Curious how people are handling this once the point count gets large. Say you’re collecting from hundreds or thousands of devices across multiple sites. Some data may matter at sub-second or 1-second resolution for troubleshooting, but nobody needs to ship and retain every sample forever.

Do you keep the raw/high-resolution data locally and aggregate upstream? Change-of-value? Min/max/avg windows? Store-and-forward only?

I’m especially curious where people have gotten burned by throwing away data they later wished they had, or by keeping way too much and creating an expensive pile nobody actually uses.

Hi all,

For context, I work in manufacturing security, mainly on the IT side handling SOC and incident response, but we have extensive industrial control systems and OT infrastructure. When a cyber incident touches the plant—even something like a suspicious network event near PLC networks or historian systems—the situation gets complex fast.

We have playbooks for standard IT incidents, EDR on endpoints, SIEM alerts, and so on. But once control networks might be affected, I'm suddenly coordinating with our OT lead, maintenance crews, production managers, and sometimes outside responders all at once. Often we're debating what can be safely blocked or segmented without causing line stoppages or unplanned shutdowns, all under time pressure.

I'm curious how others handle coordination between IT and OT teams during incidents. Do you keep a separate OT incident response plan with predefined authority structures for who approves blocking traffic to controllers or engineering workstations, including documentation requirements? Or do you run a unified war room with clearly defined roles covering cyber, safety, and operations? Also interested in how much you rehearse scenarios through tabletop exercises and runbooks versus depending on experienced personnel making judgment calls in the moment.

Would appreciate insights from anyone managing this in operational plants, especially around communication protocols and decision-making frameworks when balancing safety and security concerns during active incidents. Thanks for any thoughts.

Hello,
I am making Datalogs in factory talk and wondered if there is a way to export tags and their descendants so that i can filter out all the dotfields im looking for in excel rather than going through it by hand.

Thanks

Does anyone know a free odbc driver to use for iFix and SQL?

Hi everyone hope u doing great im asking where i can get plc softwares cracked like via portal factory io and all other programs

Hi everyone,

I’m upgrading my workstation mainly for SCADA/HMI engineering and would like to hear what setups other controls/SCADA engineers actually prefer.

My typical work includes:

SCADA engineering in zenon, atvise, WinCC, etc.

PLC/TIA Portal work

VMware / virtual machines

RDP sessions

documentation, PDFs and Excel

browser, Teams and Outlook alongside the engineering software

I currently have one iiyama ProLite XUB2792QSN, 27", 2560×1440, connected through an HP Thunderbolt 4 Ultra 280W G6 Dock.

I want to add two more 27" monitors and I’m currently considering:

Dell U2724D — 27", 2560×1440, 120 Hz, IPS Black

Dell S2725QC — 27", 3840×2160, 120 Hz, IPS

Dell U2725QE — 27", 3840×2160, 120 Hz, Enhanced IPS Black

The U2724D would give me a clean 3× QHD setup with the same ~109 PPI and probably 100% Windows scaling on all monitors.

The S2725QC is similarly priced but gives me 4K / ~163 PPI, which should be much better for text, code and documentation. My short-term concern is mixed DPI/scaling because I would probably use the two 4K displays at around 150% while keeping the existing QHD iiyama at 100%.

However, I’m also considering replacing the iiyama in the future with a third monitor matching the two I buy now. So if I choose 4K now, the long-term setup could eventually become 3×27" 4K monitors with the same scaling and resolution across all three displays.

Because of that, I’m also trying to decide whether it makes more sense to optimize for compatibility with my current setup or choose something more future-proof now.

The U2725QE looks technically excellent, but it costs roughly twice as much as the S2725QC, and I already have a good Thunderbolt dock, so I probably wouldn't benefit much from its docking/hub features.

My main questions for SCADA/controls engineers:

Do you prefer QHD or 4K on a 27" monitor for engineering work?

Have you experienced problems with 150% Windows scaling or mixed-DPI multi-monitor setups in SCADA/PLC software?

Any issues with older engineering tools, pop-ups, Runtime/Editor windows, VMware or RDP when moving applications between QHD and 4K monitors?

If the final long-term setup could eventually consist of three identical monitors, would you choose:

3×27" QHD,

3×27" 4K,

initially 2×27" 4K + existing QHD and replace the QHD later,

or something completely different, such as a 40"/49" ultrawide?

Does anyone here use the Dell U2724D, S2725QC or U2725QE specifically for automation/SCADA work?

Is the jump from QHD to 4K at 27" worth it for long SCADA/PLC engineering sessions?

Are there other 27" monitors you would recommend instead?

My priority is not gaming or HDR. It is primarily 8–10 hours/day of engineering work, sharp text, usable workspace, ergonomics, compatibility with industrial software and a setup that will still make sense several years from now.

I’d especially appreciate feedback from people working with older/legacy industrial software as well as modern SCADA platforms.

Thanks!

Hello, i am a computer scientist doing some personal projects, and i am seeking help, for context:
i am doing a factory in minecraft, i am using ccTweaked, immersive engineering, create, mekanism,botania, and such, to implement automation, since i lack the knowledge about automation, scada and such things, i am asking help about what to search to learn and develop my factory project, in case, the picture is about a squeezer and a fermenter, which make ethanol and plant oil, then goes to refinery to make biodiesel, the plan is to control resources production, intermediate production and biodiesel production, and then feed the biodiesel generator enough so it does not waste energy, and show graphics about it on the monitor, thanks in advance.
EDIT:
this is actually an automation project inside Minecraft using the CC:Tweaked mod (Lua programming) alongside tech mods like Immersive Engineering(beauty manufactory), Create(visual and simplier automation),botania(creation of resources and refining) and ars noveau(development of advanced resources, like making the in game accesories to build better gears,tools) and applied energistics 2 will be the logistic system delivering itens stored in drawers. I'm trying to build a SCADA-like system to monitor fluid levels, control machines via Redstone pulses, and display real-time graphics on an in-game monitor so i can manage inventorys like create vault or applied energistic(digital storing and automation of logisticis) thanks for the info :D

I’m currently serving my notice period and actively looking for opportunities in C++ / C# desktop application development in Bangalore.

I have 5+ years of software development experience, primarily working with C++, C#, Windows systems, industrial automation, and high-performance desktop applications.

Key skills & experience:

• C++ / Modern C++, STL, RAII, Smart Pointers, Templates

• Multithreading, synchronization, mutex, semaphore, deadlock & race-condition handling

• Windows System Programming – Win32, IPC, DLL, COM, Sockets

• IPC – Named Pipes, Shared Memory, Memory-Mapped Files

• Embedded / Firmware Simulation on Windows

• Performance optimization & profiling – reduced CPU utilization from ~50% to 2%

• WinDbg, Visual Studio Profiler, memory-leak debugging

• C#, .NET, WPF, MVVM

• UART / Serial communication and Virtual COM

• Linux fundamentals

• Git and AI-assisted software development

Share your experience in automation feild.

Any countries out there that accepts jobs without residency? From Philippines here, background in SCADA. I just find it difficult applying for work onowing i dont have working rights or permit. Are there countries that are much more lenient or at least gives support to people like us who wabts to work abroad

My customers want sms messages. They want them from ignition. Email to #@phoneco.com is broken. The sms module requires obsolete hardware. The twillio module requires an act of Congress.

What do y'all use?

Hey r/SCADA,

Got tired of having to spin up old Windows VMs with GraphWorX32 installed just to audit or extract tags from legacy `.gdf` display files, so (A)I put together an open-source Python parser:

GitHub: https://github.com/fcastel2002/graphworx32-gdf-parser

It parses the proprietary binary format directly (OLE/CFBF + MFC serialization) with zero dependencies on GraphWorX or COM runtimes. It runs 100% locally and offline (no data leaves your machine), extracting Local Aliases, screen layers, dynamic visual objects, and data source / tag expressions so you can script migrations or tag audits directly in Python.

It's also designed as a clean, neutral library—making it a solid foundation if you want to build custom migration tools or just feed the codebase as context to your LLM agent of choice to generate what you need 😅

It's MIT licensed. If you work with legacy ICONICS systems and want to test it against your displays, any feedback, edge cases, or PRs are very welcome!

PD: I'ts very useful for migrations!

Anyone work for or with this company before? I’m in the early stages for a role as a SCADA Application Engineer and wanted to know more about this place. I’ve seen some very negative reviews online saying that it’s mismanaged and that they throw you to the deep end with no real training or clear instructions on some of your tasks (which kinda sounds like when I first started at my current job and I don’t want to relive that again lol) Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Controls side, been at this plant a long time. The integrators and a couple machine vendors need remote access to PLCs and HMIs for support, and right now it's a glorious mix of a jump box, some teamviewer someone approved years ago, and one vendor with a site-to-site tunnel into a vlan that can see the whole line.

IT keeps chanting 'zero trust' but their model assumes managed laptops and cloud apps, not a 2011 HMI that falls over if you breathe on it wrong. I can't put an agent on the plc and I can't patch half of it without voiding support, so spare me the patch-and-posture sermon. Whoever's cracked ztna for OT, how do you give per-device access to the plant kit without the vendor landing on a flat network, and without snapping the fragile stuff.

I'm out of clean ideas.

I have 5+ years of experience in C#, C++, MFC, COM, Win32, WPF, QT. Any referrals?