Excellent integration of the new SIMATIC S7-1500 controller

With its many innovations, the new SIMATIC S7-1500 controller from the SIMATIC S7 controller family sets new standards for maximum productivity. The SIMATIC S7-1500 is perfectly integrated into SIMATIC STEP 7 V13 Professional for maximum engineering efficiency. With its unique system performance and PROFINET as standard interface, the SIMATIC S7-1500 is the new benchmark for performance.

Powerful programming editors for efficient engineering

STEP 7 V13 provides powerful programming editors with optimized compilers for the programming of the S7 controllers.

For all controllers:

• Ladder diagram (LAD)
• Function block diagram (FBD)
• Structured text (SCL)

Additionally for SIMATIC S7-1500, S7-300, S7-400, and WinAC:

• Statement list (STL)

New functions such as

• Instructions for the Variant Pointer, for the programming of flexible library functions
• Reflexion instructions for reading out program information during runtime (e.g. instance names),
• local constants
• etc.

enable users to create their applications efficiently. Even complex technological functions, such as controllers or positioning controllers can easily be implemented in the engineering software.

Variables trace for effective commissioning

The Trace Editor provides the ability to record signals in chronological order from the user program of an S7-1500 CPU. The graphical evaluation of the signals simplifies, for example, the commissioning of drives and helps search for sporadic errors in the application or user program.

Scalable and flexible motion functionality

Motion Control applications with SIMATIC STEP 7 V13 and S7-1500 become child's play, even for beginners. The intuitive graphical user interfaces of the technology objects in STEP 7 V13 offer the best support in the configuration and commissioning of analog and PROFIdrive-capable drives as well as in troubleshooting. The instructions for controlling the motion sequence are standardized according to PLCopen Motion Control. The following functions are supported in STEP 7 V13:

• Positioning (absolute and relative)
• Speed specification (e.g. jogging)
• Homing (active, on-the-fly, etc.)
• Support of incremental and absolute encoders

Comprehensive library concept

For the reuse and simple standardization of frequently used program sections, the system has a comprehensive library concept.

Elements such as blocks, tags, alarms, HMI graphics, graphic objects, individual modules or entire stations can be stored along with their parameter assignment in local or global libraries. This means they are available for further programming tasks.

Security Integrated

STEP 7 V13 has password-based know-how protection against unauthorized reading and changing the contents of program blocks.

Copy protection offers greater protection against unauthorized copying of program blocks. These can be tied to the serial number of a memory card so that the block can only run if the configured memory card is inserted into the CPU.

In addition, multiple user groups with different access rights can be assigned to the controller by means of four different authorization levels.

Improved manipulation protection offers a greater degree of security against unauthorized changes to the data transferred between STEP 7 and the controller.

Migration support for existing hardware and software products

A migration tool integrated in SIMATIC STEP 7 Professional V13 provides support in switching from the S7-300/S7-400 to the S7-1500 controller and converts the program code automatically. Program code that cannot be converted automatically is logged and can be adapted manually. STEP 7 V12 SP1 projects can continue to be used with STEP 7 V13 in compatibility mode.