Logix Workbench

Studio 5000-style editor and diff tool for Allen-Bradley .L5X files

Logix Workbench is a standalone Windows app (no Studio 5000 license required) that lets you open, edit, and diff Rockwell Automation .L5X controller export files directly in your browser — with a clean dark UI, visual ladder diagram rendering, and a full side-by-side comparison engine.

v1.1.0 — Rewritten in Rust. 2.2 MB single EXE, instant startup, no Python or runtime dependencies.

Screenshots

Home screen with feature cards and recent files	Editor with Controller Organizer sidebar
Keyboard shortcut cheatsheet (Ctrl+/)	Built-in User Guide (opens in new tab)

Features

Editor

• Open any .L5X file via native Windows file picker — reads directly from disk, nothing uploaded
• Controller Organizer sidebar with collapse/expand all — navigate programs, routines, tags, data types, AOIs, I/O, tasks, and trends
• Visual Ladder Diagram — renders rungs as graphical diagrams with click-to-edit; switch to Raw Text mode any time
• Tags — full CRUD for controller and program-scoped tags; drill into UDT/array members and individual DINT bits; right-click to copy name or value
• AOI Editor — tabbed view of Parameters, Local Tags, and Logic with full inline editing
• Data Types — view and edit UDT member tables inline
• I/O Configuration, Tasks, and Trends panels
• Multiple editor tabs — work on several files at once; Ctrl+Tab to cycle
• Save downloads the modified .L5X back to disk; unsaved-change indicator on every tab

Compare

• Side-by-side diff of any two .L5X files — tags, routines, AOIs, data types, programs, I/O, and trends
• Diff tree with change counts; filter by name; click any item to render it in A/B panes
• Rung-level diff — Myers LCS algorithm detects changed rung content even when rung counts are identical; counts each logical change exactly once
• Find in diff — search rung text, tag names, and routine names; navigates to the exact rung in the correct panel
• Migrate — copy any item (tag, routine, AOI, data type) from one file to the other with one click
• Copy Diff — one click copies a plain-text summary of all changes to clipboard
• Visual / Raw Text toggle for all rung cards without rerunning the comparison

Quality of Life

• Keyboard shortcuts — Ctrl+S/O/N/W/F/G/Tab plus ? and Ctrl+/ cheatsheet
• Recent files on the home screen with live filter
• Jump to rung (Ctrl+G) — scroll directly to any rung by number
• User Guide opens in a separate browser tab (? key)
• Runs 100% locally — nothing is sent over the internet

Quick Start

Option 1 — Standalone EXE (Windows, no install needed)

1. Download L5XEditor.exe from the latest release
2. Double-click it — a browser tab opens automatically at http://127.0.0.1:5000
3. Click + Editor, then Open to load your .L5X file

The server auto-exits when the last browser tab is closed.

Option 2 — Build from Source

Requires Rust 1.70+.

git clone https://github.com/ChrisMangin/logix-workbench
cd logix-workbench
cargo build --release
# EXE at: target/release/L5XEditor.exe

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+S	Save file
Ctrl+O	Open file
Ctrl+N	New file
Ctrl+W	Close current tab
Ctrl+F	Focus search box
Ctrl+Tab	Next tab
Ctrl+Shift+Tab	Previous tab
Ctrl+G	Jump to rung number
Ctrl+/	Keyboard shortcut cheatsheet (toggle)
?	Open User Guide in new tab
Esc	Close open dialogs

Project Layout

logix-workbench/
├── Cargo.toml
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs              axum HTTP server, port detection, heartbeat watchdog
│   ├── state.rs             thread-safe app state (doc, compare cache)
│   ├── l5x/
│   │   ├── mod.rs           XML helpers — parse, serialize, navigate, mutate
│   │   ├── read.rs          read-only queries (summary, tags, routines, AOIs …)
│   │   ├── write.rs         mutations (add/edit/delete for all element types)
│   │   └── diff.rs          compare engine + migrate (Myers LCS, roxmltree)
│   └── api/
│       ├── static_files.rs  embedded frontend (rust-embed)
│       ├── project.rs       open/save/new/pick-file endpoints
│       ├── tags.rs          tag CRUD
│       ├── routines.rs      routine CRUD
│       ├── rungs.rs         rung add/edit/delete/move
│       ├── compare.rs       compare + migrate endpoints
│       └── …                datatypes, aois, modules, tasks, trends, misc
├── frontend/
│   ├── index.html
│   ├── style.css
│   ├── app.js               UI logic (~5 000 lines, no build step)
│   ├── ladder.js            visual ladder diagram renderer
│   └── guide.html           standalone user guide page
└── docs/
    └── screenshots/

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
HTTP server	axum + tokio
XML parsing (reads)	roxmltree — zero-copy
XML mutation (writes)	xmltree
Rung diff	similar — Myers LCS
Frontend embedding	rust-embed
File dialogs	rfd — native Win32
Frontend	Vanilla HTML / CSS / JS — no framework, no build step

License

MIT — see LICENSE.