EchelonÒ IzoTÒ Commissioning Tool ReadMe
Release 4.4, March 2020

Copyright © 2020 Echelon Corporation
All Rights Reserved

1      Overview

The IzoT Commissioning Tool (CT) is a graphical software tool based on Microsoft Visio that you can use to install and commission a community of LON devices by simply drawing your network using the powerful and easy-to-use Visio software.  As you draw your network, IzoT CT communicates with your devices to make them match your drawing.  To make two devices communicate, you draw a line between them.  The result is a network drawing that serves as the as-built documentation for your network.

This document describes changes, known problems, and workarounds for the IzoT Commissioning Tool (CT).  For additional information and updates (including critical updates), go to www.echelon.com/downloads.  For answers to frequently asked questions, see Echelon’s Knowledge Base at www.echelon.com/support/kb.  For the latest IzoT CT news, go to izot.echelon.com.

The “IzoT Commissioning Tool” name is the name of the OpenLNS Commissioning Tool (CT) starting with release 4.1 of OpenLNS CT.  The “IzoT Net Server” name is the name of the OpenLNS Server, starting with release 4.02 of the OpenLNS Server.  The product names referred to by the IzoT CT and IzoT Net Server software and documentation are not all updated to the new IzoT names, so you may see references to both sets of names in the software and documentation.

2      Contents

1     Overview.. 1

2     Contents. 1

3     What’s New.. 1

4     Release Identification. 1

5     System Requirements. 1

6     Known Problems and Workarounds. 1

6.1          Visio Macro Problems. 1

6.1.1        Macros Disabled in IzoT CT Drawings Created with the LonMaker® Tool 1

6.1.2        Extra Visio Drawings Opened. 1

6.1.3        Windows Reports Visio has Failed after Closing an IzoT CT Drawing. 1

6.1.4        IzoT CT Menus not Displayed in Visio. 1

6.2          IzoT CT Design Manager Problems. 1

6.2.1        Options not Displayed in the IzoT CT Default Options Tab. 1

6.2.2        Different User Account Error 1

6.2.3        Bottom of Dialog is not Visible. 1

6.2.4        Imported LonMaker Databases Stored in Different Folders. 1

6.3          IzoT CT Drawing Problems. 1

6.3.1        Reference Connection Locations Not Synchronized. 1

6.3.2        Database Access Error 1

6.3.3        Subsystem Names with Ampersands. 1

6.3.4        Invalid RNI Names in Restored Networks. 1

6.3.5        Cannot use Accelerator Keys. 1

6.4          Recovery does not Place Devices in Top-Level Subsystem.. 1

6.5          IzoT CT Help Closes with IzoT CT Browser 1

6.6          LonPoint Plug-in Problems. 1

6.6.1        Superfluous Security Warning Dialog. 1

6.6.2        LonPoint Plug-in Registration Failure. 1

6.7          Names with Multi-byte Characters. 1

3      What’s New

This ReadMe document applies to Release 4.4 of the Echelon IzoT Commissioning Tool (CT).  Following are the major new features of this release:

·         Silent Install – IzoT CT is now capable of silent installation.

4      Release Identification

You can verify that you have Release 4.4 by starting IzoT CT, clicking the IzoT CT icon in the top-left corner of the Echelon IzoT CT Design Manager, and then clicking About Echelon IzoT CT.  The About Echelon IzoT CT Design Manager dialog appears.  This dialog displays the version number of your IzoT CT software.

The “IzoT CT” name is the name of the OpenLNS CT software starting with Release 4.1.  The following table summarizes the OpenLNS CT releases:

Name

Version Number

Date

OpenLNS CT 4.0

4.00.92

January 2013

IzoT CT 4.1

4.12.16

March 2018

IzoT CT 4.3

4.30.12

July 2019

IzoT CT 4.4

4.40.14

March 2020

 

5      System Requirements

The following section lists the system requirements for computers running IzoT CT.

·         64-bit and 32-bit versions of MicrosoftÒ Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2016.

·         1GHz x86 or x64 processor or faster with SSE2 instruction set or newer (2 GHz or faster processor recommended).

·         Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 or newer.

·         5 GB or more of free disk space plus the minimum Windows requirements for the selected version of Windows.  This does not account for the size of IzoT Net databases.

·         2 GB RAM minimum plus the minimum Windows requirements for the selected version of Windows.  This may vary depending on the requirements of the IzoT Net Server and the IzoT Net applications running on the computer.

·         Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6 or higher, for reading included PDF documents.

·         1280 x 800 or higher resolution display with at least 256 colors.

·         Mouse or compatible pointing device.

·         LON/IP, local, remote, or IP-852 OpenLDV 5 network interface. 

·         LON/IP interfaces use standard PC Ethernet or Wi-Fi interfaces to communicate  with any LON/IP enabled device.  LON/IP interfaces are defined using the IzoT Network Services LonTalk-IP Interfaces application which can be found in the start menu under Echelon IzoT Network Services Utilities.

·         Compatible local network interfaces include the U60 FT, U60 TP-1250, U10, and U20 USB network interfaces; PCC‑10, PCLTA‑20, or PCLTA‑21 network interface cards; and the SLTA‑10 Serial LonTalk Adapter.  The PCC/PCLTA and SLTA-10 network interfaces are compatible with 32‑bit versions of Windows only.

·         Compatible remote network interfaces (RNIs) include the IzoT Router, SmartServer, i.LON 100 Internet Server, and i.LON 600 Router. 

·         Compatible IP-852 network interfaces include the IzoT Router, SmartServer (with IP-852 routing option), i.LON 100 Internet Server (with IP-852 routing option), and i.LON 600 Router.

Third-party network interfaces may also be compatible with IzoT CT, but Echelon does not test with or provide technical support for them.

6      Known Problems and Workarounds

This section describes known problems and their workarounds for this release.  Numbers in parentheses at the end of the descriptions are Echelon's internal problem tracking IDs.

6.1    Visio Macro Problems

6.1.1    Macros Disabled in IzoT CT Drawings Created with the LonMaker® Tool

If you open an IzoT CT drawing originally created with the LonMaker tool, Visio may display message the following error message: “Macros in this document are disabled because the security level is high…”  If you click OK, the drawing opens, but most of the IzoT CT functionality is disabled.  Workaround: To enable the IzoT CT software to work with a drawing created with the LonMaker tool, use the following steps to decrease Visio's macro security.

1.      Open the Tools menu.

2.      Click Options, select the Security tab, and then click Macro Security.  A dialog appears allowing you to select Low, Medium, High, or Very High security.

3.      Select Low or Medium security.  If you select Low security, you will be able to open the drawing without a prompt.  If you select Medium security, you will be prompted to enable macros for unsigned network drawings or network drawings signed by companies that have not been added to the trusted signatures list.  

Visio's security level is persistent.  When you change Visio's security level, it will be the security level for Visio every time it is started until you change it again.  Alternatively, you can apply your own company's digital signature to any IzoT CT drawings to disable macro warnings for those drawings.  For detailed instruction on how to do this, go to support.microsoft.com.  (40186)

6.1.2    Extra Visio Drawings Opened

When you open an IzoT CT document, more than one instance of the document may open in Visio, or additional documents may be opened at the same time.  Workaround: To prevent opening extra drawings, follow these steps:

1.      On the Visio Add-Ins menu (the LonMaker menu in Visio 2003), click Synchronization/Resynchronize.

2.      Select Reset Visio Workspaces.

3.      Click Next.

4.      Select either Only the Current Drawing to update the workspace for the current drawing only, or All Drawing Files in the Network to update the workspace for all drawing files.  (40066)

6.1.3    Windows Reports Visio has Failed after Closing an IzoT CT Drawing

When you close an IzoT CT document, Windows may infrequently report that Visio has stopped responding after closing the IzoT CT drawing.  Workaround: This problem occurs after the IzoT CT add-in has properly closed the IzoT database and the Visio drawings and then terminated.  As a result, the IzoT CT drawing and IzoT Net Server database are not corrupted, and you can safely close and ignore the error message.  (56976)

6.1.4    IzoT CT Menus not Displayed in Visio

If automation events have been disabled in Visio, the IzoT CT menus may not be displayed in Visio.  Workaround:  To display the IzoT CT menus, follow these steps:

1.       In Visio, click the File tab, and then click Options (on left side).  The Visio Options dialog opens.

2.       In the Visio Options dialog, click Advanced (on left side of dialog)

3.       On the right side of the dialog, scroll to the bottom, and verify that Enable Automation Events is selected under the General heading.

4.       Click OK.  (63602)

6.2    IzoT CT Design Manager Problems

6.2.1    Options not Displayed in the IzoT CT Default Options Tab 

If you press the ENTER key on the IzoT CT Default Options tab, the displayed options will disappear.  Workaround: Either re-select the category or click a different tab in the OpenLNS Design Manager and then re-click the IzoT CT Default Options tab.  (41369)

6.2.2    Different User Account Error

If you use IzoT CT from a different user account than the one used to install the IzoT CT software, the following error message may appear when you initially open or create a network: “Cannot start IzoT CT.  If you have run Visio directly, please instead run IzoT CT Design Manager…”.  Workaround: Exit Visio, exit and restart the IzoT CT Design Manager, and then re-open (or re-create) the network.  If the problem persists, reset the Visio workspaces as described in Corrupted Visio Macro Security Settings.  (23900)

6.2.3    Bottom of Dialog is not Visible

In some cases, the bottom edge of the IzoT CT Design Manager dialog may be clipped. Workaround: Go to the IzoT CT Default Options tab, and select the IzoT CT font category. Change the Dialog height factor (for example, if it is 1, change it to 1.1). Close the IzoT CT Design Manager, then restart and repeat the process, restoring the original Dialog height factor value.  (64882)

6.2.4    Imported LonMaker Databases Stored in Different Folders

If you import a network created with the LonMaker tool into IzoT CT, the folders in which the drawings and databases are stored may be different. IzoT CT stores the drawings and databases in the C:\Users\Public\Documents\LonWorks\OpenLnsCt folder by default; the LonMaker tool stored the drawings and databases in the C:\LM folder. Workaround: In the General tab of the IzoT CT Design Manager, change the selected folder in the Drawing base path field to select whether the IzoT CT Design Manager lists the IzoT CT networks or the LonMaker networks.  (63419)

6.3        IzoT CT Drawing Problems

6.3.1    Reference Connection Locations Not Synchronized

If you move a reference connection in one IzoT CT client, other IzoT CT clients will not be updated with the new location of the reference shape. Workaround: Replicate the drawing update in all instances of IzoT CT, or use the auto-alignment feature.

6.3.2    Database Access Error

If the IzoT Net Server does not have read/write access to the folder containing an IzoT CT database, you may receive an LCA #22 [DB Access Error #-2032] error message when trying to open that database Workaround: Use the Windows File Manager to browse to the folder containing the network database, which is C:\Users\Public\Documents\LonWorks\OpenLnsCt\Databases\<network name> by default, right-click the folder, and select Properties. Click the Security tab, and then add or edit an entry for “Everyone” with Modify permission.  (67626)

6.3.3    Subsystem Names with Ampersands

If you perform a network merge and the source network contains a subsystem (Visio page) with an ampersand character (&) in its name, IzoT CT may report an unexpected error or Visio may fail. Workaround: Remove ampersands from all subsystem names.  (51231)

6.3.4    Invalid RNI Names in Restored Networks

If you back up a network that uses a remote network interface (RNI) and restore it on a different computer, the name of the default network interface for the restored network will be the RNI even if it has not been defined on the current computer (or if the RNI is defined, but references a different device). Workaround: Use the LonWorks Interfaces application in the Control Panel to create an entry for the correct RNI, and then select that RNI when opening the network.  (47073)

6.3.5    Cannot use Accelerator Keys

You cannot use the Accelerator keys to access the IzoT CT menu items in the Visio 2010 Add-Ins tab. Workaround: Use the mouse to access the IzoT CT menus.  (57703)

6.4        Recovery does not Place Devices in Top-Level Subsystem

If you recover a network, some of the devices in the top-level subsystem may be recovered to a subsystem named “Subsystem 5”, which is not the top-level subsystem.  Workaround:  Move the devices and functional blocks from Subsystem 5 to the top-level subsystem as described in Changing the Subsystem for an IzoT CT Shape in the IzoT CT User’s Guide.  (41815)

6.5        IzoT CT Help Closes with IzoT CT Browser

If you open both the IzoT CT help and the IzoT CT Browser and then close the IzoT CT Browser, the IzoT CT help file also closes. Workaround: Do not close the IzoT CT Browser if you want to continue using the IzoT CT help file, or re-open the IzoT CT help after closing the IzoT CT Browser.  (39570)

6.6        LonPoint Plug-in Problems

6.6.1    Superfluous Security Warning Dialog

A security warning dialog may be displayed when opening a drawing that includes the LonPoint stencil.  Workaround: You can safely close and ignore the warning.

6.6.2    LonPoint Plug-in Registration Failure

When IzoT CT attempts to register the LonPoint plug-in and the LonPoint resource files are not properly installed, the LonPoint plug-in may display an error message that is hidden behind the Visio window that makes it appear as if IzoT CT has failed. Workaround: Minimize the Visio window to expose the LonPoint plug-in error message, and then click OK.  (59536)

6.7        Names with Multi-byte Characters

The IzoT CT tool and some plug-ins may fail if devices, functional blocks, or network variables have multi-byte character names.  Workaround: Change the name of the object in the IzoT CT drawing and then restart the plug-in.  If that does not correct the problem, do not use a multi-byte character name.  (41701)

 

Echelon, IzoT, LON, LNS, LonMaker, LonTalk, LonWorks, i.LON, Neuron, OpenLDV, and the Echelon logo are trademarks of Echelon Corporation that may be registered in the United States and other countries.