protoc-gen-twincat

A protobuf compiler plugin for TwinCAT that generates POUs and DUTs from *.proto files.

Develop

Step 1: Install Protocol Buffers Compiler (protoc)

1. Download the latest version of the Protocol Buffers compiler (protoc) from the official release page.
2. Extract the downloaded archive to a directory of your choice.
3. Add the bin directory of the extracted archive to your system's PATH environment variable.

Step 2: Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/TcHaxx/protoc-gen-twincat.git
cd protoc-gen-twincat

Step 3: Build the Plugin

1. Ensure you have a dotnet environment set up on your machine.
2. Run the following command to build the plugin:

dotnet build -c Release 

Step 4: Generate TwinCAT Files

1. Create or obtain your .proto files.
2. CD into proto/ directory
3. Create the output directory, e.g. .out/

   mkdir .out

4. Run the following command to generate TwinCAT files:

protoc --plugin=protoc-gen-twincat=../src/protoc-gen-twincat/bin/Release/net9.0/protoc-gen-twincat.exe --twincat_out ../.out example.proto

This will generate the corresponding TcPOU and TcDUT files in the current directory.

Resources

• protobuf - Language Guide (proto 3)