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Why SIMATIC AX

Bring IT and OT closer together: SIMATIC AX Engineering introduces proven methods & mechanisms from software development to the world of industrial production. Benefit from modular engineering workflows to empower IT-savvy automation engineers with a versatile and adaptable toolchain, tailored to their requirements: working together, from anywhere and in the way that suits them.

Key benefits

Work together

Streamline automation collaboration with SIMATIC AX Engineering using Git version control, package management, unit testing, and CI pipelines to support scalable, organized, and high‑quality distributed projects.

Work from anywhere

Empower your team to work anywhere with a cloud‑native or local engineering environment. Connect remotely to SIMATIC PLCs to streamline processes, boost productivity, and monitor, debug, deploy, and access key shop‑floor data.

Work the way that suits you

Customize your automation setup with SIMATIC AX Engineering. Leverage extensions, packages, and scripts to adapt workflows, boost flexibility, and create or share solutions freely for truly versatile, innovative automation.

Featured capabilities

IT-like automation engineering with DevOps methods

The technologies included in SIMATIC AX Engineering help bring the DevOps methodology to the Automation Engineering world.

In a digitalized world, developers work together on several codebases every day. All changes move through a pipeline where they are tracked, tested, and deployed as reusable, consistently versioned packages. Apply these methods and mechanisms to foster more efficient engineering.

State-of-the-art development

  • Increase performance via State-of-the-art IDE based on VS Code
  • Set modular standards with Object-oriented programming in structured text and reuse it in ladder diagram
  • Increase software quality through unit testing
  • Ensure source control management via native Git integration
A screenshot of a computer screen displaying a development environment with a code editor and terminal open.

Automate the automation

  • Increase efficiency and speed through a command line interface first approach
  • Handle complex dependencies easily with a proven package management solution
  • Ensure stable, fast, and automated release cycles with CI pipelines
  • Connect and deploy to PLCs from anywhere thanks to cloud connection
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Collaboration and openness

  • Foster transparency and automation through human-readable plain text source code
  • Adapt an open API-first system to your workflows via extensions, scripts and packages
  • Work anywhere on any device with a cloud-native SaaS offering
  • Get support from and engage with peers in the SIMATIC AX community
A screenshot of a webpage showing a community collaboration interface with various icons and text.
IT-like PLC Engineering

Two ways of loading to PLC

Use SIMATIC AX Logic Control Engineering to load your program to the PLC. You can choose between engineering the entire machine in a software minded way or by bringing IT and OT closer together by combined use of SIMATIC AX Logic Control Engineering and TIA Portal.

Left: IT-like PLC Engineering
IT-like PLC engineering enables automation at the speed of software development. Complete entire engineering tasks in SIMATIC AX Logic Control Engineering. Make use of methods and principles from software development for hardware configuration.

Right: IT-oriented PLC Engineering with TIA Portal
Take advantage of the best of both OT and IT. Configure your technology objects and hardware in the TIA Portal once. This allows for the development of motion applications in SIMATIC AX Logic Control Engineering with a direct (delta) download to the PLC.

IT-oriented PLC Engineering of SIMATIC AX lgic control engineering

Experience SIMATIC AX Logic Control Engineering

Try our 30-day SIMATIC AX solution trial. No installation is required. Start designing in minutes.

Trial features

  • Fully licensed software with sample files and guided tutorials
  • No massive downloads or lengthy installations
  • Ready to go! Instant access anytime, anywhere
Sign up for your solution trial now
A person is standing in front of a machine with a screen and buttons, possibly in a factory or industrial setting.

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