File Explorer
AnyAutomation Studio has two file surfaces: the built-in Explorer view for any folder on disk, and the Export Folder tree inside the TIA Portal Import / Export view for managing exported TIA source files. Both let you browse, open, and manage files; the Explorer also shows live Git status.
Explorer view
Open the Explorer from the Activity Bar (the Files icon) or with Ctrl+Shift+E. It shows the folder you opened, with files and subfolders, and lets you create, rename, delete, move, and search items.
Open a folder
- Click Open Folder in the empty state, or use File → Open Folder….
- The Explorer refreshes automatically when files change on disk.
File and folder icons
Each row gets a file-type icon from the active file-icon theme — code files, config files, media, archives, scripts, and well-known folders such as src, docs, tests, and .git each get a matching glyph. SCL / AWL / STL sources show the Siemens-orange language glyph.
Multi-select
- Click selects one row.
- Ctrl+Click toggles selection of one more row.
- Shift+Click selects a continuous range.
- Selected rows participate together in Delete and Drag operations.
Open a file
- Single-click opens a file in preview; double-click opens it pinned.
- Folder rows expand or collapse on click.
Create, rename, delete
- New File / New Folder — use the toolbar buttons at the top of the Explorer, or right-click and choose New File / New Folder. The item is created in the selected folder (or the root if nothing is selected).
- Rename — select a row and press F2, or right-click and choose Rename. The name turns into an inline text box; for files the base name is pre-selected so the extension is preserved. Enter commits, Escape cancels.
- Delete — select one or more rows and press Delete, or right-click and choose Delete. A confirmation dialog appears, and on Windows the items go to the Recycle Bin so a wrong delete can be restored.
Move via drag and drop
- Drag a row onto a folder in the same tree to move it there. Multiple selected rows move together.
- Drag a row out to the Windows Explorer to copy it into the target folder.
Git status
When the open folder is inside a Git repository, the Explorer shows the working-tree status for every visible file and folder:
- A colored letter badge on the right edge of the row shows the change type: M modified, A added, D deleted, R renamed, U untracked, C conflicted.
- A folder inherits the status of files inside it, so a single modified file deep in a tree is visible from the root.
- Ignored files (matched by
.gitignore) appear dimmed. - The decorations refresh automatically when you stage, commit, switch branch, or run any other Git operation. The Source Control view (from the Activity Bar) shows the full list of changes for staging and committing.
Export Folder tree
The Export Folder tree lives inside the TIA Portal Import / Export view in the Side Bar. It mirrors the Project Explorer for the configured export folder: a live tree of your exported TIA source files (.xml, .scl, .awl, .stl, .db, .udt, .s7dcl) with the same Siemens block and folder icons. The tree refreshes automatically as new files are exported.
When no export folder is set, the area shows a placeholder with a Select Export Folder button instead of the tree.
Tri-state checkboxes
Every row carries a checkbox. Checking a folder cascades to every file inside it; a partly-checked folder shows the indeterminate state. The checked set is what Import Selected acts on.
Open on click
Clicking a file row opens it in the editor. Folder rows expand or collapse instead.
Right-click context menu — file management
Right-click a row in the Export Folder tree for explorer-style file management. Operations act on the focused / selected rows (not the checked set):
| Entry | Action |
|---|---|
| Open | Open the file in the editor (files only) |
| Open to the Side | Open the file in the adjacent editor group (files only) |
| Reveal in File Explorer | Show the file or folder in the OS file explorer |
| New File… | Create a file in the focused folder (or export root) |
| New Folder… | Create a subfolder |
| Rename… | Rename the file or folder, with collision validation |
| Delete | Remove the file or folder (with confirmation; uses the Recycle Bin when available) |
| Cut / Copy | Capture the selected rows for a later Paste |
| Paste | Copy or move the cut/copied items into the focused folder; disabled until something is cut or copied |
| Copy Path | Copy the file's full path to the clipboard |
New File / New Folder / Rename reject empty names, path separators, and names that already exist in the target folder. A paste with a name collision gets an incremental suffix ("… copy", "… copy 2"); pasting a folder into itself is rejected. Any editors open on the affected files follow renames, moves, and deletes. These operations are not undoable, and the tree refreshes after each one.