July 17, 2026

We have updated our documentation, tutorials, and sample projects to fully support Siemens S7-PLCSIM Advanced V8.0, shipped alongside TIA Portal V21. If you are using the newest Siemens toolchain to control Factory I/O, everything you need to get up and running is now in one place.

Our step-by-step setup tutorial has been revised for V8.0, covering the creation and configuration of a PLCSIM Advanced instance, TIA Portal project settings, downloading to the virtual controller, and connecting Factory I/O through the Siemens S7-PLCSIM driver. As before, the instance name must be set to factoryio. The tutorial also shows how to change this name from the Factory I/O console if you prefer a different one.

The samples include ready-to-run TIA Portal projects paired with Factory I/O scenes, making them a great starting point whether you are evaluating Factory I/O, teaching a PLC programming course, or testing your own control logic against a virtual factory.

Head over to the documentation to find the updated tutorials and download the new sample projects. If you run into any issues or have questions about your setup, let us know on the Factory I/O Community forum - we're always happy to help.