Communication

The Communication application step allows you to configure your connection and file writing settings.

The following settings are available in the Communication app step:

  • FTP Server settings allow you to connect your device to an FTP server.
  • Write Image settings allow you to define the conditions and properties for writing images to file.
  • Write File settings allow you to define the conditions and properties for writing job reports to file.
  • Write TCP/IP settings allow you to define the conditions and properties for writing files over a TCP/IP connection.
  • Industrial Ethernet settings allow you to set up an input and output stream over Ethernet/IP, PROFINET, or SLMP.
Note: Adding an input to Communication application step disables the property control in the other app steps. This is because an Input Property overwrites the property of another snippet with a GetBufferData() function.
Setting Description
Server The FTP address for the server you want to connect your device to.
User Name A valid user name for the FTP server.
Password The password for the given user name.

Setting Description
Enabled

Enable or disable image writing.

You can also use the link icon next to the toggle to link a boolean tool property, which makes image writing conditional on that tool property value.
Storage

Select which storage drive you want your device to write images to. The available options are:

  • Local Device
  • FTP Server
  • SFTP Server
File Path Define the file path for image writing on the selected storage drive.
File Name Define the file name you want your device to use when writing images.
File Type

Select the file type you want your device to use when writing images. The available options are:

  • BMP
  • JPEG
Max Append Value Define the maximum value of the suffix that the device adds to the file name for each image.
Overlay Graphics When you enable Overlay Graphics, the vision system saves the image and a SVG file that includes the graphics. Open the SVG file in your browser to see the image with overlay graphics.

Setting Description
Enabled

Enable or disable file writing.

You can also use the link icon next to the toggle to link a boolean tool property, which makes file writing conditional on that tool property value.
Storage

Select which storage drive you want your device to write files to. The available options are:

  • Local Device
  • FTP Server
  • SFTP Server
File Path Define the file path for file writing on the selected storage drive.
File Name Define the file name you want your device to use when writing files.
File Type

Select the file type you want your device to use when writing files. The available options are:

  • TXT
  • HTML
  • XML
  • CSV
Add timestamp Enable or disable the addition of a timestamp for each file.
Timestamp format Define the timestamp format using a combination of MM, DD, and YY in your order of preference.
File Name Preview Displays a preview of the file name based on your file name and timestamp settings.
Write Type

Define what to do when a file by the same name already exists:

  • Overwrite - replaces the previous contents of the file with the new contents
  • Append - adds the new contents to the file after the previous contents
File Contents

Click Format String... to open a dialog in the center of the screen, where you can configure the contents of the files:
Settings Description
Starting/Ending
  • Leading Text: provide the text string you want to include at the beginning of the files.
  • Trailing Text: provide the text string you want to include at the end of the files.
  • Terminators: define what terminators the files use:
    • Carriage Return (CR)
    • Line Feed (LF)
    • CR+LF
Use Delimiter
  • Use Delimiter: enables or disables delimiters in the files. When enabled, use the radio buttons to select one of the following delimiter types:
  • Standard:
    • Comma
    • Space
    • Tab
    • Semicolon
    • Underscore
  • Other
Arguments

Add tool property reports to your arguments to include them in your files.

  • Click Add or press A to open the tool properties dropdown, and select the tool property you want to link.
  • To remove a tool property from the list of arguments, select the tool property and click Delete.
  • To change the order of the tool properties in the list of arguments, select a tool property and click Up or Down.
Output The Output text box displays a preview of file contents based on your settings.

   
Enabled

Enable or disable file writing.

You can also use the link icon next to the toggle to link a boolean tool property, which makes file writing conditional on that tool property value.
Host Name Specify the host name for your device.
Port Specify the port number you want the device to use.
Timeout Specify the length of time in seconds that the device can be idle before the connection is terminated.
Packet Type

Select the packet type according to string terminators:

  • String CR+LF
  • String CR(13)
  • String LF(10)
  • String Nullchar(0)
  • String with Custom Terminator
Custom Terminator

Define a custom numerical string terminator (0-255).

To enable this setting, set the Packet Type parameter to String with Custom Terminator.
Max Packet Size Define the maximum packet size.
Output String

Click Format String... to open a dialog in the center of the screen, where you can configure the contents of the files:
Settings Description
Starting/Ending
  • Leading Text: provide the text string you want to include at the beginning of the files.
  • Trailing Text: provide the text string you want to include at the end of the files.
  • Terminators: define what terminators the files use:
    • Carriage Return (CR)
    • Line Feed (LF)
    • CR+LF
Use Delimiter
  • Use Delimiter: enables or disables delimiters in the files. When enabled, use the radio buttons to select one of the following delimiter types:
  • Standard:
    • Comma
    • Space
    • Tab
    • Semicolon
    • Underscore
  • Other: define a custom delimiter
Arguments

Add tool property reports to your arguments to include them in your files.

  • Click Add to open the tool properties dropdown, and select the tool property you want to link.
  • To remove a tool property from the list of arguments, select the tool property and click Delete.
  • To change the order of the tool properties in the list of arguments, select a tool property and click Up or Down.
Output The Output text box displays a preview of file contents based on your settings.

Setting Description
Byte/Word Order

Specifies the bit order for words and bytes read by the system.

0 = Big endian Stores the most significant byte first, and subsequent bytes in descending order.
1 = Little endian Stores the least significant byte first, and subsequent bytes in ascending order.
2 = Big endian with 16-bit word swapping Applies big endian byte style, and switches the word pair order for double word types. (16-bit words)
3 = Little endian with 16-bit word swapping Applies little endian byte style, and switches the word pair order for double word types. (16-bit words)
100 = Default Uses the default setting.
Target Protocol

Select the Industrial Ethernet protocol that you would like to use:

  • None
  • Ethernet/IP
  • PROFINET
  • SLMP
Input/Output Data Contents

Click Format Data to open a dialog in the center of the screen, where you can configure the contents of the input and output buffer:
Settings Description
Inputs

Add tool property reports to include them in your input data.

  • To select the tool property you want to link, click +to open the tool properties dropdown.
  • Once you have added a tool property, you can change the Data Type and Size (bytes) properties of the following tool property settings.
Note: You can only change the Size (bytes) property if you set the Data Type of the tool property to String or Byte-Swapped String.
  • To remove a tool property from the list, select the tool property and click –.
  • To change the order of the tool properties in the list, select a tool property and click the up or down arrows.
Outputs

Add tool property reports to include them in your output data.

  • To select the tool property you want to link, click +to open the tool properties dropdown.
  • Once you have added a tool property, you can change the Data Type and Size (bytes) properties of the following tool property settings.
Note: You can only change the Size (bytes) property if you set the Data Type of the tool property to String or Byte-Swapped String.
  • To remove a tool property from the list, select the tool property and click –.
  • To change the order of the tool properties in the list, select a tool property and click the up or down arrows.