ReadMe for Flowmaster V7.6.

General Systems, Gas Turbine, Aerospace and Automotive

Product Variants

October 2008
This ReadMe File provides the latest information on specific aspects of this release. These
represent topics not covered by other documentation or result from late changes to the software.
The ReadMe relates to Flowmaster V7.6.0 and all its product variants: General Systems, Gas
Turbine, Aerospace and Automotive. The license file determines which product variant can be
used. Information on the content of this release can be found in the Release Notes provided with
the installation package download.

Microsoft Updates: Please ensure that the latest Microsoft updates have been installed on the
PC (http://www.update.microsoft.com). This can be done after the Flowmaster installation.

License Management – FLEXnet: A Flowmaster V7.6 license file will be required to run this
Release. Please contact your Flowmaster representative.

Installation: Please remove all previous versions of Flowmaster V7 before installing this release.
Check that any *.exe‟s or *.dll‟s have been removed from the Flowmaster program folder. This will
usually be in:

C:\Program Files\Flowmaster\FlowmasterV7

Note: Do not remove any sub folders.

Due to a bug in the third party InstallShield package used for installing Flowmaster, if Flowmaster
V7 or any updates have been installed previously, multiple entries of Flowmaster V7 and Updates
may appear in the Add/Remove Programs list. These should all be removed in reverse
chronological order, i.e. remove latest installation first.

Database Upgrade: Having installed this release, your database will be automatically upgraded
to this version. However, if you have multiple users of the same database, it is not required that
all users upgrade to this release. Users of versions later than Flowmaster V7.3.2 may continue to
access the upgraded database, but must be aware of one limitation: in order to upgrade
Flowmaster2 V6.5 data into this database, the upgrade must be performed using at least
Flowmaster V7.4.0. Having done so, this data can then be accessed using Update 3 if so
desired.
COM Automation: We have become aware that COM may fail to run on Windows XP or
Windows 2000 for the following reasons:-

1. The latest Microsoft updates have not been installed. Please ensure that the latest
Microsoft updates (http://www.update.microsoft.com) are installed on the PC

2. The available PC memory may be too low. From the Flowmaster V7 Getting Started
Booklet the minimum requirement is 1024MB. This assumes that no other memory
intensive applications are running. Microsoft Office 2003 requires an additional 128MB of
RAM

3. The disk is heavily fragmented. Testing has shown that defragmenting the disk on a
virtual XP machine has allowed COM to run straight from the Flowmaster V7 Installation
package.

4. On a Windows 2000 machine for Excel to work with COM automation installation
package supplied „Excel.exe.config‟ file, this file needs to be copied manually to location
where „Excel.exe‟ exists.

This concludes the Flowmaster V7.6.0 ReadMe for users who have previously installed
Flowmaster V7.

First time installations: Further information

First time installers of Flowmaster V7 may find the following notes from earlier ReadMe files
useful.

Flowmaster V7 Updates and Maintenance Releases: Additional functionality will become

available periodically as downloadable updates. Visit the customer portal
http://www.flowmaster.com/customer.html to check for availability of downloads. If an
Maintenance Release is available at the time of your installation of V7.6.0 it is recommended that
you install the software from CD before proceeding with the download and installation of the latest
Maintenance Release.

Note: Flowmaster V7 Updates are cumulative. This means that when downloading the latest
Update from the Flowmaster Customer Portal, that all enhancements and bug fixes from earlier
Updates will automatically be included.

Help Tools: On first opening Flowmaster V7 you will have access to a number of “How To…..”
video clips available from the Show Me tab on the right of your screen. Additional Help Tools are
Flowmaster Help (providing guidance on use of the user interface) and Reference Help (providing
information on components, data, and analysis options). These are accessible from the top menu
or in a context sense from various locations in the software.
Databases: If a default installation is carried out then the Flowmaster V7 databases will be
located in: Homedrive:\FlowmasterV7\Data

Pack-Files: A Pack-file is a compact means of transferring networks and database items

between databases. It contains only user-defined information, enabling a large model to be
transferred in a small file that can be emailed. Flowmaster supplied items (components, curves,
surfaces, etc.) are not included.

At Flowmaster V7, pack-files may be created and unpacked into another Flowmaster V7
database. V6.x pack-files cannot be unpacked at Flowmaster V7. These must be unpacked into
the same database version at which they were created, and then the database should be
upgraded through to Flowmaster V7.

Flowmaster V7 pack files unpack into the project you are currently logged into or you can
selectively unpack them to specific projects by selecting the project in 'project view'.

Results Control: At Flowmaster V7 all data and results are stored in the same Flowmaster V7
relational database. It is possible to tightly control what results are stored either on an individual
component and node basis, or in terms of individual results variables and time step reporting
(selected on the Output Control sub form of the Simulation Data tab).

It is strongly recommended that you consider what specific results are useful to your engineering
appraisal of the system and switch off all others as this can have a significant affect on simulation
run-time and storage requirements.

Network Data Audit: Performance data: Flowmaster V7 supports network input data audit. When
an Equation, Curve or Surface (i.e. performance data) is modified, this modification is not
reflected in any networks that use them - the network will continue to use the previous,
unmodified version. If you do want a network to use the updated version of the performance data,
then you must re-assign it to components within the network.

Important Note: It is recommended that all Flowmaster V7 databases are backed up before
carrying out any Flowmaster V7 uninstall procedure.