A lot of the program works differently while you are online with anything (say for monitoring code): you can't edit the HW config of any device in the project if you are online with even one of them. V11 and V12 were pretty buggy, but the most current version (V13 SP1) is a lot better. It definitely still has its gotchas, though.
SIEMENS STEP 7 TIA PORTAL SOFTWARE
As a whole, the software shows really well to a newbie, but it can a bit of a shock for someone who already knows what they are doing. It cleans up safety programming a bit as well. I especially like the new HW/network editor. A lot of them are simple things: being able to save your ladder code even if the block has an error, being able to do indirect addressing in ladder (with the new CPU's only), or being to copy/paste from a DB to excel. It fixes most of the complaints I've had of Simatic Manager. Personally, I'm a fan of the idea of the new software. Long story short: I love the new stuff, but it might need some time to grow on you. Most of what I have to say has probably already been said above, but i'm tossing my two cents in anyway. Best to have a brand new laptop when working with it. On the downside, TIA V13 does seem to run pretty slowly when compared to the older software.
![siemens step 7 tia portal siemens step 7 tia portal](https://assets.new.siemens.com/siemens/assets/api/uuid:acb2f127-0240-44be-bed7-b7cd25dbe97b/width:1125/quality:high/tia-portal-kop-editor.png)
Also, you can drag and drop tags, copy/paste easily from excel, etc. Also you can save the program with blocks whose addresses haven't been filled in, no more entering placeholder bits just to save your program. All tags are automatically updated in TIA, so no more of this.
![siemens step 7 tia portal siemens step 7 tia portal](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DQtMWmMxOg0/maxresdefault.jpg)
Then you had to go through the program and change everything because all of the addresses were shifted. In the old version you had to add spares in data blocks because the addition of one bit in the middle of a block would shift all of the addresses. Probably one of the main improvements is the way tags are dealt with. I feel like tearing my hair out everytime i have to use the old software, i find the newer interface and integration of wincc and drives so much easier. Ive been using TIA Portal for years now and it is a massive improvement over Step 7 classic.