Controls and PLC — Add-ons — Library

Overview

Controls and PLC is a planned add-on for CadCraft and ModelCraft (roadmap rows XE.1 and XE.13). It is meant to draw control schematics with numbered wires and terminals, make terminal and cable plans, write PLC logic in ladder and structured text, and run it against a simulated plant in the 3D model for virtual commissioning. It is not built as an add-on: no command or panel works today.

Who it’s for

Controls and electrical engineers who draw control schematics and program PLCs (intended).
Panel builders who need terminal plans and cable plans from the schematic (intended).

What you can do

Nothing works today: the add-on is planned. What is intended: symbols with pins, nets and wire and terminal numbering, cross-references, terminal and cable plans, a bill of materials and rule checks (XE.1); IEC 61131-3 ladder and structured text, PLCopen XML in and out, and a soft-PLC simulator tied to the 3D model (XE.13).

Methods and standards

The planned add-on sits on two engines, engine.schematic and engine.plc, which are developer-space and are not added by people. Both exist as libraries, lib/schematic and lib/plc, written from published methods and the IEC 61131-3 grammar. The schematic library has nets, wire and terminal numbering, cross-references, plans and 12 switchable rule checks. The PLC library has a structured text parser, standard function blocks, ladder, a scan-cycle runtime, PLCopen XML reading and writing, and a hand-over of addressed pins. No app mounts either.

Data and sources

Planned: no data ships. Symbols and standards tables are not part of the engines.

Verification

Not yet checked as an add-on: planned, no add-on test exists. The engines have tests recorded in docs/0.8-sessions/xe-schematic_PART_3.md: tools/schematic-test/test.mjs 62 passed, 0 failed and tools/plc-test/test.mjs 162 passed, 0 failed, run 2026-10-29. No vendor file has been read, and nothing was compared with a PLC maker's tool.

Limits

Planned and not built. No host mounts the engines and no help line exists. Not shown to work with any PLC maker's environment. Simulation is not a replacement for commissioning on the real machine, and safety functions need their own review.

Files and formats

Planned: PLCopen XML in and out and CSV plans from the engines. No app reads or writes them yet.

Get started

This add-on is planned (roadmap rows XE.1 and XE.13). Nothing is installed or switched on today.
Follow rows XE.1 and XE.13 in /roadmap-issues for their status.
Until then the schematic and PLC libraries are engines only, with no command or panel in an app.

Languages

No languages are listed for this add-on yet. Its maker may add some.

Works in

Edition	Works	Note
Browser (/use) (yours)	Added on demand	Fetched the first time you use it, then kept for offline use.
Studio from getcadcraft.com	Added on demand	Fetched the first time you use it, then kept for offline use.
Microsoft Store	Added on demand	Fetched the first time you use it, then kept for offline use.
Google Play	Added on demand	Fetched the first time you use it, then kept for offline use.
iPad and iPhone (App Store)	Included; switch it on	Part of the reviewed app; your list switches it on.
Custom build	Added on demand	Fetched the first time you use it, then kept for offline use.

Comes with

Schematics and connectivity 800 KB
PLC and controls 700 KB

Adding it brings these too. Engines are shared: each downloads once for every add-on that uses it.

Needed by: Electrical controls and automation (schematics, PLC panels), Instrumentation and control engineering.

Versions

Version	Channel	Date	What changed
1.0.0	lab	October 31, 2026	First version in the Library.

Licence and maker

CadCraft (CadCraft, first-party). Licence: Apache-2.0. Dependencies carry their own licences, listed on their pages.