Hi, I realize that you cannot browse Siemens PLC tags in Ignition. My question is whether this is because of Ignition or because of Ignitions OPC-UA server / Siemens driver? If I used a 3rd party OPC-UA server (that supports browsing?) to connect to a Siemens device would I then be able to browse…

Yes, if you use a 3rd party OPC server that supports browsing it will work.

I’m not sure… [:scratch:] Until now, AFAIK, only with Siemens OPC Server (inside SIMATIC NET package), you can browse PLC tags. I’ve mostly used KepWare (until v6) in the past (tried also a few other), but none has supported Siemens PLC tag browsing…

I tested against this server at the IOP in Germany this year and it seemed to work well: tanindustrie.de/en/index.php

Hi, thanks for the replies! I have to say I’m a little hesitant to make an investment in 3rd party OPC-UA software and a remodeling of our network based on ‘…seemed to to work…’. How can I get confirmation on this? Does anyone have any experience with currently running sites? Thanks

Can you tell us, why is tag browsing so important to you? I’ve been using OPC servers for 20 years now (OK, mainly Kepware and Siemens, but used also a few others…) and I have NEVER used tag browsing. [8)] At first glance maybe it looks good/fancy, that you can see/browse tags, drag&drop them in y…

@zxcslo Well, you’re right. Tag browsing isn’t that necessary. We also import tags from the PLC -> Excel -> CSV -> Ignition. However it would be nice to be able to skip all this. What got me started on this post is that Ignition won’t let me use optimized blocks in TIA Portal when connecting to Si…

If you use 3rd party OPC server, then you will not use Ignition Siemens driver (which can not access optimized data blocks). So, Ignition has nothing to do with Siemens PLC, neither with optimized blocks. That will be handled by 3rd party OPC. What’s the answer then? [:thumb_right:]

The TANI server claims to support optimized blocks but I cannot verify one way or the other. The other option that seems to carry no risk at all would be to use Siemens’ own OPC server, which can access everything and is of course fully supported.

As far as i know, there are currently two OPC-UA Server dedicated for S7-1500. One is from Siemens and the other is the one from TANI Kevin mentioned above. Both support symbolic access to optimized data blocks. I have the TANI server in use and will test the symbolic access when i find some minute…

We've been testing against the new UA server built into the 1500 and it works well. A few interoperability changes were needed but should be present in 7.8.5 and 7.9.1. Everything works except for complex DataTypes (aka structures aka UDTs). Your UDT in the Siemens program will be exposed in the a…

Inductive Automation Forum

Browsing Siemens PLC tags with 3rd party OPC server

Ignition

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