Tools - References - SIMATIC AX - AX Hardware Engineering documentation - Hardware Engineering,

• Hardware configuration definition is supported by the extension AX SIMATIC Hardware Engineering in the AX Code IDE.
  Use the context menu by right clicking on a folder and selecting the entry Create hardware file sample to create a sample file.
• The hardware compiler (hwc) generates a deployable hardware configuration from the textual declaration.
• The hardware loader (hwld) transfers a deployable hardware configuration to a SIMATIC controller.
  The loader can also download SD card images exported from TIA Portal for initial controller setup.