From a technical perspective, the TIAX direct loading workflow is a minor extension to the existing workflow for SIMATIC AX customers. Previously, the hardware configuration for a SIMATIC PLC was created and managed in the TIA Portal and then downloaded to a PLC. Before, during the download process, sld removed all code and data blocks downloaded from the TIA Portal.
With the TIAX direct loading workflow, technological objects (data blocks) and a few predefined organization blocks (MC-Servo, MC-Interpolator, and MC-LookAhead) are preserved during the download by sld. The engineering tool marker on the PLC is also not switched, allowing technological objects to be monitored using TIA Portal diagnostic tools.
The extended Motion control organization blocks (MC_PreServo, MC_PostServo, and MC_PreInterpolator) are available via the Tasks library. The task MC_Transformation will be available in a later version.
You can access all variables of a technological object in AX, similar to TIA Portal. However, there are some restrictions:
- Some variables, such as Position, are read-only and provide only information.
- Structured types that are part of a technological object cannot be read or written as a whole. Only scalar variables can be read or written.
- Complete array members cannot be read or written as a whole. Only individual elements of an array can be read or written.
- Accessing variables of a technological object is slower due to internal communication with the technological kernel.
It is recommended to store the value into a temporary variable for repeated access.
Warning: The default mode for
sldwith the option '--non-overwriting' is 'Delta'.
Please refer to the considerations for download in run for this use-case.