Basic S7 Question

Hi all!!

First post on the board, although I've been reading it for some time. I was recently transferred from a project I worked on for 2 years in which I cut my teeth in the automation business on AB stuff, PLC5, SLC500 and the like, to a project where Siemens is the name of the game, S7-300 S7-400, etc.

At this point in time, I need to be able to perform some of the basic troubleshooting that I learned with Allen Bradley products, to be able to do a "find all" on an input or an output, and the ability to look at a network in the code and see which statements are currently on or off. The code is written in STL, and for some reason when I try to change the view to ladder it won't convert. For example, in AB, if a motor is off and should be on, I can find that output in RSLogix with "Find All", find the OTE or OTL for that bit, then look at the rung that turns that output on, and see which conditions are on (highlighted green) or off (not highlighted). How do I perform this most basic task in Siemens?

if the code is written in LAD you can swap between LAD,STL and FBD (and back again) no problem but if it was originally written in STL you seldom can display in in the other formats. When writing in LAD or STL the interface generates extra instructions in the code, if they are not included when writing STL you cannot revert back to ladder. I'm not even sure if including these extra instructions allows you to change formats, never tried. To find other instances of a flag,output,etc, right click on what you want and select go to location and take it from there. Once you have this window open you can also enter any address you want.
K

Sweet! That answers half my question...now I can find all instances of that output in the code.

Now, how can I look at a rung/network and tell which conditions are currently on/off when I'm online with the program?

Click On The Glasses.

go online - there are two buttons on the toolbar, i can't easily show them just now as this PC doesn't have S7 on it, if you are offline this button will be shown depressed, the online is next to it, when you are online the top message bar will tell you, your IO etc will show green (in default) if energised and the message bar will change colour. oh, and you will also find the online/offline in the menu,plc i think.