Flotherm Sim

Flotherm

Control Simcenter Flotherm through the narrowest path that can produce the requested evidence. A bundled skill does not prove that Flotherm, a license, sim-cli-core, or sim-plugin-flotherm is installed.

Start with capability discovery

Use one or two bounded probes before choosing an execution path:

1. Identify the requested operation and input:
   • installation or version lookup
   • unchanged existing-project re-solve
   • .pack import
   • first-time model creation or modification
   • solve monitoring or result extraction
2. Inspect the current runtime directly:
   • Flotherm install roots, flotherm.bat, translator.exe, and solexe.exe
   • the requested project, .pack, FloSCRIPT, logs, and result directories
   • interactive Windows desktop availability for GUI automation
   • an already available sim command or matching project environment
3. Choose a path from the table below. Do not install or download sim-cli merely to answer an availability, location, version, or saved-result question.

Do not infer that Flotherm is unavailable from a missing sim command. Do not search transient package-manager caches for old sim.exe files as a normal discovery path.

Choose the execution path

If the selected path requires sim-cli but the command or Flotherm plugin is missing, explain the requirement and get the user's approval before downloading or installing packages. Prefer the user's existing project environment and a pinned public package source. Do not silently use a repository main branch for an ephemeral install.

Native batch re-solve

Use this only for an existing project that has already been imported or created in FLOUSERDIR and does not need parameter or geometry changes:

batchCopy code
call flotherm.bat -env
translator.exe -p "<FLOUSERDIR>\<project>.<GUID>" -n1
solexe.exe -p "<FLOUSERDIR>\<project>.<GUID>"

The native path can re-solve an existing project, including a crash-recovery rerun. It cannot import a .pack, create a project, or apply model changes.

Check the project log at DataSets/BaseSolution/PDTemp/logit and the expected result fields under DataSets/BaseSolution/msp_*/end/. Process exit alone is not engineering acceptance.

sim-cli GUI automation

Use this path when the task needs .pack import, FloSCRIPT playback, first-time creation, or model modification. It requires an interactive Windows desktop; Flotherm's Qt UI automation does not work in a non-interactive SSH session.

Use the package manager and environment already selected by the user. Typical commands, once sim and the matching plugin are verified, are:

powershellCopy code
uv run sim check flotherm
uv run sim connect --solver flotherm --ui-mode gui
uv run sim exec '<path>.pack'
uv run sim exec 'solve'
uv run sim exec 'status'
uv run sim disconnect

Keep the returned session id and pass it explicitly when commands do not share environment state. Let the driver own the Flotherm process while UI automation is active; concurrent user input can race with UI element discovery.

For model generation, write and lint small FloSCRIPT XML steps, execute one step at a time, and save a project checkpoint after each successful mutation. Read base/reference/floscript_modeling.md before authoring FloSCRIPT.

Failure and retry rules

• Preserve the first failing command, status, logs, and screenshot before attempting a workaround.
• After a GUI playback failure, inspect the session once and capture one visual or log artifact when useful. Do not repeat an equivalent exec call unless a specific state change addresses the failure.
• Treat a missing file dialog, wrong foreground window, session mismatch, and non-interactive desktop as distinct failure classes.
• Use plugin doctor --deep only for a suspected plugin or protocol defect, not as a routine response to a solver/UI failure.
• Stop and report when the chosen path is unsupported, installation would be required without approval, or one bounded diagnostic cycle does not identify a corrective action.
• Disconnect only the session owned by the task. Do not terminate every process matching a generic Flotherm executable name.

Validation and evidence

Before mutation or solve:

• confirm the exact input/project and Flotherm version
• confirm that the chosen path supports the requested operation
• define a result-based acceptance criterion
• lint FloSCRIPT or inspect the existing project when applicable

Before claiming completion:

• verify Flotherm's completion or convergence marker
• inspect expected project, log, and result artifacts
• extract a numeric engineering result when the task calls for one
• report the execution path used and any checks that were skipped

For GUI solves, look for the Flotherm message indicating that the steady solver stopped after convergence. For result extraction, read base/reference/postprocessing.md. For acceptance details, read base/reference/acceptance_checklists.md.

Load additional guidance only when needed

• FloSCRIPT modeling: base/reference/floscript_modeling.md
• Result extraction: base/reference/postprocessing.md
• Error-code triage: base/reference/error_codes.md
• Headless authoring limitations: base/reference/headless_bootstrap_investigation.md
• Runtime control patterns: base/reference/runtime_patterns.md
• Known driver and vendor issues: known_issues.md
• Release-specific differences: solver/<detected-version>/notes.md

The version-specific layer is useful only after the installed Flotherm release has been detected. Do not assume a /connect response or active solver layer exists before capability discovery.