EPLAN Electric P8 and TIA Portal connectivity

A new connection between EPLAN Electric P8 and the TIA Portal Engineering Framework from Siemens has made users listen attentively. With EPLAN’s “TIA Portal Connection” and “TIA Portal Openness”, data can now be exchanged bidirectionally between the two worlds of electrical engineering and automation engineering. Users can edit and compare data at every stage in the project. Automatically generated data in EPLAN Electric P8 includes schematics, PLC overviews, and hardware configurations as well as network designs.

Monheim/Hanover, 24 April 2017 – The central function of the new EPLAN Electric P8 and TIA Portal connection is the consistent transfer of detail data for engineering automation systems. With the bidirectional “TIA Portal Connection” from EPLAN, data can be imported or exported into both worlds of automation engineering and electrical engineering. Relevant data can easily be exchanged between the different workstations of electrical engineers and PLC programmers. Both can freely determine when they utilize the data from the other discipline or place it at the other’s disposal. This allows the controlled exchange of information, even for self-contained preliminary work, and proves crucial for revision processes. TIA Portal Connection is based on Automation ML – a modern, neutral and universal format for data exchange according to IEC 62424/IEC 62714. This technology is becoming a standard for automation.

Time benefits for PLC programmers and designers

At the start of the design process in EPLAN Electric P8, electrical engineers save time because data must no longer be entered manually. Data initially created in the TIA Portal is imported into EPLAN Electric P8, where the schematic is generated using the data entered either using drag and drop or even by automatic transfer. This functionality in particular relieves electrical engineers of what are normally manual designing tasks. Another practical benefit: misunderstandings between the different disciplines no longer occur. The designing of the automation components thus becomes faster all while achieving optimal quality.

Open for changes

Users can exchange, later edit, and compare PLC data at every stage of the project and in every direction. This simplifies the time-consuming, frequently multiple, manual comparison for changes or for iterative procedures. Users benefit from transparent overviews for the assignment of PLC assemblies, the editing of which is supported by the system. It all results in an optimized, interdisciplinary engineering process.

Hardware configuration

Hardware configuration includes parts and rack layouts such as the assignments for which module goes into which rack slot. The new data exchange also supports users in designing the appropriate hardware in connection with the schematic and PLC program. Users no longer have to think about the correct configuration of the hardware since the Siemens TIA Portal does this autonomously. EPLAN Electric P8 automatically generates data including schematics, PLC overviews and hardware setups, which all taken together considerably accelerate work processes.

Bus wiring and structural data

Assignment lists receive hardware addresses, symbolic addresses and function texts as well as comments. The assignment lists delineate which and how physical inputs and outputs are allocated. The new interface between EPLAN and the Siemens TIA Portal supports users with the correct assignment of the PLC program’s symbolic addresses to the hardware addresses, which in turn simplifies wiring the inputs and outputs. The bus/network topology also contains the wiring of the racks and bus ports to each other. This exchange of the bus addresses with the dependencies between the slave and master configuration significantly simplifies the collection and documentation of the bus data while simultaneously improving the overview of it.

Background

EPLAN and Siemens have been cooperating extensively for years with the objective of combining electrical engineering with PLC programming. Applications such as the TIA Portal and EPLAN are integrally supplied with the same source data. Users benefit from the high quality data and project planning quality, which further supports mechatronic working methods. Siemens supplies product data to EPLAN Data Portal that can also be retrieved in Siemens Mall and through the CAx Download Manager. The goal is first-class data quality and thus time savings for users in engineering and PLC programming.