TwinCAT 3 OEM Software Protection (PLC)

The TwinCAT 3 Engineering is equipped with various functions for the protection of the PLC application software:

• Configurable access restrictions to the PLC source code through the definition of user groups and the assignment of access levels ("Object Protection Level")
• Know-how protection through encryption of PLC source code and boot file
• Cloning protection through the use of the TwinCAT 3 license technology for the OEM application software (requires a Beckhoff IPC/EPC or TwinCAT 3 dongle)

Through the use of the TwinCAT 3 license technology the OEM can additionally generate licenses himself for functional extensions of his application software and market them (requires a Beckhoff IPC/EPC or TwinCAT 3 dongle).

These functions are currently only available for the PLC area of TwinCAT 3.

An OEM certificate signed by Beckhoff is required in order to be able to use the functions to protect the application software. You can find details in the chapter OEM certificates.

The central switching point of the access protection is a user database.