Beckhoff TE1120 User Manual
Manual | EN
TE1120
TwinCAT 3 | XCAD Interface
2020-12-21 | Version: 1.1
Table of contents
Table of contents
1 Foreword ....................................................................................................................................................5
1.1 Notes on the documentation..............................................................................................................5
1.2 Safety instructions .............................................................................................................................6
2 Overview.....................................................................................................................................................7
3 Concept ......................................................................................................................................................8
4 Workflow...................................................................................................................................................10
4.1 Importing topology ...........................................................................................................................10
4.2 Enabling/disabling plugins ...............................................................................................................10
4.3 Configuring plugins..........................................................................................................................11
4.4 Sorting plugins.................................................................................................................................12
4.5 Changing the converter rule path ....................................................................................................12
4.6 Changing converter rules ................................................................................................................13
5 Reference user interface.........................................................................................................................16
5.1 Import via XCAD..............................................................................................................................16
5.2 Variable Name Converter Rules......................................................................................................16
5.3 XCAD Interface Options ..................................................................................................................19
5.4 Open XCAD Interface Log (local)... .................................................................................................22
5.5 Find Log...........................................................................................................................................22
5.6 Output window.................................................................................................................................22
6 Reference plugins....................................................................................................................................25
6.1 Create Global Variable List with links ..............................................................................................25
6.2 Convert variable names...................................................................................................................26
TE1120 3Version: 1.1
Table of contents
TE11204 Version: 1.1
Foreword
1 Foreword
1.1 Notes on the documentation
This description is only intended for the use of trained specialists in control and automation engineering who
are familiar with applicable national standards.
It is essential that the documentation and the following notes and explanations are followed when installing
and commissioning the components.
It is the duty of the technical personnel to use the documentation published at the respective time of each
installation and commissioning.
The responsible staff must ensure that the application or use of the products described satisfy all the
requirements for safety, including all the relevant laws, regulations, guidelines and standards.
Disclaimer
The documentation has been prepared with care. The products described are, however, constantly under
development.
We reserve the right to revise and change the documentation at any time and without prior announcement.
No claims for the modification of products that have already been supplied may be made on the basis of the
data, diagrams and descriptions in this documentation.
Trademarks
Beckhoff®, TwinCAT®, EtherCAT®, EtherCAT G®, EtherCAT G10®, EtherCAT P®, Safety over EtherCAT®,
TwinSAFE®, XFC®, XTS® and XPlanar® are registered trademarks of and licensed by Beckhoff Automation
GmbH.
Other designations used in this publication may be trademarks whose use by third parties for their own
purposes could violate the rights of the owners.
Patent Pending
The EtherCAT Technology is covered, including but not limited to the following patent applications and
patents:
EP1590927, EP1789857, EP1456722, EP2137893, DE102015105702
with corresponding applications or registrations in various other countries.
EtherCAT® is a registered trademark and patented technology, licensed by Beckhoff Automation GmbH,
Germany
Copyright
© Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co. KG, Germany.
The reproduction, distribution and utilization of this document as well as the communication of its contents to
others without express authorization are prohibited.
Offenders will be held liable for the payment of damages. All rights reserved in the event of the grant of a
patent, utility model or design.
TE1120 5Version: 1.1
Foreword
1.2 Safety instructions
Safety regulations
Please note the following safety instructions and explanations!
Product-specific safety instructions can be found on following pages or in the areas mounting, wiring,
commissioning etc.
Exclusion of liability
All the components are supplied in particular hardware and software configurations appropriate for the
application. Modifications to hardware or software configurations other than those described in the
documentation are not permitted, and nullify the liability of Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co. KG.
Personnel qualification
This description is only intended for trained specialists in control, automation and drive engineering who are
familiar with the applicable national standards.
Description of symbols
In this documentation the following symbols are used with an accompanying safety instruction or note. The
safety instructions must be read carefully and followed without fail!
DANGER
Serious risk of injury!
Failure to follow the safety instructions associated with this symbol directly endangers the life and health of
persons.
WARNING
Risk of injury!
Failure to follow the safety instructions associated with this symbol endangers the life and health of persons.
CAUTION
Personal injuries!
Failure to follow the safety instructions associated with this symbol can lead to injuries to persons.
NOTE
Damage to the environment or devices
Failure to follow the instructions associated with this symbol can lead to damage to the environment or
equipment.
Tip or pointer
This symbol indicates information that contributes to better understanding.
TE11206 Version: 1.1
Overview
2 Overview
The new TwinCAT 3 XCAD Interface 2 replaces the old TwinCAT 3 XCAD interface. As described in more
detail in the Concept [}8], it is based on the standardized AML format but still supports the old Beckhoff
XML format. We therefore recommend using the TwinCAT 3 XCAD Interface 2 for planning new projects.
Requirement
• Windows 7 or higher
• Visual Studio 2013, 2015, 2017 and TC XAE Shell
• TwinCAT 3.1 Build 4024 or higher
Installation
The installation is carried out via the separate installer TE1120 – XAD interface. Follow the installation
wizard.
Licensing
The TwinCAT 3 XCAD Interface 2 has its own Engineering license. If no license is available, initial I/O
topologies and up to ten tags can be imported as a test.
Bus systems supported
The current version only supports EtherCAT topologies.
TE1120 7Version: 1.1
Concept
3 Concept
An efficient engineering process becomes more and more important as the complexity and level of
automation of machines and plants increases. The manual transfer to a TwinCAT project of an I/O topology
that you have already created within the scope of electrical planning in an ECAD tool leads to high additional
costs and is a potential cause of error, especially with large topologies. The TwinCAT 3 AML data exchange,
on which the new TwinCAT 3 XCAD Interface is based, therefore facilitates automated creation of a topology
by importing data from the ECAD tool, which saves a great deal of time.
The fundamental import and export functionality is based on the standardized exchange format
AutomationML (AML for short), with whose help the topology data can be exchanged bidirectionally between
the ECAD tools and TwinCAT. This is ensured by a simple and universal change management, as you can
adopt changes from both directions into the respective other tool.
The AML format also allows an incremental import. Therefore, you can commence with the implementation
of the software and the first import of the I/O topology into TwinCAT at an early stage of the electrical
planning, because further imports of the updated version are also possible later on. Differences between the
versions from the ECAD tool and from TwinCAT can be compared and managed with the help of the
TwinCAT Project Compare during the import. This allows you to parallelize the electrical planning and
software engineering and to minimize the time required for the entire engineering process. Further
information about TwinCAT 3 AML data exchange can be found in the corresponding documentation.
The new TwinCAT 3 XCAD interface internally uses the TwinCAT 3 AML data exchange and supplements its
function with the help of a plugin concept. This concept allows various plugins for enriching and modifying
the AML file to be executed fully automatically when calling the command Import via XCAD... [}16]. When
importing the AML file, for example, you can use the Create Global Variable List with links [}25] plugin to
automatically create a PLC project with a global variable list whose variables are already linked to the I/O
topology. Time-consuming manual linking is therefore no longer necessary.
All available plugins are listed in the XCAD Interface Options [}19], where they can be activated and set. A
description of the plugins and the plugin concept can be found under the Reference plugins [}25].
Together with the automatic linking, the XCAD interface also offers the possibility to change the names of the
process data objects of the individual devices according to the linked variables. In the XCAD Interface
Options [}19], you can choose between the tag name from the AML file and the variable name from the
GVL and thus adopt either the view from the ECAD tool or from the PLC project. In addition, the tag
comment from the AML file is added to the respective variables in the GVL and the corresponding process
data object of the device.
In addition to the AML format, the XCAD interface also supports the old Beckhoff XML exchange format. In
this way, you can continue to import electrical plans with the XCAD interface without immediately converting
them to the AML format. The XML format is converted internally to AML format and then imported. However,
the advantages of the AML format mentioned at the beginning are not available in this application scenario.
The additional functions of the TwinCAT 3 XCAD Interface compared to TwinCAT 3 AML Data Exchange are
summarized in the following table.
TE11208 Version: 1.1
Automatic generation of the I/O
topology
Incremental data update
Bidirectional data exchange
Automatic generation of a linked
GVL
Renaming the channel end points
Transfer of comments for the
channel end points
Enrichment of AML
Addendum: Support for the old
Beckhoff XML format for import
See also
• TwinCAT 3 AML data exchange
Concept
TwinCAT 3 AML Data Exchange TwinCAT 3 XCAD Interface
• Workflow [}10]
• Command: Import via XCAD... [}16]
• Dialog: XCAD Interface Options [}19]
• Reference plugins [}25]
TE1120 9Version: 1.1
Loading...