PicsPro (Discontinued) - Alternative

[tranh2]

Hello All,

Its been a long time since i've been in the trenches actually doing development. When i was developing I used PicsPro extensively for testing code and really experienced HUGE value in this tool. I see now that it is discontinued. I'm wondering a few things:

1. Is there anyone out there still using this software for their current projects?

2. Can this still be purchased through a vendor? I emailed Molex and they said its discontinued with no way to buy it.

3. Is there an equivalent software out there? I looked into Mimic by Emerson (previously Minah) but it looks like you can't build your own devices such as pumps, dampers, substation related equipment etc.).

Thanks!

 

[AlfredoQuintero]

tranh2, hi. Yes, PicsPro was such a great product. I used to sell and this product many years ago. Now many PLC engineering tools have their own simulation capabilities which is OK for many users, but it is still simulated logic and the beauty of PicsPro was that the PLC thought it was talking to the actual IO. I have not found anything that can do the same. If you want to simulate EtherNet/IP remote IO, CODESYS for Windows may be an alternative. You can configure multimple IP addresses in your Windows PC and assign specific IP addresses of separate instances of LAN interface for the CODESYS EtherNet/iP adapter. On the actual EtherNet/IP scanner, the PLC for which you want to simulate the logic, you would need to configure the scanlist without ID checking because unfortunately the CODESYS Ethernet/IP adapter does not let you customize the vendor ID, product code ID and device ID.
I am not sure for other protocols. What kind of IO do you need to simulate?

 

[parky]

I used pics & Pics pro for many years, great product & I still have it but haven't used it in a while, as others have posted, most PLC's have simulation in the IDE, I now create blocks for simulation purposes rather than use the in-built simulator logic as it is rather cumbersome, I also use a couple of HMI's program that can simulate on-line & some with the PLC simulator to be honest the price of pics pro was rather expensive & it is just as quick to automate the simulation using temporary blocks in the PLC.