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Project Management

New Project Wizard

The New Project Wizard creates a complete TIA Portal project — with CPU, optional modules and network — without leaving AnyAutomation Studio.

Open the wizard:

  • In the TIA Project Explorer (when no project is connected) click Connect and choose New TIA Project from the menu, or use the New TIA Project button in the view title toolbar.
  • The wizard opens directly. You do not need to be connected to TIA Portal beforehand — pick the version on Step 1 and the matching TIA Portal instance is started for you when you leave Step 1 by clicking Next. The wizard shows a "Starting TIA Portal V…" overlay while the instance comes up; the catalog search on Step 2 works as soon as the overlay disappears.

Step 1 — Project info:

  1. Pick the TIA Portal version (V15…V21). The selector always starts on "Select…" and must be chosen manually.
  2. Enter a Project name (up to 60 characters; the usual filesystem characters \ / : * ? " < > | are not allowed).
  3. Click Browse… to choose a Target directory (must be an absolute path on a local drive — UNC paths are rejected).
  4. Optionally enter an Author and a Comment.

When you click Next, the wizard starts the chosen version's TIA Portal instance — reusing a matching running instance when one is available, or starting a new one otherwise. There is no confirmation prompt.

Step 2 — CPU:

  1. Type a search term in the Hardware catalog field (for example 1516 or S7-1500).
  2. Pick the CPU you want from the result list. F-CPUs can be selected too, but the wizard does not configure Safety — the Safety/F-runtime setup must still be done manually in TIA Portal afterwards.
  3. Enter a Device name (defaults to PLC_1).

Step 3 — Modules (optional):

Add I/O modules, communication processors or other rack-pluggable items:

  1. Search the catalog and highlight the module, then click Add (the button stays disabled until a CPU is selected and a module is highlighted).
  2. Enter a Slot number.
  3. Repeat for additional modules. Names within the list must be unique.
  4. If you go back to Step 2 and change the CPU, the modules list is cleared because the previously chosen modules may no longer fit the new rack.

Step 4 — Network (optional):

Network is optional and off by default. Tick the Add a subnet checkbox to reveal the fields and configure a single Ethernet subnet:

  1. Enter a Subnet name (for example PN/IE_1).
  2. Enter the Interface path of the CPU's PROFINET interface inside the device tree (for example Rack_0/PROFINET interface_1).
  3. Enter the IP address in a single field as dotted decimal (for example 192.168.0.1; each octet 0–255).

Leave the checkbox unticked to create the project without a subnet. PROFIBUS, MPI and AS-i subnets are not supported by the wizard.

Step 5 — Review and create:

  1. Review the summary (project name, target directory, CPU, modules, network).
  2. Click Create.
  3. Progress is shown at the bottom of the wizard. The wizard runs the entire creation as one atomic operation in TIA Portal — if any step fails, the whole project is rolled back.
  4. After success the wizard closes and the new project is opened automatically in the application.

Note: Safety configuration (even when an F-CPU is chosen), multiple CPUs in one project, and PROFIBUS/MPI/AS-i networks are not handled by the wizard. Use TIA Portal directly for these scenarios.

Connect to TIA Portal

Run Connect to start a session. You can reach it three ways: click the Connect link shown in the Project Explorer when no project is connected (the same short label is used for the Connect button in the view title toolbar), click the TIA status-bar entry at the bottom of the window, or run Connect to Openness Manager from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P). Connect opens a picker. Four entries are always available — Attach to Running Instance, Open TIA Project, Open TIA Project (Offline — no Portal), and New TIA Project. On the Pro plan it also lists the Multi-User actions — Open Multi-User Session, Upload Project to Server, and Manage Multi-User Servers (see Multi-User Session).

Whenever a connection becomes active — attaching to an instance, opening a project, opening a Multi-User session, or creating a new project — the Output area at the bottom of the window automatically switches to and shows the Openness Manager channel so you can follow the messages live. Your editor keeps the input focus. A read-only Offline open does not show the channel.

Attach to a Running Instance

  1. Open your project in TIA Portal first
  2. Run Connect and choose Attach to Running Instance
  3. The picker lists every running TIA Portal instance (version, project name)
  4. Select the desired instance — the session attaches automatically

Advantages of Attach Mode:

  • Faster connection (no project loading)
  • You can work in TIA Portal simultaneously
  • Changes are immediately visible

Open a TIA Project

  1. Run Connect and choose Open TIA Project
  2. Browse to the project file (.ap15 through .ap21) in the file picker
  3. Select the file — connection starts automatically (the TIA Portal version is taken from the file extension)

This starts TIA Portal in the background (headless mode) without a visible user interface. This is faster for pure export/import operations.

Recent Projects: The picker remembers your recently opened projects (up to ten, newest first) for quick access. Entries pointing to projects that have been moved or deleted are hidden automatically.

Password-protected projects: If the project is protected, Studio asks for the project user name and then the password before it opens. Enter your TIA project user name, then its password. If the password is wrong, you are asked again. To stop opening the project, press Esc or leave the user name empty — nothing is left open. Your credentials are not saved; you are asked each time you open a protected project. Projects without protection open without any prompt.

Note: For large bulk operations (25+ files), the application automatically uses ExclusiveAccess for better stability.

Open a TIA Project Offline (without TIA Portal)

When you just want to look inside a project — read code, browse the program structure, copy a block — you can open it directly, even on a machine where TIA Portal is not installed or not running. This is a read-only view: you can read and copy everything that is shown, but you cannot change the project from here.

Open an offline project:

You can reach it two ways:

  • In the empty Project Explorer, click Connect and choose Open TIA Project (Offline — no Portal) from the menu.
  • Use the Open TIA Project (Offline) button in the Project Explorer view title toolbar.

Then pick the project to open:

  1. A project file (.ap15 through .ap21).
  2. A zipped project archive (.zap…).

For an already-extracted project folder, select its project file (.ap…) from inside the folder.

The Project Explorer fills with the project's contents straight away — no TIA Portal start-up, no waiting for a session.

What you can see:

  • The controllers (PLCs) and their program blocks (FB, FC, OB, DB).
  • PLC data types, tag tables, software units, and watch / force tables.
  • The HMI panel with its structure: screens, screen templates, pop-up screens, HMI tags, connections, text lists, cycles, graphic lists and VB scripts, just like with a TIA Portal connection.
  • The hardware of each device.

Click a block to open its code (SCL or STL, or a graphical logic view) read-only in the editor. You can read and copy it, but the editor does not let you change it. HMI screens and HMI tag tables appear in the tree but are view-only offline — you can see them, but not open them.

Because the offline view is read-only, the project-changing actions (editing, import, export, protect/unprotect and compile) are not offered while an offline project is open, and the per-row selection checkboxes are hidden.

Go online and watch blocks live: From a project opened this way you can still connect to a CPU and follow its program live. Select a controller in the project tree, choose Go Online from its right-click menu, and confirm the connection dialog. The CPU's network address is already filled in from the project, so connecting is usually a single confirmation. Once you are online, each block shows an online/offline compare badge, and opening an SCL or STL code block lets you switch on Live Values to watch its variable values (global tags, instance data-block members and local temporary variables) update in real time as the program runs. Live watching from a project opened this way covers SCL and STL code blocks. See Going Online, Compare & Download for the full details on the connection dialog, the compare badges and Live Values.

The status bar at the bottom of the window shows that an offline project is open, with its name and TIA Portal version. Click that entry to close the offline project again.

What is not shown offline: a few things need a live TIA Portal connection and are therefore not part of the offline view — device IP addresses and network details, OPC UA server details, opening HMI screens and HMI tag tables (their tree is shown, but the content cannot be opened offline), and certain graphical-only or know-how-protected blocks. To see those, open the project with Connect (Attach or Open TIA Project) while TIA Portal is available.

Note: Opening a project offline requires the same license as connecting to TIA Portal. Going online from an offline-opened project additionally requires online commissioning, which is included from the Pro+ plan.

Archive Project

Creates a compressed archive (.zap file) of the current project:

  1. Click the Archive Project button in the Project Explorer view title (or run Archive Project from the Command Palette)
  2. Confirm the destination in the save dialog
  3. The project is archived with all associated files

Note: The project must be saved before archiving. The archive file extension (.zap20, .zap21, …) automatically matches the running TIA Portal version so the archive can be reopened in TIA Portal.

Naming the archive file

The suggested file name in the Save Archive dialog is built from the project name plus a configurable suffix and an optional timestamp. Open Settings (Ctrl+,) and search for tiaPortal.archive to adjust:

  • Suffix — text appended to the project name (default _Archive). Leave empty to skip the suffix.
  • Append timestamp — when enabled, a timestamp is added to the file name.
  • Timestamp Format — a dropdown with eight date/time formats that controls how the timestamp looks (default e.g. 20260611_173205). It only takes effect when Append timestamp is enabled.

Characters that are not allowed in Windows file names (such as /, :, spaces) are automatically replaced with - so the suggested name is always valid.

Safety Printout

Generates a safety documentation printout for F-blocks:

  1. Ensure you are logged in with Safety credentials (click the Safety Login button in the Project Explorer view title first)
  2. Right-click a safety node in the Project Explorer and choose Safety Printout
  3. Select a destination folder
  4. A PDF is generated with all safety-relevant documentation

Note: This feature requires an active Safety login and is only available for projects with F-blocks.

Disconnect

Run Disconnect from Openness Manager from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P), or click the Disconnect button in the Project Explorer view title toolbar, to close the connection. In Headless Mode, TIA Portal will be terminated.

Multi-User Sessions

You can open, edit, and commit a TIA Multi-User session entirely inside AnyAutomation Studio — check out a project from your Multi-User server, work in your own local session, and commit your changes back, all without keeping TIA Portal open. See Multi-User Session for the full workflow. The Multi-User features are part of the Pro plan and above.

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