Welcome

What is the Welcome Tab?

The Welcome tab is the first thing you see when you start AnyAutomation Studio. It opens as an editor in the center editor area and gives you a single place to start a new session, learn the app's core concepts, and jump back into a recent project. You can leave it open alongside your work, or close it and open it again later from the Help menu.

When it opens

• On first launch the Welcome tab opens automatically.
• On every launch after that, it keeps opening until you uncheck "Show welcome page on startup" at the bottom of the page.
• Anytime you can reopen it from Help → Welcome Guide. Reopening it this way does not turn the startup setting back on.

Quick Start actions

The left column offers eight shortcuts for the most common first steps:

• Connect to TIA Portal… — attach to a running TIA Portal instance.
• New TIA Project… — open the New Project Wizard to create a TIA project with CPU, optional modules and network. Pick the TIA Portal version inside the wizard — no prior connection required. See User Manual → New Project Wizard.
• Open TIA Project… — pick a .ap1x / .ap2x project file from disk.
• Browse Export Folder… — choose the folder where exported blocks are written.
• Clone Git Repository… — clone a repository directly into the app.
• New SCL File… — open a blank SCL editor.
• Unit Testing… — open the Unit Testing view.
• Configure AI Assistant… — open the AI Chat settings so you can add an API key or sign in.

Get Started walkthrough

The centre of the tab has an interactive Get Started card with four steps. The steps check themselves off as you use the app:

1. Connect to TIA Portal — checks itself off when you successfully connect.
2. Learn the Project Explorer — explains per-row checkboxes, Export Selected vs. Export All, the Protection column, Protection Profiles bound to Import/Export folders, and drag-and-drop import. An inline button opens the Protection-Profile save dialog; the step completes as soon as you save a profile (either from this button or from your normal Project Explorer workflow).
3. Export your first block — completes when any block export succeeds.
4. Choose your next step — four buttons (Git, AI Chat, Unit Testing, OPC UA) open the corresponding view and complete this step.

A progress bar at the top of the card shows how many steps are done. A Reset walkthrough progress link at the bottom of the card clears all four checkmarks if you want to run through them again.

Feature cards

Five cards on the right describe the app's main areas. Click a card to jump to that feature:

• AI Chat — opens the AI Chat view and the settings dialog.
• Git Version Control — opens the Source Control view.
• Unit Testing — opens the Unit Testing view.
• OPC UA Browser — opens the PLC Online editor.
• What's New in 3.x — opens the bundled CHANGELOG with the latest user-visible changes.

Recent projects

The Recent list shows up to five recently opened TIA projects, newest first. Click an entry to reconnect straight to it. Entries pointing to projects that have been moved or deleted are hidden automatically. The list updates after every successful connection, whether you opened a project file or attached to a running TIA Portal instance. If the list is empty, a single inline link offers to start a connection.

Hiding the Welcome tab

Uncheck Show welcome page on startup at the bottom of the tab. The Welcome tab then stops opening on launch. You can always bring it back from Help → Welcome Guide.