OPC UA Interface

What this solution is designed to do

The OPC UA Interface provides advanced OPC UA connectivity directly inside Siemens Process Simulate.

It enables Process Simulate to communicate with OPC UA servers across local systems, industrial networks and cloud-connected infrastructures while supporting modern security and authentication requirements.

The interface is designed for environments where simple OPC UA communication is not sufficient and secure access to protected servers is required.

Depending on the server configuration, the interface can support:

- OPC UA security policies
- Encrypted communication
- Certificate-based connections
- Server and client certificate handling
- User authentication
- Credential-protected OPC UA endpoints
- Network-based OPC UA servers
- Remote or cloud-connected OPC UA infrastructures

Once connected, Process Simulate can read and write OPC UA variables and use the exchanged data within simulation, virtual commissioning and engineering workflows.

Typical use cases include:

- Connecting Process Simulate to PLC or automation environments
- Exchanging simulation signals with OPC UA servers
- Accessing secured industrial data sources
- Connecting remote simulation and automation systems
- Integration with cloud-connected architectures
- Virtual commissioning across distributed systems
- Reading machine and process states
- Writing simulation or control values
- Connecting Process Simulate with customer-specific industrial IT infrastructures

The interface can be configured around the customer's OPC UA server structure, security concept, certificates, authentication requirements and node hierarchy.

This makes it suitable for both standard OPC UA communication and more demanding industrial environments where secure, authenticated and network-based OPC UA connectivity is required.

Capabilities of OPC UA Interface

• +OPC UA communication directly from Process Simulate
• +Connection to external OPC UA servers
• +Support for local and network-based OPC UA endpoints
• +Connection to cloud-hosted OPC UA infrastructures
• +Secure OPC UA communication
• +Certificate-based authentication
• +User authentication and credential-based access
• +Handling of OPC UA security policies
• +Support for encrypted communication
• +Access to secured OPC UA servers
• +Reading and writing OPC UA variables
• +Project-specific node and signal mapping
• +Integration of simulation and automation data
• +Customer-specific connection and authentication configuration
• +Support for complex industrial network environments

Impressions from the solution