Is it possible to start 2 plcsim and simulate 2 AS at the same time?

 Hello Fabio

fabioga66

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Now I have another question: My system is multi-project and is composed of 7 AS, would it be possible to start 2 plcsim and simulate 2 AS at the same time?

My version of PCS7 is 8.1 and that plcsim if I remember correctly is V5.4

If it is possible how i can download the as in the correct plcsim session ?

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Yes, you can use several instances of PLCSIM at the same time and all can have connection to WinCC. I don't know where the limit is, but simulating 7 AS is at the same time is no problem.

Mostly I do it in the following way: 

• Start PLCSIM
• Open hardware configuration of 1st AS and download it to PLCSIM, download CFC of same AS to PLCSIM
• Open 2nd instance of PLCSIM (File ->New PLC)
• Open hardware configuration of 2nd AS and download it to PLCSIM, download CFC of same AS to PLCSIM
• Repeat it in same way for other AS

Mostly you don't need to worry , because somehow the system will detect that you want to download into the new opened instance of PLCSIM (I guess because the other one has already other IP or MAC than default). As soon you have successfully downloaded the hardware configuration to an instance of PLCSIM the instances will be identified by their IP or MAC address (from the downloaded hardware configuration) for further downloads.

Anyhow, somtimes this procedure isn't working. In that case the hardware configuration of 2nd AS is downloaded in AS01, too. This is, of course, not what we want. In that case I use the following workaround:

• Start PLCSIM
• Open hardware configuration of 1st AS and download it to PLCSIM, download CFC of same AS to PLCSIM
• Close and save the instance of PLCSIM at closing and give the name in e.g. AS01
• Open PLCSIM again (it's important to get new empty instance)
• Open hardware configuration of 2nd AS and download it to PLCSIM, download CFC of same AS to PLCSIM
• Close and save the instance of PLCSIM at closing and give the name in e.g. AS02
• Repeat the steps for all AS you want to simulate
• Open the saved instances; the first one with 'File->Open PLC', the next one with 'File->New PLC' then 'File->Open PLC' and so on...

Best regards...