PAM Tools is an application conceived and created by Ronn Sokol - lead software engineer for 'PAM application development', in his spare time to serve as an aid in better understanding the complex nature of the thousands of internal files and components used to create plugins, classes, interfaces, menu structures, options, configurations, etc. all associated with integrating (Parker Branding) the CODESYS front-end IDE application.

Over the course of time it has evolved into an immense asset for providing assistance to, but not limited to other developers, testers, support personnel, as well as end-users.

CODESYS is a comprehensive software suite used by automation specialists as a development environment for programming controller applications. It’s an IEC 611131-3 programming tool that was developed by the Germany-based company, 3S ( Smart Software Solutions) in order to provide users with integrated solutions that make the engineering of automated solutions more convenient. It’s a platform-independent development environment that is compatible with PLC hardware and many other automation components available from hundreds of companies, making it a versatile solution that helps users implement a variety of tasks.

Click here to learn more about CODESYS.

The 'Main' window in PAM Tools contains a tab control consisting of two tabs:

• The Main Commands tab
• The Files and Folders tab

The 'Main Commands' tab contains numerous buttons that when clicked, provide detailed internal and external information regarding the PAM application.

Clicking the buttons on this tab if need be, write their respective data to the output window (which is automatically expanded the first time it is written to):

Some of the buttons on this tab serve as shortcuts to launching other applications and/or support tools; Other buttons open Service consoles; And still other buttons are extremely useful for executing commands to easily remove cache files and/or folders from the computer PAM is installed on.

The 'Files and Folders' tab is a secondary tab containing numerous buttons used for easily opening specific files and/or folders (many of which PAM is dependent on) inside a new 'Window's Explorer' window:

Click the 'Open File...' menu item to display the 'Browse for File' dialog:

Click the 'Open Folder...' menu item to display the 'Browse for Folder' dialog:

Click the 'Print...' menu item to open the 'Print Preview' window;

Click the 'Magnify Page' drop down and select a value to increase or decrease the magnification:

Click the 'Print' button on the 'Print Preview' window toolbar to open the 'Print' dialog:

Click the 'Page Setup' button on the 'Print Preview' window toolbar to open the 'Page Setup' dialog:

The 'Edit' menu contains functions which operate on selections inside the 'Output Window':

When text is selected in the 'Output' window and the selected text represents an existing file, this menu item becomes enabled and its text changes to 'Open Selected File'.

When text is selected in the 'Output' window and the selected text represents an existing folder, this menu item becomes enabled and its text changes to 'Open Selected Folder'.

You can then select the menu item which will either open the file or open the folder:

The 'Search' menu contains the various menu items to 'Find' selected text in the 'Output' window:

The currently selected text in the Output window is automatically loaded into the 'Find' window whenever the 'Find...' menu item is first selected.

All the text in the Output window meeting the current 'Find' condition is highlighted in yellow.

When issuing the 'Find Next' or 'Find Previous' menu item, the most currently found text is highlighted in blue.

Click the 'About PAM Tools' menu item in the 'Help' menu to display the 'About PAM Tools' dialog:

Click the Output PAM Information' button on the 'Main Commands' tab to echo an extensive list of information to the Output window which is related to the entire application:

The information displayed in the Output window can easily be saved to a file or sent to a printer. Click here to see a sample of the generated output subsequently saved to a file.

Click the 'Output Plugin Folders' button to display an abbreviated tree containing all the plugin files from this application in the output window.

The information displayed in the Output window can easily be saved to a file or sent to a printer. Click here to see a sample of the generated output subsequently saved to a file.

Click the 'Output Devices Folders' button to display an abbreviated tree containing all the device description files in the output window.

The information displayed in the Output window can easily be saved to a file or sent to a printer. Click here to see a sample of the generated output subsequently saved to a file.

Click the 'Output Libraries Folders' button to display an abbreviated tree containing all the library (xml) files from this application in the output window.

The information displayed in the Output window can easily be saved to a file or sent to a printer. Click here to see a sample of the generated output subsequently saved to a file.

Because of the complexity and length of many of the operations particularly when running the procedures associated with the 'Info' buttons, all of these processes are run asynchronously so as not to tie up the UI.

As a result of the process running asynchronously you have the option to cancel the process before it has completed. While the process is running, the respective button text changes to 'Cancel'. This also applies to the many other buttons in the interface as well as then menu items being temporarily disabled since only one operation can be run at a time. NOTE: each of the "Info" buttons utilize this same logic.

Whenever a particular cancel button is clicked, the operation is immediately stopped and a message "The operation was cancelled" is echoed to the last line of the output window:

The information displayed in the Output window can easily be saved to a file or sent to a printer. Click here to see a sample of the generated output subsequently saved to a file.

The information displayed in the Output window can easily be saved to a file or sent to a printer. Click here to see a sample of the generated output subsequently saved to a file.

Click the 'Categories' radio button to display information in the grid related to all available categories:

Click the 'Commands' radio button to display information in the grid related to all available commands:

Click the 'Plugins' radio button to display information in the grid related to all available plugins:

Click the 'Interfaces' radio button to display information in the grid related to all available interfaces:

Click the 'Show Guid Columns' checkbox to show or hide the 'Guid' columns displayed in the grid:

NOTE: this checkbox is always available and applies to all data displayed in the grid no matter which radio button is currently selected.

Click the 'Show Members' button to open a 'Members' dialog which uses .NET Reflection to show all the members of the currently selected class or interface:

Click the 'Show Inherited Members' checkbox to show or hide the members inherited from the base class and all other interfaces.

NOTE: You can easily sort the data displayed in the grid on multiple columns by holding down the control key and clicking the columns in the order you want the sort to be performed!

Select any of the properties in the 'Property' drop-down and click the 'Show Properties' button to display the 'Properties" window populated with data corresponding to the value selected in the 'Property' drop-down:

Right-click a line in the grid to display its context menu:

Right-click a line in the grid containing data related to a plugin to display the context menu, then select the 'Analyze Plug-In' menu item to open the 'Analyze Plug-In' window:

Click the 'Print...' button in the 'Analyze Plug-In' window to open the 'Print Preview' window:

In the 'Command Editor' window - 'Search in Grid' groupbox, type a value into the 'Find' field and click the 'Prev' or 'Next' button to highlight the found lines inside the grid :

The first found line will be automatically scrolled into view.

Click the 'Open Project...' button in the 'Command Editor' window to display the 'Select Project File' dialog:

Click the 'Launch PAM' button to launch the 'PAM (Parker Automation Manager)' application.

Whenever the ' PAM (Parker Automation Manager)' application is started up, the startup screen is displayed momentarily while all the dependent plugins are being loaded.

The first time PAM is launched only a 'start page' will be shown inside a window pane located in the center of the application.

Subsequent launches of PAM can default to launching the last (most recent) project into the tree.

Click the 'File' - 'New Project' menu item to open the 'New Project' dialog:

Click on the Standard Project template.

Give the project a new name or use the default value (which is "Untitled" plus an auto-incremented suffix)

Provide the location to save the project or use the default value (which is in a pre-determined location)

Whenever you select a 'Standard project' template from the 'New Project' dialog, you will be prompted for more definition.

For instance, you will need to specify the kind of device you are using as well as what language to program the PLC with:

In this example, we are using "PAC320-CXX2X-XX (Parker Hannifin)" as the device and "Structure Text (ST)" as the programming language:

After clicking the 'OK' button on the 'Standard Project' dialog, the main 'PAM' window is displayed with default data loaded into the tree view pane.

NOTE that while the project defaults (devices, libraries, are being loaded) there is a brief pause, but information is constantly being echoed in the status bar accordingly.

Select the 'Help' menu to display its menu items:

Select the 'PAC Online FAQ' menu item from the 'Help' menu to display:

Select the 'PAC Support Page' menu item from the 'Help' menu to display:

Select the 'PAC Product Page' menu item from the 'Help' menu to display:

Select the 'Customer Feedback' menu to display a single 'Feedback' menu item:

Select the 'Feedback' menu item from the 'Customer Feedback' menu to display the 'Parker Feedback' web page:

Click the 'Tools' menu in the main menubar to display its menu items:

Select the 'Options...' menu item from the 'Tools' menu to open the 'Options' dialog:

Click on the 'PAM' list item in the list box at the left of the dialog to display the 'PAM' related options pane:

If CODESYS is installed alongside of PAM, then there will be another 'File Associations' radio button visible called 'Associate files with CODESYS' enabling you to toggle the file association back and forth between the two applications.

You can select the 'Time Format' to use for prefacing messages displayed in the 'PAM Messages View' window.

NOTE: whenever the PAM application is first opened and there is a previous version of CODESYS installed, a confirmation message is displayed asking you if you would like to reassociate the files with PAM.

Click the 'Launch IPM' button on the 'Main Commands' tab to open the IPM application to the defauly Installation tab.

Click the 'Profiles' tab on the 'Installation and Profile Manager' window :

Click the 'Open PAM Service Control' button on the 'Main Commands' tab to launch the PAM.Service.Control.exe.

Click here to see more information regarding the PAM Service Control

Click the 'Open Win Services Control' button on the 'Main Commands' tab to open the standard Windows 'Services' control panel with the first PAM-related service preselected.

Click the 'Plugin Cache' button on the 'Files and Folders tab to open the plugin cache file in your default text editor.

Click the 'Device Cache' button on the 'Files and Folders tab to open the device cache file in your default text editor.

Click the 'Library Cache' button on the 'Files and Folders tab to open the library cache file in your default text editor.

All of the buttons inside the 'Folders' group provide the mechanism to quickly and easily open to the the respective folder inside a new Windows Explorer window:

Below is an example of clicking the 'Common Folder' button: