Previous Changes

This page lists changes in older 3.3 builds.

Build 311 & 312

  • Minor quality testing fixes.

Build 310

  • Implemented the valve user characteristic curve (for the main and bypass valves).

Build 309

  • Significantly improve performance of Steady State Rating method in the heat exchanger.
  • Fixed problems related to dragging and dropping a file onto the Welcome page of Petro-SIM.

Build 308

  • Renamed "Show Attachments" to "Show Connections" (accessible by right clicking on a blank spot in an object view) and expanded it to show a wider list of objects.
  • Various dynamics initialization related fixes:
    • It was not storing and recalling the list of selected objects.
    • It was not properly handling objects inside sub flowsheets.
    • Some numerical errors that may have created problems.
  • Fire heater: The convective heat transfer coefficient for the inner wall can now also be scaled based on flow. Rating, Heat Transfer page.
  • Conversion reactor: Will now identify reactions missing conversion values causing it to not solve, the right click show attachments option will now be visible, and the reactor will indicate that values are missing rather than just say "not solved". The conversion reactor view and basis reactions page now also stretch to make the names more visible, as not being able to see much of the names is causing a lot of problems.
  • Crash fixes.
  • Changes to the FCC and hydrocracker.
  • Minor tweaks to the type library to ensure backwards compatibility with build 305.

Build 307

  • Amines support via AMSIM version 6.
  • Fixed occasional crash in the steady state balance code.
  • Fixed occasional crash when using linked Excel tables.
  • Fixed a PFD crash and a related issue with Petro-SIM sometimes freezing.

Build 306

  • Fixed a crash reported by a number of users, related to the liquid density.
  • Added a mode to grab hold of the PFD and drag it around.
  • Fixed some crashes in the event scheduler and improved the views to be able to stretch.
  • Added OpenWithPassword OLE method for loading password protected cases.
  • Fixed the cause and effect matrix showing cause values in internal units rather than display units.
  • Fixed user variables which were not working in dynamics mode.
  • Fixed type library which was incorrectly showing 3.2 in the help string.
  • Fixed Control-L snapshot which was capturing one extra pixel row and column, from the background.
  • Fixed a null pointer crash in new plug flow reactors.
  • Fixed multi-stream exchanger rating values not being accessible in the view.
  • Fixed controllers so that multiple PV or OP objects are now accessible when Undo is enabled.
  • Fixed the set operation to have better defined behavior in dynamics mode.
  • Fixed dynamics assistant to handle pipe and fired heater properly. No need to append a valve.
  • Fixed duplicate "Liquid Percent Level" in the variable navigator (one was really "Liquid Volume Percent").
  • Removed adjustop from the dynamics palette and change its status tor recommend using a controller.
  • Added SetPassword OLE method for a simulation case. Cases with passwords can no longer be saved in XML format or to the database. Contents from them can also only be pasted into cases with the same password.
  • Fixed a problem recalling some XML files which use unrecognized fraction calculators in some vessels.
  • The fluid package phase sorting option is now accessible.
  • The emulsion fraction calculator is now available as an option in the vessel.

Build 305

  • Fixed issues around the readme file.

Build 304

  • Case compare issues: fixed a crash, fixed treating valve pressure drops incorrectly as if they were specified, and using tagged names for the inactive case resulting in objects being reported as only being in one case.
  • The open file dialog box now allows multiple cases to selected and opened in one go.
  • This build is no longer marked as being a beta.
  • Cause and Effect matrix fixes: Fixed Reset and Reset? which sometimes worked the wrong way around, improved status indications and indication of resets needed, fixed code to better handle continual spreadsheet export.
  • Fixed the cold properties utility not working in dynamics mode.

Build 303

  • The controller can now be switched to manual mode even if there is no outlet connection or no inlet connection, and those attachments are not reported as required.
  • Heat exchanger: Fix to not always initialize when a K value is changed, provide better temperature bounds during initialization, and better handling of temperature bound or initialization failure.
  • Pyrolysis furnace engine update.
  • Sample cases button on the button bar.
  • Ability to read in a .dump file generated from another dynamics case or simulator. Dump files can be generated using this script.
  • Change separators to initialize from products rather than the default dry start up when reading in XML.
  • Separators will now read in weir information from the XML to get a better idea of what the level really was.
  • Improved vessel initialization when certain phases are required.
  • Fixed heat loss calculator not reading in default area from XML.
  • Fixed problems with level taps not reading in PV range values because of calculation status.
  • Ability to read in a dump file along with XML, which can be generated from HYSYS/UniSIM/Petro-SIM.
  • Some improvements to handling pressure flow convergence failures (flow equation, compressor).
  • Extra smarts for opening up a unit operation when the user clicks on a line in the trace window.
  • Read nozzle elevations and diameters from XML.
  • Read heat exchanger volumes from XML.
  • Spreadsheet will warn about missing unit sets when reading in XML.
  • Some valve settings were not being read in properly.
  • DumpCaseData script will now also dump controller port ranges
  • Integrator Reset change will now just reset the time.
  • Fixed elapsed time being wrong after reading in XML, causing cases to initially kick.

Build 302

  • PFD now shows stream nozzle inlet elevations when user presses Shift-I and nozzle outlet elevations when user presses Shift-O.
  • In the PFD, the valve tool tips will now show the valve opening.
  • XML recall (in dynamics mode) improvements:
    • Columns will no longer erase streams, resulting in uninitialized streams.
    • Tray section now also reads in vapor to above K values, weir height, weir length, column diameter, section elevation (there are more but we need more XML test cases to identify them).
    • Tray section will now initialize with a single component stream where a liquid phase can not be generated.
    • Heat exchanger models will now try to initialize when possible.
    • Heat exchanger pressure drop specifications / estimates will be read in (there was a typo in the old code).
    • Simple heat exchanger model will now read in (and write out): UA, F, shell passes, tube volume, shell volume, shell duty, tube duty, shell and tube side UA scale flows.
    • Pump will read estimates for head, speed and overall pressure change.
    • Energy streams will read in a duty estimate.
    • The code that initializes streams will try to pick a multi-phase stream as a source where possible, rather than any initialized stream.
    • If the XML file identifies the case mode as dynamic, Petro-SIM will automatically switch to dynamics mode when reading in the XML. Petro-SIM now also writes out in the XML file whether the case was in steady state or not.

Build 301

  • The digital operation can now switch air cooler fans on or off. Either all fans, or a specific fan.
  • Fixed a bug in the CAPE-OPEN pure component properties access.
  • Restored the fired heater unit operation and fixed some basic issues with it.
  • Added some crash protection in some heat exchanger related code.

Build 300

  • The Preference dynamics tab now has an option to switch to dynamics mode when an XML file is imported. The import will also pull in additional information not previously recalled (level tap settings, some valve sizes, phase fractions if present in the XML file, etc.).

Build 299

  • Added a preference option to show dynamic information in views even in steady state mode.
  • Fixed controller alarm levels not being visible in the view in indicator mode.
  • Vessel level taps now lets you pick a variable type such a percent or length.
  • Fixed the spreadsheet not calculating if a change is below tolerance, and dynamics options are now accessible from the view.
  • Implemented first order stream temperature filtering in the controller (PV Conditioning page), with ambient temperature being used at low flows.
  • On the controller Advanced page, the PV low and high limits can now be set.
  • Fixed up the patching to treat some files as shared files, to avoid patch installation problems.
  • Some uninitialized tray sections may cause the case to fail to initialize or the solve to report a mismatched number of equations and specifications. Fixed.

Build 298

  • Cleaned some of the sample cases a little and added a few smarts to the dynamics assistant.
  • Added a preference option to disable journal/undo recording while the integrator is running.
  • Fixed Actual Liquid Flow stream values which in some cases return wrong negative values.
  • Fixed a null pointer crash reported in newly created PFRs when changing their volumes.
  • The Help, Check for Updates menu item will now check for and optionally initiate a download of patches.
  • The rating page, which shows nozzle elevations, will now be visible for the mixer and tee in dynamics mode.

Build 297

  • Fixed problem recalling cases with a digital point in them.

Build 296

  • Fixed crash when using (unsupported) refinery assays in dynamics mode.
  • Enabled dragging a radio button to and from say a spreadsheet cell.
  • Cause and Effect matrix added.

Build 295

  • The valve now has a bypass valve option, as well as block in and block out valves on the main valve. On the connections page of a controller, the user can choose which actuator to control.
  • Vessel level taps implemented.
  • Dynamics initialization improvements:
    • Supports multiple regions (instances)
    • Ability to select objects in the PFD and right mouse click to send them.
    • The dynamics initialization view has a button which makes it easier to edit the list of objects.
  • The main palette will now automatically update to show appropriate objects when the user switches between steady state and dynamics mode.
  • Added an on/off switch to the air cooler.
  • Added a diagnostic message to the controller for when alarm values are ignored because they fall outside the valid PV range.
  • Changed the controller PV conditioning settings to be accessible even when the controller is not in failure mode.
  • Static heads are now enabled by default.
  • Fixed stream mass flow rates being incorrect due to a cached molecular weight value which was not being updated.
  • Fixed crashes experienced while building a case due to steady state left over Calc By information.
  • Fixed a null pointer crash.
  • The dynamics mode regular flowsheet palette now also shows the prebuilt column flowsheets.
  • Switching to dynamics mode when the dynamics assistant identifies issues now pops up a dialog box with more clearly labeled buttons.
  • Vessels using the vertical cylinder geometry and now also add a weir (though weirs are usually used in horizontal cylinders).
  • Fixed Undo to work with level taps and valve settings.
  • Several views can now be stretched to show more information, for example the navigator view which selects a controller output target.
  • The controller dll, pcntrl.dll, will now be registered during installation, to ensure that it is registered on Vista.
  • License tester and commuter manager support for dynamics licenses.
  • The desired real time factor can now be specified.
  • Fixed a crash in the Tee in dynamics mode, and added missing variables for the valve to the variable navigator.
  • The pipe unit operation now also works in dynamics mode, though it has had very limited testing.