You build the plant. Your program makes it run.

Baukiste is a training ground for PLC programming and industrial automation. You assemble conveyors, motors, sensors and stations into a plant, equip the control cabinet and local control boxes – and write the program that moves it all. The simulation only provides the hardware: an actuator moves something, a sensor reports something. What should happen is decided by your program alone.

A bridge between automation and AI

Baukiste is not only about learning PLC programming in ST and SCL. You also learn to reach solutions with an AI: describe your task, let it set up a plant, explain signals or suggest a program – and check in the running plant yourself whether it works. The simulation doesn't do the thinking for you; it only shows honestly what your program does. The AI is not included in the price and runs on your own account with the AI provider.

With a real controller – or the built-in one

• Training PLC in the game: Structured Text (ST/SCL) right in the game, with live variables and starter examples.
  
• CODESYS via Modbus TCP: the CODESYS development system is available free of charge; a ready-made project template is included.
  
• Siemens via S7-PLCSIM Advanced: for anyone with TIA Portal and PLCSIM Advanced; a step-by-step guide is included.

Honest physics, not scenery

A metal sheet is bent into a tub, the tub fills with water, a workpiece only moves while the belt runs. Nothing is shortcut to true/false: if your program is wrong, you see it on the workpiece.

A ready-made plant: the button press

The mod menu holds a complete button press to set up: three conveyors, two suction grippers, a slide with two die positions, the press itself and two operator panels with mode selector, Start, Stop, Quit and emergency stop. It places raw parts on the belts via its own outputs, end positions and optical sensors report every step, and two pressing strokes turn sheet, paper, foil and back part into a finished button. Your program makes it run – the list of all signals with their addresses is included.

A handbook guides you

From your first conveyor and motor to your first own program and connecting a real PLC: the built-in handbook explains step by step what you are doing and why.

Devices are files – and an AI can help build

Every device is a description of signals, mounting points and a schematic symbol. You import device files in the game and share them. If you like, connect your own AI: the game tells it what it can do, and it builds new devices into the running plant. The AI interface is switched off by default and only reachable on your own computer. So a device of your own comes about in two ways: with your AI or by hand as a device file. The AI is not included in the price – it runs on your own account with the AI provider.

Development area – in development

In the development area you build your own devices: by hand from building blocks or with your AI, tested on a test rig and then kept in your library. This part is in development – it runs, but it is not finished yet. Devices built with AI need your own AI (not included in the price, own account with the AI provider); your own 3D models need Blender (not included).

Who it is for

For anyone interested in learning to work with PLCs and getting to know automation better – no plant in the basement required.

Developed with AI

Program code, handbook and documentation were created together with an AI. What gets built and what is technically correct is decided and checked by the developer.

Early Access

Baukiste is in Early Access. Everything described on this page is in the game.
Language: German and English.