This is the Readme.txt for ActWin 3.70G (build 451)

Important : prior to install this new version...
- backup your license files (*.inf files)
- uninstall previous version of ActWinH



ActWin version 3.70G
--------------------

Version 3.70G is a maintenance release with support for new modules plus bug fixes.

See Versions.txt for the list of new features and corrections.


General information for version 3.70x
=====================================

Important installation information
----------------------------------
When upgrading an existing ActWin installation version 3.6x or lower, please note that to enable the 3.70 version a new license file PROG-W.INF is required. This file can be obtained from the distributor.
If the file PROG-W.INF is missing or not updated, the application will run in demo mode only.

When doing an upgrade installation, it is always recommended to first create a backup of any existing licensing files *.INF to protect them from accidental erasing.


Multiple program units and automatic unit creation
--------------------------------------------------
In version 3.70, multiple programs are permitted, it is also possible to specify "Normal Scan" or "Subroutine/Interrupt" (will automatically be placed below END instruction) type of unit.
In addition, there is also an optional feature to automatically create such units when opening older projects or uploading from PLC.
This automatic creation is by default disabled. This feature is enabled by selecting menu Tools + Actwin Settings + tab Programming and check option "Automatically place SUB/INT code in separate program".


Find/Replace function
---------------------
Find/Replace functionality is now added to the Program window. When replacing symbol names it is however recommended to use the Find/Replace function in the Symbol window instead, this is to avoid errors due to the somewhat confusing names display that can result from doing such replace in the Program window.


Monitor tables and User Library
-------------------------------
Support for copying monitor tables from User Library to project tree is temporary removed in version 3.70. This is because from version 3.70, all monitor symbols are now required to be members of the main Program symbol list (to eliminate the possibility of certain errors).

The recommended method to reuse monitor symbols is:

- To save monitor symbols: Export from Program symbols as usual to Excel or Txt file
- To import monitor symbols, copy from saved file and paste into Program symbols as usual and then select lines + drag to a monitor table in the project tree

The import procedure can be somewhat simplified using the new Filter function as follows:

- Before pasting, create a new filter e.g. "Monitor" in the Symbol view toolbar
- Activate the filter in the drop down box
- Paste (all pasted symbols will now be added as belonging to the selected filter)
- Select all rows in Symbol view and drag to monitor window

This procedure and the monitor symbol handling is subject for improvement in the future.


New file ACTWIN.INI
-------------------

A new optional file ACTWIN.INI can be used to enable automatic translation of symbol name characters when importing Actsip-H projects.

If character translation is desired, a file ACTWIN.INI should be created (by e.g. NotePad) and placed in the ActWin folder. A sample file is included in the installation.

The format in this file is:

Section title (one line): "[ActsipH_SymbolConversion]"
Section data (one or more lines): "<originalchar> = <replacewithchar>" (one line per translation)

E.g. to replace all occurances of '.' with '_', create a file ACTWIN.INI with three lines as shown below and place the file in the ActWin folder:

[ActsipH_SymbolConversion]
.=_
%=_


Coexisting with previous versions, NANO driver issue
----------------------------------------------------
After installation of version 3.70, its new three drivers are registered which means that these drivers are the only drivers that can be found by the ActWin software.
It is however possible to keep earlier ActWin versions on the computer because the new drivers are compatible with earlier ActWin versions (but not v.v. as usual).
The exception is the new free NANO driver, due to large differences this new version is not compatible with earlier ActWin versions.

To use earlier ActWin versions with NANO driver the old NANO driver must be re-registered (e.g. by running DOS cmd "regsvr32 c:\actwin361A\nanoh.dll" (insert actual old NANOH.DLL path)). This re-registration will however make the new NANOH driver inaccessible to the version 3.70 so the NANO driver has to be re-registered back and forth if NANO must be used with both versions.


Known limitations
-----------------
- Issues with printing when using high resolution display and program view is maximized 
- Issue when trying to print with no printer installed
- Undo deletion of symbols does not currently recover t/c preset values, a popup window will show where these must be entered manually
- Undo of editing operations during online programming does only affect the editor, the plc will stay unchanged (Online Update must be used to update the PLC as after any edit operation)
- DUMMY 16 cannot be used as WY (e.g. as dummy argument for some FUN:s)
- If the LUMP parameters are changed during modem connection, the connection must be redialed
- Printing of cross reference may for some printers show "usage" icons as black rectangles
- Drag/drop from symbol window to ladder editor objects does not work as described in the Help file
- The "pen" tool in the "old" (non-grid) edit mode may behave unexpectedly in some situations when connecting to Function outputs
- "Module symbol/addresses" window still does not show Micro-EH analogue WORD i/o (but they are accessible ok in ladder editor)
- The "basic" Micro-EH (types 10, 14, 23, 28) supports only 256 counters but ActWin allows 512
- Deletion of User Library does not always work, workaround is to manually delete .ALB file from ActWin\Lib folder after closing ActWin
- When using Find/Replace in Program view, Undo is supported only for changes involving symbols, no Undo is supported When replacing comment text or constant instruction arguments
- The Help file is same as previous version
- The numbers of available TON/TOF timer units (SFC) is temporary reduced in version 3.70. Affects only projects with a very large number (>100) TON/TOF units.


Macro related limitations
-------------------------
- Timer/counters are not allowed in macro
- CAL/SUB instructions are not allowed in macro
- Insertion of a macro currently does not automatically immediately check the macro internal syntax. To avoid unexpected errors, it is recommended to always do a syntax check of the actual macro unit before using in the program (open the macro in the editor and select menu Edit + Syntax check).


Macro usage
-----------
- For a description of macro usage, there is a tutorial "How to produce and Use a Macro.pdf" available for download from the ActWin website.


Multiple program units related limitations
------------------------------------------
- Only ladder language program units can be added to the project

Note: This should however normally not be regarded as a limitation because the main purpose of this feature is to make it possible to improve program organization (applies to ladder programs) and to make it possible to create interrupt driven background tasks etc for SFC (that normally are created using ladder language)

- Projects that were saved using previous ActWin versions and contained more that one program unit cannot be opened by version 3.70. To keep all information, all programs in the project except the first should be moved to User Library using the previous ActWin version before opening in version 3.70.
- For SFC projects the first program unit must be a SFC program unit


Other
-----
- In version 3.70, support for opening old projects version 2.xx and lower (from ca 1997) is removed. To open such a project in 3.7X and higher, just first open and save using any earlier 3.xx version, this will remove all old incompatible structures in the APG file.
- Projects saved using version 3.70 cannot be opened by earlier versions due to the addition of new features like multiple POU:s, password etc
