With currently the V14 (started at 11) and several years into the market, have you learned to apppreciate the last SIEMENS engineering software?
Personnally I still don't like it. It is still incredibly heavy, bloated and completely useless on a laptop. It still has a tendency to crash, especially while being online, and each new version bring its new bugs.
What I don't like:
1) The user interface is awful, bloated, and unpractical. The place for the code is a very small part of the screen unless you take time to reduce everything else or you separate it.
2) The integration of the HMI soft is a fail. Not only WinnCC in TIA is heavy and has poor ergonomy, but it has also removed features from WinCC Flexible 2008 (hello pictures that can be buttons) which looks much better and professionnal in its design. Scripts and events are much less friendly to use.
3) The ladder editor has seen some improvements, notably with the comparison and the addition of the possibility to use arrays. But the interface ruins it completely. By default a lof of networks are hidden and you have to make them appear. The small part reserved for the code make it a pain to navigate quickly. The keys shortcut are also worst.
STEP7 Ladder was so fast to use while TIA is so slow.
4) All the news soft versions, updates, firmwares, packages, blocks versions. It's a continous battle to find the right reference in the hardware catalog. You actually need to download HSP by creating a SIEMENS account on their website and it may still not be enough to find the CPU, card, or component you want to add. In Step 7 you could update the catalog by one click.
There are also blocks versions who are compatible or not with CPU firmwares (especially with the 1200 series since it has been supported since TIA V11) making things much harder when looking to port an application
5) The constant push toward using "name based" tags instead of using the adress, even when you want to use the adress. You are likely to get warnings and TIA is likely to create an ugly default name for the Adress you have entered.
Each DB you create is also by default "optimized", without any adress, and you have to uncheck the box in the property each time to use the real DBs
6) The GRAPH editor is awful. All transitions betweens the steps are hidden and you can only show one or two of them. The previous editor was much better and you could follow easily and track the GRAPH in real time.
The only major improvement I see is the SCL editor. Its use in STEP 7 wasn't orthodox and natural. It's a built in language now.Each time I navigate between the fast an very well built STEP7 and the bloated and heavy TIA, I wonder how SIEMENS fell so hard.
Now, I would rate the main softs as following:
1) STEP 7
2) Studio 5000
3) Unity Pro
4) TIA Portal
Personnally I still don't like it. It is still incredibly heavy, bloated and completely useless on a laptop. It still has a tendency to crash, especially while being online, and each new version bring its new bugs.
What I don't like:
1) The user interface is awful, bloated, and unpractical. The place for the code is a very small part of the screen unless you take time to reduce everything else or you separate it.
2) The integration of the HMI soft is a fail. Not only WinnCC in TIA is heavy and has poor ergonomy, but it has also removed features from WinCC Flexible 2008 (hello pictures that can be buttons) which looks much better and professionnal in its design. Scripts and events are much less friendly to use.
3) The ladder editor has seen some improvements, notably with the comparison and the addition of the possibility to use arrays. But the interface ruins it completely. By default a lof of networks are hidden and you have to make them appear. The small part reserved for the code make it a pain to navigate quickly. The keys shortcut are also worst.
STEP7 Ladder was so fast to use while TIA is so slow.
4) All the news soft versions, updates, firmwares, packages, blocks versions. It's a continous battle to find the right reference in the hardware catalog. You actually need to download HSP by creating a SIEMENS account on their website and it may still not be enough to find the CPU, card, or component you want to add. In Step 7 you could update the catalog by one click.
There are also blocks versions who are compatible or not with CPU firmwares (especially with the 1200 series since it has been supported since TIA V11) making things much harder when looking to port an application
5) The constant push toward using "name based" tags instead of using the adress, even when you want to use the adress. You are likely to get warnings and TIA is likely to create an ugly default name for the Adress you have entered.
Each DB you create is also by default "optimized", without any adress, and you have to uncheck the box in the property each time to use the real DBs
6) The GRAPH editor is awful. All transitions betweens the steps are hidden and you can only show one or two of them. The previous editor was much better and you could follow easily and track the GRAPH in real time.
The only major improvement I see is the SCL editor. Its use in STEP 7 wasn't orthodox and natural. It's a built in language now.Each time I navigate between the fast an very well built STEP7 and the bloated and heavy TIA, I wonder how SIEMENS fell so hard.
Now, I would rate the main softs as following:
1) STEP 7
2) Studio 5000
3) Unity Pro
4) TIA Portal