Industrial design environment automation controller program conversion and export

A method, comprising:

• receiving, by a system comprising a processor via interaction with a project development interface, control programming input that defines an industrial control program;
• defining, by the system as part of an industrial control project, a smart object definition representing the industrial control program based on the control programming input;
• receiving, by the system via interaction with the project development interface, controller definition input that defines properties of multiple industrial controllers;
• storing, by the system as part of the industrial control project, the controller definition input as controller definitions that respectively represent the multiple industrial controllers;
• assigning, in accordance with smart object allocation input received via interaction with the project development interface, multiple instances of the smart object definition to respective multiple controller definitions of the controller definitions;
• receiving, by the system, selection of a controller definition, of the multiple controller definitions, whose content is to be exported;
• and
• in response to the receiving of the selection, generating, by the system, a project file comprising the industrial control program defined by an instance, of the multiple instances, allocated to the controller definition, wherein the generating comprises generating the project file in a format capable of being opened, viewed, and edited in a controller configuration application compatible with a type of industrial controller defined by the controller definition.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, in response to execution, cause a system comprising a processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

• receiving, via interaction with a project development interface, design input that defines an industrial control program and controller definitions as part of an industrial control project, wherein the controller definitions define properties of respective industrial controllers;
• creating, by the system as part of an industrial control project, a smart object definition representing the industrial control program based on the design input;
• assigning, in accordance with smart object allocation input received via interaction with the project development interface, instances of the smart object definition to selected controller definitions of the controller definitions;
• receiving an instruction to export content associated with a selected controller definition of the controller definitions;
• and
• in response to the receiving of the instruction, translating an instance, of the multiple instances, allocated to the selected controller definition to a project file capable of being opened, viewed, and edited in a controller configuration application specific to a type of industrial controller defined by the controller definition.