Create devices and hardware configuration with TIA Portal Openness

Openness can build a hardware configuration without opening the Devices & Networks editor: create the station and its CPU, plug modules, create a subnet, give the CPU an IP address and an IO system. This guide does it in C#, then through PLCWare's HTTP API and MCP tools. Everything here edits the offline project; nothing reaches a real PLC. It applies to TIA Portal V21.

Before you start

• An Openness application connected to TIA Portal V21 with a project open (Set up TIA Portal Openness on Windows).
• The device must not be online while you plug modules.
• Do the work in dependency order: subnets, then devices (CPUs first), then modules, then the network connections.

Find the type identifier

Every hardware object is created from a type identifier, <type>:<identifier>, where the type is OrderNumber, GSD or System. For hardware from the catalog it is the article number with the firmware version:

OrderNumber:6ES7 516-2GN00-0AB0/V2.9

The firmware part is optional only when the system has a single version of that module. Do not guess the value: ask the hardware catalog.

foreach (var entry in portal.HardwareCatalog.Find("1516"))
    Console.WriteLine($"{entry.TypeIdentifier}  {entry.TypeName}  {entry.Version}");

Find takes a filter string. A second overload, Find(filter, typeIdentifier), returns only the modules compatible with the CPU you pass.

Create the station and the CPU

Device station = project.Devices.CreateWithItem(
    "OrderNumber:6ES7 516-2GN00-0AB0/V2.9", "PLC_1", "Station_1");

The arguments are the type identifier of the device item, the name of the device item (the CPU) and the name of the device (the station). Devices.Create(deviceTypeIdentifier, name) creates only the device.

Plug modules

DeviceItem rack = ...; // the rack of the station
const string di = "OrderNumber:6ES7 521-1BL00-0AB0/V1.0";

if (rack.CanPlugNew(di, "DI_1", 2))
    rack.PlugNew(di, "DI_1", 2);

CanPlugNew says whether plugging is possible, but PlugNew can still fail: the position is already taken, the container does not offer that position, the name is already used in the container, the module does not fit the container, or the device is online. A failed PlugNew throws a recoverable exception.

Create the subnet, the IP address and the IO system

using System.Linq;

Subnet subnet = project.Subnets.Create("System:Subnet.Ethernet", "PN_Line2");

DeviceItem cpuInterface = ...; // the CPU's PROFINET interface item
NetworkInterface itf = cpuInterface.GetService<NetworkInterface>();
Node node = itf.Nodes.First();

node.ConnectToSubnet(subnet);
((IEngineeringObject)node).SetAttribute("Address", "192.168.0.1");

if ((itf.InterfaceOperatingMode & InterfaceOperatingModes.IoController) != 0)
{
    IoSystem ioSystem = itf.IoControllers.First().CreateIoSystem("PN/IE_1");
}

CreateIoSystem needs an interface that is already connected to a subnet and has no IO system yet. A node's IP settings are dynamic attributes: Address, SubnetMask, RouterAddress, UseRouter, DhcpClientId and IpProtocolSelection.

To move an existing CPU to another firmware version without recreating it, call ChangeType. Siemens' example plugs a CPU as OrderNumber:6ES7 516-3AN01-0AB0/V2.8 and then calls deviceItem.ChangeType("OrderNumber:6ES7 516-3AN01-0AB0/V2.9"). It throws if the identifier is unknown, the object is read-only, or the change is not supported (for example to a completely different module family).

Create the same configuration with PLCWare

The serve app wraps these calls. Names in the calls below are the names you gave: the station for device, the subnet for subnet. The identifiers are the ones from the Siemens documentation; look up the ones you need first with GET /catalog?filter=1516 (MCP: tia_catalog).

function Post($path, $body) {
  Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post "http://localhost:5000$path" -ContentType "application/json" -Body ($body | ConvertTo-Json)
}

Post "/subnets" @{ typeIdentifier = "System:Subnet.Ethernet"; name = "PN_Line2" }
Post "/devices" @{ typeIdentifier = "OrderNumber:6ES7 516-2GN00-0AB0/V2.9"; deviceItemName = "PLC_1"; deviceName = "Station_1" }
Post "/devices/Station_1/plug" @{ typeIdentifier = "OrderNumber:6ES7 521-1BL00-0AB0/V1.0"; name = "DI_1"; position = 2 }
Post "/network/connect" @{ device = "Station_1"; subnet = "PN_Line2"; ip = "192.168.0.1"; createIoSystem = $true }

The MCP tools are tia_subnet_create, tia_device_create, tia_device_plug and tia_network_connect. The version part of an identifier is written with a slash, /V2.9, never :V2.9; PLCWare rejects the second form. The CPU and its IO devices must be on the same subnet, and exactly one createIoSystem creates each IO system. From PLCWare app 1.7.0 (currently in beta), the answer of tia_network_connect carries a postcheck: the serve re-reads the connection after writing it, and 409 postcheck_failed means the write did not take effect as asked, so read the interface again with tia_device_network before you retry. The stable app, 1.6.3, does not verify the write: check the configuration yourself afterwards, in TIA Portal's network view or by reading it back with tia_devices and tia_subnets.

Every one of these tools takes dryRun: true, which checks the guards and returns the plan without changing the project. There is no rollback in Openness, so check that a name does not exist yet before creating it: a repeated run does not converge.

TIA Portal names the PLC software of a CPU after the CPU's device item (PLC_1 above), not after the station. Everything that is PLC-scoped afterwards, such as tags, blocks and compile, takes that name; tia_plcs lists it.

Or describe the whole project in one document

tia_spec_validate, tia_spec_plan and tia_spec_apply take a project spec in JSON, check it, turn it into the ordered list of operations and run them in dependency order: subnets, devices, modules, network, tag tables, tags, empty FBs and the compile. A minimal spec:

{
  "project": { "name": "Line2", "directory": "C:\\TIA\\Line2" },
  "conventions": {
    "namingScheme": "plcopen",
    "optimizedAccess": true,
    "symbolicOnly": true,
    "defaultLanguages": { "interlocks": "LAD", "algorithms": "SCL", "sequencers": "GRAPH" }
  },
  "devices": [
    {
      "name": "Line2_CPU",
      "typeIdentifier": "OrderNumber:6ES7 511-1AK02-0AB0/V2.9",
      "role": "cpu",
      "family": "S7-1500"
    }
  ],
  "network": {
    "subnet": { "type": "System:Subnet.Ethernet", "name": "PN_Line2", "cidr": "192.168.0.0/24" },
    "nodes": [{ "device": "Line2_CPU", "ip": "192.168.0.1", "createIoSystem": true }]
  },
  "tagTables": [{ "name": "IO", "purpose": "IO" }],
  "tags": [{ "table": "IO", "name": "Conv01_Run", "dataType": "Bool", "address": "%Q0.0" }]
}

tia_spec_validate and tia_spec_plan need no running TIA Portal. tia_spec_apply stops at the first step that fails, never downloads, and does not import UDTs or write block logic; those stay with tia_types_import, tia_source_put and tia_import_xml.

Things that trip people up

• A CPU created through Openness may not compile clean at first: its protection settings are not set. PLCWare documents a recipe for it (tia_guide with { "topic": "recipes" }), and the password it needs always comes from a person. Nothing generates one.
• The project's firmware version must not be higher than the physical CPU's. tia_device_change_version changes it in place and keeps the program, but it resets settings that only the TIA Portal window can set (OPC UA server activation and runtime license), so archive the project first with tia_project_archive and recompile afterwards.
• Downloading the hardware to a real PLC is not part of this guide. It is a gate that a person approves.

Related guides

• Compile a PLC from code and read the messages
• Set up TIA Portal Openness on Windows
• Connect an AI assistant to TIA Portal through MCP
• All guides

Start your free 30-day trial

PLCWare runs these steps for you, or for your AI assistant, against TIA Portal V21. The trial lasts 30 days, includes the Pro scopes, needs no card and does not renew. You need TIA Portal V21 with a STEP 7 Professional license, bought separately from Siemens.

Start the free 30-day trial · Download the app

TIA Portal, SIMATIC and Siemens are trademarks of Siemens AG. PLCWare is an independent product for TIA Portal and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Siemens.