Hi
Sometimes a piece of equipment is mobile and needs to be paired with the application/station, often by scanning a barcode containing the machine ID. A function to transform a text into a machine variable would allow to use this machine variable in the application. Today I have to create a table to make the link between the text and the machine
allowing also to modify on the fly the machine / station assignment could be an option too
+1 ! Just literally crashed into the same problem here are well!
Currently, there seems to be no way to either turn a machine ID into a “Machine” or vis versa. 
Any update on this? Seems to be a really basic thing that is not possible and there still appears to be no real workaround at present.
Same is true for the reverse… I was expecting TOTEXT() would to the trick but in this case the variable holding the machine object does not even show up in the list of sources to choose from in the expression editor…
Sorry I can’t be much help. But I am curious. I don’t come across many reasons to ever use the machine data type. Can you guys share what you use it for?
For me it is selecting a machine. … so that it can be used in the machine related widgets and referenced my app events.
Yeah… this data type just seems mostly useless to me. Seems like it would be a lot simpler to just have those machine widgets be selectable based on a TEXT machine id and we could achieve the exact same functionality with a much more common data type.
Not saying you are wrong to ask for this feature request, but I think everything would be a lot simpler moving forward if those widgets just took a text field as an input.
Even the you would need to find a way to get the id of the machine in the first place… or the name.
Some machines are mobile and not have a permanent link with a station. When I want to use a machine with my app, I scan a barcode to make the link. This is where we need texttomachine()