Get Stream Summary Data from SimSci PRO-II into Excel

Need to get stream data from a Sim-Sci Pro/II simulation (also known as Provsion or PRO-2) into another format; say Microsoft Excel? It could be for a heat and material balance table, an equipment datasheet, or just data for a calculation. Try one of the following approaches to copy out the PRO-II data:

1. For small amounts of data you can copy from a stream or unit operation’s window directly. For example, for streams, right-click on the stream and select the data review window. At the bottom-left of the window is a drop-box listing the different Property Lists which you can request. In this context, Property Lists function like report formats. Pick the Property List with the data you want, and then click the “copy” button to copy all of the data on the screen. Then paste into other programs. By the way, from the main Pro-II screen, you can go to Option>Stream Property Lists to configure new lists in exactly the format you like. Similarly, under the Options menu you can create and view Unit Operation lists for equipment.
2. You can also right-click on a stream and pick “View Results” to get a text report. For simple printing purposes just paste the report using a monospaced font like courier new. If you need to get the data into something like Excel, paste the data in Excel and try to use the Data>Text to columns option and play with the “delimited” settings to try to extract the numbers from the data as cleanly as possible.  You may have to do a little manual work to get the data as a delimited data import will not be perfect
3. Use the Output commands such as Output>Report Format and Output>Generate Text Report to get a text report. These text reports let you get a lot of data in one go: it’s a super-sized version of Option #2. Use the tactics of Option #2 to extract data from the report.
4. Select Tools>Spreadsheet to access a variety of built-in spreadsheet reports. You can only get the default reports out with this approach. The results are attractively formatted and don’t have to fight with the data so this is a great option if the report covers your needs. Note: I find this tool is very slow and it often crashes. Save all your work beforehand, especially your PRO/II AND Excel work, in case these programs crash.
5. Open your PFD Palette (the sidebar that has streams and unit operations that you can drop into a simulation). Near the bottom you of the Palette should see Stream Property and Unit Op Property tables. You can drop these tables onto the PFD and configure them to show your desired Property List, the same lists discussed in Option #1. You can copy these tables and paste them directly into Excel. This is a good method if you want to get the same property list for several streams or equipment items at once. A warning: for large tables it becomes difficult for PRO/II to display the data and it may slow down your simulation, as PRO-II will constantly fight to keep the numbers up to date. I suggest you add a “Block Diagram” from your PFD palette and build the stream table inside the “subflowsheet” which is accessed by double-clicking on the block diagram. That way, the table is hidden inside the subflowsheet and PRO-II will only create the table when you need to look at it

Personally, I find Option #5 the most flexible, although it takes work to set up the Property List just how you want it and it can slow down your simulation if you don’t hide the tables inside Block Diagrams. Option #4 is a really great option if the default report has the information you need, probably the best. Sometimes Option #4 can be extended with Option #2, if you just need to add a tiny bit of information to the otherwise fine default reports.

P.S. The techniques in this entry have been used with PRO/II V7.1-V8.3 and may not work with older or newer versions.