Aspen Plus Toolchain
The Aspen Plus toolkit lets the agent drive a locally installed Aspen Plus directly: connect or create a file, define components and property methods, build unit operations, connect streams, run the case, and read the results — 32 tools in total.
Prerequisites
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows (the simulator is driven through its Windows automation interface) |
| Aspen Plus | Installed locally and able to open normally; V12.1 is the tested reference, other versions are assessed at delivery |
| Computation components | Licensed calculation components delivered with the product; when absent the toolkit simply does not register and everything else keeps working |
Tool families
| Family | What the tools cover |
|---|---|
| Session | Connect to or create a simulation file, save, close, and summarize the current session |
| Components and properties | Add or remove components and configure the property method |
| Streams | Create streams and set feed conditions and composition |
| Distillation columns | Build a column, connect feed, overhead, and bottoms, and manage column specifications |
| Heat exchangers | Create heaters and exchangers and connect their inlet and outlet streams |
| Pumps | Create pumps and connect their streams |
| Run and results | Run the case to convergence, read column and stream results, and remove blocks |
The complete tool list is shown in the console skills page under the Aspen Plus group, with a description and switch on every tool card. This page describes families only; exact availability depends on the deployment.
Stability safeguards
| Safeguard | What it does |
|---|---|
| Dialog suppression | Modal simulator dialogs are suppressed after connecting, so a run never stalls waiting for someone to click a popup |
| Crash-dialog watchdog | Known simulator crash popups are detected and dismissed automatically and the session continues, with the event recorded in the tool result |
| Post-connect settling | A short settle after connecting avoids simulator initialization races |
| Exclusive session ownership | First-come ownership prevents concurrent sessions from corrupting one model |
| Lazy connection | Starting or restarting the console never touches the simulator; connection happens only when a tool is actually called |
Modelling discipline
- ✓Confirm before changing
In Build mode the agent asks before changing model structure or overwriting an existing file.
- ✓Report convergence
After every run the agent reports convergence status and the key results.
- ✓Source every parameter
Every parameter written into the model is labelled with its source: specified by the user, taken from the knowledge base, or a simulator default.
Scope
This page describes behaviour and boundaries. Internal interfaces, computation-component details, and tool implementations are not published.