2 Installation and development environment
1.3. Terminology
2 Installation and development environment
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2 Installation and development environment
2.1. Installation overview
2.1. Installation overview
About this section
This section describes how to install Robot Application Builder. When the installation is complete, you can program, compile and test PC and FlexPendant applications for the IRC5 controller.
Supported platforms
The following software requirements have to be met:
•
Operating system: Microsoft Windows XP + SP2 or Windows Vista + SP1
• Microsoft Visual Studio: VS 2005 (Standard Edition or better is required to use the FP
SDK) or VS 2008 (Professional Edition or better is required to use the FP SDK). To use the PC SDK Standard or Express edition will do.
The following hardware requirement have to be met:
• 50 MB free disc-space on the installation disc
Both FlexPendant generations are supported:
• SxTPU-1, which executes with .NET CF 2.0 and WinCE 4.2.
•
SxTPU-2, which executes with .NET CF 2.0 and WinCE 5.0.
NOTE!
When installing RAB on Windows Vista OS you may get a Visual Studio error message saying “The operation could not be completed. The requested operation requires elevation”.
This error is due to failure of the installation of the FP SDK templates and project wizard, which is prevented when Vista's User Account Control (UAC) feature is enabled. To solve the problem you need to uninstall RAB, disable UAC, reinstall RAB, then re-enable UAC (if desired). It is now possible to use the Project Wizard and create a FlexPendant project.
NOTE!
Robot Application Builder is developed and tested for the English version of Visual Studio.
If you are running Visual Studio in another language you are therefore recommended to switch to the English version.
Requirements for installing and using Robot Application Builder
To install and use Robot Application Builder, the following requirements have to be met. Also make sure that you have administrator permissions on the computer that you are using.
Before...
you must...
installing Robot Application Builder install RobotStudio and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or 2008.
Note! If you are running under windows Vista you need to disable Vista’s User Account Control (UAC) feature. debugging using a virtual IRC5 learn how to run the virtual IRC5 in RobotStudio.
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Before...
you must...
debugging using the real
FlexPendant device executing the application targeting a real IRC5 system install the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 Service Pack
1 or 2, which can be downloaded from http:// www.microsoft.com/downloads. The User Forum has information on how to attach the Visual Studio debugger to the device. See also
Debugging the
FlexPendant device on page 286
.
check that the robot system has the controller option
PC Interface (for PC applications) or FlexPendant
Interface (for FlexPendant applications).
set up a connection between your PC and the robot
controller. See
How to set up your PC to robot communication on page 27
for details about how this is done.
NOTE!
The Visual Studio installation installs .NET and Compact Framework 2.0.
About the Robot Application Builder installation
The RAB installation includes both PC and FlexPendant SDK. It is distributed as freeware on the RobotWare DVD. It can also be downloaded for free along with robotware and
RobotStudio from http://www.abb.com/robotics > RobotStudioCommunity >To Download page >Developer Tools > Robot Application Builder.
For RAB 5.11, the installation was simplified. Before, any existing PC SDK was upgraded when a later RAB was installed. This is no longer the case; both SDK:s will now be installed side-by-side with any existing installation. This section describes the installation of RAB 5.11 and later.
RAB 5.11and later
RAB 5.11 and later installs PC SDK and FP SDK side by side with any previously installed versions. This makes it easier to work with several versions of the PC SDK on a single computer.
The figure below shows what it looks like when clicking the Window’s Start button of a PC that has both RAB 5.10 and RAB 5.11 installed.
2.1_0
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RAB 5.10
RAB 5.10 upgraded any previously installed PC SDK to 5.10 and installed FlexPendant SDK
5.08, 5.09 and 5.10 side-by-side. The reason for the side-by-side installation of several FP
SDK versions was to make it easier for FP SDK users to work on FP SDK applications targeting different RobotWare versions. Today, as the use of RAB is free of charge you can just download any version you need, and work with several versions on your PC if you need to. Earlier RAB releases can be downloaded from http://www.abb.com/robotics >
RobotStudioCommunity >Developer Tools > Robot Application Builder Overview.
What is installed?
The installation generates the following features on your PC:
•
SDK assemblies and resources
• This User’s Guide (Application manual - Robot Application Builder)
•
FlexPendant Style Guide
• PC SDK Reference
•
FP SDK Reference
Working with several versions
A RAB application normally targets a specific RobotWare release. Assuming that you are developing a FP SDK application for a new customer, who will use RW 5.12 and at the same time you are maintaining an existing FP SDK application for a customer whose robot system uses RW 5.09. You will then need to work with two different RAB releases on your PC. See
Release upgrades and compatibility on page 60
for details about releases and compatibility.
FlexPendant applications
If you install RAB 5.10 and RAB 5.12 you will have FP SDK 5.08, 5.09, 5.10 and 5.12 on your PC. You choose which FP SDK version to use when you set up your application project in Visual Studio. See
Using the project template in Visual Studio on page 80
for detailed information.
You should make sure that the FP SDK GUI controls the Visual Studio Designer uses is of the same version. If you have worked with another FP SDK version before, you will need to remove the GUI controls that you have added to the Visual Studio Toolbox and then add them again, pointing to the correct version in the browser. See
Setting up design support for
FlexPendant controls on page 83
for details.
From RAB 5.10 no license is required to develop, build or run RAB applications.To be able to use the 5.08 or 5.09 FP SDK versions of the 5.10 release, however, you will need to install a license key. RAB license keys are no longer available via the order form or SoFa, but ABB’s software support organization can supply a license key at no charge if necessary.
PC applications
If you install RAB 5.10 and RAB 5.12, PC SDK 5.10 and 5.12 will exist on your PC. You choose which PC SDK version to use when adding PC SDK references to your application project in Visual Studio (browse to the installation directory that matches the version when adding the PC SDK references to the project). You should also set the Reference Property
Specific Version to true to ensure that the correct version of the PC SDK dlls in the Global
Assembly Cache (GAC) is used in run-time.
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Installation procedure
The installation procedure is very simple. An installation wizard will guide you through it.
NOTE!
Click Window’s Start button and locate the Robot Application Builder folder when the installation is ready (Start >Programs >ABB Industrial IT > Robotics IT >Robot Application
Builder 5.XX). This is where you find the user documentation: User’s guide, FP Style Guide and the PC and FP SDK References.
You are also strongly advised to study the Release Notes that you will find on the RW DVD and on the web, as these hold the most up-to-date information, including new features and any known limitations of the release.
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2.2. How to obtain and install a license key for RAB 5.09 or earlier
2.2. How to obtain and install a license key for RAB 5.09 or earlier
Overview
In RAB 5.10 the license check was removed from the software, which allows anyone to use
Robot Application Builder for free. This means you do no longer need to bother about getting a license, or including a licx file in your PC application.
NOTE!
For RAB version 5.09 and earlier, licensing is the second part of the installation procedure.
In case you need to develop a RAB application for RW 5.09 or earlier you need to turn to support to get a free license key.
Install licence key
Follow these steps when you have received the e-mail with the license key file:
Step Action
1
2
3
Detach the license key file from the e-mail and save it to a folder on your PC.
Double-click the license key file. This opens the License Install Wizard.
Follow the instructions in the wizard.
NOTE!
To execute RAB applications towards a real robot controller you must connect your PC to the robot controller, either via a network or directly to the service port on the controller. For
detailed information, see
How to set up your PC to robot communication on page 27
.
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2.3. How to set up your PC to robot communication
2.3. How to set up your PC to robot communication
Overview
This section describes how to connect your PC to the robot controller.
You can either connect the PC to the controller via an Ethernet network or directly to the controller service port. When using the controller service port, you can either obtain an IP address for the PC automatically, or you can specify a fixed IP address.
When the PC and the controller are connected correctly, the controller is automatically detected by RobotStudio.
NOTE!
A PC SDK application requires RobotStudio or ABB Robot Communications Runtime to connect to a controller in run-time. The latter is included in the RAB installation. If
RobotStudio is not (and will not be) installed on your PC, you must run the Setup.exe located at C:\Program Files\ABB Industrial IT\Robotics IT\Robot Application Builder
5.xx\redistributable\RobotCommunicationRuntime.
Why is a connection needed?
Connecting the PC to the controller is necessary for all online tasks performed in
RobotStudio: downloading a robot system or files to the controller, editing configuration files, programming and so on.
It is necessary for executing a RAB PC application targeting a real robot controller.
The connection is also used for downloading a FlexPendant application to the controller file system and test it on the real FlexPendant device.
It also enables you to communicate with the controller by means of a console window on the
PC and get valuable information about controller status, FlexPendant memory consumption and the like.
Ethernet network connection
If the controller is connected to an Ethernet network, you can connect the PC to that network as well. The settings to use on the PC depends on the network configuration. To find out how to set up your PC, contact the network administrator.
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Service port connection with automatic IP address
An alternative to network connection is using the controller service port. It has a DHCP server that automatically gives your PC an IP address if it is configured for this. See Windows Help on Configure TCP/IP settings for detailed information about configuring the PC to obtain an
IP address automatically.
NOTE!
Obtaining an IP address automatically might fail if the PC already has an IP address from another controller or Ethernet device. To make sure that you get a correct IP address if the PC has already been connected to an Ethernet device, do one of the following:
• Restart the PC before connecting to the controller.
•
Run the command “ipconfig /renew” from the command prompt after connecting the
PC to the controller
Service port connection with fixed IP address
Instead of obtaining an IP address automatically, you can specify a fixed IP address on the PC you connect to the controller.
Use the following settings for connecting with a fixed IP address:
Property Value
IP address
Subnet mask
Default Gateway
192.168.125.2
255.255.255.0
192.168.125.1
Related information
For information about
How to set up PC network connections
How to connect the PC to the Controller service port
See
Windows Help - Configure TCP/IP settings.
Connect a PC to the Service Port in the
RobotStudio help.
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2.4. Development environment
2.4. Development environment
Overview
This section presents an overview of the development environment used to create RAB applications for PC or the FlexPendant. In either case, you program and debug the application using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or 2008.
Microsoft .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio
Microsoft Visual Studio is supported by the .NET Framework. A core component of the .NET
Framework is the common language runtime (CLR). It manages code execution, threads and memory, while also enforcing type safety.
Another major component is the Base Class Library, which is a comprehensive, objectoriented collection of reusable types. To become a skilled .NET programmer it is essential to learn the functionality offered by the Base Class Library.
It is not in the scope of this manual to teach how to use Visual Studio. For this purpose Msdn
(Microsoft Developer Network) at http://msdn.microsoft.com is a useful source of information.
NOTE!
From RAB 5.11 Visual Studio 2008 is also supported. See
Conversion of VS 2005 projects to
Visual Studio 2008 on page 33
for information about upgrading an existing RAB project to
Visual Studio 2008.
Visual design support and data binding
The most significant improvement of Robot Application Builder with Visual Studio 2005 was the visual design support for FlexPendant applications. Thanks to enhanced abilities of the
.NET Compact Framework 2.0. for building user interfaces, FlexPendant specific controls are available in the Visual Studio toolbox since RAB 5.08.
Another very useful feature of .NET CF 2.0 is data binding, which allows you to connect a
RapidDataBindingSource
or a
SignalBindingSource
to a GUI control without having to write a single line of code. (Except the
Dispose
call when the binding sources are no longer needed.)
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Choosing a programming language
Together with Visual Basic, C# is the most widely used.NET language.
C# is an object-oriented language derived from C, with some features from C++, Java and
Visual Basic. It was designed for .NET and offers the power and richness of C++ along with the productivity of Visual Basic. Both PC and FlexPendant SDK are implemented using C#.
As for FlexPendant SDK applications only C# and Visual Basic are supported. As for PC
SDK applications, on the other hand, any of the .NET languages can be used. ABB support, however, is offered only in C# and Visual Basic. Likewise, in this manual there are code samples in C# and Visual Basic, but none in J# or Visual C++.
At run-time it does not matter which language you have used, as compiled .NET code is language independent. The source code compiles from a high-level language into
Intermediate Language (IL), which is then executed, at runtime, by the Common Language
Runtime. This makes it possible to use different programming languages, even within the same application. See
Definitions on page 18
for further explanation of .NET terms.
NOTE!
It is presumed that you are already a .NET programmer. If not, you need to start by learning the programming language to be used. There are numerous books teaching C# and Visual
Basic.
Integration with Visual Studio
When Robot Application Builder is installed on your computer, it is integrated with Visual
Studio. You will notice when starting a new project, for example, that the project type /Smart
Device/FlexPendant is available in the New Project window. When using the wizard to create a FlexPendant project, common SDK references are added to the project and some code is auto generated.
The visual design support for the FlexPendant will be accessible from the Toolbox in VS and work the same way as the design support for an ordinary Windows application. As for a PC application you use the standard design support. As you will see, using RAB is quite intuitive for a developer used to Visual Studio programming.
NOTE!
The help module is not integrated with the Visual Studio Help function. Pressing F1 when pointing at code, for example, will open the Visual Studio Programmer’s Reference or the
.NET Framework Class Library for the specific language and topic. If your problem is RABrelated this will not help you.
TIP!
Depending on what kind of application you are working at, locate the FP SDK or PC SDK
Reference. You will find it by clicking Windows’ Start button, then pointing at Programs >
ABB Industrial IT > Robotics IT > Robot Application Builder 5.xx. Keep the reference file open while programming, as you will be needing it all the time.
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2.5. Two development models - virtual and real
2.5. Two development models - virtual and real
About this section
When trying out a custom application, you can either use a virtual robot controller or a real robot system. This section provides information on how to use both development models.
Virtual robot technology
The virtual IRC5 of ABB’s RobotStudio allows the IRC5 controller software to execute on a
PC, and supports RAB application developers with a purely virtual environment to be used for development, test and debug.
When you start the virtual IRC5 in RobotStudio, a virtual robot cabinet along with a virtual
FlexPendant will appear on the PC screen.
As a real robot controller is normally not readily at hand for application development, virtual technology is very valuable.
Requirements for virtual environment
The following software components must be installed to develop, test and debug using the virtual environment:
•
ABB RobotStudio (including the virtual IRC5 and RobotStudio Online)
• ABB Robot Application Builder
•
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or 2008
Controller option PC Interface or FlexPendant Interface may not be needed in the virtual environment.
Requirements for real environment
The following software components must be installed to develop, test and debug using a real robot controller:
• ABB RobotStudio (RobotStudio Online is needed to create the robot system)
•
ABB Robot Application Builder
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 or 2008
•
Controller option PC Interface or FlexPendant Interface
• Network connection between PC and robot controller
For information about how to set up the network, see
How to set up your PC to robot communication on page 27
.
Virtual test and debug
Using the virtual environment a FlexPendant application executes on the Virtual FlexPendant as an assembly (dll). You start the application from the ABB menu of the Virtual FlexPendant just like you start it on the real FlexPendant.
A PC application, on the other hand, will run as an independent executable (exe). Using the virtual environment it targets the virtual IRC5 instead of a real robot controller.
Debugging is easy using the virtual IRC5 and Visual Studio. You attach the application process to Visual Studio, set a break point in the code and step through it as it executes. See
Debugging the virtual FlexPendant on page 282
for further information.
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Real tests necessary
The virtual environment is a very convenient choice, especially for testing and debugging.
You should be aware, however, that the virtual FlexPendant is more forgiving than the real device. Using only the virtual FlexPendant, it is very easy to neglect the restraints on memory consumption imposed by the real device. Images, for example, can easily consume all the
FlexPendant memory available for custom applications!
This means that potential problems may be hard to detect until you test the application using a real robot system. It is almost as easy to debug code running on the real FlexPendant device.
See
Debugging the FlexPendant device on page 286
for detailed information.
You should also be aware that your application shares CPU, memory and application host with all other FlexPendant applications. This means that a custom application can impact the overall performance of the FlexPendant.
NOTE!
Before shipping a FlexPendant application, it has to be tested properly, using a real system.
Relying only on the virtual environment is far too risky. Also study the chapter
Robust
FlexPendant applications on page 181
carefully.
Porting the application from virtual to real IRC5
As for a PC SDK application, you will hardly notice any difference when using it with a real
IRC5 controller. The only real difference is that the communication between the application and the controller will now be done over a network, which may have an impact on performance.
A FlexPendant application, on the other hand, may run perfectly on the Virtual FlexPendant, but not work at all on the real device. There may be a lag in response time due to TCP/IP communication, but the main problem is limited resources on the device, both memory and processor power.
The FlexPendant SDK does not slow down performance. Therefore your application is
supposed to perform like any standard application of the FlexPendant. See
Performance on page 188
for some advice on how to speed up a slow FlexPendant application.
Deployment to customer
During development, deployment to the controller is done manually. When the development phase is over and the application needs to be deployed to the customer, this should be done differently.
For information about how this should be done, see
Packaging RAB applications on page
309
.
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2.6. Conversion of VS 2005 projects to Visual Studio 2008
2.6. Conversion of VS 2005 projects to Visual Studio 2008
Overview
Converting an existing RAB Visual Studio 2005 project to Visual Studio 2008 is simple.
When you open a VS 2005 project in VS 2008, the Visual Studio Conversion Wizard will automatically appear. The procedure which converts the project to VS 2008 is easy to follow.
It consists of a few dialogs providing information about what will happen.
NOTE!
If the RAB project is an FP SDK projects, you need to manually edit the post-build event that builds the *gtpu.dll. Find Build Events in the Project Properties and adapt the path to
vcvarsall.bat to the new development environment.
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2.6. Conversion of VS 2005 projects to Visual Studio 2008
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