The Ignition Community Conference (ICC) was a blast this year. Hosted at Sacramento’s SAFE Credit Union Convention Center, Inductive Automation definitely leveled up this year. From technical deep dives to forward-looking industry discussions, ICC 2025 delivered plenty of insight and inspiration. DMC has condensed our key takeaways that we believe will have the biggest impact on our customers.

8.3 is Here

8.3 made a big splash on the first day of the conference with the official release. And it was everything that we had been waiting for. Earlier this year, we did a deep dive in this Ignition 8.3 – What’s New and Reasons to Upgrade Your Project blog on what we were most excited about in Ignition 8.3, and the initial release did not disappoint. DMC is excited to continue working with our clients on their upgrade strategy, enabling them to maximize the benefits of these new features and get the most out of it.

Modern Deployment Methods

One of the most anticipated aspects of 8.3 is its support for modern deployment workflows. From the new Gateway setting for deployment modes, to text-based project files – 8.3 is made for a DevOps workflow. DMC is eager to take advantage of this to make deploying changes to production more reliable.

MES is on the Rise

More and more Discovery Gallery projects and technical sessions were focused on core Manufacturing Execution System (MES) functions such as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), product traceability, batch control, inventory management, ERP system integration, and production scheduling. Ignition is clearly evolving beyond traditional HMI and SCADA into complex, plant-wide operational systems. Since many Ignition installations already collect valuable production data, DMC is excited to continue helping customers harness that data for greater visibility, optimization, and continuous improvement through MES functionality.

Inductive is Revolutionizing SCADA Licensing Models Again

Inductive Automation is once again transforming how SCADA systems are licensed. The new Ignition Solution Suites simplify the buying process by grouping modules around specific functionality goals. Even more impactful, these suites are future-proof—if new modules are added to a suite, existing Solution Suite license purchasers automatically gain access. This model will make it easier and more cost-effective for customers to adopt new capabilities as they’re released.

AI is Coming

The big buzzword nowadays is, of course, AI. With the steady adoption of AI, the importance of factory floor data is even greater. Inductive introduced an upcoming Model Context Protocol (MCP) module, which is designed to bridge Ignition with AI systems. This integration could unlock powerful new ways to use real-time data for predictive insights and process optimization.

See You at ICC 2026

DMC is continuously exploring new ways to push the boundaries of Ignition, and ICC 2025 gave us a lot of new features and ideas that we are excited to bring back to our clients. Less than a year until the next ICC!

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The Build-a-Thon was a jam-packed two days of intense programming at the Inductive Automation headquarters. This year’s challenge centered around building a solution for automating a mixing and heating system using hardware provided by Opto 22.

DMC received the project objective early Monday morning and had two days to build a complete program for recipe handling, automatic sequencing, and HMI visualization.

For our solution, DMC developed a project using the Ignition perspective module and themed the project around a candy manufacturing process. DMC leveraged Ignition’s mobile-friendly screen functionality to build custom drag-and-drop functionality.

This allowed the user to completely customize the screen to display the data that they wanted to view, and to dynamically change it by dragging their widget of choice onto the screen.

On the backend, DMC used Ignition’s powerful python programming backend to create the automated sequencer that drove the controls for the system. To pair with this, DMC developed a progress bar styled like a pizza tracker to show the user which stage of the sequence they reached.

DMC has an eye for detail, which is why the team developed dynamic, color changing logic that adjusted the color of the tank based on the colored liquid in the tank. The color would update continuously as more liquid was being pumped into the tank to make it as realistic as possible.

After two long days of development, DMC got the opportunity to present our solution to the Ignition community at ICC. The team was decked out in racing suits designed specifically for ICC (check out the fun training video we made!)

Our competitor Roeslein & Associates put up a good competition, and, at the end of the day, it was a very close race with DMC losing by 3 votes. DMC had a great time competing, and we hope that the Inductive community can use some of the code we created in some of their projects.

Check out some of DMC’s resources from the project that are posted on the Ignition Exchange. Some neat resources include the split container drag and drop, the progress bar, and the full build-a-thon project. 

When we weren’t ferociously programming, DMC was able to attend various sessions at the conference. Some sessions that were particularly interesting were “Using Ignition with Machine Learning Libraries,” which detailed a new exchange resource that allows users to create, train, and process machine learning models,  “Changes Towards the Digital Transformation – Turn and Face the Strange,” which gave an overview of an Ignition-driven data pipeline that brings information all the way from an edge network to the CEO, as well as “Running Ignition in a Container Environment,” where the DMC team learned new tips and tricks for leveraging Docker technology with Ignition.

It was a great two days at ICC and DMC is looking forward to next year!

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DMC’s Denver office in the LoDo district of downtown Denver was a home away from home for our visiting team members. We enjoyed informative sessions, product roadmaps, and hands-on training sessions during the day, and food, live music, and fun activities each evening!

Check out our highlights from the Summit:

Rockies Game

Before the Siemens Summit began, DMCers got together to enjoy a Denver Rockies baseball game!

Our hosts at DMC Denver entertained the group with pizza and beverages at their office. We then traveled to Coors Field to see the Colorado Rockies play the San Diego Padres.

Welcome Reception

After DMC wrapped up our welcome events, the Siemens Summit Kicked off on Monday night. The welcome event, sponsored by the Siemens Solutions Partners,  featured live music, great food, and fun activities such as archery, a fly fishing demo, and simulated calf roping.

There was also a geocaching scavenger hunt, which Leon Grossman and I won! 

Best Brews of Denver

On Tuesday, the DMC team, some of the Siemens Solution Partners, and DMC clients met for a beer tasting tour of Denver. The group traveled together on two trolleys from the event center to DMC’s Denver office’s rooftop to enjoy barbecue and beers before heading out for the evening. The trolleys stopped at two breweries, Odell Brewing and Black Shirt Brewing, before heading back to the hotel to rest before another full day at the convention center.

Summit Demos

DMC Demos with Ice Cream

 

DMC made ice cream at the Siemens Solution Partners Display for visitors during the day. Attendees stopped at our booth to have a quick ice cream snack on the way to see presentations. Built by Prism last year, improved by DMC this year, and paid for by the Sponsoring Siemens Solutions Partners,  the ice cream machine offered all of our guests a reminder of how the integration of programs like these can create imaginative (and delicious) results!

The DrinkBot

DMC’s DrinkBot utilizes a Siemens S7-1200 PLC, 7″ Comfort Panel, Siemens G120, and Siemens 1FK7 Servo Motor with DRIVE-CLiQ encoder to control the operation. The DrinkBot provides eight different alcohols or syrups and six different mixers for a large variety of drink options. 

DMC’s Presentations

Five DMC Representatives were invited to present at the Automation Summit this year, check out their presentations below.

Dynamic and Scalable Systems Using WinCC OA
Leon Grossman

Project Manager Leon Grossman led a presentation on Siemens WinCC OA applied to a client’s application. He demonstrated using this flexible, scalable platform in conjunction with Siemens and third-party components for a complex application. The presentation highlighted some of the critical features of WinCC OA, how it could solve the most challenging applications, and as a bonus, announced the release of the WinCC OA Open Library v1.0!

Auto Code Generation and Rapid Brewery/Distillery Automation
Ryan Landwehr

Project Director Ryan Landwehr showed attendees how the Siemens Brewing template, a TIA Portal based auto code generation tool created developed in partnership by DMC and Siemens, can be used to rapidly create complete automation in rapid breweries and distilleries of all sizes. From craft distilleries to regional breweries, see how the Siemens Brewing Template can help make automation easy!

To learn more about how DMC can facilitate your food and beverage manufacturing automation, contact DMC today.

Multi-site WinCC 7 Development with Centralized Process Historian & Information Server from
John Michael Frullo

John Michael Frullo, Project Engineer, illustrated ways in which WinCC 7 tools and standards can be used to facilitate rapid project development across multiple locations. Frullo also demonstrated how multiple plant locations can be easily connected to a centralized data storage and automated reporting system.

Flexibility and standardization using dynamic IO addressing and option handling from
David Berno

I presented solutions developed by DMC that fully leverage S7’s hardware and development flexibility to create efficient and agile manufacturing deployments.

Taking your Siemens PLC s7-1200 to industry 4.0
James Condon

James Condon, Project Engineer, led a presentation on Siemens PLC Industry 4.0. The presentation covered how Industry 4.0 can offer better efficiency for existing industrial equipment.

Thank you, everyone, who attended the 2019 Siemens Automation Summit. We can’t wait to see what’s new in 2020!

As a proud Siemens Solution Partner, DMC is ready to step in with our extensive knowledge and expert solutions. Learn more about DMC’s partnership with Siemens. 

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Here is a step-by-step guide to help you through the set-up process:

Set-Up

First, go to Runtime Settings for your HMI in your TIA Portal project and ensure that Start Sm@rtServer is checked.

Next, close the runtime on your panel and go to settings. Find the icon for WinCC Internet Settings:

From there, under the Remote tab, change the settings of the Sm@rtServer on the panel.

I have chosen to start the Sm@rtServer automatically after the panel boots and to keep it running even after the runtime closes. Keep in mind that you can also start or stop the Sm@rtClient from within the runtime using the ControlSmartServer event.

Below is an example that uses two buttons to start and stop the Sm@rtServer, but if needed, these same events could be used to only allow access while on certain HMI screens.

In the Sm@rtServer Settings on the panel, you can set up passwords and determine whether you want to restrict remote connections to be view only or not.

Additionally, using the setting No local input during client sessions can be used to make the panel unresponsive while a remote connection is active, thereby preventing interference by a local operator while a remote session is in progress.

Connecting to the panel

Once these settings have been made, restart the panel runtime. Open Internet Explorer on a PC connected to the HMI’s network and go to HTTP:// ‘HMI IP Address’:‘port number’. Use 5900 as the port number if you did not manually change it.

You will be prompted to install Java if your computer does not already have it installed. Then you will be prompted for the password that you set up. Once you enter the password, you should be able to see the current HMI screen.

If the password you used had View Only unchecked, then you can navigate through the HMI using your mouse and keyboard. If you prefer, you can also connect through a VNC viewer program of your choosing instead of Internet Explorer.

Mobile Solution

For an even more mobile solution, Siemens offers a Sm@rtClient app that is available for iOS and Android operating systems. This means any smartphone or tablet can be used to connect to your panel, provided they are on the same network as the panel.

You may note that the app has both a free and a paid version. The paid version allows for multiple connections to be stored in the app while the free version limits you to one connection at a time.

Siemens Sm@rtClient app on iOS

Troubleshooting

If you are having trouble connecting to the panel, ensure that you can ping the HMI from the PC, tablet, or smartphone that you are using as a Sm@rtClient.

If using an iOS or Android operating system, you will most likely need to set a static IP address with the correct subnet on your device to connect over a wireless network.

Conclusion

Remote access to the HMI is a great asset in times when a direct line of sight from the panel to a particular part of the system is impeded or anytime when a user who is not physically near the system needs access to the HMI. It also allows for remote monitoring of operations from another location. However, you should always keep in mind the security risks of enabling the Sm@rtServer on a network that is not adequately secured.

Learn more about our Siemens PLC TIA Portal Development Services and the Siemens Open PLC Library which includes changes for TIA Portal V14 SP1. Or, contact us to get started on a project today.

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Recently, I have been using many of these new features while writing code in SCL and wanted to share them with you. We will start by defining SCL and its uses in programming, then we will compare ladder to SCL, next we will discuss inline SCL networks, Regions and Region Synchronization, and will finish by reviewing the streamlined Surround With…

What is SCL and When Should I Program Using it?

SCL stands for Structured Control Language and is a text-based form of programming Siemens PLCs.

SCL opens up several new constructs that are unavailable while programming in conventional ladder logic, including the FOR and WHILE loops as well as the CASE statement. These are particularly useful when dealing with large amounts of data in an array form. Using SCL also increases the readability of any sort of arithmetic calculation.

What Does SCL Look Like?

Below is an example of code written in both ladder and SCL to accomplish the same result.

Ladder Logic

I have created an array of five integers and I would like to check and see if any indexes of my array are equal to three. In order to get this information in a single scan of my logic, in Ladder, I would need to check each index individually to determine if any of them are equal to 3.

For a small array, writing this code in ladder logic doesn’t seem so bad. However, imagine I had an array of a hundred or even a thousand integers and I needed to check all them.

SCL

Examining SCL logic, suddenly, the ladder logic solution seems inefficient in comparison. Using a combination of a FOR loop, IF statement and an EXIT, I can easily check an array of any size in a single scan.

If my application required, I could even nest FOR loops within each other in order to check or set values of a UDT which contains an array of variables.

Inline SCL Networks

In TIA Portal V14, there is now the ability to create function blocks and function calls that contain code written in both LAD and SCL. An SCL network can easily be inserted into a function without the need to create a separate SCL function.

For example, it was previously necessary to use LAD math operations or a separate SCL function to string together a complex calculation that can now easily be written in an SCL network.

Regions

• Regions are a new SCL organizational tool that provides a similar level of organization as a network does in a LAD function.


• Regions are collapsible and easy to navigate through the sidebar.


• Regions can be nested, if needed, to provide an even greater level of organization.


• Keep in mind that regions cannot cross logical boundaries. For example, if a region begins inside one case of a case statement, it must also end in the same case. Failure to do so will result in a compiler error.


• Regions make lines of comments that serve only as a separator for a new section of code unnecessary.

BEFORE

AFTER

Synchronizing Regions

• The sidebar navigation that shows the regions in an SCL function can also be set to be synchronized with the code. This means that when expanding or contracting a region in the sidebar, the body of code will reflect the change.


• With synchronization turned on, large bodies of SCL code can easily be minimized or maximized without heavy use of the scroll wheel to find where a region starts.


• Keep in mind that logical statements like IF…THEN… can also be expanded or contracted but are not synchronized with the region they are within.

SYNCRONIZED, COLLAPSED

SYNCRONIZED, ALL EXPANDED (NESTED REGIONS)

Surround With

As of V14 SP1, the ability to add logical statements, regions, and comments to existing code has been greatly streamlined with the addition of the “Surround with…” option.

Simply highlight a body of code, right-click it and choose what you would like to surround it with. This is especially helpful for quickly adding regions to code written previously to V14 or to quickly comment out chunks of code while debugging.

Hopefully, some of these tips will allow you to create more efficient PLC code and increase your development speed at the same time. 

If you are in need of DMC's expertise, check out our Siemens PLC Programming Services or Contact Us to get started on a project today.

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