Beckhoff Automation
MX-System Designer

Beckhoff Automation is one of the world’s leading companies in industrial automation. With the MX-System, the company is pursuing a new approach to machine and plant engineering: control, communication, and power components are brought together in a modular system architecture, reinterpreting conventional control cabinet concepts.

As part of this ecosystem, the MX-System Designer was developed: a digital planning tool that supports users in configuring and planning MX-Systems. The objective was not only to digitally represent technical interdependencies, but to make them more understandable and accessible for different user groups.

The planning of industrial systems is often shaped by technical dependencies, extensive documentation, and complex configuration processes. The further development of the MX-System Designer aimed to create a tool that provides structured support for these processes and guides users reliably through the planning workflow.

The central question was how technical rules, system logic, and interdependencies could be represented in a way that makes them understandable at an early stage and supports decision-making throughout the planning process.

The MX-System Designer translates technical system logic into a visual and comprehensible planning process. Components, connections, and dependencies become visible directly in context and can be understood intuitively.

Through a clear information architecture, guided workflows, and visual representations of system relationships, planning processes become more transparent and easier to follow. Technical rules are taken into account at an early stage, potential errors can be identified more quickly, and complex configurations become easier to understand. The result is a tool that creates clarity, provides orientation, and efficiently supports the planning of modern automation systems.

Squareone supports the development of the MX-System Designer in close collaboration with Beckhoff Automation’s specialist departments. Through continuous exchange between engineering and design teams, requirements, usage scenarios, and solution approaches are jointly developed and iteratively refined.

The focus is on combining technical precision with user-centered design to create a tool that meets both the demands of modern engineering processes and the needs of its users.