The document discusses new integrations between SimulationX simulation software and Microsoft Office applications. It describes add-ins being developed for Excel, Word, and PowerPoint that allow users to import parameter tables, results curves, and model images into Office documents without needing programming skills. These add-ins facilitate exchanging data between SimulationX models and Office apps for report generation and presentation purposes. The document also outlines recently added capabilities in SimulationX for exporting and importing parameter configurations to easily parameterize model components and share parameter sets between users.

1. SimulationX Meets Office®
Thomas Neidhold
Manager Software Development, ITI GmbH, Dresden
Kurzfassung
SimulationX bietet seit jeher zahlreiche Schnittstellen zum Austausch verschiedenster
Modelldaten, wie Parameter, Kennfelder und Ergebnisverläufe mit den gebräuchlichsten Office-Anwendungen wie Word®, Excel® und PowerPoint®. Neben standardisierten Dateiformaten eröffnet vor allem das in SimulationX integrierte COM-Interface
nahezu unbegrenzte Möglichkeiten für den Austausch von Daten zwischen der Officewelt und SimulationX. Die effektive Anwendung dieser standardisierten Schnittstelle erfordert ein Mindestmaß an Programmierkenntnis, das nicht bei allen Anwendern einer CAE-Software vorausgesetzt werden kann. Aus diesem Grund hat sich ITI
entschieden, häufig verwendete Funktionen sowohl in SimulationX zu integrieren als
auch sie in Form spezieller Add-Ins innerhalb der jeweiligen Office-Anwendung zur
Verfügung zu stellen.
Abstract
SimulationX comes with numerous interfaces for the exchange of a wide range of
model data, such as parameters, characteristic maps and result curves, with common
Office applications like Word®, Excel® and PowerPoint®. In addition to standardized
file formats, the built-in COM interface offers almost unlimited possibilities for the
exchange of data between the world of Office and SimulationX. The effective use of
this standardized interface requires a certain level of programming knowledge which
is not necessarily mandatory for all users of CAE software. For this reason, ITI decided
to integrate the most commonly used functions directly into SimulationX and to provide them for the corresponding Office application as dedicated add-ins.
Introduction
Office applications from Microsoft have conquered the desktops of engineers at the
workplace in industry and research. Excel is widely used for analyzing data from measurements and simulations or for running more or less complex technical calculations.
Ease of use, low costs and general availability make it the Swiss Army knife among
an engineer’s many software tools. Word and PowerPoint, beyond any doubt, have
developed into a de facto standard for documentation and presentations. Accounting
for this development, ITI has integrated various interfaces into its products since the
very beginning to ensure a seamless exchange of data between its simulation software
and the Office platform. Support for standardized file formats to save characteristic
maps and calculation results as well as support for data exchange via the clipboard are
as much a part of SimulationX as the integrated COM interface. The latter, much like
its equivalent in the Office applications, offers a powerful tool for automating work
steps and exchanging data. A growing number of applications by third parties make
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2. SimulationX Meets Office®
use of this very interface already. Many users start off developing their own scripts for
the data exchange between SimulationX and other applications going by the examples that come with SimulationX by default. Excel can certainly be considered here to
be leading the pack of target applications. As not every engineer is capable or willing
to develop or customize an appropriate script for the import of SimulationX calculation results, ITI has decided to provide all those with this functionality built in.
CreateObject (“Excel.Application”)
MS Office
COM Interface
CreateObject (“iti.simx36”)
Clipboard (Text, Rich Text, EMF, BMP, …)
Data Files (*.xml, *.csv)
Text Files (*.txt, *.rtf)
SimulationX Project Files (*.isx)
Figure 1: Data exchange between SimulationX and Office applications
Add-Ins for MS Office applications
In order to automate the workflow within Microsoft’s Office applications, Visual Basic
for Applications was developed as a new programming language in the 1990s. That
enabled users and third party developers to extend the applications’ functionality. A
sheer endless number of extensions have been developed ever since. Security and
stability reasons were behind the re-structuring of those interfaces which now allow
for add-ins to be developed for each application separately with seamless integration
into the user interface and a hassle-free installation [1]. ITI, too, will provide dedicated SimulationX add-ins for Excel, Word and PowerPoint whose functionality will,
of course, differ from application to application. The principal concept, however, remains the same throughout. Once the connection to SimulationX was established and
a model is selected, the model’s data is available for the intended target application.
Individual model objects can then be accessed through a tree view, similar to the Model Explorer in SimulationX. Text blocks can be added into the document by drag and
drop, reports for a specified group of objects are created through the corresponding
button. The following sections will outline each add-in briefly.
SimulationX Add-In for MS Word
•• The following functions are available in Word:
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3. 1 SimulationX - What‘s new?
•• Generating parameter and result tables (current value) for specific elements
and connections
•• Generating charts for specific result curves from the simulation
•• Importing images of models and results
•• Generating customized reports for various simulation and analysis methods
(transient simulation, natural frequencies and mode shapes, steady-state simulation)
Figure 2: SimulationX add-in for MS Word
Upon alterations of the model, existing or saved reports can be updated without the
need to compile the document anew. That reports can be revised and amended as
desired goes without saying. Result curves can be imported as vector graphics or bitmap image in their original form, or they can be integrated as Office charts into the
target document. The latter allows for later modifications of formatting and design.
SimulationX Add-In for MS Excel
The following functions are available in Excel:
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4. SimulationX Meets Office®
•• Generating parameter tables with various filter and sort options
•• Editing parameter values and transferring changes to the SimulationX model
•• Updating parameter tables upon model changes
•• Importing specific or all result curves of a model
•• Importing specific or all result curves saved in a SimulationX project file (*.isx)
As it is also possible in Excel to make changes to the model, common simulation controls were integrated into the SimulationX ribbon tab.
Figure 3: SimulationX add-in for MS Excel
SimulationX Add-In for MS PowerPoint
The available functions in PowerPoint are a subset of those featured integrated in
Word, while the focus here lies on generating single text and image elements:
•• Generating parameter and result tables (current value) for specific elements
and connections
•• Generating charts for specific result curves from the simulation
•• Importing images of models and results
SimulationX Extensions for Organizing Parameters
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5. 1 SimulationX - What‘s new?
Beside the aforementioned Office add-ins, there have also been some changes to
SimulationX extensions that allow exporting and importing sets of parameters for
model components or for the entire model. No macros or external scripts are required.
The toolbar of the parameter dialog has been enhanced accordingly. The component’s
selected parameter set can be saved as text (*.txt or *.csv) or to an Excel file (*.xlsx),
or it can be opened in Excel straightaway. Parameters to be included in the data set
can be specified in a separate dialog. It is important to know that the availability of
some parameters depends on the current value of other parameters, mostly an enumeration.
Figure 4: Options for parameter export
The example of a spring damper backlash element demonstrates this quite clearly. With the setting kind=Spring selected before the parameter export, parameters
for damping and backlash that were inactive, i.e. invisible, at that point will only be
exported, if the option “Include inactive parameters” is enabled. Alternatively, it is
also possible to simply exclude the enumeration kind from the export (Figure 4). The
extension described here will allow transferring parameter configurations between
components of the same kind, or parameterizing model parts and entire models on
the basis of existing models without the need to make structural changes to the model itself.
In addition to that, it will be possible to save several parameter configurations for one
component type to a database. Once saved, those parameter sets can be amended
externally and are available for parameterizing other components of the same kind. It
is not necessary to prepare the type in any way, such as adding a particular database
link in the TypeDesigner, for instance. This method is applicable to basically all kind of
types. Working in a team becomes much easier that way as multiple users can access
the database at the same time.
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6. SimulationX Meets Office®
Conclusion
All extensions and add-ins described in this article will be made available to SimulationX users in the next major release. They will help to make creating result reports
and presentations even more convenient and efficient than before. Using specific
calculation results for analyses or further processing in Excel will be a piece of cake, in
a manner of speaking, also for users without any programming skills.
References
[1] Office development with Visual Studio (VSTO), Visual Studio
Tools for Office Homepage, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/
office/hh133430.aspx
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