Different versions of Thermoptim

Versions are firstly characterized by a label that defines the features, detailed below:

Demo version
Education Classroom version (éducation Salle de cours in French)
Standard version
Professional version
Industrial version

and secondly by a serial number (2.5x, 2.6x, 2.7x or 2.8x), which represents the chronological development of the software.

Numbers 1.3 to 1.7 were Thermoptim versions using old Java libraries (JRE or JDK 1.1.8). They are no longer maintained or marketed.

Numbers 2.51 to 2.81 and 2.52 to 2.82 are Thermoptim versions requiring Java 2 libraries (JRE or JDK 1.3 and above).

The change in Java environment was indeed a necessity because the old libraries are no longer maintained and are not available for all operating systems. For example, the Mac OS X does not provide them.

The "phenomenological" version officially distributed is version 2.51. Version 2.52 is under development. It differs from version 2.51 mainly by additional developments concerning on the one hand the exergy balances and on the other hand the external classes and the off-design regime for versions 2.72 and 2.82. Although it is fully compatible with version 2.51 for loading .prj project and .dia schema files, the external class files it uses are not compatible with older versions. Its extThopt2.zip and extUser2.zip files are therefore different, and the external classes of the model library have been supplemented to take this particularity into account.

Versions 2.61 and 2.62 provide access to the editor of productive structures which, among other things, allows one to automate the establishment of exergy balances.

Versions 2.71 and 2.72 are the ones that include technological design tools and off-design features .

Versions 2.81 and 2.82 provide access to the editor of productive structures which, among other things, allows one to automate the establishment of exergy balances, and includes technological design tools and off-design features.

+ - Demo Version 2.5 Click to collapse

A Thermoptim demo version is freely distributed to allow you to view existing projects and diagrams, and to build small ones in order to familiarize yourelves with the tools. Of course it does not provide access to all the software features.

Although it enables the loading of a project of a size exceeding the limits below, the number of points or processes that can be created is limited to 10 and that of nodes to 5.

The charts can only be used to passively view the cycles constructed in the simulator, because their interactivity and access to the cycle editor are removed.

Diagnostic tools, monitoring of the automatic recalculation (and the set pressures), sensitivity analysis and optimization are not available, and only certain substances are available.

In addition, it does not allow you to save projects or diagrams, nor the output result files.

+ - Demo Version 2.82 Click to collapse

The new demonstration version 2.82 gives access to certain advanced functionalities of the software package which allow working on subjects hitherto reserved for higher versions:

All Thermoptim users can thus learn how to calculate the area of a heat exchanger, how to establish exergy balances thanks to the productive structures and how to implement the pinch method.

Like the previous one, this demo version does not allow you to save diagrams and projects, but it opens all the working files of the software package.

+ - Education Classroom Version Click to collapse

The Thermoptim Education Classroom version allows you to view existing projects and diagrams, and to build them. It does not give access to all the software features.

Although it enables the loading of a project of a size exceeding the limits below, the number of points or processes that can be created is limited to 30 and that of nodes to 10.

The charts can only be used to passively view the cycles constructed in the simulator, because their interactivity is removed and access to the cycle editor is limited.

Diagnostic tools, monitoring of the automatic recalculation (and the set pressures), sensitivity analysis and optimization are not available, and only certain substances are available (see list below).

Unlike the trial / demo version, it allows you to save the projects, diagrams and output result files. From version 2.51, it includes the external class manager which allows you to add or remove external classes in or from the extUser2.zip file.