A bridge between electrical and automation engineering

The central function of the new EPLAN Electric P8 and TIA Portal connection is the consistent transfer of detail data for engineering automation systems. 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.

Data can easily be exchanged between the workstations of electrical engineers and PLC programmers, who can freely determine when they use the data from the other discipline or place it at each other’s disposal. This allows the controlled exchange of information, even for self-contained preliminary work, and provides crucial benefits for the revision processes.

The main benefit of working with the two platforms is that it saves time for both PLC programmers and designers. Electrical engineers save time because data no longer has to be entered manually. Data created in the TIA Portal is imported directly into EPLAN Electric P8, which helps to relieve the electrical engineers of many of the design tasks that were previously carried out manually.

Another very practical benefit is that misunderstandings between the different disciplines can no longer occur. The designing of the automation components therefore becomes faster and optimal quality is guaranteed.

Engineers and programmers who take advantage of the new link between EPLAN Electric P8 and the Siemens TIA Portal can exchange, edit, and compare PLC data at every stage of the project. This simplifies the time-consuming manual comparison for changes and for iterative procedures. Users further benefit from transparent overviews for the assignment of PLC assemblies, the editing of which is supported by the system. The overall result is an optimised, interdisciplinary engineering process.

The new data exchange system also supports users in designing the appropriate hardware related to the electrical design and the PLC program. Users no longer have to think about the correct configuration of the hardware since the Siemens TIA Portal does this autonomously, while EPLAN Electric P8 automatically generates schematics, PLC overviews and hardware setups. Further, the data exchange system ensures the correct assignment of the PLC program’s symbolic addresses to the hardware addresses, which reduces the risk of errors in wiring the inputs and outputs.