Configuring WinCC V18 Table Control Dynamic Value Column Rename

Configuring WinCC Professional V18 Table View — Dynamic Value Column Rename via VBScript

Overview

WinCC Professional V18 Table View controls expose a configurable column-header architecture that supports both static labels and runtime-mutable strings. Operators and engineering teams frequently need to localize, contextualize, or rebrand measured-value labels without rebuilding the screen — for example switching between Voltage (V) and Spannung (V) depending on the active user language, replacing Setpoint with Sollwert, or remapping an axis label after a recipe change in a WinCC Runtime Professional / RT Professional visualization.

The native property that drives this behavior is ValueColumnRename. The corresponding property for the time-stamp column is TimeColumnRename. Both properties belong to the WinCC Table View object model and accept string values either at engineering time inside TIA Portal V18 or at runtime through VBScript and HMI tag dynamization. The WinCC Professional V18 programming manual — entry ID 109747179 on the Siemens Industry Online Support portal — lists every property of the Table View control that can be marked dynamizable in the Animations / Properties dialog.

This technical reference walks through the complete procedure to make column headers dynamic: the exact property layout, the VBScript syntax that drives the rename, the SmartTags binding pattern, the trigger configuration, and the compiler warning ("The script does not return a value although it is defined as a 'Function'") that surfaces when the wrong sub declaration is used. The article also documents why ValueColumnName is the wrong property to assign at runtime and what to use instead.

Table View Column Rename Property Reference

The following properties are exposed by the WinCC Professional V18 Table View object. They are accessible through the ScreenItems collection of the active screen and through the HMIRuntime object in VBScript.

Prerequisites

Before scripting the Table View column rename, confirm the following engineering preconditions on the TIA Portal V18 engineering station and the target WinCC Runtime:

1. TIA Portal V18 Update 1 or later is installed on the engineering station. The dynamic Table View property set documented here was stabilized in V18; earlier V17 SP builds and later V19 builds use the same property names but may add or rename adjacent properties — verify against your installed help set.
2. WinCC Professional / WinCC Runtime Professional is licensed and visible in the TIA project tree. The Table View object is part of the WinCC Professional HMI device configuration.
3. An HMI string tag of type String (254 characters max) or WString (Unicode) is configured under HMI Tags. String covers the typical axis-label use case; switch to WString if the project language set contains CJK, Cyrillic, or other double-byte locales.
4. The PLC connection or internal tag connection is compiled and error-free. Verify with Compile > Software (rebuild all) on the HMI device object.
5. VBScript is enabled on the WinCC Runtime target. In TIA Portal V18 the runtime setting is found under Runtime settings > Services > Scripts > VBScript; the option "Allow VBScript" must be active. VBScript is the supported scripting language for WinCC Professional — VBS macro replacement is not the same as this.

Static Column Rename Engineering in TIA Portal V18

For projects that do not require runtime switching, the column label can be fixed at engineering time without any VBScript:

1. Open the HMI screen that contains the WinCC Table View.
2. Select the Table View object on the canvas; the configuration pane opens on the right.
3. Switch to the Columns tab.
4. In the column list, select the target value column. Open the property list (hammer icon or Properties pane).
5. Enter the static label into Caption, or for explicitly separate control use the Column header text field. This becomes the runtime default for ValueColumnRename.
6. Compile the HMI device and download to the RT target.

This is also the correct state against which to verify that the runtime dynamic rename works: if the static label renders correctly, the Table View object is intact and the runtime VBScript path is the only variable left.

Dynamic Column Rename via VBScript

The runtime path uses the ScreenItems collection of the active screen to obtain a reference to the Table View object, then assigns the new label to the dynamizable ValueColumnRename property. The minimum working script is:

' WinCC Professional V18 — static label rewrite via VBScript
Dim obj
Set obj = ScreenItems("Table view_1")

' Specify which value column to rename.
' Indexing follows the engineering column order configured in TIA Portal.
obj.ValueColumnIndex = 1

' Assign the new header text. "ValueColumnRename" is the
' dynamizable property; "ValueColumnName" is ignored at runtime.
obj.ValueColumnRename = "test"

Save the function inside the VBScript editor of the Table View's event. Use a Sub, not a Function, unless the script needs to return a value to its caller. The Function declaration triggers a compiler diagnostic that is described in the Common Script Errors section below.

For multi-language panels the literal "test" should be replaced by a localized resource string or by a PLC-controlled string tag, as covered in the next section.

Binding Column Names to HMI String Tags (SmartTags)

To make the column name data-driven at runtime, replace the literal string in the assignment with a SmartTags dereference. The HMI tag must already exist in the project tree and be reachable by the script context.

' WinCC Professional V18 — bind the column header to an HMI string tag
Dim obj
Set obj = ScreenItems("Table view_1")

obj.ValueColumnIndex = 1
obj.ValueColumnRename = SmartTags("HMI_Tag_4")

The HMI tag HMI_Tag_4 can be driven from the PLC via a tag connection, by a recipe, or by an internal script on another event. As soon as SmartTags("HMI_Tag_4") changes value, the next evaluation cycle of the Table View picks up the new header — provided the binding fires inside an event handler, a trigger, or a cyclic script. A direct assignment without a trigger does not auto-refresh.

Implementation checklist:

1. Add an HMI tag of type String named HMI_Tag_4 in HMI Tags.
2. If the column header is to be set by the controller, map the PLC variable to HMI_Tag_4 in the Connection configuration. For a 1200/1500 PLC the limit is 254 characters per S7 string; trim the S7 string length so that WString is not required.
3. From the PLC, write the localized label into the configured string. On a STRING [n] tag inside the controller, write the maximum length and the actual characters in the standard S7 STRING layout (DB byte 0 = max length, byte 1 = current length, bytes 2..n+1 = data).
4. Attach the script above to the OnValueChanged event of the trigger source (typically the same HMI tag, the recipe element that writes it, or an OnClick event of a Button used as a manual refresh).
5. Compile the HMI, download, and verify the header updates in the running RT.

This pattern scales to all language tables. A multi-language variant can rotate SmartTags("HMI_Tag_4") among several WinCC text lists and switch the active language through the project-language configuration in TIA Portal V18.

Triggering the Rename Script at Runtime

Three trigger placements cover the typical use cases:

For the bound-tag approach, the OnValueChanged trigger is the most efficient. Set the trigger on the HMI tag itself (not on the Table View) and the script will be called only when the underlying string actually changes; this avoids redundant repaints on every PLC cycle.

If the Table View is hosted inside a faceplate or a library master copy, place the trigger on the faceplate tag and propagate the renamed string into the instance via the standard faceplate interface.

Common Script Errors and Compiler Warnings

Engineering feedback collected while wiring this property surfaces four recurring problems. Each is reproducible in V18 and confirmed against the script diagnostic pane.

Error: "The script does not return a value although it is defined as a 'Function'"

This warning is generated when the script block is declared as Function Name(...) but does not call Name = expression on at least one path. WinCC Professional V18 does not require a return value from a property-rewrite Sub and treats any leftover Function header as a contract violation. Replace the header with Sub for scripts that only mutate the screen:

' Wrong
Function ValueColumnNameValue(ByVal item)
    Dim obj
    Set obj = ScreenItems("Table view_1")
    obj.ValueColumnIndex = 1
    obj.ValueColumnRename = "test"
End Function

' Right
Sub ValueColumnNameValue(ByVal item)
    Dim obj
    Set obj = ScreenItems("Table view_1")
    obj.ValueColumnIndex = 1
    obj.ValueColumnRename = "test"
End Sub

Error: assigning to ValueColumnName instead of ValueColumnRename

ValueColumnName is the engineering-time reference name and is not a dynamizable property. Assigning to it executes silently and produces no visible result, which is why the heading "does not change" even though the script line reports success.

Error: using brackets [=...] for assignment

' Invalid VBScript — square brackets are not assignment operators.
Table view_1.ValueColumnIndex[=1]
Table view_1.ValueColumnName[=test]

The bracketed form is not VBScript; the runtime cannot parse it. Use the standard object/property syntax with the = operator, as shown in the working examples above.

Error: object not found in ScreenItems

When the object name passed to ScreenItems(...) does not match the configured object name, WinCC raises an automation error and the script aborts before the assignment happens. Verify the object name in the TIA properties pane and avoid embedded spaces that differ between display name and engine name.

Multi-Column Rename with ValueColumnIndex

Many Table Views display two or more value columns side by side (for example "Voltage" and "Current"). Loop through the columns and rename each in turn from a tag array or a dictionary:

' Rename every value column in the Table View in a single event
Dim obj
Dim i
Dim labelNames

Set obj = ScreenItems("Table view_1")
labelNames = Array("Voltage", "Current", "Power")

For i = LBound(labelNames) To UBound(labelNames)
    obj.ValueColumnIndex = i
    obj.ValueColumnRename = labelNames(i)
Next

Bind each label to its own HMI string tag if individual languages or unit suffixes are required, or drive the array from a single recipe element of a user-defined type.

Verification and Acceptance Test

After the script has been wired, use the following acceptance test on the WinCC RT target to confirm correct behavior end-to-end.

1. Start the WinCC Runtime Professional simulation from TIA Portal V18 (Start > Run > Start Runtime) or boot the real RT PC.
2. Open the screen that contains the Table View. Confirm the engineering-time default header is rendered.
3. Force a change to the bound HMI tag — through the PLC, through a tag simulation, or by writing to the internal tag from a separate event handler.
4. Verify the column header updates within one PLC cycle (for tag binding) or one button press (for click trigger). The change is immediate on the next paint cycle of the runtime.
5. Cycle the project language in TIA Portal (or via the language switch on the RT) and confirm that ValueColumnRename still resolves to the current locale. This validates that the assignment is not silently cached against a single locale.
6. Open the HMI diagnostics viewer (WinCC Explorer > Tools > Diagnostics) and inspect the diagnostic log for any VBScript runtime errors associated with the screen; clean entries confirm a healthy rename path.

Troubleshooting Matrix

Best Practices and Field Notes

• Centralize the rename script in the project library so every screen that uses a Table View pulls the same function. This eliminates drift between screens and makes locale switches maintainable.
• Use the same ValueColumnIndex range across the project — index 0 is the first column in TIA's table configuration, and a consistent indexing convention prevents off-by-one mistakes between screens.
• For multi-language projects, prefer WString HMI tags over String; some Eastern European and Asian locales use double-byte encodings that String truncates.
• Avoid renaming on every PLC scan. If the column header rarely changes (it usually should not — operators read headers, not scripts), drive the assignment from a discrete event (button, recipe change) rather than a cyclic trigger. This keeps the runtime overhead flat.
• Treat the Table View header as a presentational element, not a control signal. Operators rely on stable labels; rename only when the meaning of the data has genuinely shifted (locale change, unit change, recipe change), not on every screen refresh.
• Verify against Siemens entry 109747179 whenever a project is upgraded. TIA Portal V19 may introduce new column-related properties; check the property help in the installed build before porting the script verbatim.
• Document the SmartTag in the HMI tag table with a comment indicating which screen consumes the value and which column it labels, so that follow-on engineering does not accidentally repurpose the tag.

FAQ