Working with Browser Based Engineering

If you want to make changes to your project and/or deploy your project to the respective PLC, you can use IDE-as-a-Service ("IDEaaS"), an SDA service streaming IDEs to browser windows including connectivity to the physical device via our connectivity service (if wanted).

Supported PLC vendors: Please see the supported automation technology section.

BYOL Licensing for Siemens

To use IDE-as-a-Service for Siemens Projects with TIA Portal or Simatic Manager you need to upload your own license to the SDA platform. The uploaded licenses will be used as floating licenses. E.g., if you have 2 licenses in your account, 2 users can each open an IDEaaS session and work in parallel.

Uploading your own license

Please download and install the SDA local client on the workstation on which you use the Siemens Automation License tool (see section on the local client for installation instructions).

Once it is installed, open the local client and navigate to the license management section. Inside the local client there is a video tutorial that explains all required steps in detail.

Licenses that have been uploaded to SDA can at any time be retrieved again via the local client and used locally.

Using IDEaaS

Start IDEaaS

To get started, simply navigate to the respective project and click on "Open IDEaaS". A new browser tab will be opened and IDE will be streamed in this tab.

Note that you may have to disable the pop-up blocker in your browser to ensure that IDE-as-a-Service can open in a new browser tab.

Currently supported browser types are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Microsoft Edge.

Note that when opening a Siemens PLC project for the first time in IDEaaS you will be asked to select one of your uploaded Siemens licenses that will be used for opening this project. Please make sure that you select a license that is appropriate for this project. You can later edit the selected license via the context menu of the project ("license management").

You can use all functionalities of the IDE as your are used to from the installation on your local machine.

Create new project versions with IDEaaS

In IDEaaS you can work on the project just as in your local installation of your IDE. For terminating an active IDEaaS session and saving all changes click on the icon to close the session in the top right corner. This will open a window as shown below which allows you to provide a comment for the new generated project version. With deactivating the checkbox you can choose to withdraw the changes. You have also the option the mark the new version as deployed in case you performed a download to the PLC.

It is also possible to save a new version during an active session by clicking on the save project icon.

In case the session gets accidentally terminated or there is an internet connection loss during an active session, IDEaaS creates by default a new version. No changes get lost!

Copy & Paste

It is possible to copy and paste text elements to and from IDEaaS sessions using the familiar keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V).

Set session timeout

You can set the timeout of a session after which it will be automatically closed in case of in activity. The current project state will be saved as a new version in this case. Navigate to the time icon in the top left corner to adjust the timeout setting. The default timout for new sessions is 10 minutes.

Open multiple applications in parallel

You can open multiple other engineering environments in parallel. Navigate to the application icon in the top left corner to open any of the other applications.

Note that only the project opened in the main engineering environment will support the functions to automatically save new versions.

Upload and download files to an IDEaaS session

IDEaaS supports the up- and download of files to and from an IDEaaS session. For that navigate to the folder icon on the top left. A new dialog appears in which you can either up- or download files. Those files will be available in your home folder in Windows.

Connectivity with the PLC

Siemens TIA Portal

Please follow the steps below to connect to your PLC:

Check in the SDA console if the status of your PLC is “Connected”. If not, please check the configuration of the gateway and the control
To connect with your PLC go to Online/Extended go online (see figure below)
Choose the PN/IE interface (see figure below), choose the interface: Amazon Elastic Network Adapter, and change the address to 127.0.0.3 (Note: This setting is always identical, independent of the IP address of your PLC. Please configure the IP address of your PLC in the respective Ethernet configuration)
Press “GoOnline”

Please note that if you are a user of the SDA Connectivity Service V2 that you don't have to use the IP 127.0.0.3 but can use the local IP of the PLC that is typically configured in the PLC project by default. The ip address is also displayed in the connectivity indicator in the top bar.

Beckhoff TwinCAT

To establish a connection to a TwinCAT PLC, type in the IP address of the PLC and apply the following settings:

Select IP Address instead of the default selection Host Name
Add the target route to the Project instead of creating a Static route

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Last updated 3 months ago