Rockwell Reporting Software

SpecialK87

Member
Join Date
Sep 2018
Location
Missouri
Posts
49
I need to provide reporting software as part of a project. It needs to be able to auto generate daily, weekly, monthly reports etc. in Excel and .pdf formats. I've used Dream Reports and XLReporter previously but I am trying to determine if Rockwell has a product for this. Its not clear to me what they offer.

After a web search I've come across FactoryTalk Report Expert and it seems to be able to do what I need, but in the descriptions it mentions using FactoryTalk Metrics and FactoryTalk Vantage Point. I don't have experience with either of those. Do I need to purchase one or both of those to be able to create and generate reports? Or can I just use use Report Expert and connect to my FT Historian. Also, RE configuration seemed labor intensive and not very user friendly. Is it worth it or should I just use Dream Reports and get the additional License to connect to the Historian?

Thanks
 
I would love to hear you assessment of DreamReports and XL reporter
I use XLR years ago and had no problem with it, it was just a little klunky to set up . I'll be exploring Dream Reports in the coming weeks and would love to have some criticisms chambered up for that conversation.

I'll be interested to hear about them too, but I now am working to avoid Rockwell software. They have gotten way too territorial and isolated kinda like the APPLE ecosystem, and with a price to match without providing much better results in the end.

FWIW in the past I used SSRS against a MSSQL DB for my reports and I do NOT recommend going down that road. SSRS is Awful.
 
FT Historian is basically OSI PI. PI got a simple report engine that's a plug-in for Excel called Datalink. I'm not sure if Rockwell offers that under a different name but that should work for you.
 
A couple of years ago, I purchased the Pi DataLink Addon for Rockwell Historian. It did most of what I needed for reporting, and I don't remember the cost being wholly unreasonable. I also do some reporting for Historian SE using Ignition, but getting that setup was quite tiresome and tricky through MSSQL.
 
@SpecialK87
I used to use XLReporter for more than 15 years, but economy down here is not the best and I guess up there is about to be the same.
So, I started learning Python and using Pylogix and I have my own reports, It takes time but save some money.
Dmroeder one of our colleagues here on PLCs.net is administrating Pylogix, he also has a discord, so just go over there and take a look.
 
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I am an avid OSI PI user (Now AVEVA PI) and also currently deploying a DreamReport (Now AVEVA Reports for Operations) on top of it, all part of a massive rollout to convert our SCADA system in 14 plants to AVEVA System Platform. I will say that so far DreamReport has been great. We experienced a couple technical hangups due to comparability with the brand new versions of PI and SP 2023, but those were quickly resolved by support. Very good YouTube videos on how to build reports, and a good demo project with examples. The automated export and web UI are valuable tools.

Just my two cents. I've used crystal reports back when it was "great" and DreamReport is far better. It is also very cheap (maybe since we have a large AVEVA contract).

Trevor
 
Ignition by Inductive Automation also generates reports in various formats. I haven't used the report function specifically, but everything else about Ignition is top notch. It's worth phoning them and seeing if they can help. They have a free (two hour time limit) fully functional offering for testing and development.
 
I used to work for Rockwell and I would avoid VantagePoint if I were you. The software used to work well in the past but with the Rockwell partnership with ThingWorx/PTC all the development is being pushed that way, and VantagePoint is not going to be developed further.

I'm not sure about Report expert, but if your'e using Historian then I doubt you want Metrics as well. I believe that with the new version of Historian it comes bundled with PIVision, which is PI's reporting software. I haven't personally used it but it may be worth a look?
 
PIVision is not for reporting, it is simply a web interface for data visualization. Basically a primitive web based read only HMI that users can build their own screens for. PI does not have much of a reporting system anymore (not that I would have ever called PI Notifications a reporting system), and with the AVEVA purchase AVEVA Reports for Operations is now the recommend reporting system to integrate with AVEVA PI (it does work very well).

AVEVA Reports can connect to many things outside of PI, and the old DreamReport website (old name for AVEVA Reports) is still up so you can look at everything it supports.
 

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