S7 TIA Portal: Trying to use PLCSIM - Software Licence expiry?

[Mas01]

Hi

I used to be able to launch PLCsim without any problem.

Now it tells me " STEP 7 Professional Licence is required to simulate this PLC"...



However, I do have a STEP 7 Professional licence - when I go to Help | Installed software I get a box that confirms it....



Any ideas why it thinks I don't have a licence?

Thanks

 

[RClem]

That shows you have the software installed, open Automation License Manager, that's where your license is stored.

 

[Mas01]

That shows you have the software installed, open Automation License Manager, that's where your license is stored.

Thanks, when I open the ALM, this is what I see.
Should a list of the active licences appear here?

 

[JesperMP]

I used to be able to launch PLCsim without any problem.

Maybe you had activated the trial period ?

Thanks, when I open the ALM, this is what I see.
Should a list of the active licences appear here?

Browse to the C: drive via the tree on the left.
If you have expired trial licenses they will also be shown.

 

[Mas01]

Maybe you had activated the trial period ?

Browse to the C: drive via the tree on the left.
If you have expired trial licenses they will also be shown.

Thanks, when I drill down into C-drive, here's what I have:

 

[Mas01]

Hang on - the ALM says I have "STEP 7 Basic", but the TIA Portal (Help | Installed Software) says I have STEP 7 Professional".
I'm confused.

 

[JesperMP]

STEP7 Basic only includes S7-1200 PLCs and BASIC HMI's.
I dont know if it includes PLCSIM for S7-1200. Probably not.

Hang on - the ALM says I have "STEP 7 Basic", but the TIA Portal (Help | Installed Software) says I have STEP 7 Professional".
I'm confused.

TIA allows you to install the full package.
It checks for the license when you try to use a PLC, a HMI or a software package.
Today I clicked on a Unified Panel, and TIA told me that I dont have the license for that.

 

[Mas01]

Thanks again.

At the moment, I can only conclude that I had a trial version of PLCSim, but SOMEHOW it was working with my STEP 7 Basic licence.

Maybe you're right @JesperMP - the PLCSim trial licence has expired and it won't work without a Professional LIcence.

What a pain in the wotsits!

 

[JesperMP]

If you did activate the trial license, then it would show in ALM as an expired trial license.
When you try to start a PLCSIM instance, do you get a pop-up asking you to install a license or activate the trial license ?

 

[Mas01]

If you did activate the trial license, then it would show in ALM as an expired trial license.
When you try to start a PLCSIM instance, do you get a pop-up asking you to install a license or activate the trial license ?

Thanks for trying to help me out mate.

When I launch PLCSIM, I get the error message as shown in post #1.
I have a s7-1200 CPU, by the way.

 

[mk42]

2 comments:

1) There's no way to install just Step 7 Basic these days. The install disc includes step 7 basic, professional, most of the different WinCC options, safety programming, etc. PLC sim is a diff disc tho, for some reason.

2) In the original screenshot, I see what looks like a simulated 1200, a simulated 1500, and a simulated 1200. My understanding is that you can simulate 1200's with a Step 7 basic license (like you have) and 1500s require the Professional license, just like the error says. Swap simulation 2 to be a 1200 and you should be good to go.

 

[Mas01]

2 comments:

1) There's no way to install just Step 7 Basic these days. The install disc includes step 7 basic, professional, most of the different WinCC options, safety programming, etc. PLC sim is a diff disc tho, for some reason.

2) In the original screenshot, I see what looks like a simulated 1200, a simulated 1500, and a simulated 1200. My understanding is that you can simulate 1200's with a Step 7 basic license (like you have) and 1500s require the Professional license, just like the error says. Swap simulation 2 to be a 1200 and you should be good to go.

Cheers for this mate. You may be on to something. To you , is it the middle instance that looks like a simulated 1500? By virtue of the circled icon being the same as the 1500 icon in the right-hand margin thing? As yet, I don't know how to delete instances...can you help me with that? Thanks

 

[mk42]

If you poke around under "live instances" on the right side, I think you'll be able to manage the active simulations

 

[Mas01]

UPDATE: I installed PLCSIM Service Pack 1, based on a suggestion from the Siemens PLC forum.

I now SEEM to be making some headway, but I don't understand why the PLAY button is greyed-out (when PLCSIM used to work for me, I used to press PLAY and then the "live" values of tags would be displayed in the Modify column).
Any ideas on this?

 

[Mas01]

UPDATE: I fished around and the PLAY button is selectable now.
(Although it looks like I've reached the row limit, but that's a different problem)