Chapter 3: Structures and User-Defined Types
This chapter explores how to create, utilize, and deploy structures as structs and User-Defined Types (UDTs) effectively in a TIA Portal project. UDTs are the most underutilized tool in PLC programming and are extremely efficient and provide the rigid data structure required for asset-based programming. This chapter also expands on previously learned information about interfaces and how they affect data usage in logic objects.
After reading this chapter, a programmer should feel comfortable with both structs and UDTs in TIA Portal and have enough knowledge to do the following:
- Add structs and UDTs to a project.
- Know where UDTs are stored in a project.
- Know the differences between structs and UDTs.
- Know how to simplify interfaces to program blocks.
- Know of potential drawbacks of using structs/UDTs and how to mitigate or overcome the issues that arise.
The following topics will be covered in this chapter:
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