Training Course Agenda

These course agendas are a representation of the course material presented for the specific classes. All material is subject to change depending on the specific needs of the clients at each course. Please contact Bryan Research & Engineering for additional information on any training session.

BRE 331: Coding with ProMax

Objectives:

This course will introduce the ProMax® object library and will focus on both in-Process and out-of-Process control of ProMax through VBA. It is designed for those with moderate programming experience and knowledge of ProMax. This course introduces the VBA interface and provides some guidance on how to bring ProMax functionality into user-created programs.

The course applies VBA and the ProMax Object Model through hands-on exercises that demonstrate how to create computer programs that automate and integrate ProMax® with other programs like Excel. The course includes exercises that provide insight into developing custom tools that access ProMax for thermodynamic and process calculations.

Attendees will learn:

• Advanced methods of customizing ProMax to individual needs
• Automation between ProMax and other programs using VBA

Suggested Prerequisites:

• Any 200 Level course or equivalent experience
• Basic understanding of programming concepts, including topics like data types (integer, double, character, etc.), subroutines, functions, and calculation loops (do, for, while, etc.)
• Those without this knowledge are still welcome to attend, and will still benefit from the course, although some exercises may be found to be difficult in this case.

The course is intended for individuals who are already at least somewhat familiar with programming concepts. These include topics like data types (integer, double, character, etc.), subroutines, functions and calculation loops (do, for, while, etc.). Those without any background in these areas can still benefit, but may not be able to complete all of the exercises on their own.

Methods:

• Instructor-led demonstrations
• Hands-on simulation
• Question-Answer
• Open floor discussion

Agenda

Coding with ProMax

This course is intended to familiarize participants with the ProMax Object Model, or the syntax required to talk to the program through scripting. This allows ProMax features to be automated, or even incorporated into other programs. One basic example would be an Excel spreadsheet that performs various engineering calculations and relies on ProMax for the underlying thermodynamics. Another would be a stand-alone executable that runs ProMax in the background but uses its own custom interface (e.g. to create a simplified version of the program for operators, with solely the information of greatest interest to them). Many other options are possible as well.

The course begins with an intro/refresher to VBA that just focuses on creating and modifying macros in Excel. These make a convenient framework from which to build subroutines that call ProMax. It then proceeds through a series of exercises that teach how the ProMax object model is structured, how information can be extracted from it (e.g. properties of environments, blocks and streams), and how it can be used to create, configure and/or control ProMax projects automatically.

Notes About the Agenda:

Our agenda is provided to give the approximate material to be covered in the course, in the approximate order it will be covered. All courses we provide will be tailored to the needs of the host company providing the training accommodations, as well as the needs of the course attendees. Some courses may cover additional topics, while some may cover less than indicated in the agenda.

Some courses may be shortened to one or two days when represented by a three-day agenda. These courses will typically cover both process simulation and process optimization topics, but will exclude several exercises. Please contact our training team here: Contact Training, or through the consulting engineer for your region, for specific information for any course.