Setup TwinCat 3.1

Setup TwinCat 3.1
TwinCAT 3 is PC based control software and software development process is integrated into Visual Studio® 2010/2012/2013/2015. This is compiler for the IEC 61131-3 languages.

There are two options for installing TwinCat 3.1 software.

• The TwinCAT 3 engineering components enable the configuration, programming and debugging of applications which we need if we want to develop and test software written in structured text.

• The TwinCAT 3 runtime consists of further components – basic components and functions. The basic components can be extended by functions

Since we focus on development of PLC software in structured text, we download TwinCAT 3.1 – eXtended Automation Engineering (XAE) from Beckhoff site. The latest version of download file is TC31-Full-Setup.3.1.4022.16 .

Before installing TwinCAT 3 we need to consider
Virtualization Technology
This option activates or deactivates the additional hardware capabilities of virtualization technology.
Virtualization Technology
[Enabled]

If virtualization in BIOS is not set we get the following error when we run a PLC program in this laptop, so before continueing we should check the BIOS.

• Download TC31-Full-Setup.3.1.4022.16

• Start installing as Administrator

Accept license agreement

Select complete type

Select Visual Studio which one should be integrated with your TwinCat

Complete the installation by pressing Finish

Restart the computer so changes will be in effect.

After restarting the computer, we can can change the TwinCat icon to blue color (config mode) and green color (run mode)

If we cannot see this icon, it might be located in the "hidden icons" area (right bottom corner):

See also : Create first "Hello PLC world" program