Exporting TIA Portal Tags to WinCC with SIMATIC SCADA Export

Overview: What SIMATIC SCADA Export for TIA Portal Does

SIMATIC SCADA Export for TIA Portal is a free Add-On published by Siemens Industry Online Support (SIOS) under entry ID 109748955. The add-on extends the TIA Portal engineering environment with an export function that reads PLC configuration data from the project and writes it into a structured file that a WinCC SCADA station can import. The exported payload covers PLC tags (including DB members, tag table rows, and I/O symbols) plus alarm and message text definitions, so that the HMI/SCADA side does not have to be re-engineered tag-by-tag.

The mechanism is intended for two scenarios:

• WinCC v7.x / WinCC Professional (TIA Portal based SCADA): the SCADA station is engineered in a separate tool and needs the PLC tag list and alarm list pushed across.
• Industrial Information Hub / Industrial Edge: the same export file is consumed by the Common Import Converter, allowing the tag and alarm data to flow from the automation layer into higher-level IT/OT bridges. The add-on itself is identical; only the downstream consumer differs.

For a pure TIA Portal project that uses WinCC Professional (the HMI option inside TIA Portal) you typically do not need this add-on, because HMI tags are linked directly inside the same project. The add-on is specifically for cases where the SCADA lives in a sibling WinCC v7.x project, a stand-alone WinCC Professional installation, or an external Industrial Edge / Information Hub instance.

Prerequisites and Version Compatibility

Version matching is the single most common cause of "Export to SIMATIC SCADA" not appearing. Siemens ships a separate installer for each TIA Portal major version. Installing the wrong build (for example, the V17 add-on onto a V15.1 installation of TIA Portal) will complete the install but will not register the context menu entry. The build of the SCADA Export add-on must equal the build of the installed TIA Portal.

Additional prerequisites before installing:

• Windows 10 / Windows 11 (64-bit) or Windows Server 2016 / 2019 / 2022. TIA Portal versions older than V17 do not run on Windows 11, so the matching SCADA Export build must also be installed on a supported OS.
• Administrator rights on the engineering station. The installer registers a TIA Portal Add-In under %ProgramData%\Siemens\Automation\Portal<version>\AddIns and writes COM components that require elevation.
• Local administrator rights are required for the TIA Portal process itself the first time the add-in runs (TIA Portal caches the Add-In registration per user profile).
• The TIA Portal project must be openable and compilable. Unresolved references, inconsistent versions, or a project in "migrated but not compiled" state will block the export.
• At least one S7-1200 or S7-1500 PLC device must be present in the project tree. S7-300/S7-400 PLCs are not supported by the SCADA Export add-on (those are reached by other SIMATIC routes such as STEP 7 V5 + WinCC).

Download the correct installer from the Siemens support entry: SIMATIC SCADA Export for TIA Portal — ID 109748955. The download is a single .exe that wraps the Add-In installer.

Installing the SCADA Export Add-On

1. Close every instance of TIA Portal before launching the installer. Open Add-Ins cannot be registered while TIA Portal has the project tree locked.
2. Right-click the downloaded SIMATIC_ScadaExport_TIA_<version>_<build>.exe and select Run as administrator. Accept the UAC prompt.
3. Follow the wizard. The installer detects the TIA Portal installation directory automatically; do not change it unless the path is genuinely wrong (multi-version engineering stations sometimes need manual pointing).
4. Confirm the license note. The add-on is free of charge, but the installer still requires acknowledgment of the SIEMENS EULA.
5. After completion, restart the engineering station. TIA Portal must be re-launched fresh so that it enumerates the Add-Ins folder; a simple project close/reopen is not enough.

After restart, validate the install by opening TIA Portal and going to Help → Installed Add-Ins (or Add-Ins → Installed Add-Ins in newer V18/V19 builds). "SIMATIC SCADA Export for TIA Portal" must appear in the list with a registered status. If it shows as "installed but inactive," re-run the installer in repair mode.

Locating the Export Context Menu

Once installed, the add-on does not appear in the top-level TIA Portal menu bar. It only registers a context-menu entry on PLC device nodes in the project tree. The menu item label is "Export to SIMATIC SCADA" (English UI) or the localized equivalent (for example "In SIMATIC SCADA exportieren" in German).

To find it:

1. Open the TIA Portal project that contains the source PLC.
2. In the project tree, expand Devices & Networks.
3. Right-click the S7-1200 or S7-1500 PLC node (not the subfolder "Program blocks", not the tag tables — the device node itself).
4. Scroll to the end of the context menu. The Export to SIMATIC SCADA entry is at the bottom of the list, separated from the standard "Properties / Compile / Download to device" entries by a small gap.

The first execution of the export may take noticeably longer (10–30 seconds) while the add-in loads its assemblies. Subsequent exports on the same project are fast.

Step-by-Step Export Procedure

1. Compile the PLC station first: right-click the PLC → Compile → Software (rebuild all blocks). Uncompiled changes are not picked up by the export.
2. Right-click the PLC node → Export to SIMATIC SCADA.
3. In the export dialog, choose a target directory and a base file name. The add-on writes a single archive file with the extension used by the downstream importer (typically .zip with a structured manifest inside, or the legacy .tpy shape depending on the version).
4. Select the data scope:
   • PLC tag tables (default & user-defined)
   • Data block member visibility (public only, by default; private/static members are excluded)
   • HMI-relevant message / alarm text lists
   • Connection parameters (PLC name, IP address slot, rack/slot) — only included when the corresponding option is checked
5. Click Export. The progress bar reports per-block export status. A typical S7-1500 project with ~1,500 tags exports in under 5 seconds; large projects with many DBs and message lists can take 30–60 seconds.
6. When the dialog closes successfully, the file at the chosen path is the importable SCADA package. Do not rename internal files inside the archive; the importer validates the manifest against the expected schema.

Importing the Exported File into WinCC v7.x

Once you have the export archive, the import side depends on the consumer.

Import into WinCC v7.x

1. Open the WinCC Explorer on the SCADA station.
2. Right-click Tag Management → Load from File (this is the second option in the import menu — not Add new driver).
3. Browse to the exported archive and confirm. WinCC reads the PLC tag list, the DB structure, and (if the option was checked at export) the alarm text list.
4. Confirm the connection parameters. The importer creates a SIMATIC S7-1200/S7-1500 channel with the IP address and rack/slot from the export. Edit the connection name if your project naming convention differs from the PLC station name.
5. Compile the WinCC project. Watch the output window for unresolved tags (typically a tag that exists in TIA but was not exported, or a tag whose data type changed in TIA after the previous export).

Import into WinCC Professional (TIA Portal SCADA)

If the SCADA lives in a sibling TIA Portal project as WinCC Professional, the typical workflow is to share the PLC station across both projects on the same engineering station (HMI tag pointer) rather than running the SCADA Export. Use the SCADA Export only when the SCADA project is on a different engineering station or in a different TIA Portal version.

Import into Industrial Information Hub / Industrial Edge

The same export file is consumed by the Common Import Converter on the Information Hub side. The procedure is documented at Installing SIMATIC SCADA Export for TIA Portal — Industrial Operations X and the configuration steps at SIMATIC SCADA export — Industrial Operations X.

What Exactly Gets Exported

Data types are translated 1:1 from TIA to WinCC. S7 string types map to WinCC string tags, WCHAR to WinCC text tags, DTL/Date_And_Time to 8-byte date/time. STRUCTs are preserved as nested structures. UDTs in TIA become UDTs in WinCC with identical field layout.

Troubleshooting Matrix

Field-Proven Best Practices

• Compile before every export. TIA Portal does not auto-compile on export; stale symbols in the export are the most common cause of WinCC "unresolved tag" warnings.
• Keep a versioned archive of every export. When debugging "the SCADA lost a tag" tickets six months later, the diff between two export archives pinpoints the change immediately.
• Name PLC station names to match WinCC connection names. The export uses the TIA PLC station name as the WinCC connection name. Renaming the connection on the WinCC side is allowed but creates friction during diffs.
• Use multi-instance DBs and UDTs intentionally. The export preserves UDT layout, so a UDT change in TIA propagates to every consumer in WinCC on the next import — a powerful leverage point for refactors.
• Do not mix SCADA Export with manual WinCC tag entry for the same PLC. Either consume the export as the source of truth and disable manual edits, or maintain WinCC tags manually and only use SCADA Export for the initial bootstrap.

Verification After Import

1. Open WinCC Explorer → Tag Management → expand the imported SIMATIC S7 channel → confirm the tag count matches the TIA Portal source (compare against the PLC tag table row count).
2. Open a few imported DB tags and confirm data type (e.g., a Real in TIA must be a 32-bit floating point in WinCC, not a 16-bit integer).
3. In WinCC Graphics Designer, create a temporary I/O field bound to an imported tag, start Runtime, and verify the value updates when forced from TIA Portal (watch table force).
4. Verify the alarm text list: trigger an alarm in PLCSIM or on the live PLC and confirm the imported alarm text appears in the WinCC alarm view, not a blank row.
5. Check the WinCC compile output for any "Type conversion" warnings — these indicate a data type mismatch that will silently truncate or sign-extend values at Runtime.

Once verification passes, save the WinCC project and back up both the TIA Portal .ap<version> file and the WinCC .mcp file together. The pair forms a reproducible engineering baseline.

FAQ