Is Siemens Step 7 software easy to use?

[brenden80]

Guys,
What are your thoughts on Siemens Step 7 software? Any thoughts on it would be appreciated. I was looking at Siemens PLC's as an option for some equipment I am building but I'm not sold on them as of yet.

I'm looking for a general consensus on Step 7 software, I guess...

Thanks again!
Brenden

[Cheller]

I've taken a seminar on Step 7 but never used it regularly enough to like it. It seemed like Siemens Step 7 software was easy to use immediately following the seminar, but If you aren't using it often, it feels cumbersome.

I feel like you can do some damage with Step 7 if you're not careful.

[maintech]

This is true, the way that Siemens software is designed can make it your program a target for mistakes. It seems like the Siemens engineers set up their PLC programming system so that only Siemens qualified technicians and engineers would be comfortable using it.

The reason I say this is because it seems to be the opposite of RSLOGIX. Allen Bradley kind of makes their software so anyone can work with it; and it seems as though Siemens wants STEP7 to only be used by highly trained individuals.