There are a couple of suggestions below that might be of use - we would recommend the final one (local DATA) if that is possible.
The speed of the network. We really wouldn’t know enough about your specific LAN/WAN to be able to suggest how to overcome any bottlenecks, but it might be worth talking to the Network Administrator to look at the Event Logs around the time when problems/bottlenecks occur.
Your anti-virus software is checking PSFF.EXE every time it starts up.
To “fix” this: · Add FluidFlow3’s application folder (where PSFF.EXE resides) *and* the FluidFlow3 “Public” folder – if you are using that - to your anti-virus ‘Exceptions’ list. For example, in AVG, this is done via “Settings | General | Exceptions”: Note 1: Replace the paths shown above with your own on the server. If you are uncomfortable with modifying your anti-virus exceptions list, you could install FluidFlow3 locally and point to the license/data/preferences on your shared server. · Install FluidFlow3 on each of the user PCs and replace the “local” PSFF.INI with the PSFF.INI on your server’s installation, for example: [Options] NetworkAccessFolder=\\[YourServername]\[Path]\FluidFlow3 DataFolder=\\[YourServername]\[Path]\FluidFlow3\Data PreferencesFolder=\\[YourServername]\[Path]\FluidFlow3\Preferences Note 1: The PSFF.INI file will automatically be created in the FluidFlow3 installation folder on the user’s PC. The logic within FluidFlow3 itself when it tries to solve a network model. Before FluidFlow3 tries to solve a model, it needs to ensure it has the most up-to-date equipment data and fluid properties. It does this by querying the “DATA” – the number of times this occurs is dependent on the complexity of the model, but will involve (at least) several MBs of data being transferred over the network. To address this are a couple of options: · Install FluidFlow3 on each of the user PCs and modify the installations’ PSFF.INI files to point to the license on the network server: [Options] NetworkAccessFolder=\\[YourServername]\[Path]\FluidFlow3 ; The following entries are the default values for any new installation and can be left as is. DataFolder=C:\Users\Public\Documents\Flite\FluidFlow3\Data PreferencesFolder=C:\Users\Public\Documents\Flite\FluidFlow3\Preferences Note 1: The PSFF.INI file will automatically be created in the FluidFlow3 installation folder on the user’s PC. Note 2: You need to update the NetworkAccessFolder entry to match the NetworkAccessFolder entry from your server installation’s PSFF.INI. · Leave the network setup as it is, but have each user make a copy of the server’s DATA folder on their PCs. They can then use the ‘Database | Connections…’ menu item to point to this local copy. In this case, the executable (and license file) will still reside on the network server, but anytime the user ‘calculates’ a model, the local DATA is used (thus reducing network traffic.) NB: In both options above, users will NOT share each other’s DATA folder, so any new equipment components added via the ‘Database’ menu items will be available only to the user who added them. Although there is no full ‘merging’ functionality available to users, you can contact support@fluidflowinfo.com if you require DATA folders to be merged, or you can use the Load/Save functionality within the database editors to share equipment data between users. Please let me know if any of the above is unclear, or if you have any further questions.