TIA Portal V18 update 1 download – what’s new in this release

Siemens has released new update for TIA Portal V18 and  S7-PLCSIM V18 SP1 . New software does not have many updates for Step 7, however there are quite a few improvements for WinnCC Unified. Download link is located below.

Improvements in TIA Portal V18 Step 7

1. Stability has been improved when working with the TIA Portal. Partly based on the feedback from returned crash reports
2. TIA Administrator V2 listens at port “8890”. The service of the TIA Administrator V2 that belongs to the process “node.exe” is “SiemensAwb”.
3. The name of the service associated with the process “Siemens.Automation.Portal.Server(.exe)” has been changed from “V[version number]prjsrv” to “prjsrv”.
4. The search function has been improved with synonym recognition. When you search for a term, defined synonyms of the term are now also found.

New updates for WinCC V18

1. The stability and performance have been improved for development and runtime software for WinCC Comfort/Advanced, among others, on account of the feedback received.
2. As of Software Controller V30.0, integrated HMI connections are not supported and cannot be configured.

Updates and improvements for WinCC Unified V18 update 1

1. The new device version 18.0.0.1 was introduced for Unified PC and Unified Comfort Panels in order to be able to use the new functions which were introduced with V18 Update 1. (Images can be downloaded from the Industry Online Support.)
2. System functions improvements for Engineering and Runtime

System function for opening the login dialog
The new “HMIRuntime.UI.UserManagement.SysFct.ShowLoginDialog()” system function is installed with the update. The “ShowLogOnDialog” function is available in the function list. With the system function, you open a login dialog for entering user name and password without leaving the currently displayed screen. Only local user management supports the “ShowLogOn Dialog” system function.
System function for external control of the system diagnostics control
The new function “UI.SysDiag.ExecuteToolbarButton()” . The “ExecuteToolbarButton” function (system diagnostics control) is available in the function list. The system function is used to control the buttons of the toolbar in the system diagnostics control.
System function for external control of the parameter set control.
The new “UI.ParameterControl.SysFct.ExecuteToolbarButton()” system function The “ExecuteToolbarButton” function (parameter set control) is available in the function list. The system function is used to control the buttons of the toolbar in the parameter set control.
System function for external control of the alarm control
The new “UI.Alarm.SysFct.ExecuteToolbarButton()” function. The “ExecuteToolbarButton” function (alarm control) is available in the function list. The system function is used to control the “Single acknowledgment” and “Group acknowledgment” buttons of the toolbar in the alarm control.
Extension of the “InsertElectronicRecord” system function
The “HMIRuntime.Audit.SysFct.InsertElectronicRecord()” function is extended with the update. The “InsertElectronicRecord” function is available in the function list.The “Confirmation type” parameter, which specifies how the action must be confirmed, has been extended.

ActiveScreen property

The “ActiveScreen” property now always returns the screen that has the input focus. If the I/O field in a screen window or a faceplate has the input focus, ActiveScreen returns the screen that is displayed in the screen window or faceplate respectively. If you used ActiveScreen to edit the coordinates in the “OpenFaceplateInPopup” script function, for example, this may result in the popup being opened at a different location than it was in previous versions.

In the runtime settings of WinCC panel, you can now specify whether and after how many failed login attempts a user is blocked.

Segment-based backup for SQLite

Segment-based backup is supported as of WinCC V18 Update 1 for all archive types of the HMI devices Unified PC and Unified Comfort Panel.
The following requirement must be met:

• The “SQLite” database type must be enabled for the HMI device.
  To use segment-based backup for SQLite, follow these steps:

1. Under “Archives”, create one of the following archives:
   – Data log
   – Alarm log
   – Audit Trail
2. Under “Backup mode”, select the “Path” option and specify a path for the backup. For Unified Comfort Panel, the fully qualified mountpoint path is required.
   Example: To use the “MyBackup” directory, specify the path “/media/simatic/data-storage-1/MyBackup”. The mountpoint name is “data-stoarge-1”.A network folder can be configured using the mountpoint name specified in the Control Panel.

WinCC Unified V18 Engineering improvements

Faceplates
The following improvements have been made for faceplates with TIA Portal V18 Update 1:

• Arrays are not supported when using the HMIUDT, WString, and WChar data types on the “Tag interface” tab of faceplate types. Therefore, the “Array limits” option has been disabled for these data types.
• Faceplates opened as a pop-up that enter the visible area due to changing the display in Runtime, e.g. enlarging the window, are now displayed.

Parameter sets and parameter set control

• Transferring new parameter sets into the parameter set control with the “Read from PLC” button, the parameter sets are displayed as selected in the selection menu.
• Parameter sets can be created in the parameter set control, even if the parameter set type elements consist of multiple levels.

Screen management
In the “Devices” area of the project tree, you can find a new “Screen management” folder.
You can create exactly one top-level screen window with screen management. For the top-level screen window, select a screen from the ones available.
Additionally, you configure all properties of the top-level screen window in the Inspector window.
Zoom&Scroll for top-level screen window
For a top-level screen window, configure the following properties in particular:

• Zoom factor
• Position and visibility of the vertical scroll bar
• Position and visibility of the horizontal scroll bar

More about TIA Portal V18 and download