A good way to start your process study with CADSIM Plus is to do a steady-state heat and material balance. Soon, you will be ready to add tanks and level control to control makeup in the same manner as the real plant. At this point, the balance is still largely steady-state and can be used for a variety of process investigations.

You will likely use the dynamic simulation capabilities of CADSIM Plus to solve specific dynamic problems that you identify, or to simulate batch or scheduled operations. CADSIM Plus is ideal for allowing you to evolve from a steady-state balance to a dynamic simulation, while allowing zones of your simulation to grow in detail to a higher fidelity. It is important to note that areas of higher fidelity can be added to a CADSIM Plus balance as needed. You will not have to add more detail than you require to satisfy your specific questions.

CADSIM Plus supports up to 9 different process definitions or sets of stream components on a single simulation (plus one logic layer set). This allows you to add steam (for example) where you require steam, and leave it out where it is not needed.

One common example where a simulation might grow to have zones of higher fidelity in a specific area, is pressure-flow networks. You may wish to study the control or line and pump sizing for a specific line or branches of piping. For this piping, you can add pumps with pump curves, valves with characteristic curves, (such as equal percentage or fast opening), piping configuration (such as diameter, elevation, and total equivalent length) and controllers that open or close their valves. Flows are then calculated through head and pressure drop calculations.

An important aspect of CADSIM Plus's ability to create zones of fidelity, is that this allows you to add pressure flow network detail only in the network that you are trying to solve. You do not have to add this level of detail to the rest of the flowsheet, nor do you have to add it to other drawings/models that you may be running as part of a plant-wide dynamic simulation. This unique feature of CADSIM Plus can save you an enormous amount of time and money by avoiding unnecessarily detailed modeling where it is not needed.

CADSIM Plus allows your simulation to evolve to solve your problems with minimal effort from you. Running the simulation is highly interactive. You can even select one of several pre-configured modes of operation or control with the single push of a button!