Application notes

These application notes apply to
FactoryTalk Optix
version 1.7.x.

Threat mitigation

  • Do not lose the USB Key with exported
    FactoryTalk Optix Application
    . The USB key contains inspectable fields, credentials, certificates, and hashed passwords.
  • Protect physical access to
    Rockwell Automation
    manufactured devices.
  • Do not leave connected devices unattended. Protect physical access to the device and protect logs from device web interface, connected diagnostic session, and file system access via remote assistance tool.
  • Prevent unauthorized physical access to the device. Protect physical access to the device and improve security level of application files generated by custom logics.
  • Protect physical access to logged-in user sessions. Prevent the theft of
    FactoryTalk Hub
    refresh token file by locking the session if unattended.
  • Protect physical access to logged-in user sessions. Prevent the removal of
    FactoryTalk Hub
    refresh token file by locking the session if unattended.
  • Protect physical access to logged-in user sessions. Prevent attacks while logging in to GitHub.

Feature preview

Features labeled as preview should not be used in a production environment. Feature preview includes:
  • RA EtherNet/IP communication driver in the FactoryTalk Optix Studio web editor and Emulator
  • Connected IDE mode
  • Contents of Feature Preview library folder
  • Model analysis providing information model graphs

Spinbox Numeric Input unsigned conversions

When the Spinbox datatype is an unsigned integer, negative inputs are converted to zero.

Mouse Up Event modified behavior

The Mouse Up Event is now executed only when removing the pointer or finger while remaining inside the UI object area. This modification affects the UI controls Panel, Rectangle, Button, Ellipse, Polyline, Image, and AdvancedSvgImage. A new variable related to the pressed status will be included in a future release.

Incorrect status under Micro Controller Driver

When multiple stations are configured, if there is no demand for data the connection status for the station is not updated. To avoid this situation, implement a heartbeat for each station using a runtime Netlogic script to clear a boolean when it is true, and a timer in the station that runs when the boolean is false and sets it to true when the timer completes.

Alarm limits

1 language
Device RAM
Optix Alarms,
Logix Tag-based Alarms, and Logix ALDM Instruction Alarms
Logix ALMA Instruction Alarms
1 GB
2500
400
2 GB
5000
800
4 GB
15000
1600
8 GB
30000
3200
16 GB
60000
6400
4 languages
Device RAM
Optix Alarms,
Logix Tag-based Alarms, and Logix ALDM Instruction Alarms
Logix ALMA Instruction Alarms
1 GB
700
150
2 GB
1000
200
4 GB
3500
500
8 GB
7000
1000
16 GB
14000
2000
NOTE: If your application uses Logix ALMA instruction-based alarms mixed with other types of alarms, count each ALMA alarm as 5 alarms. For example, if the FactoryTalk Optix application has 100 ALMA alarms and 2000 other alarms, the total number of alarms is 2500. Per the table above for a single local language, this is the quantity of alarms that will run inside 1GB with a normal application.
As shown on the table above, each local language requires additional memory. The additional memory required will be reduced in a future release.
If you are not using the new Alarm Manager or Alarm Summary counters, or if you are upgrading from a previous version of FactoryTalk Optix that does not require the new Alarm Manager or Alarm Summary counters, you can reduce the memory required by disabling alarms collection by setting the
Enable alarms collection
property to
False
.

Logix extended properties must define both Min and Max range

When importing Logix extended properties, both Min and Max must be defined in Logix and must contain valid values in order for the extended properties to be imported.

Scroll bars

Dragging the scroll bar of rotated UI objects does not work as expected.

Method order

The order in which methods are performed changed in version 1.6.0 and may impact previous applications migrated to version 1.6.0. If this occurs, you will need to update your project.

Unsupported Mysql_native_password authentication plugin

The ODBC database store has been upgraded to use the MySQL ODBC connector version 9.2.0.0 which no longer supports the mysql_native_password authentication plugin.
To work around this issue, in the settings for MySQL Server, open
Users and privileges
and change
Authentication Type
to
caching_sha2_password
.

Enhanced Alarm Banner

In FactoryTalk Optix version 1.6.0, the Alarm Banner widget is enhanced to improve runtime operation stability and performance. If you have a project that was created using a previous version of FactoryTalk Optix and that has an Alarm Banner widget, you must use the upgraded Alarm Banner widget. First, using FactoryTalk Optix version 1.6.0, open or upgrade a project that was created with a previous release of FactoryTalk Optix. Next, remove the Alarm Banner widget from your project. Finally, add a new Alarm Banner widget to the project from the FactoryTalk Optix 1.6.0 template library.

OPC UA Recursive Models

The introduction of OPC UA Structures in 1.6.0 required the enforcement of stricter modeling rules. These modeling rules may prohibit importing any OPC UA model that contains a recursive reference, which is any type definition that contains a reference to itself.
Support for recursion is planned for a future release.

Offline AD and group assignments

If Active Directory (AD) is offline, only domain users who started the runtime can log on at runtime. While such users can successfully log on,
FactoryTalk Optix Application
cannot retrieve user groups in such scenarios.

RA EtherNet/IP Driver - Ethernet communication modules support

You cannot use the 1756-ENET EtherNet/IP Bridge Module with the
RA EtherNet/IP Driver
.

Manual renaming of Image property in project NetLogic

If you upgrade a FactoryTalk Optix project to version 1.7.0 and that upgraded project accesses the
FillMode
property of any Image object via NetLogic, you must manually change the name of the
FillMode
property in the NetLogic of the upgraded project. Rename the
FillMode
property
ImageFillMode
. Apply the change to all relevant scripts in order to compile the NetSolution.

Run FactoryTalk Optix Studio in VMWare image

FactoryTalk Optix Studio requires VMWare tools 12.5.3 or higher in order to launch in a VMWare image.

SD Card support added for widgets

New SD card support was added to the following Widgets:
  • File System Browser
  • Select File DialogBox
  • FTP Server
To use of this functionality, replace the existing widget with a new one from the library.
Because two ResourceURI methods were renamed, if you have developed your own NetLogic that uses these methods you will see a warning message in the log regarding obsolete paths:
  • ResourceUri.USBRelativePath
  • ResourceUri.USBNumber
Edit the NetLogic and rename the ResourceUri methods as shown in the following table:
Obsolete Name
New Name
USBRelativePath
DeviceRelativePath
USBNumber
DeviceNumber

Projects containing an OPC UA server cannot be deployed using tag optimization

Tag optimization will be disabled when deploying projects containing an OPC UA server with tag optimization on, or the runtime tag optimization must be turned off. Deploying projects containing an OPC UA server using tag optimization is planned for a future release.

Runtime tag optimization may result in slower screen navigation switch time on first access

Projects that have runtime optimized dynamic links and tags enabled may have have slower screen navigation switch time on first access. Subsequent access will result in faster screen navigation switch times and utilize less memory.

API deprecation

When opening a project created before 1.7.0, you may encounter the following warning when your NetLogic is compiled:
warning CS0618: 'CallbackVariableChangeObserver.CallbackVariableChangeObserver(Action<IUAVariable, UAValue, UAValue, uint[], ulong>, bool)' is obsolete: 'Use the constructor with ElementAccess instead.'
. This is due to a depreciated API. Follow the instructions in the warning to update your NetLogic.
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