Flexible Add-In Solution for Wonderware Enables Vital R&D Process Data Backup and Retrieval

Case Study


Solving some of the world’s biggest challenges for over 200 years, a large global chemical company was presented with a new challenge of their own – their Wonderware Historian installation was being taken offline for a weekend for maintenance.  Their historical data was vital for product R&D, facilitating validation, process improvement and the ability to track conditions for the process, which monitors test cultures under various conditions. To avoid losing any data, which would be immeasurably costly to the company, they determined the best course of action was to store all of their InTouch data to LGH Files as a backup during this maintenance period.

Because the Historian was not associated with a single InTouch node (they were logging a few tags from several InTouch nodes – around 2000 tags total), they could not simply import the LGH Files into the historian, as this would import a multitude of tags they were not interested in and clutter their Historian database.

InTouch LGH Files and HistorianSo, the primary issue needing to be resolved was finding a way to avoid losing process data while the historian was offline without flooding their database with a bunch of unnecessary tags and values.  They needed a cost-effective and efficient method of customizing the data to be imported from their LGH files into Wonderware Historian such that only the desired tags were included.

Initially, one of the methods being considered was an upgrade of the Wonderware Historian installation to a newer version with support for store-and-forward.  However, this method wasn’t optimal at this time, falling outside of the company’s allocated budget for the project.

Another alternative they considered was a custom .NET application to convert the data to FastLoad format for import into the Historian database.  This alternative was also less than ideal, with an estimated cost of around USD $2000 just to create the custom application.

To meet the end goal of importing only the tags and historical values they needed, the company did some online research to see if there were any solutions out there providing flexible options for working with LGH files.  In the end, the only existing solution providing the flexibility and functionality required was the LGH File Inspector from Software Toolbox.

LGH File Inspector is a productivity add-in for Wonderware InTouch that enables rapid and easy access to local historical data (LGH files) logged by Wonderware InTouch.  LGH File Inspector can open and read LGH files effortlessly through an easy and intuitive user interface that gives plant operators, engineers, and managers the ability to query one or more InTouch tags for a given time frame and then export the results into a Microsoft Excel workbook or CSV file – all with no dependency on the HistData utility or the Wonderware InTouch HMI software.

LGH File Queries in 3 Easy Steps

Upon discovering that LGH File Inspector was offered by Software Toolbox, the company’s existing trusted supplier of OmniServer OPC and I/O Server, which was already used by the company for non-standard device integration, they were eager to perform a trial with the solution and confirm that it would be a viable option for the project.

Upon reaching out to the Software Toolbox support team, it was determined that the LGH File Inspector would be a great fit for this project once support was implemented for the required FastLoad CSV format needed to successfully import data back into Wonderware Historian.  Working with Software Toolbox and development partner, Worksmart Automation, it was quickly decided that support for FastLoad output from LGH File Inspector would benefit not just this company but others in similar circumstances.

LGH File Inspector - FastLoad Support for HistorianShortly after, FastLoad support was added to the LGH File Inspector, allowing the company to quickly convert all of their LGH Files into FastLoad format with just the required process tags and data and then easily import them into the Historian.

The Team Leader for Research Operations working on this project indicated, “With the help of the LGH File Inspector FastLoad capabilities, our Historian maintenance project went very smoothly.  Not only did the solution perform exactly as needed by ensuring our critical R&D process data was reliably maintained, it did so at a substantial cost savings to the other alternatives we considered.  Given all of these factors, we plan to use LGH File Inspector for future maintenance outages, as needed.”

You can learn more about the LGH File Inspector from Software Toolbox and obtain a free demonstration version at http://www.softwaretoolbox.com/lghfileinspector or simply fill out the form to the right and download your free trial.

LGH File Inspector allows users to:

  • Generate ad-hoc historical queries on the fly
  • Export data from lgh files to Microsoft Excel
  • Automate extraction of lgh file data
  • Quickly and easily generate reports in Microsoft Excel

When you download the free trial version, you get:

The trial/demo version of this product is fully functional within the following restrictions:

  • Queries are limited to 25 tags and 100 rows
  • You may execute up to 25 total queries

 

Try It Yourself - LGH File Inspector Free Trial