Related Documentation

Title Content

Aspen Plus Getting Started Building and Tutorials covering basic use of
Running a Process Model Aspen Plus. A prerequisite for the
other Getting Started guides
Aspen Plus Getting Started Modeling Tutorials covering the Aspen plus
Processes with Solids features designed to handle solids
Aspen Plus Getting Started Modeling Tutorials covering the Aspen plus
Processes with Electrolytes features designed to handle
electrolytes
Aspen Plus Getting Started Using Equation- Tutorials covering the use of
Oriented Modeling equation-oriented models in Aspen
Plus
Aspen Plus Getting Started Customizing Unit Tutorials covering the development
Operation Models of custom unit operation models in
Aspen Plus
Aspen Plus System Management Reference Information about customizing files
Manual provided with Aspen Plus
Aspen Plus Summary File Toolkit Reference Information about the Summary File
Manual Toolkit, a library designed to read
Aspen Plus summary files.
Aspen Plus Input Language Guide Reference Syntax and keyword meanings for
Manual the Aspen Plus input language, and
accessible variables.
OOMF Script Language Reference Manual Syntax and command meanings for
the OOMF Script language
APrSystem Physical Property Methods and Information about property methods
Physical Property Models Reference Manuals and property models
Aspen Plus Application Examples A suite of examples illustrating
capabilities of Aspen Plus
Aspen Engineering Suite Installation Manual Instructions for installing Aspen Plus
and other Aspen Engineering Suite
products

4 Introducing Aspen Plus

 Technical Support
AspenTech customers with a valid license and software maintenance
agreement can register to access the online AspenTech Support Center at:
http://support.aspentech.com
This Web support site allows you to:
 Access current product documentation
 Search for tech tips, solutions and frequently asked questions (FAQs)
 Search for and download application examples
 Search for and download service packs and product updates
 Submit and track technical issues
 Send suggestions
 Report product defects
 Review lists of known deficiencies and defects
Registered users can also subscribe to our Technical Support e-Bulletins.
These e-Bulletins are used to alert users to important technical support
information such as:
 Technical advisories
 Product updates and releases
Customer support is also available by phone, fax, and email. The most up-to-
date contact information is available at the AspenTech Support Center at
http://support.aspentech.com.

Introducing Aspen Plus 5

6 Introducing Aspen Plus
1 Writing and Using User
Models

Aspen Plus provides several methods for creating customized models:

Method Reference

Fortran See Fortran User Models in this chapter.

Excel See Chapter 5 for Excel unit operation models.
See the chapter "Calculator Blocks and In-line Fortran" in
the Aspen Plus User Guide for Excel Calculator blocks.
COM Models based on the See Chapter 26.
CAPE-OPEN standard
Aspen Custom Modeler See ACM documentation.

1 Writing and Using User Models 7

 Fortran User Models
This section describes how to write and compile Fortran user models, and how
to specify the location of the Fortran user models to use during Aspen Plus
runs.
An Aspen Plus Fortran user model consists of one or more subroutines that
you write yourself to extend the capabilities of Aspen Plus. You can write six
kinds of Fortran user models for use in Aspen Plus:
 User unit operation models.
 User physical property models for calculating the various major,
subordinate, and intermediate physical properties.
 User models for sizing and costing.
 User models for special stream properties.
 User stream reports.
 User models for performing various types of calculations within Aspen Plus
unit operation models.
Examples of calculations that Fortran user models perform within Aspen Plus
unit operation models include:
 Reaction rates.
 Heat transfer rates/coefficients.
 Pressure drop.
 Liquid-liquid distribution coefficients.
Fortran user models can call:
 Aspen Plus utility routines to perform flash and physical property
calculations.
 The Aspen Plus error handler to report errors in calculations.
Chapters 2 through 4 in this manual describe the Aspen Plus subroutines that
Fortran user models can call. All chapters in this manual describe the proper
argument list you need to declare in your subroutines to interface your user
model to Aspen Plus. The Argument List Descriptions describe the input
and/or output variables to the subroutines.
Throughout this chapter, the term “shared library” will be used in place of the
platform-specific term “DLL” (Windows).

8 1 Writing and Using User Models

 Moving to the Intel Fortran Compiler
Aspen Plus V8.0 is based on the Intel Fortran compiler XE 2011 (version 12)
and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. This is a change from version V7.3 and
earlier versions of Aspen Plus, which used Intel Fortran compiler 9.1 instead,
and versions 2004.1 and earlier, which used the no-longer-available Compaq
Visual Fortran.
It is possible to continue using Compaq Visual Fortran with Aspen Plus, with
certain limitations. See the following section for information on how to
configure Aspen Plus to use this compiler, and the text immediately below for
details on these limitations.
If you used the Compaq Visual Fortran compiler previously, please be aware
of the following issues in upgrading Aspen Plus and/or the Intel Fortran
compiler:
 Object files (.OBJ) and static libraries are not compatible between Compaq
and Intel compilers. If you move to the Intel compiler you will need to
recompile any object files from their source code using the new compiler.
 Use DLLs (dynamic or export libraries) for maximum compatibility
between code compiled with different compilers.
 READs and WRITEs to Fortran I/O units opened by code compiled by a
different compiler will not work. Aspen Plus opens its pre-defined units
(such as the history file and the control panel) using the Intel compiler, so
any code compiled by the Compaq compiler will no longer be able to write
to these units. See Compiler-Compatible Write Statements, below.
 The symbolic debugger will only work if Aspen Plus and the user Fortran
code are compiled with the same version of the compiler.

Note: The above issues may apply if you are using Intel Fortran version 11 or
earlier, but the READ and WRITE statements will work in this case.

Configuring Aspen Plus for Your Fortran

Compiler
The Intel Fortran compiler depends on an external package, such as Microsoft
Visual Studio, to provide some capabilities, such as linking. As a result, there
are multiple configurations possible on user machines even with the same
version of Intel Fortran.
Microsoft's free development tool, Visual C++ Express Edition (2005 or later),
includes a linker which will work. The Microsoft Platform SDK is not required
for Aspen Plus usage. Installing the latest service pack is recommended.
Information about Visual C++ Express Edition and service packs can be found
at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/downloads/default.aspx
If you have trouble downloading the product using the web installation, try
the manual installation of Express Editions from
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/support/install/

1 Writing and Using User Models 9

 Aspen Plus provides a utility to allow you to specify the combination of
compiler and linker you want to use. This utility sets certain environment
variables so that the scripts mentioned in this manual and Aspen Plus will use
the tools you specify to compile and link Fortran. The utility runs after your
reboot when you first install Aspen Plus. If you need to run it at any other
time, you can find it under the Start menu under Programs | AspenTech |
Process Modeling <version> | Aspen Plus | Select Compiler for Aspen
Plus.
The utility will present a list of options for different compiler configurations
you might be using. In addition, there is a User option which allows you to
set the environment variables yourself. Below this, it displays the current
compiler settings, which come from three sources:
 HKEY_CURRENT_USER, registry settings for the currently logged-in user
 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, registry settings that apply to all users who have
not specified user settings
 A value from the Aspen Plus installation that is used if nothing else has
been specified.
The utility then allows you to set the options for HKEY_CURRENT_USER and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Note that you must be an administrator on the
computer to set options for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
If Aspen Plus or an Aspen Plus Simulation Engine window is running when you
set these options, your changes may not be applied in the already-running
programs. Close them and restart to ensure your new settings are used.
The settings specified by this utility are version-specific and will only affect
the version of Aspen Plus under which you ran the utility.

Note: In addition to these settings, users on non-English versions of Windows

have reported the need to set the language in Microsoft Visual Studio to
English instead of Use Windows default.

Custom Compiler Settings

If you choose the User option in the utility, you will need to set the INCLUDE,
LIB, PATH, and USE_COMPAQ_FORTRAN environment variables yourself. The
commands in the configuration file listed below illustrate how these should be
set.
The list of compiler options displayed by the utility and the actions taken for
each can be found in the Compilers.cfg file in the Engine\Xeq folder of the
APrSystem installation. You can add additional configurations to this file, if
desired, and the utility will display them as additional options.

Compiler-Compatible Write Statements

WRITE statements writing to Fortran unit numbers for files opened by Aspen
Plus will not work correctly if the user Fortran is compiled by a different
compiler than Aspen Plus. (You may find the output from these statements in
files named fort.## where ## is the unit number.) Instead, you should use
the Aspen Plus function DMS_WRTALN to write to these files.

10 1 Writing and Using User Models