• Home
• IEC 61131-3 Programming
• Programming FBD/LD, NOLD and SNOLD
• Intellisense in the Graphic Editor

Intellisense in the Graphic Editor

This topic applies to code worksheets in FBD/LD, NOLD, SNOLD and SFC.

The Intellisense function facilitates the insertion of code elements (variables, FB instances, standard functions and function blocks, connectors, etc.) into graphical code worksheets via keyboard. By typing any character into an edit box, the editor provides all elements in a selection box that contain the entered character(s) in their name and that may be inserted at the current position (the input is not case sensitive). By typing more characters the list is further filtered. In the selection box, any element is indicated with a specific icon and the element name.

Note The selection box contains both standard (non-safety-related) and safety-related elements. In a safety-related context, Intellisense only offers permissible elements for selection.

The selection list can be browsed by using the arrow keys, the mouse or by typing further characters. Once you have selected an element in the selection list, press <Enter> to insert the element. Pressing the <Tab> key for a selection enters the value into the edit box without closing the box (helpful to insert members of code elements).

To show the valid members of a code element, such as the members of a STRUCT variable, the input/output variables (formal parameters) of an FB instance or the specific part of an ANY_BIT variable, the element name followed by a dot has to be entered. The appearing selection box lists all members of the corresponding element that may be inserted at the current position.

Members of FB instance:

Members of STRUCT variable:

Specific part of ANY_BIT variable:

For members of enumeration data types, the following applies: By adding the ENUM name as prefix, members can be uniquely identified. This is particularly useful, if members with the same name are defined in various data types.

Note Safety-related user-defined data types are not supported.

Note If namespaces are defined for language elements (function POUs, function block POUs, etc.), typing the namespace name shows all elements with the corresponding namespace in the selection box.