WinCC Professional Screen Window: Configuration Reference for TIA Portal V13 SP1 and Later

The Screen Window object in WinCC Professional / WinCC RT Professional is the canonical mechanism for implementing pop-up, faceplate, and control-window behavior on process screens. A single Screen Window acts as a container that displays another screen of the project, and it can be made dynamic so that the displayed content, target tag namespace, and visibility all change at runtime in response to operator actions.

This article consolidates the engineering rules, property bindings, tag-prefix syntax, and commissioning checks required to deploy Screen Window-based HMIs reliably from TIA Portal V13 SP1 through current TIA Portal versions (V20 confirmed via the official TIA Siemens Cloud documentation). It also addresses multi-monitor layouts, Comfort Panel constraints, and the most common runtime errors encountered when the tag prefix is incomplete or when a faceplate is incorrectly placed inside a pop-up window.

1. Functional Overview

On a high-density process screen, the operator needs an uncluttered view of the running plant. The Screen Window delivers this by:

• Embedding a separate screen inside the current process screen as a child layer.
• Allowing the Visible property to be toggled via a button click, a tag, or a VB/VBScript action so the window appears on demand and disappears when dismissed.
• Reusing one Screen Window for many source objects by remapping the Tag prefix at runtime. This avoids duplicating screens and keeps the HMI project size small.

The Screen Window is functionally equivalent to features marketed as pop-up window, faceplate window, or control window in third-party SCADA packages, but the implementation in WinCC Professional is object-based rather than script-based.

2. Prerequisites and Version Matrix

Verify the engineering environment by opening the HMI device configuration and confirming the runtime is set to WinCC RT Professional (PC-based). If the device type is a Comfort Panel, the procedures below do not apply to that target.

3. Reference Documentation

• WinCC Professional V13 Product Manual (Siemens Support, entry 92323076) — Chapter 10.1, "Screen window" — authoritative description of the object, properties, and tag prefix semantics for the V13 SP1 release.
• Siemens Support entry 106567433 — Screen window feature availability in V13 SP1 — confirms the minimum service pack required to use the object.
• TIA Siemens Cloud — Screen window (RT Professional), V20 reference — current documentation for the object, including the dynamic configuration of the screen name, the Tag prefix property, and the Visible animation.

4. Creating a Screen Window — Step-by-Step

4.1 Insert the Object

1. Open the target process screen in the WinCC Professional editor.
2. In the toolbox, expand the Controls group. In TIA V13 SP1 and later, the Screen window icon is present and unlocked.
3. Drag the Screen Window onto the screen at the desired position and size. The size should match the pop-up screen resolution you intend to display.
4. Select the object and inspect the Properties pane.

4.2 Assign the Static Screen

Under Properties > General > Screen, choose the screen to display when the window is first opened. This is the default content. For dynamic content, leave the field blank and continue to Section 4.4.

4.3 Bind the Visible Property

Open Properties > Animations > Visibility and configure a Boolean tag (e.g. DI_PopUp_Visible) or a script-driven expression. When the tag evaluates to 0, the window is hidden; when 1, it is shown.

4.4 Configure the Tag Prefix

The Tag prefix property is the key mechanism that allows one Screen Window to display data for multiple source objects. The prefix is a string that is prepended to every tag name inside the embedded screen when the runtime resolves them.

Example configuration for a digital-input pop-up:

5. Multi-Monitor Layouts

For a PC-based runtime with two physical monitors, deploy one Screen Window per monitor on a single full-screen parent screen. The two Screen Windows can display different child screens simultaneously and be toggled independently.

1. Create a parent screen sized to span both monitors (or set the runtime to full-screen across the desktop).
2. Insert two Screen Window objects, one positioned over each monitor's coordinates.
3. Bind each Screen Window's Screen property to a different child screen, and each Visible property to a separate Boolean tag.
4. Use independent tag prefixes for each window if the displayed content references different PLC tag groups.

This is the recommended pattern for control-room installations that require a fixed left-screen overview and a right-screen detail view, with no overlap of operator input zones.

6. Common Engineering Patterns

6.1 Fixed Header / Footer with Variable Center Area

For a screen layout consisting of a fixed title bar at the top, a fixed alarm bar at the bottom, and a center area that changes per menu selection, place the header and footer directly on the parent screen and use a single Screen Window in the center. Bind the Screen Window's Screen property to a tag that the menu buttons write to, e.g. CenterScreenName.

6.2 Faceplate-Style Pop-Up

The recommended pattern for a pop-up that displays faceplate data is:

1. Create a dedicated screen (not a faceplate container) containing the controls you want in the pop-up.
2. Insert the Screen Window on the parent screen and bind the Tag prefix to the source object, e.g. All_DI_DI{1}.
3. Trigger the Screen Window's visibility from a button click that writes 1 to the Visible tag and writes the tag prefix to its target property.

7. Toggling the Screen Window from VB Script

A common requirement is to open the Screen Window with a click on a faceplate instance. Because the tag prefix depends on the clicked object, the click event must update both the Visible tag and the Tag prefix property of the Screen Window object.

Example VBScript for a click event on a digital-input faceplace instance:

' Stored on the click event of the faceplate instance
Dim objScreenWindow
Set objScreenWindow = HmiRuntime.Screens("HOME").ScreenItems("DI_PopUp")

' Set the tag prefix to point at the clicked instance
objScreenWindow.TagPrefix = "All_DI_DI{1}"

' Make the pop-up visible
HmiRuntime.Tags("DI_PopUp_Visible").Write 1

Notes on the script:

• HOME is the name of the parent screen hosting the Screen Window.
• DI_PopUp is the name of the Screen Window object on that screen.
• The tag prefix must be a string that matches the HMI / PLC tag namespace of the source object.
• The Visible tag must be the same tag bound to the Screen Window's Visibility animation.

8. Troubleshooting Matrix

9. Comfort Panel and Basic Panel Considerations

The Screen Window object is not available on Comfort Panels (TP700 Comfort, TP900 Comfort, TP1200 Comfort, TP1500 Comfort, TP1900 Comfort, TP2200 Comfort) or on Basic Panels. Operators familiar with the look and feel of the Screen Window on a PC-based runtime will not see the same object on a Comfort Panel target.

For Comfort Panels, achieve the equivalent of a fixed header + variable body by using a single global screen and configuring a screen window via the Permanent window feature in the screen editor, with header and footer areas fixed and the center area changed by a screen-change tag. This is a different object and is documented separately in the Comfort Panels programming manual.

10. Commissioning Verification

After download, perform the following checks on the runtime station:

1. Static open test: Force the Visible tag to 1 from the HMI tag table. The Screen Window must appear with the static screen content.
2. Dynamic tag prefix test: Click two different faceplate instances in sequence. The pop-up must show different tag values matching each instance's namespace.
3. Close test: Force the Visible tag to 0. The Screen Window must hide without disturbing the parent screen.
4. Tag-prefix validation in the runtime trace: In WinCC RT Professional, enable the tag-trace view and confirm that the resolved tag names match the expected prefix + suffix pattern.
5. Multi-monitor test: If the project uses two Screen Windows on two monitors, open both with different content and confirm that closing one does not affect the other.

11. Best Practices

• Keep the embedded screen's tag names short and consistent so the tag prefix remains readable at the project level.
• Prefer a single, dedicated tag (e.g. ActivePopupPrefix) for the tag prefix, written by the click event, instead of hard-coding the prefix on the Screen Window object. This makes the pop-up reusable across many source objects.
• Use one HMI tag for the Visible state of every Screen Window in the project. Naming convention: <ScreenWindowName>_Visible.
• Do not place faceplate instances inside the Screen Window's embedded screen. Build the pop-up content as native screen objects.
• Validate the project on the target runtime version before commissioning. The object model of the Screen Window is stable from V13 SP1 onward, but the exact animation events differ slightly between V13/V14 and V15+.

12. Quick Reference: Property Map