Configuring modular industrial plants

A computer-implemented method for providing an engineering tool for configuring a modular industrial plant, the method comprising:

• providing a plant engineering facility in the engineering tool configured to allow user creation of a representation of the modular industrial plant identifying modules to be orchestrated in the modular industrial plant, the modules comprising at least one function module comprising control software for the modular industrial plant, wherein the plant engineering facility provides at least one topology view for defining flow of information or material between the modules;
• creating a placeholder configuration file for defining the configuration of the at least one function module;
• providing a module engineering facility in the engineering tool configured to allow user configuration of the at least one function module for use in the modular industrial plant by editing the placeholder configuration file, wherein editing the placeholder configuration file comprises selectively disabling an optional feature of the at least one function module thereby suppressing application to the modular industrial plant of one or more aspects of the optional feature including corresponding control code, human-machine interface (HMI) parts, and services;
• updating a representation of the at least one function module in the plant engineering facility to reflect adaptations made to the at least one function module using the module engineering facility by editing the placeholder configuration file, wherein the adaptations are directly reflected in the at least one topology view of the plant engineering facility;
• and
• providing functionality for assigning each of the at least one function module so configured to the modular industrial plant.