SIMCA®-online 17

Major updates

SIMCA® 17 compatibility
Batch Aggregation nodes in Batch Context Generator
- Added aggregation nodes, which is a new type of node in Batch Context Generator
- Data can be combined and monitored at the batch level since all units are executed in the same project
- Batch ID match pattern in batch context node settings, batches with similar, but not identical, IDs can also be aggregated
- Improved Batch Context generator work flow
User defined Python libraries for preprocessing
- Matching Python package versions with SIMCA® 17 bundled
  - Python version 3.7.9
  - NumPy (1.19.5), SciPy (1.6.0) and Pandas (1.2.0)
- Script added for installing Python packages that are compatible with main version and have no graphical UI
- Add any Python package
Manage data source connections on the fly
- Administrators can manage SimApis on a running server, without affecting project execution
  - add a new SimApi
  - restart individual SimApis or include new data source tags
  - disable or remove SimApis from the server
- Solution for backup with e.g. Windows volume shadow copy service
Performance optimizations
- Grouping many data reads into single reads from a data source
- Keeps up with executions of more configurations
- Less traffic between SIMCA®-online and the data source, and thus less load on the data source itself and the network
- The server is less sensitive to slow data sources and high latency in the network to the data source
- Updated plot library
- Improved method when adding data on server for project update
Active Directory improvements
- Search for AD groups and users by name or email (wildcard and substring search supported)
- Names of users and groups from AD are used in SIMCA®-online which makes it easy to identify groups and users
- Display name for Active Directory users is used to annotate user actions in alarms, notes and other places.
- How Active Directory is set up and tested in SIMCA®-online Server Options. The entire domain can be searched for groups and users (also when migrating from an earlier version)
Model update automation
- Batch download of SIMCA® projects, download in the background
- Update project considerably faster compared to previous versions thanks to improved write speed when adding data
- Customer can script the model update for a fully automatic model update (only need to sign when uploading updated project to SIMCA®-online)
- Script example available upon request for triggering update of SIMCA® project

Minor updates

UX improvements in desktop client
- Production Overview
  - Configuration status
  - Switch between open configurations
- Project Explorer
  - Streamlined workflow
- Tabs removed, navigation between configurations instead in panes
Baseline Filters to combine IPC and process data
- IPC data can be treated as continuous data using baseline filters
- Values for variables in the beginning of the phase are sampled but are now set to missing by SIMCA®-online
- The assumption is that when the values change, they belong to the phase.
Suppress alarm notifications during predict of past batches
- Default in SIMCA®-online 17 is to not send notifications during manual Predict, with an option to turn them on
- In previous versions of SIMCA®-online, notifications were always sent for triggered alarms when predicting past batches

Fixes

Server crash when alarm notification is sent at the same time as the configuration it belongs to is deleted)
Client crashes when format plot dialog is open on Styles
Configuration activation with maximized plot shows everything blank
Marking only works at symbol center in plots (regardless of symbol size)
Deleting multiple projects and configurations when the tree is collapsed does not always count the number of items correctly
Deleting collapsed projects refused as one configuration is not discovered
Excessive, incorrect server logging for Batch Context Generator

Other

Licensing now uses the new LEM system

Learn what's new in SIMCA®-online Web Client 17 that is bundled with SIMCA®-online 17.

More Information

Download and installation

Demo limitations

If you install SIMCA®-online without a license it will run in demo mode. The demo mode includes all SIMCA®-online features, but is restricted to only use the DBMaker SimApi which connects to the database simulation software DBMaker. SIMCA®-online cannot connect to other data sources in demo mode. However, you can use SIMCA®-online with real-world data without a SimApi (Q811)

Release date

The version of this release is 17.0.0.55175. Release date 2022-03-01.

Validation

SIMCA®-online 17.0 and the SIMCA®-online Web Client 17.0 have been fully validated. The short validation report and the full validation package are available at the download page. To unzip the validation zip you need a password which you get from your sales representative.

System requirements

Any x64 computer hardware supported by the Windows versions listed below.
Supported versions of Microsoft Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 11.
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.2 or later. The latest available version is recommended.
500 MB available hard disk space for a full installation.
SIMCA® projects built with SIMCA® 13.0.3 or later. To use the latest features, we recommend SIMCA® 17.0.2.

To learn more on installation guidance see the SIMCA®-online Implementation Guide on the SIMCA®-online download page and the SIMCA®-online Technical Guide.

Technical details

SIMCA®-online 17.0 is a separate program and installation from the previous versions. SIMCA®-online 17.0 can be installed in parallel with earlier versions on the same server computer. Different database directories and settings are used. Note however that we do not recommend running more than one Umetrics® Suite server per server computer in production. See the SIMCA®-online Technical Guide (section 2.1.1) for more information.

SIMCA®-online 17.0 is backwards compatible with the SIMCA®-online 13.1 and later database formats. This means that a copy of the database for those versions can be used if you want to migrate a previous server to the most recent version and keep old data. Note that SIMCA®-online 14.0 introduced Unicode-support, and if you want to take full advantage of that (correct sorting) you should start with an empty database in SIMCA®-online and not import a database from a version earlier than 14.

The application SIMCA®-online Server Options is started automatically following the installation; If an earlier supported version is installed it will ask if you would like to import data and settings from that version. Follow the instructions on the screen.

To learn more about migration of databases and settings, refer to Supported migration of database and settings between SIMCA®-online versions (Q801).

Licensing

SIMCA®-online is licensed on the SIMCA®-online server. Clients need no licenses and can be freely installed and used on many PCs. A server license is needed to connect to data sources other than the built-in data source simulation tool DBMaker (see above under Demo limitations).

SIMCA®-online licensing works as follows:

You place an order with your sales representative.
You receive an email (delivery letter) with an Activation ID together with step-by-step instructions. Save a copy of the email as you might need it later if you reinstall the product or want to change the license.
Follow the instructions in the email to use the Activation ID to download and install a license on your server computer.

Third party software

SIMCA®-online is bundled with ExamDiff, a freeware tool for visual comparison of configuration changes in the SIMCA®-online audit trail for 21 CFR Part 11 (Electronic Records) compliance. For even more features, check out ExamDiff Pro.

"Python" is a registered trademark of the Python Software Foundation (python.org/psf-landing). Python is licensed under the Python Software License (opensource.org/licenses/PythonSoftFoundation.php).