Exporting Siemens DB Declarations to Excel with Addresses

When engineers copy a Siemens S7-300, S7-400, S7-1200, or S7-1500 data block (DB) declaration view out of TIA Portal or classic STEP 7 and paste it into Excel or a text file, the physical memory addresses (for example, DB1.DBX0.0, DB1.DBD4, DB1.DBW10) are dropped. Only the symbolic name, data type, initial value, and comment survive the clipboard transfer. This reference explains why the addresses are missing and documents every reliable workaround for getting address + name + type + comment rows out of the engineering tool into a spreadsheet while preserving the byte and bit offset.

1. Problem Statement and Engineering Context

The DB declaration view in TIA Portal lists three logical columns plus the offset column:

• Name (symbolic identifier)
• Data type (BOOL, INT, REAL, STRING, ARRAY, STRUCT, etc.)
• Start value / initial value
• Comment / remark
• Offset (byte.bit or byte address)

The offset column is generated dynamically by the editor when the block is compiled and is not part of the textual declaration that is exchanged through the clipboard. When the user selects rows, presses Ctrl+C, and pastes into Excel or Notepad, only the four text columns are written. The physical offsets disappear.

2. Why the Address Column Is Lost on Copy/Paste

The DB declaration grid in TIA Portal is implemented as a structured editor view backed by the block's XML representation in the project tree. The visible offset column is computed at runtime from the layout of the preceding tags; it is not a stored property of each row. STEP 7 classic and TIA Portal both serialize DB declarations into an .scl or .db source file that contains only the symbolic structure — names, types, initial values, and comments. The offsets are assigned only when the compiler lays out the data block in the PLC's load memory.

Consequences:

• Plain Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V to Excel or Notepad exports the textual source columns only.
• Exporting the DB as an STL source yields the same textual source, again without offsets.
• Only when the source is re-imported into the program editor and the project is compiled are the offsets regenerated.

3. Built-in Export Options Available in TIA Portal

TIA Portal V15 and later provides several export paths that retain varying amounts of metadata. The matrix below summarizes what each path includes.

4. Method 1 — Reconstruct Byte/Bit Addresses Manually in Excel

The fastest documented workaround, used in the field when only a one-off export is needed, is to paste the four text columns into Excel and then build the offset column with CONCATENATE formulas. The approach assumes a flat (non-nested) DB.

4.1 Procedure

1. Open the DB in TIA Portal, switch to the Declaration view (not the Data view).
2. Select the entire grid with Ctrl+A and copy with Ctrl+C.
3. Open Excel and paste into sheet Raw starting at cell A1. Excel places Name in A, Data type in B, Initial value in C, Comment in D.
4. Insert two helper columns: ByteOffset (E) and BitOffset (F).
5. Fill column E from 0 upward using the type sizes shown in the table below.
6. Fill column F from 0 upward only on BOOL rows; leave blank for non-BOOL rows.
7. Add column G Address with formula =CONCATENATE("DB",1,".DB") extended for the access size.

4.2 Type-Size Lookup Table

4.3 Sample Formulas (Excel)

For a BOOL row at byte n, bit m:

For a non-BOOL row of size s bytes starting at byte n:

Drill a VLOOKUP against the size lookup table on column B to make the size explicit instead of hard-coded.

5. Method 2 — Use the PLC Tag Table as a Spreadsheet Bridge

The PLC tag table in TIA Portal exports cleanly to CSV. Although it does not include the byte offset, it can serve as a master list for cross-referencing the actual offsets obtained from the cross-reference window.

1. In the project tree, expand PLC tags and double-click Default tag table.
2. Add all DB tags of interest as DB operand entries using the format "DBName".TagName.
3. Right-click inside the table and choose Export → CSV. Choose UTF-8, semicolon separator for German-locale workstations, comma for English.
4. Open the CSV in Excel; columns delivered: Name, Path, Operand, Data type, Comment.
5. Use the cross-reference window (next section) to attach addresses.

The default tag table exported through Project → Export PLC tags is also accepted by SIMATIC HMI panels and WinCC Unified for tag import. This makes it a useful pivot format even when the offset column is missing.

6. Method 3 — Cross-Reference Window and Copy with Offsets

The Cross-reference editor in TIA Portal (menu Project → Cross-reference) is the only built-in view that contains both the symbolic name and the absolute address. It can be exported through the standard Windows clipboard as a tab-separated block.

1. Compile the project (Project → Compile all) so cross-references are populated.
2. Open Project tree → Cross-reference.
3. Filter the Used in column to the DB of interest.
4. Select all rows, Ctrl+C, and paste into Excel.
5. Use Excel Text to Columns with tab delimiter.

Typical columns delivered by cross-reference:

• Object
• Symbol
• Address (for example, DB1.DBX0.0)
• Type
• Access (read/write)
• Used in / Location

7. Method 4 — STL/SCL Source Export and Re-Compile Round-Trip

In classic STEP 7 (V5.x), the recommended workflow for capturing the source with type information is:

1. Select the DB in SIMATIC Manager.
2. Right-click → Generate source → select STL or SCL source files.
3. Open the generated .scl / .awl file.
4. The source contains only declarations: Name : TYPE := initial; statements.

To regenerate offsets after editing, choose File → Compile in the source editor. The compiled block will then display offsets, which can be copied individually by selecting the offset cell only.

This round-trip is the only way to guarantee that the offsets match a freshly compiled project after a type change. It is the procedure Siemens support recommends for source-controlled DB libraries that must remain binary-identical across TIA Portal versions.

8. Method 5 — Print to File (PDF) and OCR / Table Extraction

When no scripting is available and a one-shot document is acceptable, TIA Portal's built-in Print command renders the declaration view with the offset column visible. Selecting Microsoft Print to PDF as the printer produces a multi-page PDF. The PDF can be opened in Excel via Data → Get Data → From File → From PDF on Microsoft 365, which converts the tabular declaration into rows. The technique is reliable for simple blocks; nested structs occasionally break the row alignment.

9. Script-Based Automation for Repetitive Exports

When the same DB layout must be exported weekly (for example, to feed an OPC UA namespace generator or a SCADA point database), use one of the automation paths below.

9.1 TIA Portal Openness API (V15.1+)

The TIA Portal Openness API exposes the PlcBlock and PlcTagTable interfaces. A C# or VB.NET script can iterate through every PlcTag in the DB and dump Name, Address, Data type, Comment to CSV. The API requires a TIA Portal installation with the Openness option installed and a valid license key. The Openness API is documented in the Siemens Industry Online Support under the entry ID 109776038.

9.2 Python with the snap7 Library

Python scripts using the snap7 library cannot read the offline DB declaration, but they can read the actual runtime data. Combined with a parsed .scl source file, a script can build an offset dictionary automatically:

from snap7 import client
c = client.Client()
c.connect('192.168.0.1', 0, 1)
data = c.db_read(1, 0, 256)   # DB1, start 0, length 256 bytes
print(data.hex())

The offline layout comes from a Python parser of the .scl source file. Combine the two to produce an address, name, type, value, comment CSV.

9.3 VBA Macro Inside Excel

For environments without TIA Openness, a VBA macro can read a tab-delimited clipboard paste and rebuild the offset column by walking the rows and tracking an internal byte counter. The same logic as the manual CONCATENATE formula above, but in code so it scales to thousands of tags.

10. Step-by-Step: Reliable One-Shot Export with Offsets

1. Compile the project (Project → Compile all).
2. Open the DB. Confirm the Offset column is visible: right-click the header → Show/hide → Offset.
3. Switch to the Cross-reference editor. Filter to the DB. Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C.
4. Paste into Excel sheet Symbols. Use Text to Columns with tab delimiter.
5. Open the DB declaration view. Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C. Paste into sheet Decl.
6. In sheet Merged, use VLOOKUP keyed on the symbolic name to merge address (from Symbols) with type and comment (from Decl).
7. Save as .xlsx and also Save As → CSV (Comma delimited) for downstream tools that require CSV.

11. Verification

After producing the export, verify that the offsets match the runtime image of the DB:

1. Go online with the PLC (Online → Go online).
2. Open the DB and switch to Data view.
3. Read the first three tags of each data type and write their offsets down.
4. Compare with the spreadsheet. Any mismatch indicates either an out-of-date cross-reference (re-compile) or a tag that the cross-reference filtered out (add a reference and re-export).
5. Cross-check the byte count: the highest byte address plus the size of the last tag must equal the Length field of the DB online (Properties → Information).

12. Troubleshooting Matrix

13. Reference URLs and Documentation

• TIA Portal Openness: programming and scripting manual
• SIMATIC S7-1200 programmable controller system manual
• SIMATIC S7-1500 automation system function manual
• STEP 7 V5.x STL/SCL source editing manual
• Microsoft Learn: Import data from Excel to SQL Server