Hardware Simulation

The PLCSim Advanced panel lets you create and control PLCSim Advanced simulation instances and read, write, and watch their live tags, so PLC logic can be exercised without physical hardware. It is an Enterprise-only feature; below Enterprise the open command shows an upgrade notice and the panel does not open.

Opening

The panel opens as a full-page dashboard editor in the center editor area. Reach it three ways, all of which open the same Enterprise-gated dashboard:

• The PLCSim Advanced entry in the Activity Bar (the icon strip on the far left) — its welcome view has an Open PLCSim Advanced button.
• The Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) → PLCSim Advanced.
• The PLCSim entry in the Status Bar at the bottom.

If PLCSIM Advanced is not installed on the machine, the dashboard shows a branded empty state with a Download PLCSIM Advanced link instead of an unusable dashboard.

Runtime Manager

The Runtime Manager row controls the PLCSIM Advanced runtime:

• Access mode — choose PLCSIM (Softbus), TCP/IP Single Adapter, or TCP/IP Multiple Adapters.
• Strict motion timing — toggle the global setting (editable only when no instance is registered).
• Communication port — enter a port between 1024 and 65535 and use the button to open or close it.
• API version — the reported PLCSIM Advanced API version (read-only).

The access mode and port controls are disabled while any instance is running, stopped, or booting.

Virtual Ethernet Adapter

The adapter row shows the health of the PLCSIM Advanced virtual Ethernet adapter: a status pill (OK, APIPA, Down, No IPv4, or Not found), the adapter IP address, and a plain-language hint when the adapter is misconfigured (for example, "no DHCP lease, set a static IP" or "adapter disabled, enable it in Windows network adapters"). A Reload button re-reads the health. These warnings resolve most cases where a TCP/IP instance will not start.

Simulation Instances

Each registered simulation instance appears as a card. The New Instance button opens a dialog to create one: pick the CPU type (S7-1500 family — CPU 1511 / 1513 / 1515 / 1516 / 1517 / 1518), then enter the name, IP address, subnet mask, and gateway.

Each card shows the instance name, a state pill (Run / Stop / Booting / Off), the CPU type and IP, a TIA PLC selector (map the instance to a TIA Portal PLC, or leave it on "Auto (match by name)"), and a compact row of action buttons:

• Power On / Off
• Run / Stop
• Memory Reset (available when stopped)
• Network — opens the Network dialog to set the IP, subnet, and gateway per hardware interface (available when the instance is off)
• Tag Browser — toggles the embedded tag browser into the card
• Delete — unregisters the instance (available when off)

Each button is enabled only when its action is valid for the instance's current state.

Saved Instances

The Saved Instances row lists instances that are registered but not loaded. Each row has a Load button to bring the instance up and a Delete button to remove it.

Tag Browser

Toggling Tag Browser on a running instance connects to it and shows its tags as an expandable tree (structures and arrays drill down). The browser covers hardware-channel tags, marker tags, system tags, and data-block variables. Per tag you can:

• Read — show the current value inline.
• Write — a prompt suited to the tag's data type (TRUE/FALSE for Bool, a number for numeric types, free text otherwise), then the value is written and re-read.
• Watch — add the tag to a cyclic watch list that refreshes its value once per second while watched.

Only one card hosts the tag browser at a time; toggling it on another card disconnects the first.