Resolving WinCC Professional V11 RT Simulator Compilation Errors

Overview

WinCC Professional is the PC-based SCADA component of the Siemens Totally Integrated Automation Portal (TIA Portal). It is delivered as the WinCC Professional engineering option, the WinCC Runtime Professional target package, and the WinCC Runtime Professional Simulator. The engineering station compiles the HMI project to a runtime image that the WinCC RT Professional loader can start on a target PC station, while the Simulator executes the same image in-process on the engineering station for offline acceptance tests.

When neither Runtime nor Simulator can be started from a single PC station in TIA Portal V11 SP2, and the compile output shows "Compiling aborted (errors: 0, warnings: 0)" with a non-zero count in the errors column, the symptom is almost always a failed database link in the installation management (IM) layer rather than a real source-code defect. The same root cause has been reported across V11, V11 SP2, V12, V13 SP1, and V14, and the corrective actions documented below remain valid for engineering environments running on Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Problem Details

The failure is reproducible with the following configuration:

• A TIA Portal project containing exactly one device of type PC station.
• WinCC Professional configured on the PC station with at least one screen, tag table, and connection.
• WinCC Runtime Professional installed (or reported as installed) on the engineering PC.
• Operator action: clicking the Start Runtime button or the Start Simulator button on the WinCC Professional editor toolbar.

Expected outcome: the loader opens the WinCC RT Professional main window or the Simulator starts in a child window. Actual outcome: the project is closed on the target device, the compile finishes nominally, and no runtime process is launched.

Observed Compile Output

The compile / load log shows the following sequence on the engineering station:

Software compilation started
The project on the target device is closed
Compiling aborted (errors: 0, warnings: 0)

The textual line claims zero errors and zero warnings, but the count rendered in the Errors column of the same row is 1. The discrepancy between the embedded text (errors: 0; warnings: 0) and the column value is a known display-layer bug in the TIA Portal compile view; the column value is authoritative.

Follow-On Error After IM-Folder Cleanup

After deleting the IM folder and recompiling, the message becomes explicit:

Compilation of the Runtime project failed.
Cannot link database to the Runtime project 11866113-1570.

The numeric block 11866113-1570 is a partial Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) of the runtime database. The runtime loader is unable to associate this database with the project under compilation. Right-clicking the message and selecting Go To opens the WinCC Runtime settings dialog for the PC station. If Go To is missing, the message originated outside the configuration model and only a reinstall of the runtime will resolve it.

Root Cause Analysis

The IM folder is the on-disk cache that the WinCC Professional build pipeline uses to assemble the runtime image. It contains the generated screen definitions, the tag database, the alarm logging database, the user administration tables, and the connection map. When this folder is created by an interrupted install, by an antivirus product that holds open a file handle, or by switching between two TIA Portal versions on the same working directory, the file pointers and the internal GUID tables drift out of sync with the TIA project file (.ap11 / .ap12 / .ap13 / .ap14 / .ap15 / .ap16 / .ap17 / .ap18 / .ap19 / .ap20).

The build reports errors: 0 in the textual payload because the static code-generation phase produced no diagnostics. The runtime link phase then fails when the loader cannot resolve the database GUID, and that failure surfaces as a single error in the count column.

If the IM folder is not the culprit, the failure originates one level deeper in the WinCC Runtime installation itself: the COM/DCOM registration of CCLicenseServer, CCDialHandler, CCStudioMgr, or the WinCC RT Professional service is missing or broken. In that case the project can be recompiled without diagnostics, but the runtime process cannot be started because the loader cannot bind to the registered automation interfaces.

Pre-Diagnostic Verification

1. Confirm the WinCC Professional runtime is installed: Control Panel › Programs and Features (Windows 7 / Server 2008 R2) or Settings › Apps › Installed apps (Windows 10 / 11). The expected entries are SIMATIC WinCC Runtime Professional and SIMATIC WinCC Professional. Record the exact build number, for example V11.0 + SP2.
2. Open TIA Portal, select the PC station in the project tree, and inspect the WinCC Runtime editor. Both the Start Runtime and Start Simulator buttons must be active (coloured). Greyed-out buttons indicate the WinCC Runtime is not detected and the diagnostic flow switches to an installation-level investigation.
3. Open the TIA Portal project folder in Windows Explorer. The project path typically contains a subfolder named <ProjectName>_IM or a hidden IM folder. The _IM folder holds the binary fragments of the runtime image. Its size should be in the range of 5 MB to 250 MB for typical projects.
4. Verify the TIA Portal version under Help › About. Mix-and-match of TIA Portal V11 SP2 with the V13 SP1 runtime is the most common trigger of GUID drift and is not supported.
5. Confirm that the engineering user has local administrator rights, that no antivirus product is locking the project folder, and that the disk has at least 2 GB of free space.

Project-Level Diagnostic Procedure

Use the project-level procedure first. It restores the runtime image without reinstalling software and is the recommended path on shared engineering workstations.

1. Close TIA Portal completely, including the TIA Portal Help Server and the TIA Administration Tool.
2. Navigate to the project folder and delete the IM folder and, if present, the <ProjectName>_IM folder. Do not delete the .ap* project file or the Logs folder.
3. Open TIA Portal, reopen the project, and trigger a Compile › Software (rebuild all) on the PC station. The rebuild regenerates the IM cache with the current TIA Portal version.
4. Click Start Runtime and observe the compile log. The expected outcome is either a successful start of the WinCC Runtime Professional main window or a fresh, descriptive error message that can be investigated with the Go To navigation.

If the rebuild reproduces the Cannot link database to the Runtime project 11866113-1570 message, right-click the message and select Go To. The cursor jumps to the WinCC Runtime configuration dialog for the PC station. Inspect the following entries:

• Runtime settings › General: the configured computer name must match the local host name on which WinCC Runtime Professional is installed. Mismatches generate the database link error because the loader cannot resolve the local host identifier in the runtime database.
• Runtime settings › Services: the Start WinCC Runtime automatically and Activate project at startup options must be set consistently with the test intent.
• Runtime settings › Graphics: confirm the active screen and the start screen both exist in the project. A missing start screen is a common source of errors: 0 / count = 1 failures on the very first compile.

Project-Level Resolution Steps

1. If the Go To function is available, correct the configuration entry that is highlighted. Recompile and re-launch.
2. If the Go To function is not available, the error originated in the runtime image rather than the project. Proceed to the installation-level procedure.
3. Create a new TIA Portal project containing one PLC and one PC station with a single empty WinCC Professional screen. Compile and start the Simulator on the PC station. If the minimal project works, the original project contains a corrupted configuration element; rebuild the screens and tag connections incrementally.
4. If the minimal project also fails on the PC station, isolate the failure to the PC station configuration: delete the PC station, re-add it, and re-paste the WinCC Professional configuration from a known-good export.

Installation-Level Diagnostic Procedure

When the project-level diagnostics succeed but the runtime still fails to launch, the WinCC Runtime Professional installation is the source of the failure. Use the official Siemens support entry 109744535 as a baseline; supplement it with the steps below.

1. Open Control Panel › Programs and Features and confirm the presence of:

   SIMATIC WinCC Professional V11.0 + SP2
   SIMATIC WinCC Runtime Professional V11.0 + SP2
   SIMATIC S7-PLCSIM V11.0 + SP2   (optional, for PLC simulation)
   SIMATIC TIA Portal V11.0 + SP2
   

   Any SP suffix on a missing component indicates a partial install that must be repaired.
2. Run the TIA Portal installation in Repair mode for the WinCC Professional components. The repair re-registers the COM interfaces and re-creates the database registration tables.
3. Inspect the Windows services. The following services must be set to Automatic and Started:
   • CCAgent
   • CCEServer
   • CCLicenseServer
   • CCMsgQueue
   • CCRtsService
   • S7DOS Help Service
   • SIMATIC HMI Trace Service
4. Open Component Services › Computers › My Computer › DCOM Config and confirm that the CCStudioMgr, CCRuntimeMgr, and CCAlarmServer applications are present and have launch permissions for the interactive user.
5. Inspect the Windows event viewer under Applications and Services Logs › Siemens Automation. Look for event IDs 1 through 10 in the WinCC Professional source, which indicate loader, license, and database link failures respectively.

Installation-Level Resolution Steps

1. If the repair does not clear the error, uninstall all WinCC Professional and TIA Portal components using the TIA Portal installation media in Remove mode.
2. Reboot the engineering station. Reinstall TIA Portal first, then the WinCC Professional engineering option, then the WinCC Runtime Professional target package, in that order, matching the SP level across all components.
3. If the issue persists across a clean install on Windows 7 SP1, escalate through a Siemens support request. Provide the project archive (Project › Archive › Save as), the TIA Portal diagnostic dump (Help › Diagnostic files), and a screenshot of the compile log showing the 11866113-1570 message. Reference the support entry 109744535 in the case description.
4. As a last-resort, fully reinstall the Windows operating system, install all Windows updates, and then perform a clean TIA Portal and WinCC Professional install. This procedure has been documented by Siemens support engineers as the only reliable resolution in cases where the COM/DCOM registrations have been corrupted by a non-Microsoft DCOM management tool.

Verification

1. After applying a project-level fix, click Start Runtime. The expected behaviour is a splash screen for WinCC RT Professional followed by the configured start screen. Confirm the runtime is fully interactive: open a configured screen, change a tag value from a simulated PLC, and verify the value is reflected in the HMI.
2. Click Start Simulator. The expected behaviour is the launch of the in-process simulator window on the engineering station. Drag a tag from the tag table and verify that the simulated value is updated on the active screen.
3. Open the ApDiag.dmp file under %ProgramData%\Siemens\Automation\Logfiles and confirm that no entries with severity Error or Fatal are recorded after a five-minute run.
4. Reboot the engineering station and re-launch the runtime. The runtime should start without the project recompilation step, confirming that the database link is persistent.
5. For projects upgraded to TIA Portal V17 or later, the simulation entry point is unified under the menu command Online › Simulate Runtime. Refer to the Simulating a project (RT Professional) documentation for the current procedure. Note that tag values of faulty connections to the process cannot be simulated; the loader will not raise an error for a missing connection, but the corresponding tag will stay in Initial value.

Preventive Measures and Best Practices

Edge Cases and Field Notes

The errors: 0 / warnings: 0 message with a non-zero count in the errors column is reported only on the WinCC Professional PC station path; the same condition on a Comfort or Unified Panel surfaces a real error code, for example Error 13000: S7 connection failed or Error 13001: No route to subnet. When triaging, always inspect the count column rather than the embedded text.

On Windows Server 2012 R2 and later, the WinCC Runtime Professional V11 SP2 runtime is not officially supported. If the engineering station is on a newer server SKU and the WinCC Runtime Professional target package was force-installed, the COM registration can be silently rolled back by Windows Updates, producing the same symptoms at the next reboot. The supported platform for the original V11 SP2 build is Windows 7 SP1 (32-bit and 64-bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

When the Go To entry is missing from the context menu, the message was generated by a phase that does not have a configuration model object to navigate to. The most common cause in the field is an interrupted install of the WinCC Runtime Professional component. Repairing the install restores the navigation target.

Modern Workflow Reference (V17 to V20)

Starting with TIA Portal V17, the simulation entry point is consolidated. The legacy toolbar buttons Start Runtime and Start Simulator on the PC station editor are replaced by the menu command Online › Simulate Runtime. The procedure is documented in the official Siemens documentation portal under Simulating a project (RT Professional). The key behavioural changes are:

• The simulator no longer requires a separate Start Simulator activation; a single Simulate Runtime action covers both the offline simulation and the start of the WinCC Runtime Professional loader on a local PC station.
• Connections to real PLCs that are in a faulty state are not simulated; the corresponding tags remain at their initial values until the connection is restored. This is the modern equivalent of the legacy errors: 0 / count = 1 failure mode.
• The IM folder is automatically cleaned on simulation start; manual deletion is no longer required as a preventive measure.

FAQ