Notes for Upgrading a WinCC OA Project

General information on updating a WinCC OA project are described in the chapter Update project. This section is limited only to the information that should be noted when upgrading a project to version 3.18.

  • Before upgrading a project a full backup is recommended!
  • Since version 3.11 also supports 64-bit operating systems (please refer to software requirements), a WinCC OA project which is created for 32-bit needs to be adapted to 64-bit. In particular any customer-developed 32-bit API-Manager, CONTROL Extensions and Error-Handling must be changed to 64-bit.
  • Note that before an old WinCC OA project can be updated, any modified standard libraries (especially pt.ctl) has to be synchronized with the current libraries or moved temporary. This also applies to sub projects. For a generation of the panel topology sum alert data points, the updated library pt.ctl from the WinCC OA version is used. If the library is already available in the project, the library is taken from the project and the changes in the pt.ctl from the new version are not considered. Therefore, you have to synchronize the project specific pt.ctl with that of the version or move it from the project.
  • Note that the old project, which uses the panel topology feature, has to contain the panel files when updating the project. For the generation of the Panel Topology sum alert data points, project panels are required. Without these, the panel topology sum alert data points cannot be created correctly. Therefore, the project panels have to exist when updating the project. Otherwise the sum alert data points will be deleted or generated wrong.
  • Note also that the WinCC OA user "root" has to be enabled when updating a project.
  • When updating an older WinCC OA project to 3.18, adjust the project-specific CTRL extensions manually.
  • Incorrect CTRL extensions, which are loaded in the UI or CTRL manager and are stored outside of the /bin WinCC OA directory, may cause a crash of the corresponding manager. The information of the affected CTRL extension is shown in the WinCC OA log viewer. This must be corrected accordingly. With the new command line option -noUserCtrlExt, the loading of CTRL extensions (which is stored outside of the /bin directory) can be blocked. This option is also used for WCCOAtoolConvertDb.
  • In projects older than 3.1, the project must be updated to 3.1 before it can be updated to 3.18.

  • If you update a 3.8 project (or an older project) to the WinCC OA version 3.18, the system modifies all historic RAIMA file sets that are online. The file sets are modified due to

    1. The new alarm reduction (sum alerts in sum alerts)
    2. The possibility to have more than 255 WinCC OA systems
    3. The discrete alert handling
    4. The new data buffering of the RDB manager in the event of a failed database connection
  • If you update a 3.8 project (or an older project) to the WinCC OA version 3.18, note that RAIMA archiving is not default anymore. (for more details see: History DB).
  • When updating a project that contains nonexistent or inaccessible subprojects, these must be commented out in the config file before the project is updated.
  • If the powerconfigs file is present in the WinCC OA project directory under /configs, it has to be merged with the current version from the WinCC OA installation directory under /configs.
  • When upgrading an existing DRS project from an older version to 3.18, the data point list "update_disRecSystem.dpl", from the directory <wincc_oa_path>\Redundancy2x2_3.18\dplist, needs to be imported to the upgraded project using the ASCII manager.
  • When upgrading WinCC OA version 3.8 or below to version 3.18, all Modbus connections (from projects of version 3.8 or below) are deactivated automatically. They must be manually activated again after upgrading the project.
  • When upgrading WinCC OA version 3.8 or below to version 3.18, the vScrollBarMode and hScrollBarMode change their state from "AlwaysOff" to "ScrollBarAsNeeded" due to a change of available options.
  • For a description of how to upgrading a redundant project see: Upgrade of a redundant project

  • To upgrade a 32bit WinCC OA project to a 64bit WinCC OA 3.18 Project it is necessary to copy the 32bit registry entry of the project from:

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ETM\PVSS II\Configs\<project
                        name>]

    to:

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ETM\PVSS II\Configs\<project name>]

    To copy the registry entry right-click on the entry <project name> and select export. Remove the entry "Wow6432Node" manually(between "Software" and "ETM") in the exported .reg file. Afterwords re-import the entry with a double click on the .reg file.

  • For upgrading a WinCC OA project from version 3.1 to 3.18 it is necessary to change the system number to a value below 128. If the system number cannot be changed (e.g. plant project without the possibility for further configuration) additional WinCC OA tools can be used. They can be obtained through the WinCC OA Support.
  • It is necessary to adapt own scripts due to changes to the "dpQueryConnect" functions in WinCC OA version 3.11. With version 3.11 the string parameter "identifier" has been changed to the anytype parameter "userData" which can cause problems when calling the corresponding callback function of the dpQueryConnect. So the callback functions must be adapted manually to the new anytype parameter when upgrading a project to WinCC OA version 3.18.
  • Some errors may occur during a project update if the standard data point types were modified (e.g. data point type ANALOG1 was deleted). Therefore, it's recommended to do an ASCII export before the update and import the data after the update.
  • When upgrading an older project (< 3.12) to WinCC OA Version 3.18 consider that the Multiplexing Proxy manager must be added manually to the project. Note also that the Multiplexing Proxy must be added to the list of managers after the Process Monitor (PMON)! To use the security feature, the multiplexing proxy manager must be configured accordingly (see Multiplexing Proxy).
  • Projects of the versions 3.5 and 3.6 cannot be updated to the version 3.18 under Linux. Update your project under Windows (see chapter Update or patch project) and start it then under Linux.
  • Panels that contain 32bit ActiveX objects cannot be successfully upgraded as the objects are not supported anymore.
  • CAUTION: when you install a WinCC OA 3.18 patch, the data of the DemoApplication is reset. Back up your data before installing a patch.

  • Note that following warning message at project start indicates that a picture used inside of the project is not conform to the rules of the latest libpng library.

     "WCCOAui (1), <DATE and TIME>, SYS, WARNING, 54, Unexpected state, Qt, libpng warning: iCCP: profile 'ICC Profile': 'CMYK': invalid ICC profile color space"

    To remove this warning please update/remove the outdated ICC Profile of your picture. One option for this purpose may be the pngcrush tool.#

  • Excel Report: When updating a project you have to update the customer-specific template files "*.xltm" from the directory <project directory>/data/xls_report as well as the internal database "Report.mdb" (which includes the configuration data). Therefore, rename the files from "*.bak" to the original name. This means Report.bak to Report.mdb and the template files *.bak to *.xltm. Furthermore, update the customer-specific templates via the option "Update templates" from theReport menu. The customer-specific templates must be updated. Use, however, the current templates delivered by ETM. Thus, you only need to update the customer-specific templates.
  • With version 3.18 some new control keywords are reserved (e.g. new or delete, refer to Variables and constants for further information) or used (e.g. struct or class, refer to Control++) by WinCC OA and cannot be used e.g. as variable names anymore. When updating older projects to 3.18, there may be problems if you have defined one of these keywords as a variable name. In this case you have to replace the now invalid names in the respective scripts and panels.

  • WinCC OA 3.15 installs the vimacc version 2.2.2.2 which enables IPC sockets encryption for all vimacc services. Unencrypted WinCC OA components cannot communicate with the encrypted vimacc services anymore. This means that:

    • A video server with this vimacc version cannot be operated with video clients <= 3.14, since you cannot enable encryption for them.
    • The vimacc version of an existing video server is also updated.
    • After installing WinCC OA 3.15, it is not possible to communicate with encrypted vimacc services in an existing WinCC OA project <= 3.14. This also applies if the services are running locally.
  • Due to enhancements to the WinCC OA Layout Management feature the existing behavior and default values changed. This must be considered when upgrading your WinCC OA project. It may be necessary to adjust your existing layout settings to get the previous visuals representation of your panels.
  • To upgrade a remote UI project the corresponding upgrade version must be available on the system and the installation path and version number must be adjusted inside of the projects config file.
  • If you upgrade a project which contains the config entry "paramLang", you have to delete this entry manually from the config file before starting the project.
  • With version 3.17 the config entries [eip] aliveTimeout, [mod] aliveTimeout as well as [iec61850] aliveTimeout have been renamed. If they are used within your project they must be replaced with the entries [mod] aliveInterval, [eip] aliveInterval respectively [iec61850] aliveTimeout61850.

  • The OPC DA/HDA and UA server now support multiple CNS Views. This requires a change of the default behavior for showing the CNS-View name in the OPC address space. In previous versions the server was not showing the view name per default, but this might now lead to conflicts if more than one view is configured.

    So for projects, which are upgraded to 3.17 and higher and must not show CNS-View names in OPC address space, the config entry cnShowViewInPI = 0 in the corresponding config file section of the server is now required.

  • Scipts using the formerly allowed malpractice in return values for classes need to be corrected, with a given class hierarchy of Base - Derived and a function Base foo() { return Derived(); } up to now an object of the Derived class was returned. From 3.18 onwards the correct return value of a Base class object is used.
  • Upgrading a project to 3.18 may move some manager options to the corresponding entries in the config file to facilitate the correct usage.