What is potentially portable to Codesys?

[TheColonel2688]

What is Potenially portable to Codesys?

I don't have TwinCats installed and I have never actually used it before, but I use Codesys heavily and I am familiar with .net from previous jobs. Just looking through the code via the github code view, It looks like the logger is single layer wrappers around Serilog, and since I can't call .net code in any direct way in Codesys, that is out as a potential port and I would need to reimplement my own structured Logger in IEC.

But what else is potentially portable to Codesys?

[PTKu]

Hi @TheColonel2688

There are some missing pieces if you want to implement the same concept in Codesys:

• TcOpen leverages Inxton technology to create a .NET twin representation of the PLC program. Since Inxton is specifically tailored for TwinCAT, this presents a substantial challenge. To port features that involve .NET side from TcOpen (like Logger) to Codesys, you would essentially need an equivalent tool or method, or be prepared to rework the logic to operate without such a bridge. This is a non-trivial task.

• ADS Communication: TcOpen utilizes the ADS communication layer, which is native to Beckhoff's TwinCAT environment. Transitioning this aspect to Codesys would require identifying or crafting an alternative communication strategy compatible with your Codesys target platform.

Considering these dependencies, a direct porting of TcOpen logger to Codesys would indeed be challenging. Key functionalities of TcOpen logger that hinge on both Inxton and ADS would probably need significant adaptation or even comprehensive reimplementation to function in a Codesys framework.

[TheColonel2688]

Ok, but are their other modules in TcOpen that don't rely heavily on .net?

[PTKu]

Correct. In principle, modules that don't rely on .NET should be portable. However, some TC libraries, such as those for time measurement and time-stamping, must be replaced or re-implemented. The challenge with the logging is its dependence on .NET and Inxton tooling.

[TheColonel2688]

Thank you for the info

[TheColonel2688]

@PTKu

It order to simply open the solution and look at the IEC Source code, shouldn't I only need
TwinCAT 3.1 eXtended Automation Engineering (XAE) TwinCAT 3.1 4024.17+
?

But when I open the solution, All the the IEC projects are labeled as "Incompatible" and if I right click one and "Reload Project" the IDE crashes.

Any ideas?

[PTKu]

@TheColonel2688, Frankly, we always use VS (at least the Community edition). Which sln || slnf file you are trying to open?