Integration in Visual Studio®
TwinCAT 3.1 is integrated into Visual Studio® during installation.
Requirements for integration in Visual Studio®
- Full version of Visual Studio® 2013-2019
or
- Visual Studio® Shell 2013-2019
but
- no Visual Studio® Express
Installation order
For the integration of TwinCAT 3 in Visual Studio® you have to install Visual Studio® first, only then you can install TwinCAT 3 and integrate it in Visual Studio®.
You cannot integrate TwinCAT 3 with Visual Studio® if Visual Studio® was installed after TwinCAT 3. In this case, you must first uninstall TwinCAT 3, install Visual Studio® and then reinstall TwinCAT 3.
Example: After installing TwinCAT 3, you decide to program in C++ and therefore want to install a full version of Visual Studio®.
Standard installation cases
Case 1: You do not have a full version of Visual Studio® installed on the development computer.
In this case, a Visual Studio® 2017 Shell supplied by TwinCAT 3 is installed as the standard development environment for TwinCAT.
Case 2: One or more full version(s) of Visual Studio® 2013-2019 is installed on the development computer.
The TwinCAT 3 setup offers you the possibility to select in which full version of Visual Studio® TwinCAT 3 should be integrated (multiple selection possible).
Case 3: A Visual Studio® 2013-2019 Shell is installed on the development computer.
The TwinCAT 3 setup offers you the possibility to integrate TwinCAT 3 into the already installed Visual Studio® Shell (instead of installing the default Visual Studio® 2019 Shell)
Download and installation of the Visual Studio® Shell
With the exception of the Visual Studio® 2019 Shell included in the installer, Beckhoff does not deliver any other Visual Studio® Shell versions together with TwinCAT 3. However, you can download and install them free of charge from the Microsoft website. Visual Studio® Shells are free of charge, but they do not allow high-level language programming such as C++ or C#.
Installation requirements: Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10
Go to http://www.microsoft.com/download in your browser.
- Search for "Visual Studio 201x Shell (Isolated) Redistributable Package", download and install it.
- Search for "Visual Studio 201x Shell (Integrated) Redistributable Package", download and install it.
Visual Studio® 201x Shell (Integrated) Redistributable Package is an add-on to Visual Studio® 201x Shell (Isolated) Redistributable Package, therefore the "Isolated" version must be installed first. For details visit the Microsoft website.
 | Use of TwinCAT C++ If you want to use TwinCAT C++, it is mandatory to install the option "Microsoft Foundation Classes for C++" during the full installation of Visual Studio®. Otherwise the SDK is missing and TwinCAT C++ is not available even with a full Visual Studio®. |
Language settings
The language used in TwinCAT depends on the language of the pre-installed Visual Studio® version. If TwinCAT 3 is to be displayed in German, Visual Studio® (Shell) must also be installed and selected in German.
You can install the language packs of Visual Studio® afterwards after installing TwinCAT 3. In the settings of Visual Studio® you can then switch the language.
