Below are answers to the most commonly asked questions from our Educational users. If you have any other questions or would like additional information please get in touch at eduinfo@SIMUL8.com.
Is there any form of users network?
Yes there is an online user forum. This means a wide audience can participate. The café is not moderated. No messages are deleted. Anyone can make any suggestion at anytime and has direct access to the support team, the development team and SIMUL8 consultants.
How can I purchase SIMUL8 Corporation products?
Purchases can be made at our on-line shop or if you would like to purchase by telephone, please see our contacts page.
Is a manual provided with your products?
SIMUL8 Standard has a 250 page manual that includes a guide to the simulation technique. All other products have their own manual that supplements this main manual.
In addition the SIMUL8 Educational license comes with a Teacher's Pack that includes a copy of our training course.
There is also a training and reference guide, Learning SIMUL8: The Complete Guide which can be purchased.
How does SIMUL8 Support work?
Support via the web and our online discussion forum and a free e-newsletter that contains case studies and hints and tips on using SIMUL8.
SIMUL8 for Education comes with free feature telephone and email support forever for the registered tutor. There can only be one registered tutor per license.
We also provided training, consulting and higher level support. For more information visit the Training section or get in touch with one of the team.
How can I present results using SIMUL8?
Each object (work-center, queue etc.) has it's own comprehensive set of results. Any of these can be placed on SIMUL8's Results Summary (with a quick RIGHT click).
The results summary is then a central data-store of your key results. SIMUL8's Visual Logic & Spreadsheets mean that you can also customize your results & create an ABB specific results page. Results can also be sent to external software (e.g. Excel).
When analyzing the results of a simulation, what aids in form of statistical and history functions are there?
SIMUL8's Result's Summary includes 95% & 99% confidence limits. Histograms and Time Graphs are available of stored history data from any object. Gantt chart based historical reporting is also provided. Visual Logic or VBA let you write additional custom history reports if required.
Does the program have a debugger function?
Yes. Visual Logic has a debugger like the debugger in VB. It allows you to step through any control rules and place break points in your control logic. SIMUL8 also has a Simulation Assistant that gives advice to new users & offers direction. The SIMUL8 simulation monitor allows the user to monitor the events in the simulation in a very detailed way (including break points on events).
SIMUL8 Professional uses OLE automation to communicate with any application that support OLE automation.
SIMUL8 Professional can communicate with databases using SQL.
SIMUL8 runs on Windows NT, '95, '98, 2000 and XP. For more detailed information see our system requirements page.
Will the user be able to tailor their own modules if one suitable is not available in the standard library?
Yes. SIMUL8 has 'meta-objects' that you can create & save and add to the toolbar.
What add-on programs are available?
SIMUL8 Standard has 2 plug-ins.
OptQuest for SIMUL8 - Automatically searches for great simulation solutions.
Stat::Fit for SIMUL8 - Find the statistical distribution that best fits your data and inputs it directly into SIMUL8.
What means of visualizing the model in a true VR environment does your software support?
SIMUL8 Corporation believe VR capabilities are very important for the simulation community. VR is currently available in SIMUL8 Professional only.
Is it possible to easily build a model for visualization only, with no or little demands for correct output?
Yes. This is very easy. SIMUL8 can import ANY Visio flowcharts that can then be animated (via simulation). Additional parameters etc. can then be sent if desired.
Is it possible to export a visualization to an .mpg for example?
Yes. You could create an .mpg using external application.
How fast will my simulations run?
SIMUL8 is very fast. A major group of power simulation users based in Detroit performed a test with SIMUL8 and two of our main competitor simulation packages. On a test simulation to see how the packages compared on speed, time to complete a full simulation run was as follows: Package A 29 Seconds Package B 18 Seconds SIMUL8 3 Seconds.
SIMUL8 is discrete event using a modified version of the John Crookes (University of Lancaster) ABC-event simulation engine. (Modified for computing efficiency reasons). SIMUL8 has a "Simulation Monitor" that displays events (B & C) to the user - so students can get a detailed understanding of exactly what happens inside the simulation engine if required.
The underlying visual model is "Process Flow" - In a typical model "Work Items" (Entities) start at a "Work Entry Point" (Source), flow through connected queues and machines (controlled by routes), demanding floating resources as required, and end at a "Work Exit Point" (Sink). However, other structures are accommodated (for example the "World Queue" style of structure).
All uses of random number are independent and their seeds can be automatically or manually changed if/as required. Statistical results can be inspected for part or single runs, or following multiple runs (with automatically calculated confidence intervals).