What's next

The module aims to cover every function of TwinCAT XAE, CODESYS and TIA Portal that an engineer relies on, each run against the real vendor tool. This page lists what is not built yet. Nothing here is a commitment to a date, and several items depend on what the vendor's automation interface allows, which is confirmed on a real installation first.

Beyond the items below, the first step for everything already built is its run against the real vendor tools, on Windows, and on controllers: see the verification state on the overview.

Project and files

• Open CODESYS projects as they are: File-Based Storage and CODESYS Git folders natively, .project files through a text mirror, and archives.
• Open TIA Portal projects through an Openness export (SIMATIC SD or SimaticML), and TIA Portal archives (.zapNN).
• Add, rename, move and remove objects in CODESYS and TIA Portal projects.
• Add TwinCAT transitions, and set-only properties.
• Update references to a renamed object in other files (project-wide refactoring).
• Edit project and compile settings.
• PLCopen XML import and export.
• Archive and retrieve projects.
• Upgrade a project to a newer vendor version, keeping the original.
• Split a project into separate files for teams.
• New project from the company's own template project.
• Project documentation and print.
• An automated check that XAE opens and builds what the Editor wrote.

Editors and language

• The CODESYS Structured Text dialect beyond what TwinCAT shares, and Siemens SCL.
• Completion, hover, navigation and rename inside TwinCAT object files.
• Instruction List and Statement List.
• The declaration table for CODESYS File-Based Storage and the TIA Portal block interface.
• Diagram edits: adding contacts, coils, boxes and connections; adding networks to the 4026 ladder model; negation and set or reset in the network list; coil storage; CFC pins, comments and connections; SFC branches, jumps and step properties.
• Reading network list terminators, jumps, returns and labels, embedded Structured Text in SFC steps and boxes, SFC macros, CFC pages, compositions and feedback, IL networks.
• CODESYS LD, FBD, SFC and CFC; TIA Portal LAD, FBD, GRAPH and Cause Effect Matrix.
• UML class and state diagrams.
• Find and replace across all objects, including graphical ones.
• Cross reference list; call structure, dependency structure, assignment list and resource use.
• Text lists and alarm text lists.

Libraries

• List installed TwinCAT library versions, and install and remove libraries.
• Browse a library's POUs, types and documentation.
• Edit library parameters.
• The TwinCAT 4026 "PLC project as referenced library".
• CODESYS: install and uninstall libraries; namespaces, parameters and the optional and qualified-only flags of a reference; save as compiled library.
• TIA Portal: project and global libraries, library types and master copies with versions.

Build and code quality

• Static analysis through TE1200, CODESYS Static Analysis and the TIA Portal Test Suite, with results in Problems.
• TIA Portal rebuild and clean.
• CODESYS boot application generation.
• Know-how protection and source download to the PLC.
• Update a TIA Portal program to the current instruction versions.
• Compiler warning configuration.
• CODESYS and TIA Portal messages placed at their line.

Hardware, I/O and tasks

• Hardware catalogue: add and remove modules.
• Install device descriptions (ESI, devdesc, GSDML).
• PROFINET network and topology views.
• EtherCAT bus scan against the real hardware.
• Module and device parameters.
• Real-time settings (shared and isolated cores).
• Fieldbus configurators (EtherCAT, PROFINET, CANopen, Modbus, EtherNet/IP).
• Symbol configuration and OPC UA publishing.
• TIA Portal transfer areas and I-device.
• TwinCAT task watchdog, core assignment and auto-start; I/O links with Size, new link pairs, and links through the Automation Interface.
• CODESYS I/O mapping and core binding.
• TIA Portal tasks (organisation blocks and cycle settings) and hardware configuration.

Targets and deployment

• TwinCAT online change, and TIA Portal download without reinitialisation.
• TwinCAT Login without download, restart to Config mode and reset.
• Compare the project with the controller.
• Upload from the controller.
• Download to a memory card (TIA Portal).
• Start and stop of an S7-1500 CPU, and reading its state before a download.
• Read the boot project back from the controller.
• Find controllers on the network, and register ADS routes.
• Secure ADS (TLS on TCP 8016).
• Device users, access protection and certificates.
• Licences on the target.
• Firmware updates of CPUs and EtherCAT slaves.
• Soft PLCs: the TwinCAT User Mode Runtime and CODESYS Control Win SL and Control for Linux SL.

Online and debug

• Forcing and release of values, and TIA Portal force tables.
• Breakpoints, stepping, call stack and flow control. No public vendor interface was found; the plan is to confirm on a real installation, then seek partner integrations with the vendors.
• Live values in the editor for CODESYS and TIA Portal; SFC step states in the diagram.
• Writes to TIA Portal CPUs; values over OPC UA for CODESYS and TIA Portal.
• Import of the vendor's watch lists.
• TwinCAT Measurement (ScopeView projects and recordings), CODESYS trace and TIA Portal trace.
• TwinCAT event logger and CODESYS device log.
• EtherCAT online diagnostics.
• S7-1500 diagnostic buffer filters, alarms and module states; other CPU families.
• CODESYS PLC shell.
• File transfer to and from the controller.
• Persistent and retain data.
• Decoding of LDATE, LDT, LTOD, pointers and references.

Test

• TF1140 test runs and results.
• CODESYS CfUnit and Test Manager; TIA Portal Test Suite.
• System and factory acceptance tests.

Team and change management

• Per-rung diff for LD and FBD networks.
• Merge help for TwinCAT objects.
• Semantic compare of .tsproj and .plcproj files.
• Compare for CODESYS and TIA Portal objects.
• TwinCAT Multiuser and TIA Portal Multiuser Engineering.
• CODESYS Git and SVN.
• CODESYS Automation Server rollout.
• Project users and rights.

Motion, safety, HMI and drives

• Axis and technology object configuration.
• Axis commissioning panels and PID tuning.
• Recipes and alarm configuration.
• Safety programs: the proposal is to keep editing them in the certified vendor editors, and to show and compare them read only, read signatures and drive TIA Portal's safety download with its password.
• HMI engineering (TE2000, CODESYS Visualization, WinCC): proposed to stay out of this module, as a separate engineer and toolchain.
• Drive engineering (Startdrive) and motion commissioning: proposed as a later pack.

Migration and the customer's environment

• Vendor keymaps as presets, captured from the installed vendor tools.
• Import of watch lists, breakpoints and target settings from the vendor workspace.
• Licence failures as actionable messages naming the missing licence.
• Activation that follows the project, replacing the neuralInverse.plc.enabled setting.
• Checked offline install, no administrator rights on a managed machine, licence servers and a packaged, signed build.
• Installing vendor software: proposed to stay with the vendor installer and IT; the module only detects installed versions.
• TwinCAT trial licence activation: proposed to stay in XAE.
• Later vendors: Rockwell Studio 5000 and Mitsubishi GX Works, after these three.