Control.com - Nerds in Control

Right now my plant has 2 PC HMI's both WinCC. We are about to do a major expansion with existing control upgrades also, which will probably add an additional 4-5 PC HMI's. The contractors hired to do the PLC programming are recommending Wonderware for the HMI. All PLC software is Siemens Step 7.

I know almost nothing about Wonderware and was wondering if some of ya'll who have worked with both might be able to give me a comparison of pros and cons.

Thanks in advance

Randy

I tried both SCADA and I can say that Wonderware is much more powerful than WinCC.

For instance I experienced some trouble on setting floating preset data on pop up and alarms management.
Latelly I also used WinCC Flex and I discover that it is really pachidermic respect many others compared packages.
bye - Adriano

Dear Adriano,

First of all i would like to tell you that WinCC Flex is not a SCADA software. It is HMI software which is upgraded to PC station applications.
WinCC flex is Low Cost software for HMI.

When you compare Siemens SCADA you must consider WinCC only. And its true that Wincc is difficult to understand. Win98 is much difficult to understand than DOS. Because you get that much features in win 98. Same thing is here. There is No option to Wincc if you want best.

Now WinCC flex 20005 is upgraded with the tools that are more powerful than other HMI or scada Software.

Decision is in your hand. If want best then you have only one option & that is SIEMENS WinCC.

Harshal

Both packages are extremely powerful and can do anything you require, I found the biggest difference is that of usability. WinCC is very, very difficult to use and totally non user friendly. Wonderware can be picked up very quickly especially if you have some previous SCADA experience. Pick WinCC if you have lots of time to spend trying to figure out how everything links together.

Knowing both systems, I think just the opposite. Wincc is a breeze to set-up and use while Wonderware requires the learning curve. I designed my first application in Wincc in 2 days verses 2 weeks with Wonderware!!

Both will do the job and both have their pros and cons which are too numerous to list.

The point of usability is true. In my opinion Wonderware Intouch is easier to use but WinCC is more powerful.

You should also be considering things like training requirements, software costs, engineering costs, support strategies, product roadmaps, etc. Talking to the salesman from both sides should give you more information to help you build a better picture.

One thing I would mention is that using WinCC with S7 PLCs means that you are buying both SCADA and PLC from the same vendor. This means that you may be able to negotiate a discount on the price, there is a single point of contact for support / sales, there are several integration benefits (such as drilling down to PLC code from a WinCC screen) and you can be sure that you won't have any communication issues :)

Just my tuppence worth.
Salma

I agree on various point from Salma. However, Wonderware is the (un)disputed mother of all HMIs. And it is *EASY* to use wonderware, though WinCC becomes easy once you are familiar with the different interface. With wonderware, you can practically work out-of-the-box. With WinCC, the connectivity is considerably easier to S7 (or other siemens) plcs.

However, two main points to look for:
1. What is the experience of your contractor for doing the job? If he has experience with Wonderware, then that is the way to go. One thing you do not want is for your vendor to learn at your expense. And you have existing
WinCC, which means less (or no training) for your personal.
2. Price! (Need I say more)

PS: Siemens does have a wonderful support system, and some very good WinCC professionals. For wonderware, many many many people doing tech support (like System Integrators), as well as wonderware people.

--
Best Regards,
Shahid Waqas
shahid.waqas@gmail.com

Mother of all HMI? What do u mean by that?

I have been using siemens WinCC and nowadays switched to wonderware. I have seen the facilities provided in WinCC are thousand time better than the wonderware. If you go by systematic way in WinCC nothing like it. The editor (WinCC CS) is wonderful.

Can anybody show me how to draw tranformer symbol (Two Rings Intersecting each other)? If you know WinCC and Excel, half of the work can be done in that. But in wonderware I doubt whether this facilites are available. I think your contactor is not having skilled manpower in WinCC, or he is trying to save on cost front.

Regards
Unique

Dear,

Simatic wincc is the best software for HMI. Its scripting is easier & report & alarms facilities are also more flexible in Wincc than wonderware.

Even if you concentrate on graphic part, as per my knowledge & experience on wonderware, when you change the colours of the 3D objects in wonderware durring runtime, it gives you 2D effect. But in WinCC there is no problem. There are many other advantages of WinCC.

Wonderware is also very good SCADA.
If i have to take decision then i will definitely go with WinCC.

Harshal

If you are connecting your SCADA system to Siemens PLCs, it makes sense to use WinCC. The Siemens Totally Integrated Automation platform gives you a lot of programming advantages, such as importanting Tags from your PLC program.

WinCC and Wonderware are both powerful programs and it's true WinCC is not as intuitive to use. If your intergrator is not familiar with WinCC, your local Siemens distributor needs to work with them to get them up to speed.

I do not have experience with Wonderware, but I can say for sure that WinCC graphic design is a pain without your own tools. Overgrown Paint on steroids (luckily ODK drugs help to control it). I have many friends from design world who works with MAC application and 3D/CAD packets and studied them a bit. Although WinCC is not Photoshop or Xara I must say that its developers could make a better job to simplify a life of engineer. Even if sooner or later adopted to "proper ways" of doing things in WinCC graphic designer it will remain the worst vector editor ever. The most annoying thing is that sometimes undo function can not revert changes, but produces new ones.

best regards,
anatoli

The point with Siemens Step 7 is that WinCC shares the same tag data base using SQL. This saves time over Wonderware in that the PLC and HMI Tag database is shared. Siemens R&D on these products and their commitment to Totally Integrated Automation make future use of all Siemens products easier to tie together. Networking capabilities with WinCC are far superior and will continue to get better as Siemens comes out with new versions.

Randy,

I feel enough has been written on the differances between Wonderware and WinCC.

If you ask to compare some PLCs again everybody will reply in similar manner.

It's just that somebody is fine with some thing and the other completely disagrees with it.

It's just human nature that everybody will develope his own taste...

Now question is not selecting a particular product... the question is if you want to go with your current taste or want TRY other one to decide which is better for YOU.

(Because you can't make a universal statement about these products... whatever your comment be it is only your point of view.)

Let us all know what you decide about this.

Best of luck!!!

-aditya

Actually I didn't notice a posting about integration. WinCC is an HMI made by Siemens and it is optimized for Siemens PLCs. Wonderware is designed to function as a SCADA in the general case and can serve as an interface for different kinds of PLC's. If you have no intention of changing PLCs or interfacing them with any other PLC's programs such as historians, plant enterprise, BI, DCS, then maybe WinCC is the way to go.