TwinCAT C++ development

Overview of the development environment

The layout of Visual Studio is flexible and adaptable, so that only a brief overview of a common configuration can be provided here. The user is free to configure windows and arrangements as required.

1. In the TwinCAT Solution, a TwinCAT C++ project can be created by right-clicking on the C++ icon. This project contains the sources ("Untitled Project") of several modules, if applicable, and module instances ("Untitled1_Obj1 (CModule1)") can be created. The module instances have inputs/outputs, which can be linked in the usual way ("Link"). There are further options for module interaction.
2. The Visual Studio editor for Visual C++ is used for programming. Here, particular attention should be paid to the drop-down boxes for fast navigation within a file. In the lower area the result of the compile process is output. It is also possible to switch to the TwinCAT messages (see Module messages for the Engineering (logging / tracing)).
   
   The usual features such as breakpoints (cf. Debugging) can be used in the editors.
3. The freely configurable toolbar usually contains the toolbar for TwinCAT XAE Base. Activate Configuration, RUN, CONFIG, Choose Target System (in this case <Local>) and several other buttons provide fast access to frequently used functions. The TwinCAT Debugger is the button for establishing a connection to the target system with regard to C++ modules (the PLC uses an independent debugger). Like in other C++ programs, and in contrast to PLC, in TwinCAT C++ a distinction has to be made between "Release" and "Debug". In a build process for "Release", the code is optimized to such an extent that a debugger may no longer reliably reach the breakpoints, and incorrect data may be displayed.

Procedure

This section describes the processes for programming, compiling and starting a TwinCAT C++ project.

It provides a general overview of the engineering process for TwinCAT C++ projects with reference to the corresponding detailed documentation. The quick start guide describes the individual common steps.