Twincat demo software

Hello,

Im new to the beckhoff software twincat 3.
I can see that the software is free without the plc run time.
But can you upload you program with de demo version to the beckhoff hardware?

Thank you

I dunno about ur specific version, but u used to be able to... and their tech help was the most friendly and knowledgeable I've ever encountered... outside of here of course

wait a minute.... I just remembered something... I could NOT upload but in my case, I think it was because of the controller and not the software

You're welcome for this virtually useless post.

yes you can use it conplete, however it will stop after 1 hour.
you can make a full program and test it.
and you can simulate everything without timelimit.

Yes you can upload to the hardware. Beckhoff hardware has it's own PLC runtime license on it. Twincat should pick it up if configured correctly.

The only thing is, most people seem to call transfers from a PC to a controller 'downloads'. And use 'uploads' for transfers from a controller to a PC.

LadderLogic said:

The only thing is, most people seem to call transfers from a PC to a controller 'downloads'. And use 'uploads' for transfers from a controller to a PC.

Click to expand...

Yeah when I used it I could download to the device but could not upload from the device, but IIRC that was the device, not the software

With TwinCAT, one cannot upload anything unless the last downloader explicitly chose to download the source code to the device as well.

Sounds more like a licensing question. When you get a Beckhoff CPU (CX1000, CX1020, CX5020, etc), it needs to have the "TwinCAT run-time" installed w/ a license. The programming environment (TwinCAT-PLC or such) on your laptop PC doesn't require a license and checks the CX for a valid license. That is the stated approach in TwinCAT 3. In TwinCAT 2, there was a separate "development license" for the programming laptop, but people said it really just checked for a run-time license on the CX. If so, that might have been an oversight by Beckhoff. If buying a CX on ebay, insure it has a valid TwinCAT run-time, since some companies bought them w/o TwinCAT for use as an industrial PC.

For TC3, you also need Microsoft Visual Studio on your programming laptop, but Beckhoff offers a free stripped-down version for TC3-only (no Visual Basic, C#, ...). You use VB or C# to develop your own HMI program. You can also develop an HMI within TC3 (Visualization) or use Indusoft, WonderWare, LabView, Ackerman Automation, ...

I thought the demo was 7 days it would actually work, then you just need to renew it again, and you get another 7 days, you can just keep doing it.

I think it depends on terminology.

"Demo" means software that runs on any Windows PC and simulates a PLC. I don't know that there is an expiration date.

If you have Beckhoff I/O modules, you can install TwinCAT (2 or 3) with a 7-day trial license. I think you can renew it every 7 days. You can operate any PC as a "TwinCAT brain" or "run-time", if it has a compatible ethernet card.

As always, nothing I state may actually be true. Beckhoff's InfoSys website has much more detail.