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Navigation: User Guide ➔ SysCAD Version History ➔ Build 136 Release Notes

Latest SysCAD Version: 25 October 2024 - SysCAD 9.3 Build 139.36522

Introduction

SysCAD 9.3 Build 136 was first released on 12^th November 2015, and is the first major release for SysCAD 9.3.
See Revision History for a full list of improvements and fixes after the first release of Build 136.
See Upgrade to SysCAD 9.3 for a detailed recommended procedure for upgrading projects from SysCAD 9.2 Build 135.

What's New and Changed

Speed Improvements

Improved utilisation of multicore processors giving significant increases in speed for large projects with a lot of controllers, since these are now run in parallel on mulitcore processors. As more multicore processors are available, further speedups will follow - running on an eight core processor (such as the Intel 5970X Haswell) will deliver 80% speedup over running on a four core processor at the same clock speed.

Overall speed gains depend very much on the model, but for a relatively large full plant model with 200 controllers, we have demonstrated a speedup of 35%.

In addition to better parallelisation, and despite extra functionality, there are various enhancements to unit models, solver and general infrastructure to provide further speed improvements.

SysCAD Database Engine

Changed from Microsoft Access to SQLite (www.sqlite.org) databases for project, species and conversion databases. The resulting database files (.db3 file extension) are significantly smaller and support more than 255 columns. MS Access databases can still be used in dynamic projects for archiver reporting.

New Models

Multi-Stage Counter Flow Tie

The new Multi-Stage Counter Flow Tie model allows a gas stream to interact with a slurry stream in a counter current flow. The model is designed to emulate equipment that contacts a Gas stream with either a Liquid or Solid stream in counter-current flow, such as Absorbers, Kilns, Scrubbers, Distillation Columns, etc.

The model may have up to 5 individual stages and each stage may have sub-models enabled, such as Reactions, Environmental Heat Loss, Solubility, etc.

Free Energy Minimisation (FEM) Reactor

The new Free Energy Minimisation (FEM) Reactor model is mainly used for high temperature combustion applications with gaseous species. But it will also work with solid and liquid species if sufficient care is taken when configuring the model, as some knowledge of of possible product species is required to use the model.

Accurate thermophysical data, specific heat, enthalpy and entropy, is required if a species is involved in the Free Energy Minimisation calculations.

Signal Waveform Controller

The dynamic model Controller -- Waveform Controller allows generation of square, sine and saw tooth output values that can optionally directly set a tag. This Controller may be used to simulate process variable variation based on waveform. It can be used to add disturbance to Feeders, pipe outlet capacity and other writeable variables.

Crusher2

The new Crusher2 is a generic crusher model that my be used to replace the original Crusher model. This model implements predictive comminution with a number of open literature correlations.

The model can handle multiple ore streams with different selection and breakage functions and includes optional internal classification to model various closed circuit configurations. It includes all of the features of the original crusher model, as well as the following crusher methods:

Whiten Crusher
Selection Breakage: a number of selection and breakage methods are now available to users.

Hydrocyclone

The new Hydrocyclone may be used to replace the original Cyclone model. It includes all of the features of the original cyclone model, as well as the following methods:

Simple;
Nagaswararao; and
Additional user defined Partition curves.

This model is used to simulate either a single Hydrocyclone, or a cluster of Hydrocyclones. The model is primarily designed to split solids based on size distribution data. The model will calculate the split of solids between the under and over flows based on the cut point (either calculated or defined) and the size distribution of the feed stream.

The Hydrocyclone may also act as a simple splitter, where the solids in the feed to the unit do not have any size distribution data. In this case the user must select Method = 'Simple (non PSD) Models' and set the solids and liquid split to the under and over flow streams.

Reverse Osmosis (RO) Unit

The new Reverse Osmosis model is designed to simulate a reverse osmosis membrane process, often used in water treatment, especially for desalination of sea water.

The user may specify the yield and efficiency of the process, as well as the outlet pressure requirements.

Model Improvements

The Feeder-Cross Page Connector model

The Feeder-Cross Page Connector model has a number of significant display improvements.

The Contents page has been removed, but can be displayed using new option ShowContents.display improvements, including:
The selection of SpModel and Qualities is now made on the first tab page rather than the separate Contents tab page. This greatly simplifies the entering of data with all options in one place on one page.
Other re-arranging of options and results especially on the first tab page.
Greatly improved entry of species composition on the DSp page using new grid.
If species values on DSp page are set by other logic such as feed calculator or solubility data these fields have different background colours to show this dependency.
New "Paste Data From Clipboard" option which can be used to quickly copy and paste composition flows, temperature and pressure from any stream (e.g. Qo, QFeed, QProd, etc.).

The PID model

The PID model has a number of display improvements, including:

Summary tables of the Set-point, Measured and Output values and Proportional Band as well as the Relative Error for all individual PIDs on the first page of the unit;
Each page contains only a single individual PID;
PID numbering for new PID units starts at 1, rather than 0.
Users may delete individual PIDs or move them up/down in list, without having to change their priorities.
Can now specify Relative Tolerance as number of significant digits. If the global tolerance settings are used the values for this are shown in cyan text colour rather than simply showing a "*".

The Set Tag Controller model

The Set Tag Controller model has a number of display improvements, including:

Condition warnings are given when output value is limited by Min or Max range.
A summary table of the Measured and Output values for all individual Controller Blocks on the first page of the unit;
Control block numbering starts at 1, rather than 0.
Users may delete individual control blocks or move them up/down in list.

The General Controller model

PGM (and MP) files can no longer be loaded while the solver is running. If the pgm file is changed while solving or paused then the model gives a condition message showing that a reload is required. The PGM (or MP) is automatically reloaded at next solver start or on next activation of the SysCAD application while the solver is stopped. Refer to General Controller for more information.
Various improvements in PGM language features as described below.
New button "TryFixTags" which can be used to upgrade old tags used in the pgm (or MP) code. When solving the project, SysCAD will report any tags that are recognised as "old" as well as reporting tags that are not found. This new button can be used to get SysCAD to fix these tags rather than having to do this manually. Because of how tags may be constructed in the code it may not find and fix all tags but should replace most. This feature is particularly useful when upgrading projects. NOTE: Although old tags work, the Tag Reference indicators will not be shown so it is recommended that PGM files are upgraded to use the correct short tags.

The Barometric Condenser Model

The Barometric Condenser now allows users to use either the Approach Temperature or the Delta Temperature to control the steam demand to the unit. This is particularly useful for the Potash industry, where the Delta T is the standard method of measuring the Barometric Condenser behaviour.

The Boiler Model

The Boiler model has extra functionality, including:

The user may attach a Hot stream (usually containing hot gases) to the Heat Exchange connections on the Boiler model and the model will remove the required amount of energy from the Hot stream to accomplish the boiler steam conditions.
The user may select between saturated or superheated steam for the final steam conditions.

The General Separator Model

The General Separator model now has a new Density Separation method with different sub-methods that can be used to separate solids based on densities.

The Dynamic Tank Model

Outlet pipe variables and options, including FlowCalc, Capacity Control and Batch, can now be set on the Connect tab page of the Dynamic Tank
New Filters tab page replaces old Filter tab page
Reworked Species-Filter method. Uses can choose to Pass or Block all liquid or solid species, or choose individual species to pass via tickboxes.

Note: As a result of these changes, the "SpeciesFilter" Filter.Method used in SysCAD 9.2 (on the Connect tab page) does not upgrade. If this method was used, you will need to reselect this method and make the appropriate selections.

The Splitter or General Sub-Model

The Splitter or General Sub-Model used in Tie and Tank has three new split operations:

Demand MassFlow - that allows users to set the Demand mass flow from all the streams exiting the unit.
Water Recovery - available when two outlets and allows users to simulate simple Reverse Osmosis unit by splitting off water to targeted stream.
Gas Vent - available when two outlets and allows users to simply split vapours to targeted stream.

The Access window tab page for the Splitter Model has been renamed from 'GM' to 'Split'.

The Precipitator3 (Alumina) Model

The Precipitator model now works in Dynamic Operation. This allows modelling of batch or transient events. Configuring a dynamic model will generally require a lot more consideration of control issues. A typical scenario might involve filling a tank over a period of time, running at steady state conditions, stopping the feed (and outflow) to run as a batch precipitation, then draining the tank. Precipitation and particle size changing will still occur even with no feed or product flows (though this may be disabled). Not all ProBal options are supported in Dynamic, but embedded cooling is available. External cooling and classification are not available at this stage.
Improved visibility and flexibility for convergence criteria. In some cases Build 135 projects using PSD method can stop (get stuck) before being correctly converged, in Build 136 this issue has been resolved.
New option GrowthAsDeposition to control if growth rate refers to diameter or radius. Build 135 assumed GrowthAsDeposition.
New option for Oxalate precipitation. To avoid oxalate buildup in circuits, the new Hydrocyclone and General Separator models allow particular solids to be handled differently.
For PSD method, new options for including/excluding other solids in PSD calculations.

The Noise Controller Model

The Noise Controller (NC) model used in dynamic projects has a number of display improvements, including:

A summary of the Action, Output and DevFrac for all individual noise controller (NC) on the first page of the unit.
NC numbering for new units starts at 1, rather than 0.
Users may delete individual NCs or move them up/down in list.

The Noise Controller (NC) model has a number of functionality improvements, including:

New methods for setting the frequency at which random numbers are generated.
One specification of Frequency Method is now applied to ALL individual NCs.
The On checkbox has been replaced with an Action droplist which gives flexibility with new options for setting the output tag when the random noise generation is off. This simplifies configuration significantly by removing the past requirement of needing a separate pgm setting the output tag when the NC was off.
New method for setting the deviation as a value or fraction.

Important Project Upgrade Note: Because the FreqMethod now applies to all individual NCs and the new Action option replacing On checkbox, the configuration of the model needs checking. User may need to split the model into multiple models if different frequencies are required. At project upgrade there is a "Configuration Checked" button that prevents model from solving until user has manually confirmed that they have checked the configuration.

The Set Tag List Model

Tickboxes for when the tags are to be set have been replaced by a dropdown list which includes two new options:

Prestart - This will set the tags into SysCAD before the OnInitialise stage, which occurs before it solves. This is similar to the set tag list model which is part of the Plant Model.
Startup (Late) - This will set the tags into SysCAD at the end of the first iteration of SysCAD solve.

Users can insert comment lines within their set tag list by starting the line with a semi-colon (;), similar to PGMs. This also applies to Get Tag List Model.

The Environmental Heat Exchanger (EHX) Sub-Model

The Environmental Heat Exchanger (EHX) sub-model has three new methods:

Temp Change: Replaces the old Temp Drop method. User specifies the required temperature change, either a rise (positive number) or a drop (negative number).
Loss to Ambient3 : Simplified loss to ambient method which requires the user to specify a single heat loss factor. User can choose reference temperature to be the feed or product temperature.
SuperHeat Loss : User can lose some of the superheat of a stream by specifying the approach temperature to the saturation temperature. An approach of zero equates to the saturation temperature.

Some new options have been added to the existing methods:

Loss to Ambient2 : The user now has the choice of reference temperature, the feed or product temperature.
Fixed Heat Flow : The user can now impose temperature limits which can restrict the amount of heat added or removed. Limits can be set on the temperature drop or rise, or alternatively, minimum and maximum product temperatures can be set.

Other Model Improvements and Changes

Various improvements in short and long tag naming and consistency in different models. See SysCAD 9.3 Tag Changes for full details.
Implemented auto-upgrading of old tags in controllers and trends when upgrading projects.
Implemented tag upgrading feature in Excel reports and PGM/MP that can be selected by user to check and upgrade tags in these external files.
Control models that have multiple models now have a Summary table on the first tab page, and numbering of multiple models now starts at 1 rather than 0. A unique name can be specified for each of the individual models. The affected controller models are PID Controller, Set Tag Controller, Noise Controller, Profile Controller, General Statistics, Flow Statistics, Scheduled Events and Downtime.
Users may now Copy and Paste data from Streams (example Qi, Qo, QFeed, QProd, etc.) to Feeders using the new Copy Data and Paste from Clipboard buttons on the Pipe and Feeder units. This is an ideal and quick way to setup a feeder with a copy of data from in a flowsheet. Stream data can be copied from streams in different projects.

Species Database and Configuration Files Improved

Configuration Editor

Species data that is used in a project is now available from 2 sources:
- The user Project Species Database - this is still available for the user to add their own species, import data, etc.
- Thermodynamic and physical data for a number of species is 'Hardwired' into SysCAD.
The user may choose to use data from either of these sources when editing the Project configuration file.
Double clicking on a species in the Configuration Editor will open the Species Database at that species. This is a quick way to access and review any species in the Species Database. Please note that if the user double clicked on a species in SysCAD 9.2 it added that species to the configuration editor - this functionality is no longer valid in SysCAD 9.3.
New tab pages for each phase showing a summary of properties used for each species.
The dialog for creating new cfg files (or making copies of existing cfg files) has a number of new options to select solver mode and some groups of models.

Species Database

The actual layout of the Species Database has been updated and streamlined to make it simpler to add species and for the user to quickly see the source of the thermophysical data for each species.
There are now separate fields for the Short Name and Component name of a species. This allows the user to set these to be different to each other which gives better control for grouping of components.
There are more equations to choose from for most of the thermodynamic and physical properties.
Implemented new properties for Charge (part of Species Definition), Viscosity and Thermal Conductivity.
Users may also add a text 'Warning' for each species. This will be displayed once when the project is loaded, and can serve as a reminder if data is missing or has been estimated or copied from a questionable source.
Users may add multiple solubility curves for a single aqueous species, each of which may have different paired species. Please see Solubility Functions

Species Properties ($SDB) Page

New FS_SDB tab shows counts of species, elements and components in project.
Additional columns added to Definition tab for Charge and Equivalent Weight.
New Properties tab shows source of each property for each species.
Elements are now sorted alphabetically on the Elements tab.
New Components tab shows list of components (sorted alphabetically), with their elemental definitions and molecular weights.

Stream Properties

User Interface Improvements

Switching the visibility of groups of properties on and off can now be conveniently managed with the new "View Properties" button on first page of streams (Qi, Qo, QFeed, QProd, etc.).
New Charge group of display properties that can be optionally displayed.
New Water Quality group of display properties that can be optionally displayed. This includes parameters such as hardness, alkalinity and oxygen demand.
Users may now Copy and Paste data from Streams (example Qi, Qo, QFeed, QProd, etc.) to Feeders using the new Copy Data and Paste from Clipboard buttons on the Pipe and Feeder units. This is an ideal and quick way to setup a feeder with a copy of data from in a flowsheet. Stream data can be copied from streams in different projects.

Functionality Improvements

New optional display for Charge of a stream. The user can now specify the charge of species as part of the definition in the species database.
On Sp page, new View option to display Molality of aqueous species.
On Sp page, new View option to display the equivalent concentration based on calculated equivalent weight, only relevant for charged species.
For display of stream Elemental and Component data, the option to select Basis has been added. For Component data there are new View options "Mole Conc" and "Mole Conc25".
The Standard Species model equations and options for Viscosity have been improved.
The Standard Species model equations and options for Thermal Conductivity have been improved.
The Alumina3 Species model has new Alexandrov Viscosity method.
The Alumina3 Species model has new display for Molality that is also used in new alternate of Dewey BPE equation.
The display of Hz in Alumina3 streams has been corrected. A Hz balance for a unit can now be checked as described in Calculating Energy Balance. For Alumina properties in SysCAD 9.2 Hs and Hz were always equal when they should be different when accounting for phase change for a species.

User interface

New Species Grid View

The Species page of all streams now has the ability to display multiple columns. Please see Species Flow Section.

To copy tags from tables, users must use CTRL+T in the required column. CTRL+C will not copy a tag from a table, it will copy its value.
The first column is mandatory and for streams displays the mass flow of the species.
The subsequent columns can be changed to display fractional flows, concentrations, etc.
Users may change the number of columns displayed on this page.
Users may display species short (chemical formula) or long species tags independently of the general display of long and short tags.
Similarly to streams there are new grid views for the Image Composition (e.g. DSp in feeders) and surge Contents (e.g. dynamic project Tank contents).

New Elemental and Component Page View

The Elemental and Component flows are now displayed in a grid on a separate page to the species. Please see Species Flow Section.

The user may turn this "EC" page on or off.
This page allows the user to display multiple columns with elemental and/or component mass flow, fractions, etc.
Added new Basis option for Elemental and Component displays.
Elements and Components are now sorted alphabetically.

New 'Find'

In addition to "Quick Find" which is similar to the find tag functionality in 9.2, a new "Find" functionality now uses an SQL type select query to return a list of tags meeting the user defined query criteria. The SQL style select query is the same as the existing Excel TagSelect report.

The Quick Find works in the same way as the Find Tag in SysCAD 9.2.
However, the user now has the ability to add criteria to the Find command to achieve objectives such as 'Find all pipes with Temperature above 120C' or 'Find all models with EHX'.
The results of "Quick Find" and "Find" may be filtered in a number of ways - by Graphics, UnitType as well as by the tag.

New Archive File Editor

The new Archive Editor assists the user in defining the user requirements for the Archive Reporter in a text (sac) file.

Similar to the Reaction Editor, used instead of a text editor such as Notepad
Prevents user from getting syntax incorrect in sac file
Automatically renumbers fields when adding, removing or reordering of fields is required
Groups tables with similar reporting options together, preventing duplication
Contains dropdown lists of possible options
Unlike Reaction Editor, it is contained within SysCAD and is launched from the Project Settings dialogue box

Graphics Improvements and Changes

New status display colour for unit models that are off. Can now easily see what models are off on a page.
Move Graphics using the Arrow keys - Can now use the arrow keys to move graphics using various graphics commands including Move, Tag Position, Insert Unit, Insert Text and Insert Symbol. This helps when aligning units and generally organising graphics flowsheets.
Scale/Rotate using the Arrow keys - When used with the Control key, the arrows keys can be used to Scale or Rotate the selected graphics when using either the Move or Scale/Rotate commands.
The Graphics now have a Secondary highlight colour, which shows the source and destination units when Redrawing Links or accessing a Temporary Quick View via a left mouse click. It also highlights the units where PID and General Controller controlled and referenced variables and Quick Find variables are located. The Secondary highlight colour can be chosen on the General Options Colours page.
The Insert Unit command now has 2 groups for the Control Units. The 3 most commonly used control units: General Controller, PID and Set Tag Controller are in the Control group, while all other controllers are in the Control 2 group.

Excel Reports

New "Check Tags" button on Excel Reports dialog that reports on new feedback worksheet "CheckTag Errs" any old tags found that need upgrading as well as reporting any model tags (e.g. Pipes, Units, Controllers) that are not found. Also available is a "Check and Fix Tags" function that takes the additional step of correcting the "old" tags found in the spreadsheet.
Can access full number of rows and columns supported by different Excel file formats (e.g. "Excel 97-2003 Workbook .xls" and "Excel Workbook .xlsx"). So now the limit of 256 columns and 65,536 rows no longer applies when using newer Excel file format. New error messages given if report area exceeds maximum rows or columns.
With a TagSelect when trying to report by page, can use generic Page1, Page2, etc. rather then the actual page name. For example: Select [Graphic] == "Page1" . The parsing of SQL type select statements has been improved.
The Excel Reports dialog has been improved. There are separate tab pages for "Export Reports" and "Trend Reports" which simplifies the list by removing the Type column giving more space to display the report file folder.

Re-organised General Options

The Tools | General Options dialog has been re-organised significantly with a number of additional tab pages.
Clearer distinction between global user settings (saved in BaseFilesUser) and project settings.
More of the global user settings can be changed before loading a project.
Trend page options have been simplified significantly and moved from separate dialog for each Trend page to General Options.
Graphics Colours re-arranged including new Off and Secondary highlight status colours. Removed or combined some rarely used status colours.
New option to Apply Tag Changes in CSV and TXT files. Similar to existing option to Apply Tag Changes in PGM files. Refer to General Options Project.

Message Window

Implemented new Species Database tab page in Message Window where all errors, warnings and information related to loading the species database for a project are displayed. This simplifies the main message window when loading a project.
Implemented Ctrl+C to quickly copy messages to clipboard.
Improved double click jump to action where source column is not a tag to (a) check if source column is a window; and/or (b) look for a tag within the message string.
Simplified and improved context popup menu
Removed the popup dialog version of the message window, instead the normal message window is forced to front of other windows.

Access Window

Increased use of tables in Access Windows. To copy tags from tables, users must use CTRL+T in the required column. CTRL+C will not copy a tag from a table, it will copy its value.
Improved and reworked buttons at top of Access Window. Simplified popup menu under Options button.
Improved scroll actions and implemented scroll short cut keys.
Added Data Transfer to the access window variable right click pop up menu, only available if the variable is a writeable field.
Added Open Find Results to the access window variable right click pop up menu, this will perform a search on the currently selected variable and display the results on the screen. Useful searches include: finding unit models with Sub models switched on, such as Reactions, VLE, Model Procedures and so on. This option can also be access via Find Units using Query. Please see How to search the project... for more information.
New functionality to open referenced tags in other Access window using the Shift key when clicking in Find or Access buttons. See Selection Buttons and short cut keys
Status Indicators now displayed in small rectangle area to left of each field, including fields in grids.
Input fields that are set by external controller tags are now shown with a yellow background to indicate an external model is setting this input. See Status Colour
Increased use and look of grids in models. Grids have improved functionality such as ability to hide/show rows and columns.
New option to use "Excel Style Editing" when entering data in input fields in Access window and Trend pages. This can be set under the Options button at top of Access window or in General Options Access tab page.
New option for using Enter key as short cut for OK button. This can be set in General Options Access tab page.
New tooltip while hovering over value in access window shows SysCAD tag and any referenced tags. Option to also show current value as part of this tooltip. This can be set in General Options Access tab page.

Trend Window

Improved and simplified options which are now shown in General Options on the Trends page.
For Steady State ProBal projects zooming in and out for trends has been improved. The display on horizontal axis as iteration count has been implemented.

OPC

SysCAD Marshal improvements including improved support for SQLite OPC tag lists and display of SysCAD AppState in Marshal status bar.
OPC Server and SysCAD Marshal include new functionality to always synchronise OPC tags mapped to $Solver.AppState and $Solver.AppState.Desc even when SysCAD solver is stopped.
OPC Server improvements including improved browsing for OPC tags and new functionality to define list of Alais tag lookups.

Miscellaneous

Updated the general look to use "windows Aero style" for dialogs, buttons, controls and buttons.
Rearranged (simplified) SysCAD File menu - all the project open/close/save options are first in the file menu. Also other minor changes to other menus and toolbar buttons. See Menu Commands.
Minor changes and additions to Shortcut Keys.
Copy and paste improvements including better copying of configuration data (all data for some 9.2 models was not always copied).
Improved how graphics flowsheet pages are sorted and listed in Plant Model - Flowsheets page.
At start of project load there are additional tests of model UnitTypes used in the project against the cfg file used and against license options. Any issues are reported immediately before proceeding to try load the project.

Solver Improvements

New Solver Settings Access window which is a combination of the old ProBal Configuration, Dynamic Configuration, Tear Block and Tolerances pages as well as parts of old Plant Model pages.
Significant speed improvements with improved use of multiple cores by the solver. See new setting ControlThreading and updated setting SolverThreadsRequired on first tab page for Solver Settings.
Added more detailed SysCAD application State tags to the Solver Settings. The current State is also shown in the status bar. These new tags allow dynamic projects connected with OPC through Marshal to see the status of SysCAD, even when the SysCAD solver is stopped. For example, an OPC Server can use the AppState Tag to determine if the state is "Ready" before sending a command to start the SysCAD Solver.
Improved reporting of solver speed, timers and related statistics in Plant Model on the Statistics tab page. For dynamic projects this includes reporting of loading and idle time for real time projects.
Implemented new Convergence page for Solver Settings that provides detailed breakdown of solver criteria and status of convergence. In ProBal this gives summary status for PIDs, Pipe Tears and Flash Trains (in dynamic there are only Pipe Tears).
Significant improvements in Tears:
- Relative Tolerances for Tears can now be set as number of Significant Digits.
- Implemented some simplification and clarification of options for Tears.
- Improved display and settings for Global Tear.
- Inactive Tear streams (for example when some pages are inactive) results are cleared and shown as inactive in Tears and TbFlange.
- Improved display of summary of status and settings of all Tear streams, shown on Tears page for Solver_Settings.
- Improved displays of individual Tear Blocks TbFlange.
For Dynamic projects removed iteration delay when setting flowrate capacities in tank outlet pipes. User can set capacity in the tank or the pipe. Improved solver efficiency (speed) for calculating required flows in push and pull local networks.
For Steady State ProBal projects there is a powerful new Analysis functionality that can be switched on with "Trace.On" on the Analysis tab page for Solver Settings. This can be used to track what is changing, noisy and/or furtherest from convergence. In the past only the problem Tear stream or PID was shown, now the source of "errors" in any unit/pipe can be analysed.

Controller PGM (and MP) Improvements

New option to define a list of constant integer variables for use in a PGM - see Declaring Integer variables using Enum.
New option to define Drop Down Lists for use in a PGM - see Declaring a Drop Down List and Declaring an Enum Drop Down List.
New option to assign an initial value when declaring a variable. Please see Declaring variables with Initial Value.
New option to exclude variable or class from being saved. Useful for Matrix or Array that is loaded from csv file.
Have added new functionality to the Array class that allows users to declare an array of constant values and also simplifies the syntax of getting and setting values in the array. Please see Array Class.
Have added new and simpler syntax for getting and setting tags in SysCAD. Please see Tag Functions.
New concatenate string function Concatenate and original strcat() function can have any number of parameters.
Can define procedures using Sub and EndSub. Please see Defining a Subroutine.
Expanded Species Database Class (SDB) class functions.
New Tag Select Class for retrieving a list of model tags meeting a SQL type select query. (Same as TagSelect Excel report.)
New Trigger Subroutines to allow setting of tags and options during initialisation and on termination in PGMs (not relevant for MPs)
New Plant Model Class for retrieving global variables available in the Plant Model. Usable in PGM and MP files.

Reaction improvements

Reactions can now specify the source list of species as a Source Only, Recycle Only or Source and Recycle.
Improved SysCAD Reaction Editor. SysCAD 9.3 requires Reaction Editor version 1.2. The new Reaction Editor can be used with SysCAD 9.2 and SysCAD 9.3.

For 9.3 reactions, it supports new options for specifying Source species.
For 9.3 reactions, it can perform a charge balance on the reaction.

Size Distribution Improvements

Improved management of Particle Size Distribution (PSD) definition in configuration editor. No longer separate definition of Size Distribution and Sieve Series.
New tags in Plant Model for PSD Quality to give tag access to configuration and options.
New methods for definition of size distribution on the DSz page of a feeder, Modified Rosin-Rammler and Lynch.
Improved Access window (Sz tab page), however display of graphs removed.
Two new defined measurements available, Average Particle Diameter (APD) and Spread. Refer to Size Configuration for more details.

Licensing

Upgraded to use latest Crypkey Version 8.
Updated license utility (syscad.exe) to version 3.0 that uses Crypkey 8.
Improved License Authorisation dialog to display current license state and added a Copy to Clipboard button for easy transfer of Site Code and related information to email.
Network licenses include a new TCPIP option.

Discontinued Models

Alumina1 library (DLL) with Generic Bayer Species Model and Precipitation Model are no longer included with standard SysCAD 9.3 install. These models are no longer supported and projects should be converted to use Alumina3. A SysCAD 9.3 version of Alumina1 is available on request for project conversion purposes.

"Under the Hood" Changes

The SysCAD application and program files are Code Signed providing better security.
Compiled with Microsoft C++ 2013 making use of new features in VS2013, Standard Libraries and ISO C++11.
Changed to using SQLite rather than MS Access databases. Using a modern SQL database which is faster and more robust data access with significantly smaller database files.
Improved reorganisation of unit models into more logical libraries (DLLs). This can be seen in configuration editor.
Significantly enhanced SMDK (SysCAD Model Developers Kit). New capability to write quality models. Significantly enhanced list of helper classes and new methods for existing classes.
Improvement in memory management and use, especially in relation to Access windows. Note reduced memory footprint of solved project in 136 vs 135.
Significant improvements in underlying definition, formatting and management of Access windows. Number of allowed fields, tab pages and table sizes increased substantially.
Various general and solver speed improvements.
Various underlying code improvements, enhancements and modernisation.

Tutorial

New Tutorial documentation and videos. With the emphasis on self-learning there are now a number of videos on You Tube that tie in with the SysCAD Tutorial. Please see Tutorial in the Help documentation.

Examples

Example Projects distributed with SysCAD have been re-organised into different folders.
SysCAD 9.2 examples have been upgraded and improved to make use of new features.
There are a number of new example projects.

Upgrading Build 135 Projects

For detailed instructions for upgrading SysCAD 9.2 Build 135 projects see Upgrade to SysCAD 9.3.

Previous SysCAD 9.2 Releases

Build 135 was the fifth official release for SysCAD 9.2 (1^th February 2013). See Build 135 Release Notes and Revision History.
Build 134 was the fourth official release for SysCAD 9.2 (16^th December 2011). See Build 134 Release Notes and Revision History.
Build 133 was the third official release of SysCAD 9.2 (24^th January 2011). See Build 133 Release Notes and Revision History.
Build 132 was the second official release of SysCAD 9.2 (26^th March 2010). See Build 132 Release Notes and Revision History.
Build 131 was the first official release of SysCAD 9.2 (31^st July 2009). For notes on upgrading SysCAD projects from 9.1 to 9.2 see Upgrade to SysCAD 9.2. See SysCAD 9.2 Release Notes and Revision History.

Build 136 Release Notes