Michael Critchfield gives us a closer look at some of the changes introduced in ETS6.3.0, including signing in, licensing, and creating a new project.
ETS6.3.0 is here. In addition to the many improvements and bug fixes, it comes with plenty of new features and also some changes. So, what are those new features, and what has changed for you when working with ETS?
Signing in
The changes can be seen as soon as you start up ETS6.3.0. There is a new way of signing in that uses a new central service called KNX ID. Of course, you can still run ETS6 in demo mode and without signing in, but we recommend that you do sign in, even when using a USB dongle to license ETS6, as ETS6 will remember your credentials and will not ask you to sign in again for up to 30 days between starts. Signing in also enables some other features further down the line.
Here you can sign in before returning to ETS6. You then pick your license and where it is stored which can be either as a cloud license (default) or, when available, on a USB dongle.
Licenses
Once on the ETS6 dashboard, there are several useful improvements that have been made, but let’s focus on the changes and head to the ETS settings. On the Licenses tab, I see my ETS6 Professional cloud license.
To set up my workstation, I may also want to license some ETS apps that I use regularly. With ETS6.3.0, I can now license multiple apps in one go by selecting them with the CTRL-key pressed. As I am on a new PC, I want to check the installation status of these apps, but whereas previously I had to visit MyKNX and manually download the apps I need, with ETS6.3.0 I can now change to the ETS Apps tab where I will see all the apps I have licensed, and can directly download those that are not already installed.
Creating a new project
The dialog when creating a new project has also changed compared to ETS6.2.2. Creating the default topology will establish an IP Backbone 0.0, an IP Area 1.0 and a TP Line 1.1.
This new Project will be created with three-level Group Address Style by default. After the project has been created, I can switch to two-level Group Addresses via the Project Details, if that is my preference. However, I cannot switch to free-level Group Address Style. Only a project created with a former version of ETS6 and that was set to use free-level Group Addresses, can remain in that setting in ETS6.3.0.
Conclusion
Many things have changed with ETS6.3.0, including some new features and many, many improvements – much of which will be covered in upcoming issues of KNXtoday. Next month we will look at changes to opening existing projects, but if you can’t wait, check out our release video on YouTube and get your ETS6.3.0 today!
Michael Critchfield is the ETS Product Manager at the KNX Association.
