Creating TMX archives

In order to be able to work with the created TwinCAT objects (TcCOM and PLC library) in TwinCAT XAE, they must be available in the repository folder on the local engineering PC and the PLC library must be installed in the local PLC Library Repository

For example the SimpleTempCtrl in version 0.0.0.2 is located here:

Manual copying to engineering PCs is error-prone. It is therefore easier to create a so-called TMX archive. The TMX archive is an archive of a newly created project, for example the SimpleTempCtrl in version 0.0.0.2. Only the archive has to be copied to an engineering PC and executed. It is a self-extracting archive, which then automatically copies all files to the correct location.

You can specify the path and name of the TMX archive under TC Build to have it created with the next build.

To do this, use the Project property of the module generator:

Project.TmxArchive = "c:\archives\[Date]-[Time]-[LibName][LibVersion].exe"

You can also use placeholders for the path and name as shown in the sample above. Result of this setting is e.g. a TMX archive 2021-11-04-172921-SimpleTempCtrl0.0.0.3.exe (new build, therefore revision incremented).

You can then copy the TMX archive to any path on an engineering PC and execute it. This will copy the files in the archive to the correct location in your repository.

You can also use the Command prompt, for example, and use other options:

For example, the <tmxarchive>.exe /plclib:install command creates (from the *.tml file) and installs the PLC library on your local engineering PC.