Displaying Active Recipe Name on Siemens HMI Screens in TIA

Problem Overview

On a Siemens S7-1200 / S7-1500 controller combined with a Basic Panel (KTP400, KTP600, KTP700, KTP1000, KTP1200), Comfort Panel, or a WinCC RT Advanced station, operators frequently need to see which recipe data record is currently loaded into the PLC on process overview screens, header bars, alarms, or audit pages. The default Simple Recipe View object only displays the data record that is currently being browsed inside the recipe view object — it does not broadcast the name of the record that has actually been transferred to the controller with the Load button. Once the user navigates to any other screen, that visible name disappears.

This behavior is documented in the TIA Portal help for Managing recipe data records (Basic Panels, Panels, Comfort Panels, RT Advanced). The runtime object exposes a displayed data record tag, not an active-in-PLC data record tag, and the two are only synchronized inside the recipe view's own screen.

This guide consolidates four field-proven methods to surface the active recipe data record name on any HMI screen, including the dedicated PLC tag pass-through technique, HMI system tags, Power User recipe view, and script-based capture. A troubleshooting matrix covers the most common failure modes including Cyrillic / multi-byte encoding issues, tags not updating on load, and "Simple View" limitations on KTP600.

Prerequisites

• Engineering tool: TIA Portal V16 or later (V17 / V18 / V19 / V20 supported). Recipe behavior described here was validated against V17 and V20 documentation.
• Controller: SIMATIC S7-1200 (CPU 1211C / 1212C / 1214C / 1215C / 1217C) or S7-1500 with firmware ≥ V4.2. The S7-1200 STRING data type header occupies 2 bytes followed by up to 254 user bytes.
• HMI: KTP600 Basic, KTP700 Basic, KTP1000 Basic, KTP1200 Basic, TP700 Comfort, TP900 Comfort, TP1200 Comfort, TP1500 Comfort, TP1900 Comfort, or a WinCC Runtime Advanced PC station. KTP600 is the most restrictive case used as the working example throughout.
• Recipe configuration: A recipe with at least one data record. Tag mapping must use PLC tags of type String (S7-1200/1500), WString, or compatible Bool / Int / Real arrays.
• Project access: Both the PLC and the HMI must be in the same TIA Portal project with HMI tag connections to the PLC's DB or absolute addresses.
• Runtime rights: The operator account on the HMI must have permission to load / save / delete recipe data records if interactive testing will be performed.

Recipe Architecture in TIA Portal

A recipe in WinCC (TIA Portal) is composed of recipe elements (mapped 1:1 to PLC tags) and data records. Data records are persisted either on the HMI's internal flash, on a removable storage card, or on a remote SMB share. The PLC is never the storage location — it is only the destination of Load operations and the source of Save operations.

The Data record name and Data record number tags are configured under Recipe view > Properties > General > Tags. The number tag is an Int or DInt; the name tag is a String or WString. On Simple Recipe View (Basic Panels only) these tags reflect the browsed data record, not the last loaded one.

Method 1 — PLC String Tag Pass-Through (Recommended for KTP600)

This is the technique proven on a CPU 1214C + KTP600 combination. It works on every HMI flavor and does not rely on system area pointers, scripts, or Power User view licensing.

1. Open the PLC project in TIA Portal and create a new global DB, for example "HMI_Strings".
2. Add two String[64] variables to the DB:
   • RecipeName — input from the HMI recipe view
   • ActiveRecipeName — pass-through mirror, readable from any HMI screen
3. Open the HMI recipe's Properties > Tags dialog. Bind the Data record name tag to "HMI_Strings".RecipeName.
4. Add a small ladder / SCL block in the PLC that continuously copies RecipeName into ActiveRecipeName. The trivial SCL implementation is:

   // OB1 - "Active recipe mirror"
   "HMI_Strings".ActiveRecipeName := "HMI_Strings".RecipeName;

5. On the target HMI screen (header bar, overview screen, alarm screen) place a Text / IO field bound to "HMI_Strings".ActiveRecipeName. Set the display mode to Output or Input/Output.

Because both tags live in the same DB, the read from any screen returns the last value written by the recipe view. The mirror pattern survives screen changes, screen resets, and recipe view navigation.

Why a mirror instead of reading the recipe view tag directly?

On Basic Panels, the recipe view's Data record name tag is only updated when:

• The operator renames a data record, or
• The operator navigates to a different record inside the recipe view

It is not updated by the Load operation. The mirror variable decouples the HMI screen display from the recipe view's internal selection state and gives the PLC control over what "active" means.

Method 2 — HMI System Tags for Active Data Record

WinCC (TIA Portal) exposes several internal tags that report the state of the most recently executed recipe operation. They are accessible under HMI tags > System tags > Recipes or via the tag selector on a screen object.

Bind an Output IO field on the target screen directly to @DataRecordName. The system tag updates on every Load to PLC and Save from PLC operation, independent of which screen is active. This is the simplest approach on Comfort Panels and WinCC RT Advanced. On KTP Basic Panels, support for system tags is limited — verify availability under Connections > Tags > System tags in your TIA Portal version.

Method 3 — Power User Recipe View

The Power User recipe view object (available on WinCC Runtime Advanced and selected Comfort Panels with the appropriate option) exposes the active record's name as a configurable tag without scripting. Configuration steps:

1. Replace the Simple Recipe View object with the Power User Recipe View (drag from the toolbox > Controls > Recipe view). Power User views require a license on Basic Panels only in some TIA Portal versions.
2. Open Properties > Tags and bind Data record name to the PLC tag that you also want to display on the other screen.
3. The Power User view correctly writes the bound tag on every Load / Save operation. The same tag can then be displayed on any screen as a standard IO field.

Reference documentation for the Power User view is published in the Siemens application example collection; the underlying mechanics are covered in the TIA Portal help under Working with recipes — Power User view.

Method 4 — Script-Based Capture (Comfort Panels / RT Advanced)

On Comfort Panels and WinCC RT Advanced, VBScripts attached to screen events can copy the active recipe name into a global HMI tag. This is useful when you need logic (e.g., concatenate recipe name + user name) that pure tag mirroring cannot deliver.

' VBScript attached to recipe view "Load" button click event
Sub OnClick(ByVal Item)
    Dim sName
    sName = SmartTags("@DataRecordName").Value
    SmartTags("HMI_ActiveRecipeName").Value = sName
End Sub

Use this approach only when the limitation of "fires on event" is acceptable. Tag-mirror or system tag methods are preferred because they are event-independent.

Step-by-Step: Implementing the PLC Tag Mirror on KTP600 + CPU 1214C

1. Open the TIA Portal project. Locate the PLC device (CPU 1214C) and the HMI device (KTP600).
2. Create the HMI_Strings DB. Project tree > PLC > Program blocks > Add new block > Data block > Name "HMI_Strings" > OK.
3. Declare the strings. Open the DB and add:

   VAR
       RecipeName        : String[64];   // populated by HMI recipe view
       ActiveRecipeName  : String[64];   // mirrored, displayed on every screen
   END_VAR

4. Compile the PLC program. Right-click the DB > Compile > Software (rebuild all blocks).
5. Open the recipe. HMI device > Recipes > Select the recipe > Properties > Tags.
6. Bind the Data record name tag. Click the empty field next to Data record name > navigate to HMI_Strings.RecipeName.
7. Add the mirror logic. In OB1 (or any cyclic OB) of the PLC, drop an SCL network:

   "HMI_Strings".ActiveRecipeName := "HMI_Strings".RecipeName;

8. Display on every screen. Open the target screen > Toolbox > Elements > IO field > Mode: Output > Tag: HMI_Strings.ActiveRecipeName.
9. Compile and download. Compile the HMI > Download to device (PLC first, HMI second) > Start runtime.
10. Verification. On the HMI, open the recipe view > select a data record > press Load > navigate to the target screen > confirm the text field shows the loaded record's name.

Cyrillic and Multi-Byte Encoding Issue

Recipe names entered in languages using non-Latin scripts (Cyrillic, Greek, Chinese, Arabic) may appear as question marks (?????) when written from the HMI to the PLC string tag and read back. Root cause and remediation:

On S7-1200, STRING holds raw bytes; on S7-1500, WSTRING is available and supports Unicode. When displaying Cyrillic recipe names, prefer WSTRING on both sides of the connection.

Troubleshooting Matrix

Verification Checklist

• Load test: From the HMI recipe view, select record "MODEL_A" > press Load > navigate to overview screen > confirm IO field shows "MODEL_A".
• Save test: Modify PLC tag values > select record "MODEL_B" in recipe view > press Save > confirm HMI stored the values.
• Rename test: Rename a data record to "MODEL_C" > reload > confirm "MODEL_C" appears on overview.
• Encoding test: Create a record named "Модель_01" (Cyrillic) > load > verify characters display correctly. If not, switch tag type to WSTRING.
• Restart test: Power-cycle the HMI > confirm the previously loaded record's name is still shown after restart (depends on whether the mirror tag is restored from PLC; S7 retains PLC values across HMI restart).
• Alarm test: Trigger an alarm that includes the recipe name in its text > verify the alarm line shows the correct name (use the mirror tag as the alarm tag source).

Advanced Notes

For installations that will eventually migrate to a batch / process historian (e.g., FactoryTalk Batch on a Rockwell line), the PLC string mirror pattern is the cleanest bridge — every recipe load produces a deterministic event in the controller that can be subscribed to by an OPC UA server or a higher-level MES. See the FactoryTalk Batch Recipe Editor User Manual for the conceptual equivalent on the PlantPAx side; the underlying principle — keeping the "active recipe" identity in the controller, not in the HMI — is identical.

On S7-1500 with the optional OPC UA server, expose HMI_Strings.ActiveRecipeName as an OPC UA node so SCADA / MES clients can read the currently loaded recipe without polling the HMI.

For very long recipe names (>32 characters), use WString[254] and set the HMI IO field length to match. KTP600 supports WString display from TIA Portal V15.1 onward.

If you operate a mixed fleet of KTP Basic Panels and Comfort Panels, keep the mirror DB in the PLC and let both HMI types read the same tag — there is no need to maintain two parallel implementations.

FAQ