The workspace tabs

The FlowState window has a menu bar (File, Edit, Unit Procedures, Tools, Tasks, View, Help), a toolbar, seven workspace tabs in the centre, the Inspector on the right and a status bar at the bottom. The Unit Procedures library on the left appears on the Flowsheet tab.

The toolbar and status bar

The toolbar gives one-click access to New, Open, Save, Undo and Redo; the project dialogs ⚛ Components, ⚗ Mixtures, 🔥 Resources, ⏱ Scheduling and $ Economics; and the exports 📄 Report and 📋 Batch Sheet. On the right are the light/dark theme toggle and the simulation status (✔ Solved, ⚠ Warnings or ⛔ Errors).

The status bar shows the message counts, the solve time and recycle iterations (“recycle not converged” if a loop fails), the batch time, cycle time and batches per year, and, when economics are evaluated, the unit cost and NPV. Its right end shows Batch plant or Continuous plant.

The Inspector

The Inspector edits whatever is selected:

• Nothing selected: a process overview (number of procedures, streams and components, batch and cycle time, batches per year, unit production cost) and a ⚙ Process settings… button.
• A unit procedure: its name, section and operating mode, scheduling and sharing, vent and emission model, equipment (design or rating mode, size, units in parallel, staggered sets, cost model), consumables and labour, the recipe of Operations and the Results.
• A stream: name, classification, price or disposal cost, temperature and pressure, the composition of feeds (pure components or a stock mixture), and the calculated mass, volume, temperature, vapour fraction, second liquid phase and bubble/dew points.

1. Flowsheet

The canvas is where you build the process.

• Add procedures by dragging from the library, clicking an item and then the canvas, using the Unit Procedures menu, or right-clicking the background ▸ Add unit procedure. The library search matches names, categories and descriptions.
• Connect by dragging from a port to another port, or onto a procedure body to use a free port. Drag from a port into empty space to create a feed or product stream with a free end; free ends can be moved.
• Navigate with the mouse wheel (zoom 20–300 %) and by dragging the background, or with the middle or right button. Press F or ⛶ Fit to fit the flowsheet to the window.
• The overlay at the top right has zoom buttons, Fit, and the toggles Grid and Flows (stream flows on labels).
• Right-click a procedure for Duplicate, Delete and Show in schedule; right-click a stream to change its Classification, reset a free end or Delete stream.
• Procedures are coloured by section, and badges mark the bottleneck and procedures with warnings.

2. Streams

The Stream Table is the per-batch material balance for every stream. Rows show the classification, temperature, total mass, volume, density, enthalpy, vapour fraction (mass), bubble and dew points, and the mass of each component. Click a column header to select that stream. ⬇ Export CSV saves the table.

3. Equipment

Lists every equipment item with its tag, procedure, type, mode, size, number of units, utilisation, occupancy and purchase cost, with summary cards for the number of items, the listed purchase cost and the estimated unlisted equipment. Shared equipment is shown once, as “shared · counted in …”.

4. Schedule

The Recipe Schedule shows the operations Gantt chart over several batches, with cards for Batch time, Cycle time, Bottleneck, Batches / year and Operating time used. Switch between Operations and Equipment occupancy, set the number of Batches to draw, and zoom. Bars are coloured by operation family (Transfer, Thermal, Reaction, Separation, Cleaning, Hold); the bottleneck row is red. Click a bar to select its procedure and operation. See Scheduling.

5. Resources

Demand profiles for labour, electric power and heat-transfer agents over consecutive batches, with per-batch cards and limit lines. Below the chart:

• Annual utility consumption: per batch and per year, and cost per year, for every agent and electricity;
• Availability limits: peak demand and hours over each limit;
• Storage-unit inventories, if you have defined storage units under Tasks ▸ Storage units & resource limits….

6. Economics

The Economic Evaluation dashboard: total capital investment, operating cost, revenues, unit production cost, gross margin, return on investment, payback time and NPV (with IRR). Charts show the direct-fixed-capital breakdown, the annual operating cost and the cash flow; tables give capital investment, profitability, costs by section and the year-by-year cash-flow analysis. Further cards cover the minimum selling price, consumables, credits, labour and QC, and raw materials and revenues. See Economics.

If economics are switched off for the process, the tab shows Cost evaluation is off for this process and a Turn on cost evaluation button.

7. Environment

The Environmental Impact view lists total waste, E-factor, COD and BOD₅, suspended solids, VOC emitted, CO₂ vented and water intensity, with a per-stream table and a waste chart. Below it are the Life-cycle assessment section and the water-quality and energy summary. See Environment and LCA.

View options

The View menu switches tabs and toggles the Messages panel, the Flowsheet grid, Stream flows on labels and the dark/light theme.