20 (step 506).

Next, the operation of saving a file in the storage medium 40 will be described. FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the operation procedure when the file is saved.

In this case, first, after the file name / heading information setting unit 51 is activated, an arbitrary file name and a character string of heading information are input from the keyboard 12. The file name thus input is registered in the current directory together with its extension, and the header information is registered in the header information area 41 of the parameter file 60 (step 8).
01).

Thereafter, the parameter information and the program transferred from the PC 20 are received by the reception processing unit 56 and stored in the reception buffer 57 (step 803). After the reception, the file saving processing unit 58 is activated, and the parameter information stored in the reception buffer 57 is written in the parameter file and the program is written in the program file (step 804).

If a file having the same file name as the file to be saved already exists in the storage medium 40, this is displayed (step 80).
5).

When selecting a file to be collated, the display device 14 can simultaneously display the file name and its heading information.

Further, the file name and the header information can be changed by overwriting the received program and the parameter information on the already saved file by using the keyboard 12 and the file name / header information setting section 51.

Thus, according to the file transfer control device of this embodiment, when a file is designated for file transfer, file saving, file collation, etc., the file name and its header information are simultaneously displayed to show the user the file contents. Since information can be provided, file selection can be performed accurately and efficiently, and operability can be improved.

[0034]

As described above, according to the file transfer control device for the programmable controller of the present invention,
When the program and parameter information to be transferred to the programmable controller are selected, the file name of each file stored in the storage means and its heading information are displayed at the same time to visually provide the user with the information of the file contents. Confusion such as an error in selection can be eliminated, and operability can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a control system that employs a file transfer control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing structures of a parameter file and a program file.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a structure of a current directory.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a file transfer control device in the host machine.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure when transferring a file to a PC.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example of a file name.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a display example of a file name and its heading information.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure when a file is stored in a storage medium.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Host machine, 11 ... Floppy disk drive, 12 ... Keyboard, 13 ... CPU, 14 ... Display device, 20 ... PC, 40 ... Storage medium, 41 ... Heading information area, 42 ... Management information area, 51 ... File name / Heading information setting section, 52 ... File name / heading information searching section,
53 ... File search unit, 54 ... Transmission buffer, 55 ...
Transmission processing unit, 56 ... Reception processing unit, 57 ... Reception buffer, 58 ... File saving processing unit, 60 ... Parameter file, 70 ... Program file.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Storage means for storing a plurality of files including programs for controlling a programmable controller and parameter information together with their file names, and setting means for setting header information indicating the contents of the files in the files. , Registering the heading information set by the setting means in the storage means in association with a corresponding file, and searching the heading information of each file from the storage means based on an external command, Display means for visually displaying these together with the file name of each file, selecting means for selecting an arbitrary file from the display contents of the display means, access means for accessing the file selected by the selecting means, The file accessed by the access means is stored in the programmable code. A file transfer control device for a programmable controller, comprising a transfer means for transferring to a controller.