A week ago we announced the new version of the TIA Portal V20 software for programming Siemens S7-1500 and S7-200 PLCs
The new version of TIA Portal V20 is now available for download:
SIMATIC STEP 7, S7-PLCSIM, STEP 7 Safety and WinCC V20 TRIAL Download TRIAL Download for: SIMATIC STEP 7 (TIA Portal) V20 incl. Safety and S7-PLCSIM V20, as well SIMATIC WinCC (TIA Portal) V20 As a registered customer, you can download the trial version for SIMATIC STEP 7 V20 incl. Safety, WinCC V20 and S7-PLCSIM V20 and test it for 21 days
New features and changes compared to earlier TIA Portal versions
TIA Portal Version Control Interface
The Version Control Interface (VCI) enables the connection and use of any versioning system, e.g. VCI, GIT, together with TIA Portal. VCI offers the export or import of program components, such as blocks, user data types, from the TIA Portal project and displays the current comparison status at the object. The functionality of the Version Control Interface (VCI) is available both in the UI of the TIA Portal and at the Openness interface.
The following new feature is available in V20:
- Additional possibility to export and import HMI Global Scripts using VCI. Users can now export/import JavaScript files via VCI, thus allowing better mergeability and easy exchange with source control.
TIA Portal User Management & Access Control (UMAC)
The TIA Portal project offers integrated user management. For consistent access protection, user roles can be configured with function rights for engineering and runtime. Users and user groups can also be managed centrally through the connection of TIA Portal to a UMC domain.
TIA Portal V20 includes the following new features:
- Rename of <Project user> to <Local user> and <Global user> to <Central user> for better consistency with UMC and UMAC supported devices.
- Create and manage UMC users and groups without the need to connect to a UMC domain
- Runtime function rights can be sorted for better clearness
- A filter at the import dialog for UMC users and groups helps finding specific users and groups much faster
TIA Portal Openness
TIA Portal Openness is the one common interface for digital engineering in TIA Portal.
It provides an application programming interface for automating TIA Portal engineering tasks and workflows in the value chain: Data exchange, automation of production planning, automation of product engineering, automation of project verification, and automation of execution and services.
Highlighted API innovations in TIA Portal Openness V20 are:
- Long-term support and compatibility
- APIs for Continuous Integration support such as new document-based formats for import/export, library type management/creation, Multiuser workflows and Continuous Testing (Test Suite Advanced)
- Extended access to hardware configuration and module parameters
- Innovations in additional option packages: SiVArc, SINAMICS Startdrive, SINAMICS DCC and WinCC Unified
You can find the complete list of all new features in the TIA Portal Openness system manual, section “What’s new”.
TIA Portal CAx
The CAx interface provides you with the option of exchanging hardware information in AutomationML format between TIA Portal and ECAD systems in accordance with the Application Recommendation Automation Project Configuration (AR APC) standard. In addition to exchanging devices, modules and networks, selected parameters can also be exchanged with ECAD systems. The definitions of the available parameters can be easily determined using the CAx Publication Tools and can then be imported into other tools.
The following new features are available in V20:
- CAx Import supports automatic opening of referred global libraries if the AutomationML file contains library references which are in ‘preview’ state in TIA Portal.
- Import of AutomationML files containing library references which are created from modules connected to master controller is supported with some limitations.
- For communication objects (interfaces, ports), the exchange of multilingual comment attributes is available using AutomationML.
- Support for CAx Add-In template is available which allows the users to create their own Add-Ins to perform custom actions during CAx Export/Import.
- With the CAx Publication Tools,
- The exchangeable attributes can be determined for modules that are described using GSD or GSDX and made available for partner systems such as ECAD systems.
- The option to filter possible values for hardware parameters is available (preview feature).
TIA Portal Add-Ins
Add-Ins offer a convenient way to expand TIA Portal functionality via the Openness API. Add-Ins are written as .NET programs and can be easily redistributed within an organization and also distributed to third-party providers.
For V20, the following improvements are available in the area of Add-Ins:
- Improved performance of Context Menu Add-In display. Users will no longer experience display timeouts, ensuring a smoother and more efficient workflow.
- Possibility to create multilingual Add-Ins and display them in the current TIA Portal UI language.
- Easy access to SIOS Add-Ins page from Add-Ins task card.
- Icon support available for Context Menu Add-In, for quick identification and selection of menu entries.
Engineering-Optionen
TIA Portal Multiuser Engineering & TIA Project-Server
TIA Portal Multiuser Engineering allows several users to work on the same project simultaneously. This results in a significant reduction in configuration times, and projects can be commissioned faster.
The basic principle: The project administration is handled by an autonomous server application. This application can be installed independent of a TIA Portal.
The following new functions are available with Multiuser Engineering V20:
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- Support of Kerberos network authentication protocol
- Extension of the Synchronous Commissioning Mode to the Exclusive Session and the Exclusive Multiuser Mode in the Multiuser Session
- Extension of the openness functions to mark and unmark Multiuser objects and work with project server groups
- Performance improvement for the project server connection and when creating and checking in workflows
- Return to online mode after successful check-in and refresh
- General performance improvements
TIA Portal Teamcenter Gateway
The Teamcenter Gateway enables you to save and manage TIA Portal projects and global libraries in Teamcenter. Operator control is integrated into the TIA Portal.
TIA Portal Teamcenter Gateway V20 offers the following new functions:
- Compatibility supported are the Teamcenter versions 13.3/14.2/14.3/2312
TIA Portal Cloud Connector
The TIA Portal Cloud Connector enables full access to SIMATIC hardware, if the TIA Portal is located in a different subnet or in a cloud environment.
What’s new as of TIA Portal Cloud Connector V2.0:
- Industrial Edge app: For use with TIA Portal Cloud, the TIA Portal Cloud Connector can also be installed as an Industrial Edge app to access the local SIMATIC hardware.
SIMATIC S7-PLCSIM V20 and S7-PLCSIM Advanced V7.0
With SIMATIC S7-PLCSIM V20 PLC code on S7-1200 and S7-1500 controllers can be debugged easily.
The following new functions are available with SIMATIC S7-PLCSIM V20:
- New design of the user interface for S7-PLCSIM Standard, which also allows S7-PLCSIM Advanced functions to be used (S7-PLCSIM Advanced license required)
- PLCSIM supports the new PLC Family S7-1200 G2 and new S7-1500 PLC variants.
- A new compact view is available which allows to minimize the UI to the list of PLC instances. This view can be pinned to be always in front of the screen.
- Support of the most recent firmware versions in S7-1200 and S7-1500
- Export of Sequences for using in TIA Portal Test Suite Advanced and import from older PLCSIM Versions
With SIMATIC S7-PLCSIM Advanced, virtual controllers for simulating S7-1500 based controllers can be created and used for extensive simulation of functions.
The following functions are newly available with SIMATIC S7-PLCSIM Advanced V7.0:
- All new PLC article numbers for TIA V20 / FW V4.0 are supported.
- More precise simulation through feature configuration support. Support for loading and utilizing the PLC configurations while allocating the correct size of PLC memory.
- In S7-PLCSIM Advanced, TIA Portal projects from versions V14 to V20 as well as CPU firmware versions V1.8 V4.0 are now supported.
- Supports the API versions from V3.0 to V7.0
SIMATIC Visualization Architect
The SIMATIC Visualization Architect (SiVArc) enables simple, fast, flexible and automated creation of HMI contents based on the STEP 7 user program.
The following new functions are available with SIMATIC Visualization Architect V20:
- New,Trial mode (no license required / unlimited in time) with a limited number of configurable rules:
- Screen rule: max. 5
- Text list rule: max. 3
- Alarm/Tag rule: max. 1
- Advanced tag rule / copy rule: not available in trial mode
- Advanced Tag Rule – Second Wave
- Generation of HMI Internal Tags
- Generation of HMI Tags based on PLC Tag table.
- Introduction of the Column “Used HMI Tags” in the Advance Tag Rule Editor.
- Several Improvements for the Generation based on Advance Tag Rules.
- Support the generation of Alarm Logs.
- Support for additional Unified Screen objects:
- All object from the Categories “Basic object”, “Elements” and “Controls” are now supported from SiVArc.
- Improvement of the SiVArc expressions:
- New Expression LayoutField.Height and LayoutField.Width can be used to adjust the size of a Screen object to the size of the layout field during generation.
- Improvement of the usability:
- Multi-user project: SiVArc rules can be created and modified in a local session and uploaded to a multi-user server.
- Improvement of the Openness API:
- It’s possible to use the expression resolver via Openness API.
Runtime-Optionen
SIMATIC OPC UA S7-1500
The following new functions are available with SIMATIC S7-1500 PLCs (TIA V20 / FW V4.0):
- Quantity structures & Performance
- Increased number of nodes for user-defined server interfaces and possible server methods
- Higher performance for read, write and subscriptions
- Access control
- Support of access rights for individual OPC UA user
- High flexibility to make data available to authorized users only
- Alarms & Conditions
- Alarms & events available in individual language by different OPC UA users
- Subscription to 1 out of 3 languages, selectable by the OPC UA client or subscription to all 3 languages at ones in parallel
- Subscription handling by the external Client (load balancing between different clients)
- Subscription can be transferred to other available OPC UA clients
- Interface modeling
- TIA Portal Add-in for fast & easy creation of user-defined interfaces
- Replacement of generic SIMATIC server interface with user-defined interfaces