FAQs

his section attempts to answer the most commonly asked questions on the use of the program.

General

Getting data into other programs

Configuring the program

General

1. How can I obtain the software?

The software is available free of charge to members of our industrial funding consortium as one of the major benefits. Educational versions with limited functionality may be supplied to selected institutions for a reduced cost. Prices and eligibility are available on application.

2. How can I search and print the online help?

It is not possible to search an print from the online help. To overcome this we have provided the help text source which can be viewed using your web browser. The help text source is supplied on the CD-ROM in the directory CPI\DOCS

3. Why do all the menu items become inactive or "grey"?

Whenever the graphics window is active, the main menu bar becomes inactive until the graphics window is closed with the Exit menu option. This status is indicated by a red Graphics window active message in the program's status bar. If the graphics window is not visible, you must return to it (e.g. by pressing Alt+Tab to cycle through active applications) and close it down before the main menu is reactivated.

If the graphics window is closed other than by using the Exit menu option, (e.g. by pressing Alt+F4) it will be necessary to exit the program and restart. (You will be prompted to save any changes to your data file). To prevent this occurrence, always close the graphics window using the Exit menu option.

4. Why is the program running in demonstration mode?

If you have a licensed version of the software, and it appears to be running in demonstration mode, your Key File is out of date. Contact us for an updated password to generate a new key file.

5. Why is the Y axis title on graph corrupt?

Either the font file SIMPLEXR.CHR is missing. - Ensure that the entry in File/Preferences/Filepath/Path to Font File is pointing to the location of the file. By default this should be set to C: \CPI\SIMPLEXR.CHR

Previous to version 1.5a it might be due to the full path to this file contains spaces - The filepath "C:\program files\CPI\SIMPLEXR.CHR" would be invalid as it contains spaces.

Top of page

Getting data into other programs

1. How do I get Stream Data to/from a spreadsheet package?

To copy stream data from the Stream Data Editor select Edit/Copy Sheet from the Stream Data Editor menu. Open your spreadsheet and select Edit/Paste from the menu. If your spreadsheet does not have this menu option, try pressing Shift+Insert, or Ctrl+V instead.

To copy stream data from a spreadsheet to the Stream Data Editor, drag-select a rectangle around the stream data and select Edit/Copy or Ctrl+C. In the Stream Data Editor select Edit/Paste Sheet, and the data will be pasted into the editor. (Note that any existing data in the Editor will be deleted). The format of the stream data in the spreadsheet must be the same as in the Stream Data Editor, i.e. the columns must be in the following order:

Stream number (segments of the same stream have the same stream number)
Stream name
Supply temperature (TS)
Target temperature (TT)
Enthalpy change (dH)
Heat capacity (Cp)

In addition, the following values are optional:

Film Heat Transfer Coefficient (HTC)
Local dT contribution (dT)

Note that:

If the dT contribution is required, the Film Heat Transfer must be present.
Any line containing invalid data will be ignored such as title or units text.
The data is stored on the clipboard as TAB (ASCII char(9)) delimited text.
Unit conversion information is NOT utilised in the transfer process. It is important to make sure that the same units are used in both programs.

2. How do I get the program results into my report?

All reports produced by the software are displayed using a common report window. From here it is possible to print out the data, or copy it to other applications.

All text output from the program is passed into this common output system.

There may be more text than is currently visible. This can be accessed by moving the scroll bar on the right of the window.

To print the text press the Print button. This will invoke the default Windows printer dialogue box where additional printer information can be found.

Some facilities have been provided to enable the user to copy the text information directly into another application:

The user can highlight an area of the text using the normal drag- select function of the mouse. Pressing Ctrl+C (Copy) or Option/Copy from the window's menu copies the highlighted area to the Windows clipboard.
If the whole text is required then Option/Copy All from the menu will copy the entire contents of the window to the clipboard. This can be included in another application by switching to that application and pressing Ctrl+V (Paste).
If the contents of the window are required to be saved for future reference then using Option/Save As will prompt the user for a data filename which will be used to store the information.
If the contents of the window are required to be saved including any addition titles and format information, for future reference then using Option/Report to File will prompt the user for a data filename which will be used to store the information.

Normally the standard report window is for output only. It is possible to edit the information in the report window before printing. To make the report window modifiable set the option from the main window File/Preferences/General/Editable reports. If this box is checked then the user will be able to modify the text in the report window.

This output system has limit functionality. The user can always use the Option/Copy to File to create a copy of the report text and use another editor to examine the entire report.

3. How do I get the program XY graphics into my report?

At a basic level, the contents of the graphics window can be pasted into another application using the following method:

With the graphics window active, press the Alt+Print Screen keys together. This creates a copy of the image on the Windows clipboard.
Switch to your required application and select Edit/Paste from the menu to paste the image into your document. If your application does not have this menu option, try pressing Shift+Insert, or Ctrl+V instead.

A more flexible method is to save the graphics image as a file. This file can then be edited using standard graphics packages (e.g. to add annotations), before being included in your report. Use the following methods

Select File/Preferences from the main menu.
Check the Print graphics to file check box, under Graphics Options.
Click the Hardware tab and make sure you have Windows Printer selected as your printer type. If not change it.
Display the required graph, using the appropriate menu items, and select Print from the menu. You will be asked to type in a file name for the image.

The image will be saved as a Windows Metafile (.WMF). This is a standard Windows graphics file format which can be edited in a wide variety of graphics packages, or imported straight into your required application.

4. How do I get the program PFD graphics into my report?

At a basic level, the contents of the graphics window can be pasted into another application using the following method:

With the graphics window active, press the Alt+Print Screen keys together. This creates a copy of the image on the Windows clipboard.
Switch to your required application and select Edit/Paste from the menu to paste the image into your document. If your application does not have this menu option, try pressing Shift+Insert, or Ctrl+V instead.

A more flexible method is to save the graphics image to the windows clipboard. This file can then be edited using standard graphics packages (e.g. to add annotations), before being included in your report. Use the following methods

With the graphics window active, press the Ctrl+C. This creates a copy of the image on the Windows clipboard.
Switch to your required application and select Edit/Paste from the menu to paste the image into your document. If your application does not have this menu option, try pressing Shift+Insert, or Ctrl+V instead.

Top of page

Configuring the program

1. How do I configure the program to work with my printer?

By default the software is configured to use the printer you have specified in Windows Control Panel, and there should be no problems printing either reports or graphics. The printing settings (e.g. page size, orientation etc.) specified in Control Panel will be used.

If you are having problems printing graphics, it is possible to reconfigure the program to use an internal printer driver:

Select File/Preferences from the main menu.
Click the Hardware tab and change Graphics Printer type to your printer type.

NOTE: If you change the graphics printer type from Windows Printer, and you want to print to a network printer, you must set your Windows configuration to capture your local printer port to the network printer queue. See your Windows documentation for details.

2. How do I change the colours on graphs and diagrams?

Select File/Preferences from the main menu.
Click the Colours tab and change the colours to suit.

This sheet is used to specify the colour attributes for the various elements of the graphics displays.

To modify an option, select the desired entry and double click the left mouse button. This will activate a selection window where the options for each entry are available. To select an entry double click it.

By temporarily selecting a colour of white for an element, it can be effectively removed from the graph.

Top of page

For further information contact the software team.

* Available soon

This website will look much better in a web browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.