Setup

Setup

Published from _docs/01-setup.md — edit it there, not here. Changes made in the wiki are overwritten on the next sync.

What you need, and how to get the machine running. There are three ways to run it and this page covers the first two; the third is 04 · PLC connectivity.

Mode		The machine is driven by	You need
MIL	Model in the Loop	C# sequences inside Unity — an abstract animation	Nothing but the twin
SIL	Software in the Loop	A real PLC program on an emulated runtime	The runtime
HIL	Hardware in the Loop	The same PLC program on real controller hardware	The controller

Start with MIL. It takes minutes and proves the Unity side works before any PLC is involved.

Unfamiliar terms? 07 · Glossary.

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1. What you need

A PC

Operating system	Windows 10 or 11, x64. The released build is a Windows player, and every PLC runtime this twin has been driven by runs on Windows
Graphics	A GPU that runs Unity 6 comfortably. The scene is CAD-derived and rendered in real time
Disk	Room for the Unity project, its imported meshes and library cache — several GB

TODO(setup): no minimum specification has been measured on a clean machine. If you find the floor, that is a useful contribution.

Linux and macOS are not supported for the PLC setups, because the simulation unit and every control runtime involved are Windows software. The Unity editor itself is cross-platform, so MIL may well work — nobody has tried it.

Unity, and a Unity licence

Version	6000.3.18f1 — the exact version in Unity/ProjectSettings/ProjectVersion.txt. Install it through Unity Hub
Licence	A Unity account with a licence activated in the Hub. Unity Personal is free; whether you qualify for it is between you and Unity's licensing terms

You need neither of those to watch the machine — the packaged build is a plain Windows executable. Unity is needed to open the project, to run it against a PLC, and to change anything.

For a PLC setup: TwinCAT, whichever platform you use

The simulation unit is a TwinCAT project — that is where the twin's device models live and where the fieldbus is emulated. It is not a Beckhoff-only requirement: a Siemens setup uses the same simulation unit and reaches it through an OC Assistant plugin. 03 · How it works explains why.

TwinCAT 3	The engineering environment and the runtime, plus OC Assistant and the OC TwinCAT library
Your control platform	Whatever runs your program — TwinCAT again for Beckhoff, TIA Portal and PLCSIM Advanced for Siemens, or your own

Installation, licensing and versions are the vendor's own, and are documented by the module that owns them — for TwinCAT, the Beckhoff setup guide; for TIA Portal and PLCSIM Advanced, the Siemens setup guide. This page does not repeat them, because nothing here would keep them true.

Tooling

Component	Version	Notes
Git	—	Several Unity packages are pulled from git URLs
Python	3.9+	Only for the documentation tooling. Developed against 3.12. Standard library only — nothing to pip install

New to Open Commissioning?

This twin is built on Open Commissioning, and its own documentation is the place to learn the framework itself — how a scene is put together, what OC Assistant does, how the simulation project is generated. Nothing here repeats it.

OC_Unity_Core	the Unity package: devices, the Client gateway, the hierarchy model
OC_Assistant	the tool that keeps Unity and the simulation project in step
OC_TwinCAT_Core	the TwinCAT library the simulation project uses

Two video tutorials from the Open Commissioning team are the fastest way in:

• Tutorial 1 — Getting Started
• Tutorial 3 — Generating a TwinCAT Project

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2. Just want to look at the machine?

Download the packaged build from the latest release, extract it, run the .exe.

That is MIL, with nothing to install and nothing to clone — see 02 · Using the application for the controls. Everything below is for running it yourself.

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3. Getting the project

git clone https://github.com/Preliy/DT_PSA_OPCV.git
cd DT_PSA_OPCV

That is everything you need to run the twin on its own. To drive it with a PLC you also need that platform's module, which is a separate repository cloned into this directory:

git clone https://github.com/Preliy/DT_PSA_OPCV_Beckhoff.git Beckhoff    # Beckhoff / TwinCAT
git clone https://github.com/slickz44/DT_PSA_OPCV_Siemens.git Siemens    # Siemens / TIA Portal

Take only the platform you use — the modules are optional and independent, and a Siemens user has no reason to fetch a TwinCAT solution. The module paths are gitignored here, so the two git repositories do not collide: inside Beckhoff/ everything is an ordinary checkout on an ordinary branch, and git status in this directory never mentions it.

Which module version goes with which twin is in COMPATIBILITY.md, and the table there is checked rather than asserted.

Run every command from this directory — including the vendor modules' own tools. There is never a reason to cd Unity/.

The Unity project

Open Unity/ with Unity 6000.3.18f1. On first open, the Package Manager resolves the dependencies in Unity/Packages/manifest.json, six of which come from git URLs and need network access:

Package	Source	Licence
com.open-commissioning.core	github.com/OpenCommissioning/OC_Unity_Core	BSD 3-Clause
com.open-commissioning.ui	github.com/OpenCommissioning/OC_Unity_UI	BSD 3-Clause
com.pillar.context	github.com/Preliy/unity-pillar-context	MIT
com.cqf.outline	github.com/CristianQiu/Unity-URP-Outline	MIT
com.cysharp.unitask	github.com/Cysharp/UniTask	MIT
com.dbrizov.naughtyattributes	github.com/dbrizov/NaughtyAttributes	MIT

All six are permissive, and every licence is listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md. They track a branch rather than a pinned tag, so a fresh resolve may bring a newer version than the one you last had.

First import takes a while — the project carries CAD-derived meshes.

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4. MIL: the twin on its own

Open Unity/Assets/Demo_1/Scenes/VC_Demo_1_MIL.unity and press Play.

Pallets circulate, the stations run, and the whole line works — driven by C# coroutines under Unity/Assets/Demo_1/Scripts/MIL/, with no control system anywhere.

This is the fastest way to confirm your Unity setup is correct, and it is where to stop if you only wanted to see the machine.

The MIL scripts are the twin's animation, not the machine's specification. They implement an older contract — no transfer latch, no check that a lift is at a level before running its carriage belt, no reset path at all. Never write PLC code from them; the behaviour that counts is in the behaviour contracts.

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5. Then what

You want to	Go to
Move the camera, use the panels, find a device on screen	02 · Using the application
Drive it with a PLC — SIL or HIL	04 · PLC connectivity
Understand what you just started	03 · How it works
Know what the machine is made of	06 · Machine description

Everything under context/ is generated from the Unity twin and committed, so you never need to build anything in order to read it.

Checking it worked

Check	Expect
VC_Demo_1_MIL in Play mode	Pallets circulate on their own, with no PLC
A vendor scene with its runtime up	Devices respond to the PLC — see 04 · PLC connectivity