TwinCAT driver

Observe these guidelines when importing the TwinCAT controller tags into
FactoryTalk Optix Studio
.

Controller tags

You can load tags in the offline mode into
FactoryTalk Optix Studio
 from these file types:
  • EXP
  • TPY
The exported
EXP
 file contains the following data: 
variable name
-
symbolic address
-
data type
-
data size
-
description
EXP
 file example
switch - .switch - BOOL -1 - Global variable switch
(data size = 1 bit)
string01 - .string01 - STRING - 82 - Global variable string01
(data size = 82 bytes)
Struct02.Field3 - .Struct02.Field3 - BYTE - 1 - Global variable Struct02.Field3
(data size = 1byte)
Members of arrays and structures are imported as single variables, for example:
ArrayOfWord[0] - .ArrayOfWord[0] - INT - 2 - Global variable ArrayOfWord[0]
(first word of the array of words)
ArrayOfWord[1] - .ArrayOfWord[1] - INT - 2 - Global variable ArrayOfWord[1]
(second word of the array of words)

Communication driver considerations

The Communication driver can import global variables and local variables from Program (PRG) module types, Function, or Function blocks (FB).
Starting from version 10.1.0.3 of the driver, you can import:
  • Structures and arrays as single variables (depending on the version of the supervisor program)
  • Variables directly from the controller (
    Get PLC Tags
     button of the
    Import
     dialog)
Starting from version 10.1.0.5 of the Communication driver, you can import the controller variables into
FactoryTalk Optix Studio
 from
TPY
 files. The
TwinCAT PLC control
 software automatically creates a
TPY
 file for each controller project. The
TPY
 file is XML-based and contains located controller variables and their addresses as well as generic project information. This functionality requires
TwinCAT system
 2.8.
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