CoolSim 5.4.180 preview 5

This is an early build of the CoolSim desktop app, based on CoolSim 5.4.180. It installs as CoolSim 5.4 Preview, beside your current CoolSim, so you can try it on real models and go back at any time. Sign in with your usual CoolSim account. If you have an earlier preview installed, this one replaces it.

Download CoolSim 5.4.180 preview 5

64-bit Windows 10 or 11 · 84 MB · CoolSimSetup_5.4.180_preview5.exe

What’s new

Changes from CoolSim 5.4.180. The CoolSim 5.4 changelog lists every build and what changed in each.

New in preview 5: what reaches the solver

These fix faults in CoolSim 5.4.180 that sent the solver different numbers from the ones you entered. A model that went through one of them can solve to a different answer in the preview.

• The Rack Heat Loads import works. In 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.
• 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 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 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 the solver did not recognize the RMS setting and used the first reference sensor alone. The choice is not yet saved with the model: 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. 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 7.473 K (−446 °F), and connecting pressure sensors put 7.473 Pa back 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 your set point.

New in preview 5: redesigned menus and windows

• Menus: 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, such as Libraries, Power View, the Pre-Simulation Report, Run and Status Report. 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.
• 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.
• Object editors open several times faster and line every field 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.
• 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.
• The Rack Builder draws each rack 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Add to Library (right-click an object) 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.
• 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.
• The Status Report shows the job’s stages as a checklist. Stop is offered only while the job runs, asks first, and reports the stop only once our server has accepted it.
• Sensor Connections is under Simulation and a cooling unit’s right-click menu for everyone; in 5.4.180 it opened only in beta mode. It lists the cooling units with a line each saying what it follows, 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 checks the set point and airflow as you type.
• Smart Measure (View) gives the shortest distance between two objects, or from an object to the room’s wall, floor or ceiling, and keeps it up to date as you move them. In 5.4.180 each click snapped to the nearest box corner and the number stayed put when objects moved.
• Keyboard Shortcuts (Help, Ctrl+H) opens a sheet beside the model that stays open while you work, and lists the model tree, Rack Builder and Library keys.
• Sign-in, Welcome and About are rebuilt. When sign-in turns you away, the message says why.
• The Pre-Simulation Report window can be resized, and Export asks where to save the page. The report’s contents are unchanged.

Fixed in preview 5

• Parts you remove from your own library 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.

• Power View leaves your model as it was. In 5.4.180, turning Power View 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 in preview 5

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

Also included, from preview 4

• Saving never leaves a model that will not open. 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. 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.
• 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.
• No stray catalogs in your current CoolSim. Preview 3 added three catalogs named Crac, RackRow and TileRow to the library that your current CoolSim shares. Preview 4 and later remove them the first time they start.
• The right-click menu in the 3D view closes when you click elsewhere in the view or press Esc.
• 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.

Also included, from preview 3

• 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.
• Complete energy files. In 5.4.180 the energy file sent with a job stopped part-way whenever the room held a block without a heat load, and otherwise kept the heat of only one block. The preview adds up every block’s heat load and writes the whole file, so energy results can differ from 5.4.180. Model and airflow files are unchanged.
• 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 now runs on Firebird 5 in place of Firebird 2.5, which dates from 2010 and 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 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.
• The Library panel stays open when the pointer crosses the toolbar.
• View Message, the Editor Analyzer and Object Summary show their tables in WebView2 in place of Internet Explorer.
• Packages. 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.
• The memory chart on the status bar no longer uses more memory each time it refreshes.
• Flatter, clearer tabs across the app.

Removed in preview 3

• 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.

Also included, from preview 2

• Moving a group no longer lifts ceiling grilles or cutouts. Previously, each move of a group raised every ceiling grille in it by 0.5 mm and every floor cutout by 1 mm. Even 0.5 mm leaves a grille sitting just off the ceiling, and the solved job then shows almost no air through it. Group members now keep their height, the same as when you move a single object. Installing the preview does not change models you have already saved.
• 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.
• Jobs with a PDU placed after other objects no longer fail on the server. The job’s parameter file counted obstructions wrongly when a PDU was not the first object in the model.
• Sloped polygon blocks keep their slope. Blocks extruded along X or Z, such as a sloped soffit, were sent to the solver flat.
• No more partial uploads. If exporting the model fails part-way, CoolSim now stops, tells you which file failed, and sends nothing, instead of submitting an incomplete model.
• Silent install for IT. CoolSimSetup_5.4.180_preview5.exe /S installs unattended, with the libraries and work area in place. The preview takes no .csp file association, so double-clicking a model still opens your current CoolSim.

Before you install

• The Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime draws the 3D view. Windows 11 and most Windows 10 machines have it already. If the preview says it is missing, install it from Microsoft.
• Run one CoolSim at a time. The preview and your current CoolSim share the same libraries, settings and work area. Close one before opening the other.
• Make library changes in your current CoolSim. Both read the same library parts, but each keeps its own index of them. The preview picks up parts added, changed or removed in your current CoolSim the next time it starts; that start takes about half a minute. Your current CoolSim does not see parts added or removed in the preview.
• Sign-in is shared. Signing in to one signs you in to both.
• Windows SmartScreen will warn that the installer is from an unrecognized publisher. Choose More info, then Run anyway.
• Your models, libraries and work area (C:\Users\Public\Documents\CoolSim 5.4) are the same ones your current CoolSim uses.

Going back

Uninstall CoolSim 5.4 Preview from Settings → Apps. Your current CoolSim is left exactly as it was. The preview leaves behind the work area, which holds your own models, and its own library index files in the library folders, which your current CoolSim does not use.

Checking the download

SHA-256 of CoolSimSetup_5.4.180_preview5.exe:

90d71283eed33054ff404994a9ad0603acffdffdf74cd1e58d09fddb8e51fc60

Found a problem? Write to support@coolsimsoftware.com and mention “preview 5”.