A method for creating a hardware engineering configuration (512, 606) for an automation system, by using an engineering application of an engineering station comprising an engineering creation module and an element library module, by selecting one or more elements of a plurality of elements stored in the element library module, the elements representing hardware devices of the automation system and being displayed as graphical objects on a graphical user interface screen, comprising: 1.1 detecting, using a processor of the engineering station, at least one user action associated with the creation of the engineering configuration (512, 606), each user action performed on the graphical user interface screen of the engineering application and causing a predetermined editing event on the graphical user interface screen for creating the engineering configuration; 1.2 determining a pattern of user activity associated with creation of the engineering configuration (512, 606) from a plurality of patterns of user activity stored in a pattern data base based on the detected at least one user action, wherein each of the stored patterns of user activity comprises a sequence of editing events corresponding to user actions performed in a sequential order during creation of previous engineering configurations (512, 606) or are pre-stored based on user actions likely to be performed to create a known engineering configuration; 1.3 dynamically determining at least one element for the engineering configuration (512, 606) from the plurality of elements in response to the user action based on the pattern of user activity by the element library module causing the processor to obtain graphical objects representing different types of the determined element from the element library module and display the different types of graphical objects in an element library window based on rank associated with the different types of the element; and the user selecting a specific type of the different types displayed in the element library window for the engineering configuration; and 1.4 displaying the selected graphical object representing the at least one element on the graphical user interface screen for use in the engineering configuration (512, 606); and 1.5 creating the engineering configuration (512, 606) using the at least one element. 1.1 detecting, using a processor of the engineering station, at least one user action associated with the creation of the engineering configuration (512, 606), each user action performed on the graphical user interface screen of the engineering application and causing a predetermined editing event on the graphical user interface screen for creating the engineering configuration; 1.2 determining a pattern of user activity associated with creation of the engineering configuration (512, 606) from a plurality of patterns of user activity stored in a pattern data base based on the detected at least one user action, wherein each of the stored patterns of user activity comprises a sequence of editing events corresponding to user actions performed in a sequential order during creation of previous engineering configurations (512, 606) or are pre-stored based on user actions likely to be performed to create a known engineering configuration; 1.3 dynamically determining at least one element for the engineering configuration (512, 606) from the plurality of elements in response to the user action based on the pattern of user activity by the element library module causing the processor to obtain graphical objects representing different types of the determined element from the element library module and display the different types of graphical objects in an element library window based on rank associated with the different types of the element; and the user selecting a specific type of the different types displayed in the element library window for the engineering configuration; and 1.4 displaying the selected graphical object representing the at least one element on the graphical user interface screen for use in the engineering configuration (512, 606); and 1.5 creating the engineering configuration (512, 606) using the at least one element.