How to Reduce Time to Build a Control Expert Project?

Overview

You can reduce time to build your application with:

In Control Expert, select Tools > Project Settings > General and these submenus:

This table describes the solutions from submenus:

Submenu	Status	Solution
Management of build messages	Online/Offline	Click a warning value and replace by nothing if needed.
Project autosaving on download	Online	Uncheck: save STA⁽¹⁾ save STU save XVM
PLC embedded data	Online	Uncheck Data dictionary to reduce the amount of information downloaded to the PLC. If Data dictionary is checked, check Only HMI variables to only download to the PLC the variables which attribute is HMI variables.
		Uncheck Upload information⁽¹⁾.
		Click the Automatic value and replace by On user request for Upload information management⁽²⁾.
		Check Optimize data on-line change.
PLC diagnostics	Online/Offline	Uncheck values if needed.
(1) Keeping this option helps to secure the application. (2) The On user request option can be activated for a running application in a plant. It may not be selected for bench tests. NOTE: If Upload information is not downloaded to the PLC, it won’t be possible to open the project in connected mode without having the same project opened in local mode on the PC.

NOTE: Click the Apply button to record your modifications.

Control Expert project development rules to improve the time to build the project are listed below:

To facilitate program maintenance and optimize performance when performing online modifications, use small sections: up to 300 instructions on average, as limited by the application structure.
On LL984 language, reduce the number of networks per segment: 40...100 networks per segment.
To deal with online modification, use periodic task (if possible) with enough extra time: 20% of the current scan time.
In the Data editor, only check the save attribute for variables strictly as required (See %S66, and %S94).

General advice is listed below:

In Control Expert software, use Build > Build Changes instead of Build > Rebuild All Project when offline.
When a modification is done on a section, the complete section is rebuilt. So reduce the number of sections with changes at a time when online.
Use Ethernet communication instead of USB.
When using Ethernet communication, modify the CPU maximum Control Expert data exchange by PLC scan to 12x1024 in the Configuration tab of the CPU. The build time speeds up but the scan is negatively affected. So when online, change this setting during the commissioning process and switch it back once running in the field.

NOTE: This option must be active for SCADA application via NOE as Data dictionary requires x times 1024 to work.