All Patch Release Notes

Modbus

The Modbus/TCP Driver driver now performs an automatic general query when a connection is established. This behavior can be changed by using the new config entry [mod] autoGQ.

Driver

• The Modbus/TCP Driver now supports function code 0x17 (Read/Write multiple register). This means only one request is needed to both read and write, promoting more efficient engineering.

Video

• Recording paths can now have individual ports for recording and playback, increasing flexibility.

UI

• The new function moduleIsVisible() checks if a module is visible or not, allowing for even more flexible user interface design.
• The Qt Version was updated to 5.15.8 LTS

IEC 60870-5-104

• It is now possible that only the active driver connects to the RTU. This is an improvement for configurations in which the RTU accepts only one active connection.

3^rd Party Software

• We ask you to please read our official Statement on the use of Kaspersky software on the WinCC OA Portal here.

NGA

• New debug flags for Next Generation Archiver have been added to enable better tracing and analyze the capabilities of historical queries.

Kern

• Alarm & Event Screen

  • Filtering by short sign now also supports the current UI language.
  • Filtering by a DP alias and a DP description now also works in closed mode.
  • New function enables customizable/enhanced user permission checks within the AES.
• DIST and REDU Systems have been made more stable by reducing the load of the respective Event managers during switch-overs or reconnects.

IEC 61850

• Improved redundancy handling of preassigned BRCBs.

We have discovered a critical issue in patch 3.18-P007 which affects archiving of data with NGA in redundant WinCC OA projects. To avoid problems in customers plants by using patch 3.18-P007 the patch was removed from the Portal to disable additional downloads. In the meantime 3.18-P008 was released, which fixes the problem.

If you're already using 3.18-P007 in combination with NGA-Archiving, an upgrade to 3.18-P008 is mandatory!

Please excuse the inconveniences!

NGA

• The InfluxDB version has been updated to newest branch version (1.8.10).

  

Driver

• SNMP - The SNMP Driver can send multiple VBs in one SET request now.
• S7+ and S7 Classic - Channel diagnostics: Both drivers can now read periodically diagnostics data about connection and program execution from the PLC and report the results to internal data points.

General

• CISCO Secure Endpoints V 7.4.5 has been added to the supported security products. More information on the product can be foundhere

  

• Due security reasons following exectuables were deleted from the WinCC OA Windows setup:

  UxFile.exe, awk.exe, basename.exe, cat.exe, cut.exe, date.exe, enump.exe, logoff.exe, ps.exe

• Stability and overall quality Improvements.

NGA

• The Microsoft SQL* (MS SQL) backend for NGA is now officially supported
  • General purpose relational database
  • Well established and trusted database solution sought after by customer base
  • Widely used within Siemens
  • Redundant operation possible
  • Platforms: Windows (DB & client), Linux (client)

Dashboard

• Customer can now upload their own, custom SVG widgets

  • To expand the functionality of the Dashboard and increase the number of widgets in Dashboard projects, it is now possible to upload SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic) widgets directly as packaged ZIP files via the browser.

Driver

• S7+ driver:
  • Now periodically reads channel diagnostics data.
• OPC UA Client:
  • Now supports dynamic alarm conditions, e.g., from the S7 1500 PLC.
  • Now supports the reading and writing of structured data as JSON strings.
  • Structured data can now be used as possible parameter for method calls.

Dashboard

• New Widget Gantt Chart has been added:
  • Visualization of multiple series including state histories
  • Different states within the series can be freely defined
  • Bis zu zehn Serien können gelichzeitig angezeigt werden
• Search function in Data Selector has been added
• SVG Widgets:
  • Auto complete for properties are now possible
  • SVG properties now come with default values

• Widget Selector has been reorganized and custom directories can now be created

• Alarm View Widget:
  • Overall performance has been improved
  • Alarm history can now be viewed by setting a time range, improving traceability and historical evaluation of alarms.

Driver

• S7+ driver:
  • Available for ARM platforms (e.g., IOT2050).
  • Certificates from Windows Certificate Store can now be used
• MQTT:
  • Now supports TLS-PSK connection to a broker
• OPC UA Server:
  • Now supports hierarchical queries, including Index-Range to read elements or ranges from arrays.
• OPC UA Client:
  • Additional options are available (e.g., an invalid server certificate may now be ignored).
• Modbus driver:
  • Now supports byte-swapping within single registers.

Others

• Trend Widget:
  • The unit can now also be shown near the curve axis.

• Code Coverage Measurement for Control:

  • Additional to pure line coverage, branch coverage is now taken into account
• Code coverage in cobertura format:
  • WinCC OA code coverage results can be exported in the industrial standard cobertura format
  • The traditional WinCC OA coverage result format remains available

• Engineering of users when using OS Auth:

  • Optional engineering of users when using OS authentication is now possible. Users can be added and maintained before the first login of the user.
  • With engineered users, single sign-on in all flavors of UI including ULC UX is possible.

Dashboard

• New SVG Widgets Gauge and Silo have been implemented.
• The Dashboard is now included in the WinCC OA demo license.

IOT2050

• Support for IOT2050 was already included in the V3.18 release, now BACnet and NGA with InfluxDB backend are also supported.

• From now on the IOT2050 is also available as part of a WinCC OA IPC packages (Excluding 4096 package).

S7+ driver

• The S7+ driver now supports secure connections to S7-1200/1500 PLCs of the latest generation using TLS certificates as configured in TIA Portal V17.

OPC UA

• The OPC UA client now supports the reading and writing of individual array elements or ranges for one-dimensional arrays.

Video feature

• WinCC OA Video is now also available for SIMATIC Industrial OS 2.2.

Alert Screen

• Using custom extensions, the Context menu as well as the Drag&Drop functionality can now be customized for the AEScreen.

Mobile UI

• Server-Side Authentication (SSA) can now also be used with Mobile UI.

Open Dashboards directly via URL

• Now you can access Dashboards directly via URL.
• This makes it easy to use the Dashboard for static overview screens or line overview screens.

SVG Widget Enhancements

• Autocompletion in rule selector for HTML classes and IDs of the SVG.
• Highlighting of selected HTML class or ID of the SVG within the editor.
• Autocompletion in rule selector for data point configs.
• The current DPE value can now be used as variable and therefore used to set selector directly.

Plant model available in data selector

• The WinCC OA plant model is NOW available in the data selector.
• You can use the modelled structure of your plant within the Dashboard to connect to the WinCC OA data

Visual effect for deleted/modified DPs

• Deleted/modified DPs of already configured widgets are now visualized for easily and fast detection.

Add custom icon for each Dashboard

• Option to select an icon for each dashboard additionally to its name and description.
• This icon is visible in the dashboard overview as well as in the “Favorites” sidebar.

Scrolling backwards in the timeline with the Line Chart Widget

• The Line Chart widget NOW supports scrolling backwards in the timeline.

For further details please have a look at the readme-files of the patch.

This patch is mandatory if you are using WinCC OA 3.18 and the XML panel format in a multilanguage project. If your system has a different setup there is no need to install this patch.

In 3.18 release version loading multiple languages in an XML panel does not work correctly. Only one language is loaded which may lead to wrong language information in a Runtime UI and loss of multilanguage information when saving a panel in GEDI.