Classroom Installation

How to put DWSIM on a laboratory of machines with the same settings on every one of them, without touching each installation by hand: a silent install, a site settings file that pins the language, the solver options and the update check, and the documentation and samples that work without a network.

1. Silent install

The Windows installers are Inno Setup packages and accept its standard switches:

DWSIM_Setup.exe /VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NORESTART /DIR="C:\DWSIM"

Switch	Effect
/VERYSILENT	No wizard, no progress window
/SUPPRESSMSGBOXES	Every question is answered with its default
/NORESTART	Never reboots on its own
/DIR="..."	Installation folder
/COMPONENTS="main,webview2"	Which components to install (main is always in; webview2 is the runtime the AI assistant panel uses; chemsep and capeopen where offered)
/TASKS="associatefiles"	File associations; add desktopicon for a desktop shortcut
/SITEINI="\\server\share\dwsim.site.ini"	Installs the given file as the site settings file (next section)
/LOG="install.log"	Writes a log

The same command works from a deployment tool (SCCM, Intune, PDQ, a login script). Uninstall silently with unins000.exe /VERYSILENT from the installation folder.

2. The site settings file

DWSIM keeps each user's settings in Documents\DWSIM Application Data\dwsim.ini. A site settings file has the same sections and keys; on every start DWSIM lays it over the user's file, so the keys it names always win and the rest stay the user's. Students can still change a setting during a session; it comes back at the next start.

DWSIM looks for the file, in this order:

1. The path in the DWSIM_SITE_INI environment variable
2. dwsim.site.ini next to the application executable (where /SITEINI puts it)
3. Windows: %ProgramData%\DWSIM\dwsim.site.ini; Linux and macOS: /etc/dwsim/dwsim.site.ini

A file for a first course, in Portuguese, with the solver set to the safe defaults:

[Localization]
CultureInfo = pt-BR

[Misc]
CheckForUpdates = False
InspectorEnabled = False
EnableParallelProcessing = True
SolverMode = 1
PreferredSystemOfUnits = SI
DebugLevel = 0

[Backup]
EnableBackupCopies = True
BackupInterval = 3

Keys worth pinning:

Section	Key	Values	Why
Localization	CultureInfo	en, pt-BR, es, de, fr, it, ru, zh-CN, ...	Interface language, and the language of the F1 help pages
Misc	CheckForUpdates	True/False	No update prompts on managed machines
Misc	InspectorEnabled	True/False	The Inspector traces every solve and makes it about ten times slower; keep it off
Misc	EnableParallelProcessing	True/False	Parallel flowsheet solve
Misc	MaxDegreeOfParallelism	-1 (all cores) or a number	Cap on threads, useful on shared machines
Misc	SolverMode	0 synchronous, 1 asynchronous (default), 2 parallel	How the flowsheet solver runs
Misc	PreferredSystemOfUnits	SI, CGS, ENG, or a custom set	Unit system offered to new simulations
Misc	DebugLevel	0 to 3	Amount of logging
Backup	EnableBackupCopies, BackupInterval	True/False, minutes	Automatic backup copies of open simulations

Any other key of dwsim.ini can be pinned the same way; open a user's file to see the names.

The classic Windows interface

The classic interface keeps its settings in the Windows user profile (user.config), and reads the same site file on start: every key whose name matches one of its settings is written into them (the names above all match; EnableBackupCopies is mapped to its SaveBackupFile). Keys it does not have are ignored, and its interface is English only, so CultureInfo applies to the cross-platform interface.

3. Documentation and samples offline

• The user guide ships with the application as HTML (docs\dwsim-help\index.html in the installation folder, Help > User Guide (HTML)); no network is needed.
• The tutorial flowsheets ship in the Samples list of the welcome screen (Tutorial 01 to Tutorial 16).
• The tutorials site (this site) is what F1 opens; to serve it on a local network, clone the DWSIM.Tutorials repository, run mkdocs build, and publish the site/ folder on any web server. F1 links point at dwsim.org; a local copy is reached through the browser.
• The phase-equilibrium database used by the Data Regression and Property Package Comparison tools is downloaded on first use (about 94 MB) into %LOCALAPPDATA%\DWSIM\PhaseEq\; copy that folder to the machines of a laboratory to avoid one download per seat.

4. A checklist for the first class

1. Install silently with /SITEINI pointing at your site file.
2. Start DWSIM once as a student would and confirm the language and that no update prompt appears.
3. Open Tutorial 01 from the Samples list, solve it, press F8 (Flowsheet Check) and F1 (help for the selection): both should work without a network for the check, and open the browser for the help.
4. If the course uses the Property Package Comparison with measured data, download the phase-equilibrium database once and copy the folder.