Siemens TIA Portal Bridge

The TIA Portal bridge will connect PLC Assist to your Siemens TIA Portal project. Once running, PLC Assist can read your project tree, edit Structured Text code, compile, and more — the same workflow available for CODESYS and Beckhoff TwinCAT.

Prerequisites

System Requirements

TIA Portal Openness Setup

Before using the bridge, you must be a member of the Siemens TIA Openness Windows user group:

1. Open Computer Management (run compmgmt.msc)
2. Navigate to Local Users and Groups > Groups
3. Double-click Siemens TIA Openness
4. Click Add and add your Windows user account
5. Log out and log back in for the group change to take effect

Step 1: Download the Bridge

Click Connect in PLC Assist, then click Download Bridge to get TiaBridge.exe.

Save it to a folder of your choice (e.g. C:\Tools\TiaBridge).

Step 2: Open your TIA Portal project

Start TIA Portal and open your project. Make sure the project contains at least one PLC device (S7-1200/1500).

Step 3: Start the bridge

Open a terminal and run:

TiaBridge.exe

You should see output like:

TiaBridge 1.0.0
Connecting to TIA Portal...
Connected to project: MyProject
Starting HTTP server on port 8555...
TIA Bridge listening on http://127.0.0.1:8555
Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Step 4: Connect from PLC Assist

In PLC Assist, select Siemens TIA Portal as the bridge type and click Connect. PLC Assist will automatically connect to localhost:8555.

Options

TiaBridge.exe --port 8555    # Custom port (default: 8555)
TiaBridge.exe --version      # Show version
TiaBridge.exe --help         # Show help

Troubleshooting

"Failed to connect to TIA Portal"

• Make sure TIA Portal is running with a project open
• Verify you are a member of the Siemens TIA Openness Windows group
• Log out and back in after adding yourself to the group

"Access denied" or Permission Errors

• TIA Portal Openness requires specific Windows group membership
• Run the bridge as the same user that started TIA Portal
• Check Windows Event Viewer for detailed Openness error messages

Port Already in Use

Use a different port:

TiaBridge.exe --port 8558

For more help, see the troubleshooting guide.