FluidProp Frequently Asked Questions

The Readme.txt file in the FluidProp directory is a useful installation guide. This file describes the installation procedure for the FluidProp Excel Add-In. The FluidProp.chm file acts as a useful technical help tool providing general syntax and information on other methods of interfacing with common programs such as MATLAB.

If you like to use FluidProp in Microsoft Excel, you need to install the FluidProp Excel Add-In. To do this in excel versions 2003 and below:

1. Start Microsoft Excel
2. Select “Add-Ins…” from the Tools menu.
3. In the dialog box showing the available Add-Ins, click the Browse button.
4. Browse your folders and select the file FluidProp.xla in the FluidProp folder.
5. After clicking “OK”, “FluidProp Add-In 3.x.x.x” appears in the dialog box showing the available Add-Ins.
6. Click OK to close this dialog box as well.

Now a FluidProp category appears every time you use the Excel Function Wizard (Insert -> Function).  If you select this category, you can use all the FluidProp functions from Excel.

To do this in excel versions 2007 and up:

1. Start Microsoft Excel
2. Select “Options” from the File menu/Office-button and go to the “Add-Ins” tab.
3. From the “Manage:” drop-down box select “Excel Add-ins” and press “Go…”.
4. In the dialog box showing the available Add-Ins, click the Browse button.
5. Browse your folders and select the file FluidProp.xla in the FluidProp folder.
6. After clicking “OK”, “FluidProp Add-In 3.x.x.x” appears in the dialog box showing the available Add-Ins.
7. Click OK to close this dialog box as well.

Now a FluidProp category appears every time you use the Excel Function Wizard (Insert Function button). If you select this category, you can use all the FluidProp functions from Excel.

These procedures have been illustrated with screen shots in the FluidProp help file. The help file can be found in the FluidProp folder.

Minimum hardware and software requirements for use of FluidProp are:

• Windows 98, ME, 2000, NT or XP, Vista, Windows7 and Windows8.
• An Intel Pentium II Processor or equivalent, 300 MHz or faster
• 64 MB of available random-access memory (RAM)
• 50 MB of available disk space
• A 256-color monitor capable of 800 x 600 pixel resolution (1024 x 768 pixel resolution recommended)

Yes. FluidProp has models that can readily be used to describe new fluids. If your fluid is not yet supported by FluidProp, you can contact us and we can add it for you. The associated costs will depend on how special the fluid is (how much work it is for us to find or estimate the parameters) and wether we expect to be able to sell the same fluid data to other users as well. Note we have added a large number of fluids to FluidProp already, so you can be assured that we will be efficient in adding another one for you.

Yes, you can. In fact, many users prefer to use RefProp through the FluidProp interface because the FluidProp interface nicely integrates with many platforms.

To couple an existing RefProp 10 installation to FluidProp you have to add the path to refprop.dll to the system environment variable PATH. The path to refprop.dll is by default: “C:\Program Files (x86)\REFPROP\” for 64-bit systems and “C:\Program Files\REFPROP\” for 32-bit systems. After doing so, FluidProp should be able to find and use RefProp on your system.

To couple an existing RefProp 9.1 installation to FluidProp you don’t have to do anything. The RefProp 9.1 installer registers the dlls to your system for you, so FluidProp should be able to find and use RefProp without any further action.

We currently only support RefProp 9.0 and 9.1 officially. Other versions might work, but we can’t guarantee it.

If you want to use RefProp from FluidProp, but you do not have a RefProp installation, you can buy the RefProp add-on in our webshop for almost the same price as the standard version of RefProp. This add-on offers the full RefProp functionality, but is closely integrated with FluidProp.

The FluidProp installer will ask for a license file during the installation process, but you can also manually install a license file by copying it to the directory in which you installed FluidProp (on 64bit systems both the 32bit and 64bit install directories). Always make sure there is only one license file (.lic) in the installation directory. This ensures that FluidProp will use the correct license file.

License files are valid for a limited time. The end date of a license file is displayed in the file name in the format YYYYMMDD. The order number that the license file corresponds to is displayed after the end date.

You can download new license files whenever you want. These license files will always be valid for one year, starting from the day you downloaded the license file.

FluidProp has a ReadMe file and a help file which can be found in the FluidProp installation directory under the names ReadMe.txt and FluidProp.chm.