One of the first engineering steps required to specify the automation topology and parameterize the components and networks is to create the

• Hardware configuration and
• Network configuration.

With SCOUT TIA (SIMOTION in the TIA Portal) the tools of TIA Portal are used for this purpose (in the case of SCOUT, the STEP 7 tools HW-Config and NetPro).

With the selection from a hardware catalog, all the required hardware components are graphically assembled in the working area, parameterized and the bus connections between the individual components are created. In this way, invalid options are indicated at an early stage so that only plausible configurations can be created.