Software help

[AndrewG]

Working on my first Siemens project. It's supposed to be a S7 PLC with a TP-1200 HMI (Comfort panel). What software is used to program these? Can I use TIA Portal for both the PLC and HMI programming? Or do I need Win CC for the HMI? Also, what is SIMATIC Step 7 software, is this obsolete? Thanks in advance.

[Joe E.]

Is Siemens all new to your site or do you already have an installed base?

PLCs are programmed with Step 7, HMIs with WinCC. The old versions worked in Simatic Manager, the new versions are in TIA Portal. They are separate licenses for Step 7 and WinCC.

Which S7 PLC are you looking at? If it's an S7-300 or S7-400, you can use Step 7 for Simatic Manager. Depending on which S7-300, you probably can use Step 7 for TIA Portal, but maybe not. We have 3ea S7-300 PLCs that are not (and will not be) supported in Portal.

If it's an S7-1500, you will need to use Step 7 for TIA Portal.

For the Comfort panel, you will need WinCC for TIA Portal.

If you already have licenses for Step7 for Simatic Manager and WinCC Flexible, they will not work to activate the TIA Portal versions. You can buy an upgrade/combo license that will activate both on one machine, though. That's a cheaper route than buying a new Portal license.

[Joe E.]

Let me add that you should contact your local Siemens distributor for details. I don't know if Step 7/WinCC for Simatic Manager are still available or for how long.

And get ready for a fairly steep learning curve.

[AndrewG]

Thanks for the info. Siemens is not used much at my site.