I like it and use it a lot. I would hate to write bigger /complex sequences in either LD or ST (siemens SCL). You get a lot of functionality for free, and I like the graphical nature when dealing with complex sequences, especially when monitoring it online. One problem that have been present in the last phew versions of Tia (at least on the 1500 series) is that sometimes(very rarely), if you force the sequences to init while in a state that uses the non stores (N) action to trigger a bit, the bit will not reset when leaving the state as it should. But you need a large screen as it is really space inefficient, on my set up I have it zoomed to 90% to get more space but if I go lower, the text starts to look wired. I work mainly with siemens but have used it in rockwell as well. One thing that I really liked from rockwell was that actions could be written in ST, increasing the flexibility. More on reddit.com

Does Siemens has any other software than TIA portal and Wincc to program & configure their Plc’s? Yes. There is a Simatic manager. It was the previous programming environment, allowing S7-300 and S7-400 to be programmed. There is S7-Microwin for programming the S7-200 series. They have Logo! soft Comfort for the Siemens Logo and then there is/was Siemens S5 for programming the old S5 PLC (product life cycle ended at the end of September 2020). I went to Siemens’ website, but I couldn’t navigate to what I specifically want. It's a mess. I am asking about their plc lineup from micro to most powerful. (I exclude the S5 series because it is too outdated) Logo, S7-200, S7-300, S7-400, S7-1200, S7-1500 Each series has multiple PLCs and in each series you still have a difference in performance between the PLCs. Also, is S7-1500 just a new version of S7-1400 or it’s a different controller? I don't know about the S7-1400. The S7-1500 may be considered the successor to the S7-400. The S7-1200 can be considered the new version of the S7-300. More on reddit.com

None of the above. For Siemens PLCs I prefer to implement my state machines in SCL, and if that's unavailable due to customer requirements, STL. My customers' (or end users') maintenance engineers are fluent in STL, so that's their preferred language. They'll get better and/or more functionality for their money if I'm working in SCL because it's a higher level language, so that's my preference as an integrator. We're in a transition period, from STL to SCL, where more and more of my programs are written in SCL. More on reddit.com

I feel because of the size of this network it will be clumsy to scroll/read when online. Breaking each transition into its own network may make it a little better. Otherwise this would be how I'd do it, either this or use SCL/ST and Case statements. More on reddit.com