This is the most powerful programming environment I’m aware of for industrial automation, and it’s nice to have access to all that power for free. Beckhoff licenses the runtime (the part that lives on the IPC), not the IDE (the programming environment), so the software is free with the full set of features. The programming environment is based on Microsoft Visual Studio, so it looks a little like CCW, but it’s more refined and powerful. All of their PLCs are actually industrial PCs (IPCs). TwinCAT 3īeckhoff is a little unusual in industrial automation. Certainly worth considering for class use. It’s easy to use, and has the easiest simulation mode I’ve seen. Machine Expert feels like it’s outside that continuum, and I think that’s my only complaint from an educational perspective. For example, Allen Bradley has a normal layout and way of doing things, then many other manufacturers will have a layout and feel somewhere between that and Beckhoff. My impressions after using the software is that it’s pretty simple to use, but still feels foreign compared to most others. This could be a handy tool for learning languages, although it probably wouldn’t show how a human would write code in the different languages. One thing I found interesting is their implementation of the IEC 61131 languages allowed automatic conversion between the languages (with some limitations).Ī ladder logic routine could be displayed and edited as instruction list, for example. Their Machine Expert (formerly known as SoMachine) comes in a free version (“Basic”) that’s good enough to service an existing machine. It’s now owned by Schneider Electric, and continues to make PLCs. Modicon is known as one of the first PLC manufacturers. This environment is a little closer to some other Visual Studio based applications, so there’s still some transfer to other brands.
It’s laid out differently than typical AB environments, so experience with CCW isn’t likely to translate into RS5000 or RSLogix500. The biggest downside for education is more advanced programming features are not available in the free version.Ī final thought here: This is made by Allen Bradley, but it’s based on Microsoft Visual Studio. The latest version (v12) includes simulation in the free version as well. From the perspective of trying to learn PLC programming, I think this is a reasonable option.ĬCW only supports three of the IEC 61131 languages, but they’re the right three in my opinion (LD, ST, FBD). My impression is always that it’s a little clunky, but that’s from the perspective of trying to maximize work efficiency. I’ve used this software to program PLCs, HMIs, and configure drives.
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