Siemens TIA Portal in Three Hours

It is the first eight modules of that course, the same lessons in the same order. It has its own short final assessment and its own certificate. The full course goes on to timers, counters, analog scaling, function blocks and a WinCC HMI screen over 22 modules. This one stops once you have written and proven your first ladder rung, which takes about three hours of video. If you want more, you continue into the full course from module 9 and nothing is repeated.

Most people who start a 22-module course never reach the end, and the certificate is earned at the end. This course gets a working program and a certificate into your hands in an evening or two. It is also the honest test of whether PLC work suits you before you give it six weeks.

No. Siemens publishes a free 21-day trial of TIA Portal with S7-PLCSIM included. It needs only a free Siemens account to download. Modules 1 to 3 need no software at all, so do those first and install before module 4.

No. Every exercise runs in S7-PLCSIM, the simulator included in the trial. Nothing in this course assumes you have hardware.

You need a 64-bit Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise PC with administrator rights, at least 8 GB of RAM and 20 GB free on the drive. Siemens recommends 16 GB and an SSD with about 50 GB free. TIA Portal V21 no longer supports Windows 10 Pro; older versions such as V17 still install on Windows 10. It does not run on macOS or Linux. A Windows virtual machine works if you give it plenty of memory.

Yes. Every module, every practice task and the final assessment. You create an account so your progress is saved and the assessment can be marked. The only paid item is the certificate, and only if you decide you want it.

You get an EDWartens Certificate of Completion for the starter course when you pass the final assessment. It has a unique number anyone can verify on our site. It is not a Siemens credential and we will never describe it as one.

No. The lab is optional practice. You can skip it whenever you like, and it never blocks your progress, the final assessment or your certificate.

Yes. Every lab level for this course opens in your browser, free, with nothing to install.

The Siemens TIA Portal in Three Hours course has 9 modules. It opens with "What Automation Is, and What a PLC Actually Does", goes through "Inside the PLC, Hardware and the Scan Cycle", "Meet Siemens and TIA Portal", "Addressing, Inputs, Outputs and Memory" and "Contacts and Coils, The Two Symbols That Matter" and ends with "Final Assessment". The full list with minutes is under "What you learn" on this page.

After the Siemens TIA Portal in Three Hours course: Explain what a PLC does, where it sits in the automation pyramid and why it replaced the relay panel; Describe the scan cycle and the process image, and say what happens to a signal shorter than one scan; Wire a sinking or sourcing sensor to an S7-1200 input without guessing, and say what fail-safe means. These are the practical outcomes the course is written around, and the final assessment of 15 questions checks them.

For the Siemens TIA Portal in Three Hours course, software: The current TIA Portal trial (21 days) with S7-PLCSIM. Modules 1 to 3 need no software. Hardware: none, everything runs in simulation. The course itself is free.

Siemens TIA Portal in Three Hours is rated beginner. Absolute beginner. No prior PLC, electrical or programming knowledge assumed. It is written for engineering students, apprentices, technicians and working engineers in automation, electrical and instrumentation, and takes about 5.9 hours at your own pace.

Skills from the Siemens TIA Portal in Three Hours course (for example: explain what a PLC does, where it sits in the automation pyramid and why it replaced the relay panel) are used in roles such as PLC programmer, controls engineer, automation technician and commissioning engineer, and in automation engineer work. The course gives you practical evidence of the skill; it does not promise a job, and employers decide on experience and interview.