TwinCAT_To_PDF

Automatically generates a clean, structured PDF from TwinCAT PLC source files (.TcPOU, .TcDUT, .TcGVL, .TcIO), with table of contents and syntax highlighting.

📜 Description

TwinCAT_To_PDF is a Python script designed to extract code from XML-based TwinCAT project files and generate a human-readable PDF document. It supports:

• Full code extraction: declarations, implementations, methods, and properties.
• Hierarchical structure with automatic section numbering.
• Table of contents for easy navigation.
• Syntax highlighting for better readability.

This tool is especially useful for documentation, archiving, or code reviews where a printable or shareable version of the PLC logic is required.

⚠️ Note: This tool only supports Structured Text (ST). Other TwinCAT languages like LD, FBD, or SFC are not supported.

🗂️ Supported File Types

• .TcPOU – Function Blocks, Functions, Programs
• .TcDUT – Data Types
• .TcGVL – Global Variable Lists
• .TcIO – IO Configurations

✅ Features

• Extracts structured TwinCAT code from XML files
• Formats code with consistent indentation
• Highlights keywords and comments
• Automatically generates a PDF with:
  • Custom title page
  • Table of contents
  • Section headers based on file names
  • Page numbers and footer info

🚀 Getting Started

To generate a PDF from the XML files of your TwinCAT project, run the following command:

python /path/to/your/TwinCAT_To_PDF.py /path/to/your/TwinCAT_project /path/to/your/TwinCAT_project/output_document.pdf

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+