Desktop app · What changed

CoolSim 5.4 changelog

Every change to the CoolSim 5.4 desktop app that has reached customers, newest first.

5.4.180

Preview 5 ·

Download and notes

Changed

Can make a model solve to a different answer than before.

The Rack Heat Loads import reaches the solver

In CoolSim 5.4.180, File → Import → Rack Heat Loads (CSV) never changed the job: a rack row’s load went to a field the solver does not read. On a row set rack by rack, 0 kW became 1,000 W and a blank became −1,000 W, which the solver treats as a heat sink, and each rack’s airflow stayed sized for its old load.

The preview sets every rack in a row you name, recomputes each rack’s airflow from its expected temperature rise as the rack editor does, and ends with a list of every line it left alone and why. Results change for any model whose heat loads came from this import.

Apply in Details saves every row you changed

Details is the table of every object of one kind, opened from the Pre-Simulation Report or a group. In 5.4.180, Apply skipped the row the cursor was still in, so editing one rack row and pressing Apply changed nothing in the job. A tile row’s changes never reached the row, and a rack row set by temperature rise had its airflow recalculated from its heat.

The Rack Builder keeps what you built

A rack holding only blanking panels dropped out of the job. A server added from the rack row editor in a slot a blanking panel had held stayed a blanking panel, lost its heat, and the job could not be sent.

The share to liquid is a percentage

The rack’s field is a percentage of its heat, but the 5.4.180 Rack Builder wrote the servers’ liquid watts into it and left them there when the last server was removed. On our test machine, removing a 5,000 W server at 20% left 1,000 in the field, and the emptied 4,000 W rack went to the solver with 40,000 W to liquid.

Sensor connections reach the solver without opening Sensor Connections

In CoolSim 5.4.180, the solver learned which sensors are the room’s reference sensors, and which ones each VFD cooling unit follows, only if Sensor Connections had been opened since the model was. A model opened and sent straight away went with no reference sensors and with every sensor marked as a plain sensor. The preview takes both from what the model saves.

Reference sensors combined by RMS use every reference sensor

In 5.4.180, a room whose reference sensors were set to combine by root mean square sent the solver a setting it does not recognize, and the solver then used the first reference sensor alone. The choice itself is not yet saved with the model, in 5.4.180 or the preview: a reopened model goes back to the average, so pick RMS again before you send it.

A cooling unit’s set point follows its kind of sensor

A VFD set point is a pressure or a temperature. In 5.4.180, a cooling unit switched from pressure sensors to temperature sensors kept its pressure set point, so 7.473 Pa ran as a temperature of 7.473 K (−446 °F). Connecting pressure sensors put 7.473 Pa back, even over a pressure set point you had typed. The preview puts that kind’s default back when the kind changes (7.473 Pa, or 75 °F) and otherwise keeps the set point you entered.

Removed

The Energy Calculator tab

The Energy Calculator tab, and the Locale Id and Culture Id fields, are gone from Energy Calculation. Nothing on our servers reads them, and values already in a model are kept.

New

Redesigned menus

  • The menu bar is File, Edit, View, Simulation, Help.
  • File → Open Recent lists your last projects. The 5.4.180 list lost its oldest entry each time it was read.
  • Edit has Copy, Paste, Duplicate, Delete, Group and Ungroup. Anything you can’t use at that moment is greyed out.
  • View and Simulation hold the Design toolbar’s tools. Post Processing Parameters is now Simulation → Plot Setup.
  • Ctrl+O opens a project; in 5.4.180 it did nothing. Ctrl+N starts a new one.
  • Right-click Hide, Nearly Hide and Show list the object types directly, without the By Type step.

Sensor Connections for everyone, redesigned

In 5.4.180, Sensor Connections opened only in beta mode, so VFD settings sent you to a window you might not be able to open. It is now under Simulation → Sensor Connections and on a cooling unit’s right-click menu for everyone.

It lists the cooling units with a line each saying what it follows, such as “VFD · 2 pressure sensors”, and you tick the sensors the picked one reads. Ctrl-click picks several to paste sensors or VFD settings into at once. VFD Settings says which sensors the fan follows and which reading it holds, and checks the set point and airflow as you type.

A new model tree

The model tree is an outline grouped by kind of object, with a filter box, an eye to hide or show each object, and rename in place.

A Rack Builder drawn like a rack

Each rack is drawn front-on, with U1 at the bottom as on a real rack. Click or drag to pick slots, drag servers between slots and racks, and set what you picked in the panel beside the drawing. OK changes only the racks you changed, and servers keep their make and model.

A searchable Library panel

The Library panel shows a whole catalog in one list, with search across every field, filters that show how many parts each one leaves, sorting by any column, and every value of the selected part in your units.

Remove parts from your own library

In the Library panel, right-click a part, press Delete, or use the link under its name. It asks first. The library that ships with CoolSim has no remove.

Improved

Object editors open several times faster

Every field lines up in one column. On our test machine, a cooling unit’s editor took 14.2 seconds to open in earlier previews and takes 2.5 seconds now; a supplemental cooler’s took 17.9 and takes 1.1.

Tool windows ask about what they do

  • CRAC Parameter Variation has a tab for the baseline and one for each variation, each a table with a row per cooling unit.
  • Plot Setup has one Customize result plots switch; with it off, a note says which standard plots you get.
  • Energy Calculation asks whether you use measured power or estimate from a COP, and shows only that method’s fields. Other heat load is now Other power in the room, which is how the report uses it.

Smart Measure gives the gap between two things

Click two objects in View → Smart Measure for the shortest distance between them (0 when they touch), or click the room for its wall, floor or ceiling. The distance, its parts along each axis and its line in the 3D view follow as you move either object. In 5.4.180 each click snapped to the nearest box corner, so it could not measure across an aisle or to a wall, and the number stayed put when objects moved. Corner to corner is still there as a choice.

Keyboard shortcuts beside the model

Help → Keyboard Shortcuts (Ctrl+H) opens a sheet that stays beside the model while you work, and now lists the model tree, Rack Builder and Library keys. Ctrl+H again closes it.

Edit in Details

Type in any cell, or select several and set them at once. Each value is checked as you leave its cell, changes stay marked until you apply them, and closing asks before dropping them.

Add to Library says what it will do

Right-click an object and choose Add to Library. It offers only the catalogs the object fits, says before you press the button whether it adds a part or replaces one of the same name, and points to any problem at the box itself. Model names with an apostrophe work.

Power View colors racks by heat load

View → Power View colors each rack by its heat load in watts: its own, or the total of its servers, including any share to liquid. A key in the corner of the 3D view counts the racks in each band and keeps up as you edit loads; Edit range… on the key sets your own range. In 5.4.180 the color came from the watts per cubic meter of one server in each rack.

Turning Power View on and off, or saving while it is on, leaves the model as it was. In 5.4.180, turning it off made see-through objects solid, and saving while it was on stored the faded objects at 20% opacity, so the model reopened faded.

Removed library parts stay removed

Every earlier preview brought back, at each install, every part ever removed from your own library. Parts you remove in preview 5 stay removed through later updates. A part removed earlier, in your current CoolSim or an earlier preview, can come back; remove it again in preview 5 and it stays removed.

A clearer Status Report

The job’s stages show as a checklist. Stop is offered only while the job runs, asks first, and reports the stop only once our server has accepted it.

5.4.180

Preview 4 ·

Improved

Saving never leaves a model that will not open

Two faults in CoolSim 5.4.180 could leave a .csp that CoolSim could no longer open:

  • Sending a job again for a model you had already sent, and answering No to Save as new model?, could write the model over its .csp as plain text instead of a package.
  • A save that failed part-way, for example on a full disk or a dropped network share, had already deleted the old .csp.

The preview always writes a real package and replaces the old file only once the new one is complete. If a save fails, your last saved copy stays where it was and the model stays marked as unsaved.

Large models open and export faster

Windows Search indexed the files CoolSim unpacks each time it opens a model, which slowed opening and exporting large models several times over. The preview keeps Windows Search out of CoolSim’s session folder. On our test machine, exporting our eight test models went from 4 minutes to 40 seconds.

Add to Library works

In preview 3 it stopped with an error for any kind of part your own library did not already hold, which for most people was every kind.

The Library panel reaches every part

In preview 3 the panel counted 0 parts in each catalog and showed only its first page. Every cooling unit, rack and tile now pages through as in CoolSim 5.4.180.

The right-click menu closes

The right-click menu in the 3D view closes when you click elsewhere in the view or press Esc. In preview 3 it stayed open until you right-clicked another object.

Closing a model frees its memory

A model you had exported or sent a job from stayed in memory after you closed it, so a session that worked through several large models kept using more.

5.4.180

Preview 3 ·

Changed

Can make a model solve to a different answer than before.

Energy files include every block’s heat load

The energy file sent with a job now adds up the heat load of every block and is written in full. Before, it stopped part-way whenever the room held a block without a heat load, and otherwise kept the heat of only one block. Energy results can differ from earlier versions. Model and airflow files are unchanged.

Removed

Python scripting

The script editor, the Python shell, the Python, Utility and PowerShell console tabs, and Edit Script are gone. Templates or import files that carry Python, and -run with a .py file, report Script Not Run instead of running it. CoolSim’s own built-in steps no longer use Python and write the same files as before. If you rely on your own Python scripts, write to support@coolsimsoftware.com.

New

A new 3D view

The model view is drawn with current web graphics (Microsoft Edge WebView2) in place of a 3D engine from 2011. The mouse and toolbar controls work as before. Two curved arrows over the view cube turn the view 90° left or right; in the top view, the tile row and column labels turn with the plan. Windows 11 and most Windows 10 machines already have the WebView2 Runtime; if the preview says it is missing, install it from Microsoft.

Improved

PDUs in models saved by CoolSim 5.3 export

CoolSim 5.4 stopped with an error while exporting such a model if the 3D view had not drawn the PDU yet, for example with Optimize load time on. The preview gives those PDUs their top and bottom openings, as CoolSim 5.3 did.

A supported library database

The object library runs on Firebird 5 in place of Firebird 2.5, which has had no updates since 2019.

  • The first start after installing takes about 10 seconds.
  • Library pages show every column. Columns with names longer than 27 characters were missing.
  • Adding parts works on Windows set to use a decimal comma.
  • The preview keeps its own index of library parts. It picks up parts added, changed or removed in your current CoolSim the next time it starts, which takes about half a minute. Your current CoolSim does not see parts added or removed in the preview.

The Reports tab says what fills it

A new project shows No report yet and names the two toolbar buttons that make a report, instead of a blank page or an Invalid window handle error.

Packages open in either version

Models and libraries packaged by the preview open in your current CoolSim, and the other way round. Opening a package never writes files outside its own folder.

A steady memory chart

The memory chart on the status bar no longer uses more memory each time it refreshes.

5.4.180

Preview 2 ·

Changed

Can make a model solve to a different answer than before.

Sloped polygon blocks keep their slope

Polygon blocks extruded along X or Z, such as a sloped soffit, were sent to the solver flat. They now reach it with their slope, so a model with one can solve to a different answer than it did from earlier versions.

New

Installs beside your current CoolSim

The preview installs as CoolSim 5.4 Preview, next to the CoolSim you already have, so you can try it on real models and go back at any time. Both use the same models, libraries, work area and sign-in. The preview doesn’t take over .csp files, so double-clicking a model still opens your current CoolSim. Run one at a time: the two share one object library database.

Silent install for IT

CoolSimSetup_5.4.180_preview2.exe /S installs unattended, with the libraries and work area in place.

Improved

Moving a group no longer lifts ceiling grilles or floor cutouts

Each move of a group used to raise every ceiling grille in it by 0.5 mm and every floor cutout by 1 mm. A grille left even 0.5 mm off the ceiling showed almost no air through it in the solved job. Group members now keep their height, the same as when you move a single object. Models you have already saved are not changed.

Undo and redo are dependable

  • Undoing a group move puts every member of the group back.
  • Undo works after Redo.
  • A new edit clears the Redo history, so Redo can no longer replay an old change on top of new work.
  • Undo keeps recording after you cancel a Save or Open.
  • Undo with nothing left to undo no longer shows an error.
  • Changes made in an object’s properties dialog can be undone.
  • Undo and Redo from the menu now update the 3D view.

A failed export sends nothing

If exporting a model fails partway, CoolSim now stops, names the file that failed and sends nothing. Before, it could submit the incomplete model as a job.
This page starts with CoolSim 5.4.180 preview 2. The standard download is still CoolSim 5.4.177. For CoolSim 5.3, see the CoolSim 5.3 release notes.

Something working differently?

Tell us your CoolSim version and what you did. We’ll tell you which change it is, and what it means for your model.

Ask about a change