gPROMS v3.3

Usability, productivity, modelling and solution enhancements

In addition to major features such as model initalisation and the new graphical task editor, gPROMS v3.3 contains many usability and productivity enhancements, as well as a number of new features and improvements in the modelling and solution engine.

Highlights at a glance

Usability & productivity

There have been many usability and productivity enhancements at all levels, including:

Finding Units on topology views. A new 'Find Units' tool makes it easy to find individual Units on a large flowsheet, or – for example – to find multiple Units with a similar name, or all instances of a certain Model.

New palette options

New Palette layout. A new tolopogy (flowsheeting) palette has been implemented that is consistent – in terms of layout and colour scheme – with the new graphical task editor palette.

The palette is context-sensitive and shows different entries depending on which type of Entity is being edited. The original icon-only layout is still available as an option.
Palette positioning. The palette for model libraries, annotations and schedule elements can now be positioned on the right-hand side, to provide more freedom when arranging the different views. This is particularly useful on wide screen displays.

Advanced help text for models

Enhanced model help in specification dialogs. The specification dialog interface builder has been extended to allow easy reference to external documents, with either absolute or relative links.

It is possible to reference web pages, company intranet pages, or files relative to the location of the gPROMS installation, project file or libraries. A preview of how the final help text is displayed at the bottom.

This provides a powerful mechanism for model developers to provide additional background documentation and guidelines for their models.
Layout options for custom graphics. gPROMS allows model developers to position custom graphics, such as company logos, in the top or bottom panes of specification dialogs, and to assign background colours.

v3.3 provides more layout options for this useful branding tool, to allow for a more efficient use of the available space when there are a large number of specifications. It also provides intelligent re-positioning when a dialog is resized.
x–y plots now available as in-line plots on topologies. x–y plots which are already available in gRMS and Model Reports can now also be created as in-line plots by dragging a normal 2-D plot onto the topology.
Automatic zoom-to-fit on resize. A new ModelBuilder^® preference option ensures that a topology view will always zoom-to-fit on resize.
A new icon set gives gPROMS ModelBuilder a fresh and more consistent look-and-feel. The look-and-feel will continue to evolve and icons will be improved over subsequent versions

Enhanced solution parameters control

Solution parameters. Solution parameters control many aspects of Activity execution. A new solution parameters editor is now available as a tab in the Process editor window (note that parameters can still be edited via the Process editor window or in the Project tree).

Modelling concepts and gPROMS language

Case statements in Initial section. Case statements are now permitted in the Initial section of a Process or Model, to makes it possible to write models with greater generality, provided that that do not contain Switch To or If-Then-Else clauses.
Reassign elementary Task. Until now, Assigned variables could be changed using the Reset elementary Task. A Reassign elementary Task has been introduced in gPROMS v3.3 with exactly the same function (but a more logical name).

Users are encouraged to use the Reassign statement in their models in future. Full backward compatibility is maintained.

See the gPROMS v3.3 release notes for further detail

Execution & solvers

Topology view. ModelBuilder now allows automatic switching to the topology view, and resizes the view to fit the flowsheet in the opened window.
Distribution domain diagnostics. Incorrect specifications of distribution domains are now diagnosed more clearly in order to provide concrete hints on how to correct the specifications.
Memory management. There are significant improvements in the handling and management of the internal memory. These improve performance in long sessions, in particular when many Model Reports or flowsheets with in-line plots are open.
Steady state optimisation. The new SSOptTR solver provides steady-state optimisation of dynamic models. SSOptTR is generally much more robust than existing solvers and can lead to significant reductions in computation time depending on the problem type.

SSOptTR should be considered if the dynamic model does not solve quickly and is not robust when using the STEADY_STATE initial condition, in which case it may be beneficial to perform a dynamic integration to steady state.

SSOptTR handles this numerical technique very efficiently by calculating the sensitivities only where necessary – at the final, steady state point – and offers different options for how to treat re-initialisations during the line search and major steps.

SSOptTR can be applied to continuous and mixed integer optimisation.
Mixed-integer solver enhancements. A new option allows improved initial guesses at each step, based on previous values.

Process Model Library (PML) and physical properties

Flash drum compatibility. Model 'Flash_drum' has been updated to make its energy input interface consistent with other Models in the PML. Note that this change is not backward compatible. See the release notes for details.
Updated models. A number of models were enhanced or issues were fixed:
- Measurement_device: the following new properties can be measured: density, vapour fraction and volume flowrate
- Measurement_device: each measure property now has a choice of units of measurement
- Pipe_simple: the specification dialog now has an advanced option which allows to set the outlet pressure
- Header_gas and Header_liquid: the specification dialogs had implemented the initial conditions incorrectly. This bug has been fixed.
Enhanced model help. As in previous releases, each PML library is fully documented and the guides are available in PDF form from the 'Documentation' start menu group on Windows or from the 'User Guides' subdirectory in the distribution.

The help of the Models in the current PML now contains hyperlinks to the documentation of each library so that the PDF files can directly be accessed from the specification dialogs.
Physical properties – Multiflash® update. Multiflash has been updated to v3.9. For a complete list of changes please refer to the 'Multiflash for Windows' PDF manual in the gPROMS documentation.
Physical properties – CAPE-OPEN. The CAPE-OPEN thermodynamics socket summary and error reports for all CAPE-OPEN related components have been significantly improved.

A workaround has been implemented to properly handle component names from another package. For details of enhancements and fixes please refer to the text document 'README_CAPEOPEN.txt' in the 'bin' directory of your gPROMS installation.

gPROMS Objects

gO:CAPE-OPEN. The summary and error reports for all CAPE-OPEN related components have also been considerably improved. A number of further issues have been fixed, for instance in order to enhance compatibility with other packages and to work around limitations.
Manuals and on-line help. The following guides are currently available in the integrated on-line help:
- gPROMS ModelBuilder Guide. This explains the concepts of Projects, Entities and Activities which are the basic building blocks of flowsheets and simulations.
- Model Developer Guide. This covers more advanced topics and includes a complete description of the gPROMS modelling language. It also provides guidelines on controlling and diagnosing Activities and building dialogs for graphical specification of flowsheets.
- Model Validation Guide. This covers usage and background for both Parameter Estimation and Experiment Design.
- PML Overview. This lists the available models followed by the structure of units, connections and streams. It also explains usage of the graphical specification with dialog boxes. The guides for each of the PML libraries are available in PDF form from the 'Documentation' start menu group on Windows or from the 'User Guides' subdirectory in the distribution. They can also directly be accesses from the Help of a Unit's specification dialog.
- Optimisation Guide. This covers background and application of gPROMS's rigorous optimisation facilities.
- Physical Properties Guide. Physical properties can be calculated by using several available packages such as ideal physical properties, Multiflash, OLI or CAPE-OPEN compliant packages. This guide covers general usage of physical properties as well as individual packages. Complex materials are treated in the section on electrolyte system modelling.
- Foreign Objects and Foreign Processes. This manual explains how external programs can be linked to gPROMS's execution and models.
- gO:Simulink Guide. This guide explains how to construct models and use them in gPROMS's interface to The Mathworks' Simulink.
The on-line help is also available in printable PDF form from the 'Documentation' start menu group on Windows or from the 'User Guides' subdirectory in the distribution.
The following Guides are only available in PDF form and are of interest mainly to software developers who are making use of gPROMS's open interfaces:
- Server Guide. This guide describes how to develop a gPROMS-based application
- System Programmer Guide. This guide covers in detail the programming interfaces for developing custom Foreign Objects, Foreign Processes or Output Channels. The open and standard CAPE-OPEN interfaces to provide custom numerical solvers are described as well.

Notes

gPROMS-based applications. Because ModelBuilder exports the complete language representation to an encrypted file, gPROMS-based applications (gBAs) handle all changes and additions to the gPROMS language completely transparently. Backward compatibility for encrypted files created using older gPROMS versions is ensured.

These and other key new features of gPROMS v3.3 are described in the v3.3 release notes. Detailed information is provided in the updated gPROMS documentation.

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