Simatic S7 Classic or TIA Portal

Hello,

In our factory, almost 80% of the plc's are siemens S7, with 2 units TIA Portal V13. The rest are spread among Omron, Mitsubishi, AB, Schneider and Delta.

I would like to ask for your opinion, if we are to take a training course, what would be the best way? To take the classic S7 or to go the TIA portal?

Is the knowledge in working with s7 classic, could still be used in working ( programming / trouble shooting ) with TIA? or TIA portal is entirely different, and you have to start the basic again.

I have'nt yet started looking on the TIA software, so I am still in the dark.

Thanks for all your reply.
Leo

I'd go with TIA. It's the future. New PLC will support only TIA, while old ones will be compatible also with TIA.

It is not easy to answer.
With that large amount of S7-Classic CPUs, the best would be to have some training in both STEP7-Classic and STEP7-TIA.
If you have to chose one, then go with STEP7-TIA.

Thanks for the reply.

The basic knowledge learned in S7-classic could still be used in TIA? Or there will be a huge learning curve again, when you go for TIA.

Thanks.

Some things will be the same, but TIA has whole new concept of All-In-One.

Abigail said:

Thanks for the reply.

The basic knowledge learned in S7-classic could still be used in TIA? Or there will be a huge learning curve again, when you go for TIA.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

In terms of programming... yes. There are minor changes. One interesting one is that the SCL eidtor now shows a variable window instead of defining it manually as in a normal high level language.

In terms of configuration, TIA is different from Step7 for sure, but it's the future. There are also options (although I haven't tried them) to import Step7 projects into TIA portal.

If you had to pick one, I would go with classic. Older software is going to be a little less user friendly. The newer software will be easier to figure out, and I think most things you learn in the classic class will carry over.

Its not a paradigm shift; programming is still basically the same. Training in one of them will cover most of the other.

Tia v14

Hallo Leo

I would go with V14 than all old HMI's are available like MP177 / 277 ...
If you know S7 V5.5 than TIA is not that different it only needs to get used to it where things are for example "VAT Table" is now "Watch and Force Table"
A big advantage is that you can open a lot of program files simultaneously and access them instantly by clicking on them at the bottom.
The window for program display is relatively small and surrounded with a lot of menu functions this may need to get used to it.


Alfons

Hi
Well to begin with basic knowledge of PLC programming and troubleshooting is required, So I would suggest
Step1: Step 7 V5.5 basic training
Step2: TIA V 14 complete/advanced training.

Regards

gyaanc said:

Hi
Well to begin with basic knowledge of PLC programming and troubleshooting is required, So I would suggest
Step1: Step 7 V5.5 basic training
Step2: TIA V 14 complete/advanced training.

Regards

Click to expand...

If you can swing more than one training course, I think this might be a good suggestion. Start with the v5.5 basic training (programming 1 or maintenance), play around with TIA a bit to get used to it, then take further classes on the new platform.

There are two different things you can learn from training: what you are doing, and how you are doing it. Between 5.5 and V14 the HOW changes a little bit, but the WHAT is almost identical. There are some differences between the two software platforms, but for the most part they just shuffled the buttons around. If you learned what to do by rote memorization, it may not be easy to go back and forth. If you understand what you're doing, it should be easy to learn how to do a given task on both sides.

Thank you all, for your comment/s.

I am planning now to take the Step7 classic training, as suggested.

cheers.
Leo