Plant SCADA 2026 Release Notes
- Last UpdatedOct 01, 2026
- 12 minute read
New features and enhancements
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Encryption enabled by default
Communications between Plant SCADA runtime processes, computers and CtAPI are now encrypted by default in Plant SCADA 2026.
To use encrypted communications:
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You need to have a System Management Server configured.
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The Runtime Manager should be running as a service on any computers hosting a server process.
If these prerequisites are not met, warning messages will be displayed.
You can review the encryption settings for a computer on the Plant SCADA | Encryption page in Configurator. Refer to the topic Encrypted Communications in the Plant SCADA documentation for more information.
You can disable encryption for some of Plant SCADA's runtime components. However, encryption is a requirement for the following servers:
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Deployment server
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OPC UA server.
Note: Running Plant SCADA without encrypted communications is not recommended.
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Integration with System Platform
Plant SCADA 2026 supports the Plant SCADA Integration Assistant (as a separate download). You can use the Integration Assistant to integrate a Plant SCADA system with Application Server, a core component of AVEVA System Platform. This integration enables Plant SCADA customers to use AVEVA products that connect to System Platform, such as Operations Management Interface (OMI).
The Integration Assistant detects equipment in a Plant SCADA project and converts the associated variable, alarm and trend tags into objects in Application Server. I/O attributes in Application Server can then communicate with your existing Plant SCADA I/O configuration via a Connectivity Service.
The Plant SCADA Integration Assistant requires a separate installation within System Platform. You can access the installer from the Products page of the AVEVA Knowledge & Support Center.
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AVEVA Documentation
The documentation for Plant SCADA is available on the AVEVA Documentation portal (docs.aveva.com), a cloud-based resource that hosts the current documentation for actively-maintained AVEVA products.
The AVEVA Documentation portal supports continuous maintenance of its content, which helps to ensure the documentation is accurate and up-to-date. In the case of Plant SCADA, regular revisions will coincide with the release of monthly product updates.
By default, Plant SCADA's context-sensitive help links will now open directly in the AVEVA documentation portal.
If your system is running on a remote or secured site that does not have direct internet access, you can also use a local version of the documentation that is installed with Plant SCADA.
Configurator also allows you specify that a computer uses the local documentation by default for all context-sensitive links. Go to the Computer Setup page, select the Use local documentation check box and then Configure.
Note: The locally installed version of the Plant SCADA documentation will not include any of the updates that occur on the AVEVA Documentation portal.
For more information, see the topic Plant SCADA Documentation.
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Connectivity Service Manager
The Connectivity Service Manager is a component of Plant SCADA that allows you to specify which clusters will be exposed to upstream applications (such as OPC UA and Application Server) by the AVEVA Connectivity Service. It is added to installations of Plant SCADA that include an OPC UA Server.
The interface of the Connectivity Service Manager primarily allows you to select which clusters the Connectivity Service will connect to. This means OPC UA and the System Platform Application Server will only have access to data from the clusters you select. See the topic Connectivity Service Manager.
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Additional Kernel Tables for an Alarm Server
Plant SCADA now supports additional page tables in the Kernel that present statistics on alarm server activity.
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Page Table Alarm.Stats.Tag - includes current alarm tag counts for various alarm states and priorities.
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Page Table Alarm.Stats.Req - provides statistics for the client requests that have been received by the alarm server.
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Page Table Alarm.Stats.Util - provides measures of the time spent collecting statistics.
To access these tables, you need to set the INI parameter [Alarm]EnableAlarmStats to 1 prior to starting the alarm server.
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Transport Layer Security (TLS) updates
Plant SCADA runtime will now use the most secure version of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol that is available, based on the Windows version running on client and server computers. This is currently TLS 1.2 and 1.3. In the event support for a new version of TLS is added to Windows, Plant SCADA will automatically start using that version with no update of Plant SCADA required. Similarly, if a current version of TLS is deprecated by Windows, Plant SCADA will automatically stop using that version.
CtAPI applications need to be built in a specific way to facilitate this behavior. For more information, see the topic Enable Automatic Updates of TLS Versions for CtAPI Applications in the Plant SCADA documentation.
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Localized silent install
The installation mechanism has been improved to allow users to install and configure non-English Plant SCADA installs silently.
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Security improvements for Plant SCADA users
The version of the algorithm used to generate password hash values for Plant SCADA users has been upgraded. The Password Version property for a Plant SCADA user will now display a value of 3 to indicate a password has been set in Plant SCADA 2026.
Once your Plant SCADA clients have been upgraded to Plant SCADA 2026, and all CTAPI client applications have been upgraded to use the 2026 CTAPI redistributable, it is recommended that you update all passwords for Plant SCADA users to ensure the most secure algorithm is being used. A compiler warning will be reported if any users are using a deprecated algorithm.
Note: AVEVA Historian Plant SCADA Connector v4.0 (or earlier) is not compatible with passwords generated using the updated password algorithm introduced in Plant SCADA 2026. Connections between Plant SCADA and this version of the Historian Connector will not succeed if authentication uses a Plant SCADA user account with a password created or updated in Plant SCADA 2026. Until a new version of the Historian Plant SCADA Connector is released, it is recommended that Windows Authentication be used to secure the connection to Plant SCADA.
Removed features
The following features were removed from Plant SCADA 2026:
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AVEVA Industrial Graphics is now removed from Plant SCADA 2026 and future releases. It will no longer be supported or maintained in monthly updates or security updates. AVEVA recommends customers cease using AVEVA Industrial Graphics within Plant SCADA runtime systems and decommission any Plant SCADA Industrial Graphics web servers from production and engineering systems.
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The Project Migration Tool allows you to delete Industrial Graphics content from a project folder (see Using the Project Migration Tool).
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If a project has 'IndustrialGraphics_Include' configured as an included project, Plant SCADA Studio will not be able to locate the project and will prompt you to remove it. If this occurs, select Yes on the Remove Project dialog.
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The Windows user groups "AIGUsers" and "AIGUsersRW" will still exist if they were created by a previous version of Plant SCADA. These can be removed via Windows Local Users and Groups if they are no longer required.
See the Knowledge Base article 000103614 Security advice regarding AVEVA Industrial Graphics and Plant SCADA on the AVEVA Knowledge & Support Center for more information.
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Open Factory Server (OFS) is no longer shipped with Plant SCADA's installation media. Customers who wish to install OFS should download a copy directly from Schneider Electric at OPC Factory Server | Schneider Electric Australia.
Note: OFS will reach End of Sale in December 2027 and End of Service in 2035. The Plant SCADA OFSOPC driver will continue to be supported until End of Service is reached.
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Schneider Electric Software Update is no longer installed with Plant SCADA 2026. You will no longer be notified if updates become available for Plant SCADA versions. New releases and updates are available from the Products page at the AVEVA Knowledge & Support Center. You can also subscribe to product announcements on the Product News page.
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Graphics file format support for Autocad (.dxf), encapsulated PostScript (.eps) and Word Perfect Graphic (.wpg) has been removed from Plant SCADA. Enhanced Metafile (.emf) is now supported.
Citect.ini Parameters in Plant SCADA 2026
This topic lists the parameters that have changed in Plant SCADA 2023 R2.
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New Parameters
The following parameters have been added to this release.
Alarm Parameters
Defines logging for alarm summary operations on the alarm server database.
Defines logging for event journal operations on the alarm server database.
Use this parameter to turn on logging for the alarm server database.
Enables page tables in the Kernel that present statistics on alarm server activity.
Client Parameters
Specifies how long an equipment runtime property value is held in cache before it is considered outdated.
PubSub Parameters
The amount of time to delay the switching of Cicode devices to each primary device.
The amount of time to delay the switching of Cicode devices to an online state.
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Modified Parameters
The following parameters have been modified for this release.
General Parameters
The default value has changed to
https://localhost:59204/AELicenseManagerI/O Server Parameters
The default value has changed to 1. By default, support for properties and extensions is now disabled.
Security Parameters
This function is now deprecated and will be removed in the next release. Use the UserCreateByRole function instead.
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Removed Parameters
The following parameters have been removed from this release.
Alarm Parameters
[Alarm]DBLogDBServer
No longer supported.
[Alarm]DBLogHistoric
No longer supported.
General Parameters
[General]EnableIndustrialGraphics
This parameter was provided in Plant SCADA 2023 R2 Update 15 to disable Industrial Graphics functionality within Plant SCADA's configuration tools. This functionality is no longer available.
Cicode Function updates
Some Cicode functions may have been introduced or modified. The following sections explain these changes.
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New Functions
ActiveX Functions
Resets an ActiveX control back to its configured state.
Sets keyboard focus to the ActiveX control located at a specified AN on a graphics page
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Removed Functions
Security Functions
UserCreate
This function has now been removed. Use the UserCreateByRole function instead.
Fuzzy Logic Functions
FuzzyClose
Fuzzy Logic functions are now obsolete.
FuzzyGetCodeValue
FuzzyGetShellValue
FuzzyOpen
FuzzySetCodeValue
FuzzySetShellValue
FuzzyTrace
Resolved Issues
Installer
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4903532 - Install paths do not reset correctly to their defaults during installation
This occurred after resetting the non-default install paths in the installer's Custom Destination form. The install paths would not reset back to their default values after navigating away from and coming back to the Custom Destination form during installation. This now works as expected.
Migration Tool
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5025751 - Migration Tool localization shows inconsistencies
Some inconsistencies in the Chinese version of the Migration Tool have been fixed.
Deployment
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4556453 - Logging not working for a standalone deployment server
If a deployment server was installed on a standalone computer without other Plant SCADA components, deployment server logging was not functioning due to missing dependencies from the core Plant SCADA installation. A standalone deployment installation will now have functioning deployment logging, along with enhanced logging functionality in deployment configuration and operation.
Runtime
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4838643 - Using [Client]AutoLoginMode when running as a service aborts login
When running in service mode, using the configuration setting [Client]AutoLoginMode was causing the System Services process to return the error message "Login aborted". This configuration setting will now be ignored when running in service mode. The setting [Server]AutoLoginMode will be used in this situation.
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4401757 - Run/copy may not work for processes running under different Windows user
Under a run/copy setup, Plant SCADA processes will overwrite local runtime files with ones from the copy location before opening them. There is currently protection in place to mitigate simultaneous access conflicts for a process running under the same Windows user session. However, when Plant SCADA is configured to run in service mode, the Plant SCADA server processes will run in the service session while the display clients will run in the interactive user sessions. If these processes reload runtime files at the same time (for example, as a result of a UserPassword Cicode function call), unprotected conflicts may arise. The scope of protection has now been extended to all user sessions.
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4042861 - Stopping an I/O server during startup causes an unexpected shutdown
In some circumstances, during an I/O server startup, stopping the I/O server from the Runtime Manager could cause the I/O server to shut down unexpectedly. This will no longer occur.
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3493795 - TagSubscribe function ignores the array index
This occurred when calling the TagSubscribe function to subscribe to a variable that is an array. When any element in the array changed, it would trigger runtime to call the callback function. Only the first value in the array would be passed to the callback, which may not have been the value that has changed. Now, only the subscribed tag element that has changed will cause the runtime to call the callback. Runtime will use the indexed tag value rather than the first value of the array.
Equipment
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4336160 - Equipment Editor does not allow non-ASCII letter characters in item names
When using Equipment Editor, entering a non-ASCII character in an equipment template's item name was not accepted and the red error border would display. However, such characters were accepted elsewhere in Equipment Editor (for example, equipment names and field values). They were also allowed in item names for non-template items added in Plant SCADA Studio. The Equipment Editor has been modified to accept any character that meets the Unicode 'Letter' classification in item names. Note that supported characters are still limited to those supported by the current system code page. Any unsupported characters will be converted to '?' when equipment is generated from the template.
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3780344 - Equipment type not found due to case sensitivity
If an equipment type was referenced by an equipment instance, case sensitivity was applied. When the Equipment Editor loaded an equipment instance, it would not be able to find the associated equipment type if it did not match the case used for the equipment type definition. The equipment type name is no longer case sensitive.
Plant SCADA Studio
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4219887 - The default report editor is not supported from Windows 11
The default report editor was write.exe (the Wordpad application), which is not available from Windows 11. The default report editor has now been updated to notepad.exe to maintain the ability to edit report formats in our supported operating systems. This default can be changed by the user.
Graphics
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4119837 - Using display functions on dynamic properties affects a display client
Calling DspDel, DspAnFree or DspSym on dynamic properties of a graphics object (such as the Visibility or Disable properties) to an object itself is an invalid operation. It would delete the object while it was being actively animated and would stop the display client from working properly. A runtime check has now been added to these Cicode functions to block such operations. A hardware alarm raised when these functions are called on the currently animating object.
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3406527 - Graphics Builder's Find dialog does not search symbols
When the Find dialog was shown within Graphics Builder and the 'Current Graphic' was searched with the 'Inside Genies & Symbols' option selected, occurrences of the search text in a symbol's text objects were not returned. Only occurrences within Genies or directly on the page or page template were returned. Occurrences of the search text within symbols are now returned as expected.
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3060237 - Graphics Builder automation interface process stops working
If the Graphics Builder automation interface methods GetOnBitmap or GetOffBitmap were called when the selected object on the page was not a bitmap, the Graphics Builder automation process would stop. The correct data is now returned without stopping.
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4775386 - Symbols defined in a menu configuration are not shown when listed under popup menu
For user projects based on the SxW or Tab Style page templates, the navigation menu is built based on the menu configuration defined in the project. When the menu items are displayed directly on the page, the symbol property defined in the menu configuration is treated as a native Plant SCADA symbol and displayed on a page. However, when the menu configuration is needed to be shown in a popup menu (for example, a level 2 menu configuration) no icon was appearing. This was because popup menus only support loading a menu icon as bitmap file. Now, if a bitmap file with the same name as the value defined in the symbol property (including the .bmp file extension) can be found in the running project, the popup menu will use it for a menu icon. For example, if "icons_16x16.myicon" symbol is specified for a menu configuration, and an equivalent bitmap file named "icons_16x16.myicon.bmp" is saved in the running project directory, it will be loaded as a menu icon in a popup menu.
Licensing
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3564295 - CtAPI call for a consumed AEL license take a long time to process
If you used the CtAPI function call ctGetLicenseInfoString to access an AEL license, it would reinitialize the license provider to retrieve the required information. This would take the function a long time to process. Now the CtAPI function will retrieve the license information directly from the client rather than reinitializing the protection provider.
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2885590 - Variable tags are not included in the point count for license consumption
Variable tags referenced in time stamped digital and analog alarms were not included in the point count for license consumption. Now, if the variable tags are sourced from real I/O and used for those types of alarms, their usage will be included in the point count for licensing.
Connectivity Server
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3466272 - Unhandled exception in the Connectivity Server caused by a duplicate session name
An unhandled exception in the Connectivity Server occurred when there was a duplicate session name. This has been addressed by ignoring the duplicate session name to avoid the exception. An error will be logged when the duplication occurs.
Scheduler
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3041412 - Dialogs in Scheduler's Special Days view are hidden when Alt-Tab is pressed
The Add Category and Add Special Day modal dialogs will no longer be moved to the background and hidden by an Alt-Tab key stroke.
OPC UA Server
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4359539 – OPC UA client cannot browse the Plant SCADA OPC UA server
An OPC UA client was unable to browse the Plant SCADA OPC UA server. This occurred when using the UaGateway feature from Unified Automation to aggregate various sources and make them available to an OPC DA client. A connection to the Plant SCADA OPC UA server was possible, but browsing would not work. The Plant SCADA OPC UA Server has been enhanced to provide improved browse compatibility with third-party OPC UA clients (including UaGateway) through the use of vendor-specific namespaces and non-abstract reference types.
Example Project
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4759377 – Hardware alarm raised when running as a service after a restart
If the Example project was run after a computer restart, the hardware alarm "Invalid Argument Passed" would be raised after an alarm was triggered if Plant SCADA was running as a service. This has been resolved by removing the speech functionality in the Example project, which was an example of using the DllClass functions.