Special Features / Constraints

Please consider the following special features and constraints when using the Trace Viewer:

• Error and Fatal priorities are always enabled. Traces with these priorities are always generated, regardless of the filter settings for types, channels and modules.
• A Fatal trace causes the application to close.
• The filter settings are stored in an XML file upon closing the Trace Viewer. When the Trace Viewer is started next time, the file is read, and the GMSTraceFilter is set accordingly.
• The trace filtering only applies to .NET managers using the .NET wrapper. Unmanaged (C++) managers using the ErrorHandler class are not affected by the filter mechanism and trace directly to the log file without filtering. Such traces will be handled by the Trace Viewer as generic WinCC AO System traces.
• Tracing via .NET wrapper only works if the PVSS project contains the _GMSTraceFilter data point type and one instance of this type called SingletonGMSTraceFilter. If the instance is missing, Trace Viewer issues an error message upon startup, and no traces will be displayed. The filter settings can be changed, but they cannot be written to the filter data point.
• The Trace Viewer works locally. It shows only the traces generated by Managers running on the same WinCC AO System (and therefore writing to the local PVSSII.log file).The number of instances of Trace Viewer on a single computer is limited to one. However, there can be multiple instances in the same project on several PCs. All these instances share the same GMSTraceFilter data point, and there can be some interaction effects when changing the filter settings or when terminating an instance of Trace Viewer.