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Compare two exports

A semantic compare of two DeltaV exports for review, one sentence per difference grouped by module, class or area, independent of order, spacing, line endings and comments.

Verification state: modelled. On the real DeltaV 14.5.1 export, a comparison with itself gave no difference; with an alarm enabled, two instance values set and one transition condition changed, it gave exactly those four sentences, in about 1 s. Not verified on real exports taken before and after a change made in DeltaV, nor which differences a reviewer needs that this does not show. Not seen in the running Editor; not on Windows.

Use this to review a change before and after it is made in DeltaV, or to review an edited export before import.

Compare

  1. Put both exports in the workspace: one taken before the change, one after.
  2. Run Compare DeltaV Exports and pick the earlier, then the later export. The workspace's .fhx files are listed by path.
  3. A tab lists each difference as one sentence, grouped by module, class or area, for example "Module FIC-101 / Parameter GAIN / VALUE: CV "1.2" > "1.5"." Alarms, sequences, steps, transitions, actions and phase parameters are named as such.
  4. Click a row, or press Enter, to open the export where the thing is: the later one, or the earlier one for something removed.

The tab follows both files on disk.

How statements are matched

  • Statements are matched by keyword and naming attribute (TAG, NAME) in any order and any case, so order, spacing, line endings and comments make no difference. Line endings inside a multi-line value do not count.
  • Every module, block, parameter or other statement added or removed, and every attribute added, removed or changed, is one sentence, with its place in both exports.
  • Objects only re-stamped with user and time are counted apart, not listed.
  • Statements with no naming attribute are matched by their order among siblings.
  • Exports are read in their own encoding (UTF-16 or UTF-8), up to 256 MB. An export that cannot be read is named with its place.

Keep the comparison with your change record when you import the change.

Last reviewed 18 October 2026View as Markdown

Compare two exports · Docs · Neural Inverse