Release Notes – MatrikonOPC Explorer

For additional information on this product, these release notes, or Matrikon, please contact:
Matrikon Inc.
1800, 10405 Jasper Avenue
Address: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
T5J 3N4

Phone: +1-780-448-1010
Fax: +1-780-448-9191
Web: http://www.matrikonopc.com
Sales: drivers@matrikonopc.com
Support: support@matrikonopc.com

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The information contained herein is confidential and proprietary to Matrikon™ Inc. It may not be
disclosed or transferred, directly or indirectly, to any third party without the explicit written
permission of Matrikon Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
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recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Matrikon Inc.
©Copyright 1997 - 2009
Matrikon Inc.

These are notes that are added to and sent with each release of MatrikonOPC Explorer.
Release Notes for MatrikonOPC Explorer v5.0.0.0 (August 21, 2009)
New Features and Enhancements:
• OPC A&E 1.0 is now supported.
• Added throughput calculations on any OPC group.
• Added the ability to right-click in the Available Items window and select Add all items in
the selected group and all items that are below this group.
• Added the ability to save error and advise logs.
Known Limitations:
• 0009822: Does not support multi-dimensional arrays.
Known Outstanding Issues:
• 0011029: Synchronous groups send out only read requests when the group is selected.
Resolved Issues:
• 13650: Launching OPC Explorer from the MatrikonOPC Configuration panel no longer
displays an error.

MatrikonOPC Explorer Release Notes 1

 • 13594: Synchronous reads no longer continue when changing to Asynchronous
communication.
• 11952: OPC Explorer no longer has issues connecting to MatrikonOPC Redundancy Broker
(ORB).
• 12783: OPC Explorer no longer shuts down when a remote OPC server stops
communicating.
• 04838: Saving large configuration files no longer causes access violations.
• 12669: Changing group properties is now applied when the Group window is closed.
• 13857: All OPC Write errors are now reported to the Error Log window.
• 12773: Adding a Sync group no longer makes all groups with the same items Synchronous.
• 13215: OPC Explorer no longer throws exceptions on Save As when the default
configuration could not be loaded.
• 12671: Can now adjust the % Deadband parameter of a group.
• 12451: Can now load a configuration file with a group named CurrentTags.
• 12953: No longer able to change the header name of the Writes dialog.
• 12701: Explorer no longer sends SetActiveState call after changing the data type of an
item.
• 13069: Renaming a group to an existing group name no longer causes the client to
disconnect from the server.
• 01314: OPC Explorer now shuts down properly when the computer is shutting down.
• 13772: Add items error dialog wording changed so that the understanding is clearer.

Release Notes for MatrikonOPC Explorer v4.0.0.0 (October 6, 2008)

New Features and Enhancements:
• 0011715: OPC Explorer can now launch licensing for MatrikonOPC servers.
• 0011712: OPC Explorer can now launch the configuration panel for MatrikonOPC servers.
• 0011714: OPC Explorer can now launch the security configuration panel for MatrikonOPC
servers.
• 0011716: Can now be launched with a command-line parameter to automatically connect
to a server and add a default group.
Known Outstanding Issues:
• 0009822: Does not support multi-dimensional arrays.
• 0011029: Synchronous groups send out only read requests when the group is selected.

Release Notes for MatrikonOPC Explorer v3.5.0.0 (July 21, 2008)

New Features and Enhancements:
• Now detects DA, HDA, A&E and Security interfaces.
• When loading a configuration the first connected group will automatically be displayed.
• Loading a configuration file from the command line is now supported.

MatrikonOPC Explorer Release Notes 2

 • OPC Security Logon and Logoff are now supported.
• Total number of items connected to all groups in the current server are now displayed in the
Server Information panel.
• Milliseconds are now displayed for all OPC items.
• Advise log now displays info for all data messages.
• Refresh option added to the Options panel.
• Demand read of groups can now be from either cache or device.
Known Outstanding Issues:
• 0009822: Does not support multi-dimensional arrays.
• 0011029: Synchronous groups only send out read requests when the group is selected.
Resolved Issues:
• 0010413: No longer displays an error when trying to delete multiple items with the same
item ID.
• 0009872: OPC Explorer no longer pops up an error when shutting down.
• 0010300: Adding multiples of the same item, each with different requested data types, no
longer overwrites previous data types.
• 0009377: Sync update rates now update at the rate specified in the group update rate.
• 0000835: Item properties are now returned from Arrays properly.
• 0009776: Changing the browse type now automatically refreshes the browse window when
adding items.
• 0009385: OPC Explorer no longer shows HDA-only servers on registry browsing.
• 0011076: OPC Explorer no longer gives an error when the OPC server tree is right-clicked
below the listed OPC servers.

Release Notes for MatrikonOPC Explorer v3.4.0.0 (March 18, 2008)

New Features and Enhancements:
• Flat browsing is now available through the Options menu.
• Can sort by the columns in the Item Display window.
• When connecting to any OPC server, the Add Group menu will automatically appear. This
can be turned off in the Options menu.
• When adding a group, the Add Items menu will automatically appear. This can be turned
off in the Options menu.
• Added the background scan option to OPC Groups. This is the rate at which all items that
are not being viewed in OPC Explorer are updated in the display. All callbacks are still being
sent for all OPC items regardless of this setting.
• Icon identifying inactive items in the Item View window has changed.
• Added the ability to export the currently configured items to a CSV file. This file will contain
the item name, group name, update rate, value, quality, and timestamp of all the items.
• Explorer no longer asks you to save the configuration when no OPC servers are connected.

MatrikonOPC Explorer Release Notes 3

Known Outstanding Issues:
• 0009822: OPC Explorer does not support multi-dimensional arrays.
• 0004838: OPC Explorer may crash when saving large configurations. This bug is rare.
Resolved Issues:
• 0000699: Can now browse down more than three layers on some third-party OPC servers.
• 0004170: Connected icon changed for non-MatrikonOPC servers.
• 0004494: Validate button now displays a hint.
• 0000271: GUI graphic of the Add Items button in Tag Studio changed.
• 0005193: Company information changed to MatrikonOPC.
• 0005316: When adding items, OPC Explorer no longer sends NULL access paths.
• 0006079: Paused option removed from update speed menu.
• 0005246: CTRL-A shortcut selects all items in the right pane of the Tag Manager.
• 0006757: Explorer now disconnects when a disconnection is called by the server.
• 0006878: Explorer browsing can be enabled or disabled from the Options menu.
• 0008114: Resizing Explorer no longer changes column width settings.
• 0005091: Can now add over 10,000 tags with having minimal CPU usage.
• 0004325: Can now write boolean values from Signal generator tab page.
• 0001319: Explorer no longer gives an error when closing after having a large configuration
loaded.
• 0005824: Explorer no longer sends NULL access paths in the add items call when loading
from an XML file.
• 0009316: Can no longer set the group update rate, deadband or background scan to
negative numbers.
• 0009025: OPC Explorer now supports all OPC data types.
• 0009376: Group Update rate is now limited to a max of 2147483647 milliseconds.
• 0009329: Can now export items to a CSV file with current values.
• 0009409: Error log now reports failed item addition.
• 0009410: Connect Remote OPC Server button is now available no matter which part of
the OPC connection tree is selected.
• 0006026: Using Asynch I/O 1.0a and turning off Request Timestamp with Notifications
no longer causes OPC Explorer to use 100% CPU.
• 0009775: - Double-clicking on an OPC server after it is connected now pops up the Add
Group panel.
• 0009692: Add/Connect dialog now triggers the auto add group and add items.
• 0009696: When items are sorted by column the entire list will be updated to ensure that
the correct values are sorted to the top. It is still recommended to use the Background scan
setting when using column sorting for relying on data to be sorted to the top from large
lists.

MatrikonOPC Explorer Release Notes 4

 • 0009776: When adding items changing the browse type now automatically shows the
browse window if it was hidden.
• 0000835: Item properties now returned properly for arrays.
• 0009847: Re-browsing the OPC server list no longer disconnects all current servers.

Release Notes for MatrikonOPC Explorer v3.3.0.151 (January 1, 2003)

New Features and Enhancements:
• Scroll bars added to Server and Group information windows.
• Support for OPC Shutdown event – when a server shuts down while OPC Explorer is
connected to it, OPC Explorer will disconnect from it gracefully if OPC Explorer receives the
Shutdown callback from the OPC server.
• Resizing the Available Tags panel in Tag Studio no longer hides the server browser directory
tree.
• Windows registry save location changed from Matrikon Consulting Inc. to Matrikon.
• Selecting Refresh from the main menu while a computer or network is connected will
refresh the list of OPC servers (for a computer) or computers (for a network) underneath it.
• OPC Explorer will not disconnect from and OPC server that returns an error on browsing
folders or items, but instead will report the error and try to handle it as best as possible.
Known Outstanding Issues:
• Using Perform to test an OPC server’s response rate causes OPC Explorer to crash when the
Perform window is closed.
• OPC Explorer may time out when browsing the local node. This bug is extremely rare.
• An incorrect code page may be used in the Russian version of Windows.
Resolved Issues:
• Adding the same group twice will produce an error, but will not cause OPC Explorer to shut
down its connection to the OPC server.
• Clicking on the status panel (Errors/Advice Log) will bring up both the Error Log and Advice
Log.
• Device read for asynchronous groups fixed.
• Group settings in group’s Properties box and group’s right-click checkboxes now correctly
reflect the current group state.
• Explorer now correctly uses ‘ ‘ (the NULL string) instead of “*” to specify the universal
browse filter.

Release Notes for MatrikonOPC Explorer v3.1.0.74 (January 1, 2003)

New Features and Enhancements:
• Added Matrikon product information panel.

MatrikonOPC Explorer Release Notes 5

Release Notes for MatrikonOPC Explorer v3.1.0.63 (February 28, 2002)
New Features and Enhancements:
• Browsing – extended support for remote machines. OPC Explorer now supports remote
browsing for OPC servers who support the OPCEnum interface. Previously, OPC Explorer
only allowed a user to connect to remote OPC servers which were also registered on the
local machine.
• Browsing – replaced list view and drop-down list with a user-friendly tree view. This allows
the user to better manage OPC server connections and groups.
• Added support for item properties.
• Ability to do a demand Device read for each group.
• Increased speed of item browsing.
• Improved session loading and saving.
• Double-click on server icon to connect.
• New Connection window allows the user to directly enter host and server for connections.
• Ability to disable Network Browsing on start up to optimize speed.
• New filtering features for item browsing.
Resolved Issues:
• Errors code mismatch when writing to items under some circumstances.
• Error writing values to items with the same item ID.
• Error writing to more than one array item at the same time.
• Multiple error messages appear when OPC Explorer is shut down while still processing a
large task.
• Could not disconnect from the server when Explorer is busy doing other tasks and would not
respond to mouse clicks.
• Load items from a file, and then select the item’s property option. The item name is
blanked.

MatrikonOPC Explorer Release Notes 6