Restrictions and Special Issues - Manual - Software Loader - The AX SIMATIC SW-Loader. - Software Loader (sld),tool

There are some restrictions in the TIAX direct loading workflow:

• No code blocks (neither in software-units nor in the standard area) should be downloaded from the TIA project. If code blocks are present, the sld will abort the download until the code blocks are deleted in the TIA project. However, three special organization blocks (MC-Servo, MC-Interpolator, and MC-LookAhead) required by the motion functionality in the PLC firmware must remain in the TIA project and are downloaded from there.

  Notice: Creating a software-unit with code blocks in the TIA project and successfully downloading it with TIA Portal will block any further download from AX side. The code blocks in the TIA project must be deleted before any changes in the AX code can be downloaded.

• AX reserves a range of numbers for data blocks, starting from 8192 with a length of 512. As a result, the numbers 8192-8704 cannot be used for technology objects defined in the TIA project. The start of the range can be modified using the option '--non-overwriting:new start'.

• The target restrictions of the Motion-control library are verified. For example, the instruction MC_MotionInPosition of the library @ax/motioncontrol-native-v7 is only supported on a T-CPU with FW 3.0. The sld will reject the download of an application using such instructions on a PLC with FW 2.9 or on a non T-CPU.
• Block names, including the namespace, must not exceed 124 characters due to a restriction in TIA Portal for the online view. If the sld detects a block that exceeds this limit, it will report the block and abort the download process. Modify your code to ensure successful downloading.

• TIA Portal will show an additional software-unit 'SIMATIC_AX' created by the sld for the AX code and data blocks. These blocks are not accessible inside TIA Portal and are only used to preserve AX code when downloading changes in a technological object in online state. Use AX tools to debug and monitor your code.

  Warning: A download from TIA Portal in offline mode always removes the code from AX!
  Afterwards, a download from AX side is required.

  Therefore, go online in TIA Portal before download to preserve the AX code.
  The download of changes only of technological objects is so possible.

  Note that TIA Portal deletes the AX debug info during such a minor download, but the AX code remains intact. If you want to debug or monitor AX code, run a delta-download with sld first to download the AX debug info again.

• The technological objects in the TIA project and the AX code are tied via the block number of the technological object. In the AX application, the block number is resolved to a pointer (REF_TO) to the data block of the technological object. Renaming a technological object does not impact the mechanism, but changing the block number requires reflecting the change in the AX code.

Please note that the restrictions in the 'TIAX library' workflow do not apply to the 'TIAX direct loading' workflow. However, if you plan to reuse your code in the TIAX library workflow, you should consider these restrictions.

You can use all SIMATIC AX tools to debug and monitor your motion application.