EPLAN allows unplaced PLC functions (or those that are unplaced in particular representations) to be automatically placed, thus allowing PLC schematics with different overview pages to be generated. You can first create the unplaced PLC functions in the PLC navigator, import from a PLC configuration file, or import addresses from an assignment list and use the device selection to generate PLC functions for these. If you have already generated a PLC schematic then the automatically placed PLC functions can be deleted and placed again.

Preconditions:

• You have opened a project.
• You have created unplaced PLC functions or imported them from a PLC configuration file.
• Or you have imported PLC addresses from an assignment list and then used the Generate with device popup menu option to generate unplaced PLC functions for these addresses.
• Or you have already generated a PLC schematic, so that the project contains automatically placed PLC functions.
• You have selected a project or project pages in the page navigator. You have selected PLC functions in one of the navigators. You have selected PLC components in the graphical editor.

1. Select the following menu items: Project data > PLC > Generate schematic
   
   Those PLC devices that are completely or partially included in the marking are shown in the Objects column in the dialog Generate PLC schematic.
   
   If the functions are already placed in particular representations, then the corresponding page names are shown in the Page, single-line, Page, multi-line, Page, overview, and Page, rack layout columns.
2. Assign a suitable macro in the Macro file column to the PLC boxes if no macro was entered at the part, or change the automatically assigned macro (via the part) if necessary. To do this, click [...] in the cell and select the desired macro in the Select macro dialog.
3. Assign suitable wiring macros to the PLC connection points in the Macro file column. To do this, click [...] in the cell and select the desired macro in the Select macro dialog.
4. If the assigned macros contain variables then, if necessary, select different value sets in the columns with variable names. You can also manually enter values.
5. Activate the check boxes for the representations that you want to generate: Generate single-line representations, Generate multi-line representations, Generate overviews, or Generate rack overviews.
6. Select the rows with the devices for which you wish to generate schematic pages.
7. Select the Calculate pages popup menu item.
8. In the Start pages dialog enter the page names for the first start page of every required representation type, or click [...] and use the Full page name dialog to edit the structure identifier and the page names. You can use [...] to select the structure identifiers (such as higher-level function and mounting location) from the existing values. You can also manually enter the identifiers and create new ones in the process.
9. Click [OK].
   
   Based on the name specified for the first start page, EPLAN calculates the start pages for all other devices and enters these into the table.
10. Click [OK].
    
    The pages are generated according to the settings and the specified macros are placed on them. The macros are inserted at their original positions. If several macros fit on a page, these are inserted next to each other or below each other (depending on the plot frame).
    
    The automatically generated pages are assigned the Automatically generated property, whereby the value in the drop-down list shows the representation type.

See also

PLC Schematic Generation

Dialog Generate PLC schematic

Macros for PLC Schematic Generation

Macros