Settings provide control over a large number of parameters used in Pumpsim™ for simulation, graphical display and file handling. Settings are normally saved specifically within the Pumpsim™ model file, however they can be shared with other files using the INHERIT or MASTER LINK functions.
Costing
Power
- NPV Rate – Discounted cost rate (in whole % per annum) to apply to future costs to allow calculation of present value.
- Operating Time – System running duration.
- Power Cost – Cost of electrical power.
- Pump Purchase Cost – Estimate cost of pump purchase depending on pump power.
Defaults
Set default settings and waterway sizes when first building a model, as well as file saving and loading behaviour in Pumpsim™.
Channel Defaults
- Channel Depth – Depth of channel.
- ChannelsDefault – If true, the default drawing object will be a channel. Will change "Pipe Is Default" to FALSE under "Pipe Defaults".
- Manning Roughness – Manning roughness of the channel material.
- Profile – Profile of the channel (rectangular, triangular, trapezoid or semi-circular).
- Small Width – Bottom width of a trapezoidal channel.
- Width – Top width of a channel.
Pipe Defaults
- Pipe Shape Number – Default shape of the pipe.
- Pipe Is Default – If true, the default drawn object will be a pipe. Will change "ChannelsDefault" to FALSE under "Channel Defaults".
- Pressure Nominal – Default maximum pressure that can be supported by that pipe.
- Primary Layer, Secondary Layer – Default layers to apply to new waterways.
- Roughness Default – Roughness
- Roughness Type – Roughness
- Size Diameter – Default size of new pipe. Imported DXF and text files without specific waterway size will also be set to these values
- Water Type Default – Default fluid type.
Hint: Pipe defaults are normally only applied if pipes are constructed without connection to other pipes. Where new pipes are connected to existing pipes, they will INHERIT the settings of the waterways the new pipes are connected to. This behaviour can be modified from the EDIT > NEW AIRWAYS menu item.
Pump Defaults
- Efficiency Pump Motor – Default pump motor efficiency to apply to calculated power to estimate the electrical power absorbed by the pump motor. In most cases it will be around 95% for direct drive electrical motors, or as low as 80 – 85% for offset or gear drive fans.
- Efficiency Pump or Fix Shaft – Default efficiency factor to apply to motor shaft power calculations for fixed quantities and pumps without efficiency or power curves.
- Pump Recommendation Pressure Factor – Pressure difference allowance in pressure for the recommendation.
- PumpMaxSerie – Maximum number of pumps in parallel or series.
General
File Settings
- Auto Backup – Forces Pumpsim™ to make a backup of the current model file at regular intervals. If the program crashes, or is forcibly exited, the backed up model will be loaded automatically the next time Pumpsim™ is run.
Warning: If the model has become corrupted for some reason, there is a possibility that the auto-saved model may also be corrupted. For this reason, it is recommended that a model be regularly saved to ensure that good working copies are available as backups if required.
- Auto Backup Timing – Set interval of backup timing in minutes ('5' = backup every 5 minutes)
- Simulate Flow On Loading – Automatically performs an simulation when the file is loaded. This will update simulation summary parameters and a number of calculated heat parameters; these parameters are only available after a simulation.
License Settings
Alters license activation settings which may be required to allow Pumpsim™ to access the internet to validate licenses. Pumpsim™ normally uses Microsoft Internet Explorer settings to access the internet, however on occasion third party programs like Pumpsim™ may be denied direct access, requiring the proxy name and proxy port address to be entered manually.
These values can also be adjusted in the License Manager form.
Graphics
Control the various aspects of the screen graphics and presentation.
Background
- Background Picture – Sets a preset or custom picture to the background of the visual display. This may provide some visual flair for presentations or may simply suit the users preferences. An option exists to use a preset background (current CLOUDS or GROUND), or a custom background picture can be displayed by simply dragging a picture file from windows on to the screen.
- Background Picture Tinting – Tints the background picture using the Screen Colour Top and Bottom settings. Note that a black screen colour will totally hide the pictures, while a white screen colour will fully show the picture in natural colours.
- Screen Colour Bottom and Top – Colour of upper and lower halves of background. The colours are smoothly blended to provide a gradient effect. Lighter colours may be more appropriate for presentations and report.
Colours
- Brightness – Controls the relative brightness and intensity of colour display on the screen.
- Grid Colour – Colour of grid lines.
- Grid Sheet – Colour of semi-transparent edit plane sheet shown during vertical drawing operations.
- Colour Text Data – Colour of the waterway data. Text colours may need to be adjusted to provide contrast if the background colours are adjusted.
- Colour Text Waterway – Colour of the waterway text names and error messages. Text colours may need to be adjusted to provide contrast if the background colours are adjusted.
- Colour Text Node – Colour of the waterway node names. Text colours may need to be adjusted to provide contrast if the background colours are adjusted.
- Print to White Background – Instructs the program to make the background white when printing a graphics model to a printer or saving the image to a file.
- Selection Colour – The colour of selected waterways. The default colour is yellow, however sometimes this colour may not be as visible with lighter colour backgrounds.
- Text Background – The colour behind text on the screen if transparent text is not used.
Controls
- Invert Scroll Zoom Direction – Invert the direction of the scroll zoom using the mouse.
- Selection Helper – Highlight the object under the mouse. Should be disabled in large models as it can slow down the graphics.
- Snap Tolerance – Adjust the willingness of the Pumpsim™ cursor to adjust or join to other waterways while drawing or moving waterway items. For finer control (less propensity to connect to close waterways) reduce this number (minimum 1, maximum 100)
- Use 3D Mouse – Enable use of a Connexion™ 3D mouse. This type of input allows for models to be rotated, panned, and zoomed with a separate controller, leaving the regular mouse free to operate menus and selection duties. This option will have no effect if a Connexion™ 3D mouse is not present.
Coordinates
- Grid North Orientation – Defines the direction of grid north on the screen. Therefore, if grid north direction is defined as UP, then the Northing coordinate numbers will start lower from the screen bottom, to higher numbers towards the screen top. If a GRID NORTH system is not chosen, then this setting will show CUSTOM.
- Grid System – Most mines/models use a GRID NORTH system. Pumpsim’s coordinate convention when using grid north coordinates is Easting, Northing and Elevation in that order. If another type of system is used, then an XYZ system can be specified, which allows for orientation of coordinates in any direction.
- Automatic Grid Centering – Automatically calculate model bounds and grid location.
- Coordinate Centre – Defines the centre of the grid system from which the grid lines will be drawn. Note that this can only be specified if Automatic Grid Centering is turned OFF, otherwise the centre numbers will be automatically adjusted when the model is viewed or reloaded.
- Level Range – The range of elevations to show around a single selected level. Selected levels may be chosen from the RIGHT CLICK mouse popup menu, and limit the range of waterways data shown on screen.
- Orientation of Elevation, X Axis, Y Axis – This option should only be used for CUSTOM grid orientation. GRID NORTH orientations do not require these settings to be adjusted.
- Spacing for Grid – The spacing between grid lines on the screen.
Icons
- Custom Resistance Display Threshold – Controls the display of resistance icons where waterways have been assigned a custom resistance. Only waterways with a resistance above the threshold will have an icon displayed.
- Transparent Icons – Shows transparent sides for icons over waterways.
Rendering
- Anti-aliasing – An advanced graphics option (not supported by all graphics card) which smooths the appearance of the edges of solids to give a more natural look. The option may significantly slow some graphics cards or cause graphics irregularities. By default, it is set to FALSE.
- Back face Culling – Removes hidden surfaces from the display. This may make older graphics cards more responsive in displaying complex graphics.
- Hide Text While Rotating – Hides text while model is rotated or zoomed. Very large models with lots of text can slow or make smooth rotation movements unresponsive. Use this option to hide text and make rotation movement much smoother.
- Maximum / Minimum Frame Rate – The rate at which to update the screen graphics. To conserve laptop battery power, the minimum frame rate option is available to reduce power when Pumpsim™ is not the active program in Windows.
- Perspective – Apply perspective to 3D view.
- Rotation Inertia / Damping – Pumpsim™ model rotation results in a short period of continued rotation after the mouse is released. This is purely for visual appeal and is provided to give models the illusion of ‘weight’ and solidity. The speed at which rotation is damped can be adjusted or turned off using these settings.
Hint: To allow the model to rotate freely without stopping, choose a damping level of zero (0), or HOLD THE CTRL key down when rotating a model with the mouse.
- Show Thick Lines – Hide or shows arrow, node and text data by default. This can be used to improve display clarity by removing unnecessary graphical details. Note that this function can be overridden from the View Menu options or the Right Click Context Menu options for text and other graphical items.
- Texture Extend – If texture extend is set then it will duplicate the picture to fill where there is no picture doesn't cover. If it is not set, around the initial picture will be black.
- Transparency Dimming – Level of dimming (0-1) from original colour of none active pipes if transparency flag is set.
- View Type 3D – View type, perspective or orthogonal
Size
- Waterway Scale – Scales waterways graphically so they appear larger or smaller than the specified dimensions. This does not change the calculated waterway size. A factor of ‘1’ is normal scale. Factors larger than one will enlarge waterway graphics while factors smaller than ‘1’ will shrink waterway graphics. This function may make very large extensive models larger and easier to see, or conversely can make very small model (eg lab scale apparatus) also easier to see.
- Maximum Tank Size – Maximum size which will be use to show tank.
- Size Data / Node / Waterway Text – Size of waterway text displayed on model. Larger text sizes are generally clearer to read, however excessive data may clutter display.
- Size Node / Icons / Arrows – The size of the nodes, icons and arrows. Note that the size reduces in wireframe mode to improve display legibility. In Solid mode, Icons and Nodes will not be reduced smaller than the waterway size.
Text
- Font for Text – Allow selection of the type of FONT to display on the screen.
- Hide Text While Rotating – Display text on icons with heat sources.
- Maximum Text Density – Change how much text can appear on the screen
- Show Heat Text with Pipe Text – Shows the thermodynamic setting names on the waterways they are attached to.
- Show Pump Description – Display text showing pump name description
- Show Resistance Description – Show the description of the resistance
- Text Scale Relative – Reduces the size of text labels relative to distance away from view camera. This make close waterways larger and more legible and distant waterway text smaller.
- Text Transparent – The background for text characters is shown as a solid colour, or transparent. Turning off text transparency can improve clarity of text graphics, but will obscure the waterway graphics behind the text.
- [TRUE] – Text labels backgrounds are transparent and show graphics under the label.
- [FALSE] – Text label backgrounds are solid and do not show graphics underneath. In some cases, this may improve the legibility of text.
Simulation
Cavitation
Parameters for cavitation simulation
- A, B, C – Fluid constant of Antoine equation to calculate the vapor pressure.
- Simulate cavitation – Enable or disable showing warning for cavitation.
Channel
Parameter for channel simulation
- Ignore Slope – Do not use the slope of the channel but only the direction, the direction of each channel must be correct for simulation. The depth will be calculating using the minimum slope.
- Minimum slope – Channel with a slope lower will be assume flat.
Dynamics
- Frequency Screen Update – Set the number of iteration between screens update.
- Max Time – Maximum time for simulation.
- Time Step – Increment of time for which the simulation is run.
Environment
- Gravity Acceleration – The standard gravity acceleration.
- Standard Water Density – Pressure outside the system, ie: at the water level of a tank or a the exit of a pipe.
- Standard Water Viscosity – Pressure outside the system, ie: at the water level of a tank or a the exit of a pipe.
- Surface Pressure Barometric – Pressure outside the system, ie: at the water level of a tank or a the exit of a pipe.
- Temperature – Pressure outside the system, ie: at the water level of a tank or a the exit of a pipe.
Flow
Simulation waterflow settings directly influence how the waterflow simulation operates.
- Allowable Error – Defines the level of accuracy Pumpsim™ must resolve down to before an acceptable solution is displayed. This should normally be set to less than 0.1 m3/s error. If a final analysis is required it may be advisable to set this to 0.01 m3/s or lower. The smaller the value, the more accurate the simulation process, but the longer it may take.
- Ignore Warnings
- [TRUE] – Pumpsim™ will ignore all warnings related to No Entry or No Exit errors found during simulation (waterways with no other waterways joining)
- [FALSE] – Pumpsim™ will only ignore waterways which have been set to Allow Closed End in the Edit Box. Any other ‘orphaned’ waterways will cause the simulation to show warnings.
- Iterations – Sets the number of attempts Pumpsim™ can take to achieve an acceptable error, before the program abandons the simulation process.
- Maximum Simulation Pressure – The maximum pressure the simulation will allow between waterways before a simulation error is reported. This error may indicate unreasonable fixed flows or resistances which interact and cause large pressure changes in the model.
- Mesh Surface Priority – Modifies the Pumpsim™ simulation algorithm to give mesh forming priority to surface connected waterways. This normally ensure rapid solving of model simulations, however for models with extensive surface connected waterways this may cause simulation balancing issues, and turning off this option may give better results.
- Pump Reverse Pressure Factor, Pump Reverse Flow Factor – Defines the default reverse fan performance relative to the original fan curve for the pressure and quantity of a fan running in reverse. These factors decrease the performance of fans set to run in reverse (for emergencies for example) in the Edit Box. Note that the default values may be overridden by values directly placed in the Fan Database for individual fans.
- Shock Loss Type – Defines the shock loss method to use. Pumpsim™ can be set to calculate shock losses using the equivalent length method, or the shock factor (K) method. Shock loss calculations are necessary to estimate pressure loss due to water turbulence cause by a change in waterway direction, a junction or a change in pipe size. Note that changing this value in an existing model will result in Pumpsim™ requesting to recalculate the shock losses using the alternative system.
The equivalent length method requires the user to estimate an equivalent extra pipe length required to approximate pressure loss due to shock. The shock factor (K) method uses a calculated factor derived from both empirical and calculated changes in waterway areas and velocities. Both methods are described in any number of ventilation texts.
Once the method is set, the Edit Box will require an appropriate shock loss value for each pipe. The Edit Box can accept a manually entered number, but also has a number of preset values, as well as an AUTO function which will force Pumpsim™ to attempt to calculate a shock loss factor or an equivalent length.
- Stop Resistance – Defines the minimum resistance at which Pumpsim™ will completely stop all flow in a pipe. All preset resistances above this value will cause flow in the set waterway to completely stop. Only one Preset Resistance value should be greater than the Stop Resistance value. This function artificially restricts flow and has the potential to cause simulation problems if used on too many waterways. The simulation will check and ensure that only one (or nil) preset resistances are greater than this value.
- Warn On Direction Change – If set to TRUE, and an waterway is specified in the EDIT form with a FIXED DIRECTION, Pumpsim™ compares waterway directions before and after a simulation and alerts the user which waterways have waterflow that has changed direction during simulation.
System Settings
Pumpsim™ program settings control over-arching settings which influence all parts of the program.
- 2D Drawing – Allow the user to draw a model in 2D. The elevation is still use for the simulation.
- Language – Set the language for all menus, dialog boxes and other text within Pumpsim™.
- Maximum Pipe Numbers – Sets maximum pipe numbers allowed to be constructed in a model.
- Maximum Reference Elements – Maximum number of reference element.
- Unit Type – The type of units to use in Pumpsim™. The program operates natively in SI METRIC, with underlying calculations performed in metric units. To display imperial values and accept imperial input, set the unit type to IMPERIAL. The imperial setting uses a conversion table to calculate the conversion from metric, and can be customised to suit mine preferences. The imperial conversion table can even be set to use a combination of METRIC values by setting the program to IMPERIAL and then using the SETTINGS > UNITS menu to individually specify what units will remain ALWAYS METRIC.
Warning: The conversion table has set limits of decimal accuracy to convert from metric to imperial and back again. If the decimal accuracy is too low, some accuracy may be lost in the conversion process, and the value input as an Imperial number, may be returned slightly differently.