Professional Version
Commercial, Professional and 64-bit Professional versions of EES are available. The Commercial version of EES provides many basic features such as curve-fitting, linear regression, property plots, contour plots, uncertainty analyses, solutions to complex and differential equations and others. The Professional version provides the following additional capabilities.
The Professional version allows a maximum of 12,000 variables and equations and the number of rows in the Parametric table is limited only by available memory.
The Professional version can be optionally upgraded to a 64-bit version which provides 24,000 variables and calculation speeds that are up to double that for the 32-bit Professional version for computationally-intense problems.
A Diagram window is provided in the Commercial version in which a picture can be imported and drawing objects, text, input variables, and calculated variables may be superimposed in this window. The capabilities of the Diagram Window are greatly expanded in the Professional version to define 'hot areas' in the Diagram Window which, when clicked, bring up Child Diagram windows. The Child Diagram Window has all of the capabilities of a Diagram Window including the ability to launch other Child Diagram Windows. Numerical values can be input with slider controls as well as with edit boxes. The edit boxes can be configured to accept equations involving EES variables and/or numerical values. Radio button and check box groups can be positioned on the Diagram or child Diagram windows to run specific EES code depending on which button is clicked. Link buttons may be placed on any of the Diagram windows to start external programs, run a macro, show a movie, start another EES file or other tasks.
A Make Distributable command is provided in the Professional version to create a special purpose version of EES that will run up to 100 preselected problems. EES, the problems, and supporting files are placed in a single executable file that can be freely distributed to others. The end user does not need to own EES to run the calculations or create/change/view the plots and tables. The equations can be securely hidden from the user, if desired.
The Professional version provides animation capabilities. Graphical objects and text placed in the Diagram window can have attributes such as location, size, angle, and color, that are specified and controlled with EES variables. Text items can be assigned to string variables that are specified dynamically in an EES program. As the values of these variables change, the display in the Diagram and child Diagram windows is automatically updated. In addition, the animation can be coupled with the plots. A red circle indicates the current value of a variable as the calculations proceed. Animations can only be created with the Professional version, but once created, they can be used in the Distributable and Commercial versions.
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The Professional version provide the ability to create and execute Macros. A Macro is a series of EES instructions, i.e., a script, written with a large set of Macro commands that allow looping and logic in addition to all other EES operations. Virtually anything that can be done with the EES menus and commands can be entered into a Macro. The Macro can be automatically recorded with the Build Macro command in the File menu. EES can later be started from the Windows Run command or from a different program to replay all of the instructions in the Macro file. Used in this manner, EES can be directed to solve a set of equations in a specified text or EES file and to put the solution into another specified text file without ever appearing on the screen. Alternatively, the macro can be 'played' from within EES to automate a sequential set of commands, eliminating the need to enter them from the menus. A large set of macro commands is supported that allow looping and logic. Macro commands can be used to interact with Microsoft EXCEL and Word, MATLAB, and LabView. In addition, macro commands are provided to read and write to the serial port, thereby allowing two-way communications with any device that interacts through the serial port.
Variable information can be read from or saved to a file in the Professional version. A variable information file has a .VAR filename extension, but it is a text file that can be opened in a word processor or spreadsheet. Variable information data can be saved to an existing .VAR file. In this case, the file is updated with the current information for the variables that are in use. Information in the file concerning variables that are not currently in use is not modified or deleted. If a program contains one or more modules, a dropdown list appears at the top center of the Variable Info dialog from which the module or main program can be selected. Variable information is read or saved for the selected module or main program. Variable information files make it very easy to prepare and use a file containing your common variables with appropriate guess values, limits, and units.
A Report Window is provided in the Professional version. The Report Window operates just like a word processor offering the usual choice of fonts, font sizes, text style, sub and superscripts, color, tabs, left and right indents, etc. Graphics can be pasted into the window. The graphics can be equations copied from the Formatted Equations window, a plot from the Plot window, or any graphics in the Diagram window. Graphics can also be pasted from other applications. In addition, the Report Window can include EES variables that are automatically updated as their values change.
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The Professional version provides three additional optimization algorithms for optimization with two or more degrees of freedom. These are the Genetic, Nelder-Mead and DIRECT methods which are provided addition to the Variable Metric and Direct Search optimization methods. (Note that the DIRECT algorithm and the Direct Search method are very different optimization methods that share a similar name.) The Genetic method is slow, but it can find a global optimum for a specified search area even when local optima exist. The DIRECT algorithm is also capable of finding a global optimum in a region in which local optima exist and it can do so with many fewer function evaluations than required by the Genetic method.
Results of the optimization process can be logged to a text file in the Professional version.
The Equations window in the Professional version is provided with a splitter bar that allows two simultaneous views of different parts of the Equations window. This capability makes it easier to edit large files.
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One or more selected equations in the Formatted Equations window can be automatically converted to LaTeX or MathType format in the Professional version. The MathType equations can be pasted directly into Microsoft Word. Double-clicking on an equation in Word starts MathType allowing the equation to be further edited.
The Professional version is able to write .EEZ files which are compressed .EES files that require much less space. All versions of EES can read .EEZ files.
Text in the Equations window can be protected in the Professional version. The text in the Equations Window can be highlighted in a choice of 8 colors, which makes it easier to locate information.
The Professional version provides a Library Manager that allows the user to easily control which library files are available when EES is started.
The Professional version allows plot templates to be saved and applied. A plot template contains information that affects the visible display of a plot. The characteristics of an existing plot can be set as desired and then these characteristics can be saved in a .EPT (EES plot template) file. The characteristics can be transferred to other plots by selecting the .EPT file and applying it.
Guess values and lower / upper bounds may be entered as equations in the Variable Information dialog for the Professional version.
The Professional version can solve larger uncertainty propagation problems. It can simultaneously determine the uncertainty propagation of up to 50 selected variables in terms of the uncertainties of up to 200 measured variables.
The toolbar on the Plot and Diagram windows in the Professional version provides buttons to construct polylines and polygons. The polylines can be smoothed to form cubic Bezier curves. The polygons can be partially transparent to provide colored shading, while allowing the underlying objects to be visible.
The Professional version can generate high quality side-by-side bar plots.
The $CopyToLookup directive is available in the Professional version. This directive makes it very easy to move calculated scaler and array variables to a column in the Lookup table window. The data in the Lookup table can be written to an external file in a variety of formats.
The Professional version can create 3-D point and surface plots.
The Professional version provides automatic column width control of all tables.
The Professional version supports dynamic data exchange (DDE) which can be used to interact with other programs such as MATLAB or EXCEL. Even better, the Professional version provides macro commands that allow direct communication with MATLAB or EXCEL.
A Plot Thumbnails window is available in the Professional version that displays all plots in the EES file at a size controlled by the user. Right-clicking on a thumbnail moves the focus to the selected plot in Plot window.
The Professional version provides access to the Component Library, which provides high-level component models for energy systems. Click here to see information about the components in this library.
In the Professional version, the Plot window crosshairs can be used to identify the location of a plotted point in a table. The status bar will show the coordinates of the point, the table that the data originated in and the row in that table. In addition, the table from which the data have been plotted will be made visible highlighting the row containing the data for the selected plot.
In the Professional version, the choices made for the calculated and measured variables and their associated relative or absolute uncertainties can be saved by clicking the Save Uncertainty Information button in the Uncertainty Propagation or Uncertainty Propagation Table dialog. These choices can later be restored by clicking the Open Uncertainty Information button in these dialogs. Saving the uncertainty information allows one EES file to solve several different uncertainty problems without having to reenter the uncertainty settings. The Save Uncertainty Information saves a text file having an .UNC file name extension.
The Min/Max command in the Calculate menu provides the option to display a Sensitivity table in the Solution window that shows how the optimum determined in the calculations depends on each independent variable.
Clicking the triangular icon at the upper right of each column in a Parametric or Lookup table brings up a dialog in which values in specified rows of the column can be entered. The Professional version allows the rows to be added to the table by providing a number greater than the current maximum number of rows. The Alter Values dialog (accessed from the Table menu) also provides this capability. The Professional version will also accept a previously defined variable name in place of a number in these dialogs.
- If an alternate unit set has been specified for the values in a column of the Parametric or Lookup tables, the Professional version allows values to be entered in the Alter Values or the Change Column Values dialog in either unit set. Values can be plotted in either unit set as well.
The Lookup tables in EES are designed to hold tabular data, such as that taken experimentally. Clicking on the triangular icon at the upper right of each column allows the data in one column of the table to be entered with an equation that uses data in other cells, EES variables, or EES functions. In the Professional version, the calculated data can be automatically updated making the Lookup table in EES function operate similar to a spreadsheet program.
Uncertainty values can be input in either the main or alternate unit set in the Professional version.
The $INPUT directive in the Professional version can be used to prompt the user to enter a variable value when solving.
EES can read NIST REFPROP .FLD (fluid) files and thereby provide thermodynamic property data for these fluids in the same manner as for built-in fluids.
