A step-by-step guide to installing Factory IO by Real Games on your computer. Factory IO is a cutting-edge 3D simulation environment for simulating industrial automation applications and testing PLC programs from all manufacturers.
What's up guys?
This is Ken from KB Controls and in today's tutorial, I will be showing you how to download and install Factory IO by Real Games, which is my favourite tool for practicing PLC programming by simulating industrial automation applications.
Let's get into it.
If you are reading this guide, you probably already know what Factory IO is. Just in case you aren't sure, I will explain it quickly here before diving into the tutorial.
Basically, Factory IO is a 3D factory simulation platform that you can use to build a portfolio of industrial automation projects with PLCs from almost any manufacturer or with Factory IO's built-in soft PLC called Control IO.
With Factory IO you can build a virtual factory from a library of common industrial parts and to connect those parts to a variety of different PLCs. If you aren’t interested in building a virtual factory from scratch, don’t worry - Factory IO ships with a library of pre-built scenes that are inspired by common applications in industrial automation. This means that you can immediately start using Factory IO to build a portfolio of projects related to PLC programming.
Factory IO is a paid software application, but you can get a 30-day free trial for Factory IO here. In general, I'm a pretty cheap person but Factory IO is one of the subscriptions that I get a lot of value out of. Over the last year, Factory IO has really helped me to improve my programming skills, which led to better work opportunities and a higher salary.
In summary, I think the Factory IO license is worth every penny. As regular readers know, I am a huge advocate of Factory IO and I use it to teach PLC programming in my free PLC Bootcamp course.
Since Factory IO is a paid software, I'll take a minute to talk about the different Factory IO licenses that are available before explaining how to install Factory IO on your machine.
To use Factory IO, you need to purchase a license which can be a monthly, yearly, or one-time license.
There are multiple Factory IO licenses available and each license unlocks different features, mostly related to which types of PLCs Factory I/O can communicate with. For example, there is an ultimate license (that's the one that I have) which allows you to connect a Factory IO model to any type of supported PLC and there are licenses available for a single PLC brand like Siemens or Allen-Bradley.
Single manufacturer Factory IO licenses are not very expensive. For example, the Allen-Bradley license is only 15 euros.
For anyone who is unsure about spending money on a Factory IO license, there is a 30-day trial available for new users. The trial license is automatically activated when you install Factory IO for the first time.
To learn more about Factory IO licenses and pricing, you can visit the Factory IO Buy Online page.
Factory IO is a desktop application with a cloud-based licensing system.
To install Factory IO, you will first need to create a Factory IO account and download the Factory IO installer.
You can do this by going to the Factory IO website.
On the Factory IO website, click on the “Try for free” button to create your Factory IO account.
On the next screen, enter your first name, last name, email address, and consent to receiving information about your Factory IO 30-day trial. Confirm that you are not a robot and click on “Start trial” to create your account.
Upon clicking “Start trial” the Factory IO installer will start downloading automatically.
Once the download is complete, launch the installer by clicking on it in the bottom-left corner of your browser window.
You may be prompted to allow the installer to make changes to your machine. Click Yes to continue the installation process.
Once the installer starts running, you will be prompted to select the installation language for Factory IO. Select your preferred language and click OK.
On the splash screen, click Next to begin the installation process.
To install Factory IO, you will have to accept the License Agreement. Since I have already read the agreement, I will activate the “I accept the agreement” radio button and click OK.
Next, you can specify where on your machine you want Factory IO to be installed. I will leave the default location and click Next.
Finally, you can specify what optional components should be installed alongside the Factory IO application. Once again, I will leave the default selection and click Next.
With the settings for the installation configured, we can click Next one last time to start the actual installation of Factory IO on our machines.
After clicking Next, the installation process will start.
When the installation process is complete, click Finish to close the Factory IO installer.
You should now be able to launch Factory IO from the Desktop shortcut or the Start menu.
When you launch Factory IO for the first time, you 30 day trial license is automatically activated. With this trial license, you can use Factory IO without any restrictions for 30 days. After that 30 day period, you will have to buy a license to continue using Factory IO.
In this post, I gave you a brief explanation about what Factory IO is and how licenses work in Factory IO.
After learning about Factory IO, I guided you through the process of downloading, installing, and activating your trial license in Factory IO.
Now that we have Factory IO installed, its time to get our hands dirty with some PLC programming. If you haven't already, I suggest that you sign up to my free 5 day PLC Bootcamp to learn how to use Factory IO to test your very first PLC program. You can sign up to that free course here.
Sign up to the mailing list to get a new post about industrial automation and controls engineering delivered to your inbox every week.
.svg)
Learn the skills you need to start your journey as a PLC programmer. Enroll in PLC Bootcamp to learn how to write and test your first PLC program for free.
