COCO - CAPE-OPEN to CAPE-OPEN simulation environment
 Support

COCO is served as is

Because the COCO software is free of charge, it comes as is. No support is included. See the license page for further information.

AmsterCHEM however can provide support for COCO and its components. Please visit https://www.amsterchem.com/ for more information.


Feature requests

If you find COCO should have an additional feature to allow you to do better modelling of your process, or otherwise get more out of COCO, please send us a feature request.


Forum

For questions, please visit the CAPE-OPEN forum or the COCO forum.


Mailing list

Stay up to date! Subscribe to our mailing list if you would like to stay informed about new releases, major changes and events. You also can use this form to send us a message. Any comments or questions are welcome.

Personal information will not be used for any other purpose than responding to queries or requests. You can unsubscribe from the mailing lists at any time by sending us a message with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject or body.


Frequently Asked Questions

What makes COCO unique?
COCO is a steady state flowsheet simulation environment that is completely geared towards using CAPE-OPEN interfaces.

Why is COCO free?
COCO is developed with CAPE-OPEN development in mind. COCO is geared towards providing good feedback when testing interoperability. Nevertheless, COCO is also suitable for case studies of specific engineering problems.
COCO is free in order to provide people with the opportunity to do high-quality CAPE OPEN development and testing.

Updating COCO
To update COCO, please run COCO UPdate (CUP) from the COCO Start Menu. If CUP is not available, you are probably running a version of COCO older than 1.13; please download the latest version of COCO.
The latest modifications to COCO are documented here.

Using CUP with a proxy server

CUP will use the default internet explorer proxy-server settings, if available from

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ProxyEnable = (DWORD)1
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ProxyServer = (STRING)<server name>:<port number>

If not available, and the internet connection fails, you will be prompted for proxy server details. If your proxy server requires authentication, you may get prompted for user name and password.
CUP supports the Basic, Digest and NTLM authorization schemes. CUP supports proxy server authorization since version 1.13.0.5 (NTLM since version 1.13.0.6)

How do I add new compounds to TEA/CORN?
Compound definitions in TEA and CORN are using Pure Compound Data (PCD) files that are compatible with those of ChemSep. COCO comes with a data base of more than 150 compounds. Within a configuration of TEA you can individually edit these compounds. So if your compounds require modification from existing compounds, simply modify them as you use them is one way to go.
If you have a DIPPR license, we can provide you with a PCD file that contains all compounds from the DIPPR databank. Please contact us for more information.
Soon a tool will be available here to manipulate PCD files directly. This will allow you to modify existing compound definitions as well as create new ones.

How do I build a flowsheet from scratch?
Starting from a new, empty, COFE file, you will need to perform the following steps to get started:

See also: Introduction to flowsheeting with COCO and ChemSep.

How to I add user defined unit operations?
All CAPE-OPEN compatible unit operations can be used inside COFE. Since CAPE-OPEN is an OPEN standard, this means that you can simply write your own models. To do this, some knowledge on COM programming is required, or one can use a data programming language such as Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, that is completely designed around COM.
Newer programming environments can also be used. For example, when programming for .NET, the runtime callable wrappers can be used to expose your models as COM objects.
The interface specifications can be downloaded from the CAPE-OPEN Laboratories Network web site; they are by default also installed on your system as part of COCO.
To get started writing your own unit operations, you should start by picking a programming environment that you are comfortable with, and that allows you to expose COM objects. Here are a couple of options for starting points:

How do I add user defined thermo models?
All CAPE-OPEN compatible unit thermodynamic packages can be used inside COFE. Since CAPE-OPEN is an OPEN standard, this means that you can simply write your own models. To do this, some knowledge on COM programming is required, or one can use a data programming language such as Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, that is completely designed around COM.
The interface specifications can be downloaded from the CAPE-OPEN Laboratories Network web site; they are by default also installed on your system as part of COCO.
It is strongly advised that any new CAPE-OPEN thermodynamic components implement at least version 1.1 of the CAPE-OPEN thermodynamic standard. Many of the knowledge required to program a CAPE-OPEN unit operation (see above) also applies to programming thermodynamic components. It is therefore recommended to first start of by building a simple CAPE-OPEN unit operation, as this is generally an easier task and will allow you to get acquainted with the CAPE-OPEN concepts. See above for starting points on how to build CAPE-OPEN unit operations.
A Visual 2012 SP1 C++ and/or MinGW based version 1.1 stand-alone Property Package "Water" for calculation of properties of water and steam, is available in the COCO distribution. The source code is available from here.
A C++ and VB6 code example for a version 1.0 Thermo System and version 1.1 Property Package Manager is available from here; see COIdealThermoExample.

Can I use ChemSep / COUSCOUS / TEA in other simulation environments?
Yes. As long as these environments provide CAPE-OPEN compatibility.

Running COCO under WINE
Since version 1.13, the installer has been adjusted to proceed successfully under wine. A common installation issue under wine is that the temp sub-folder of the installation folder still contains setup files. If this is the case, please remove this folder manually.
Known issues under wine:

COULIS or OATS crashes
It is not uncommon that installation of third party software causes improper registration of the CAPE-OPEN type libraries. COULIS and OATS run out-of-process and thus depend on proper installation of these type libraries. Please try re-installing the CAPE-OPEN type libraries (available in the COCO installer or from https://colan.repositoryhosting.com/trac/colan_coidl/downloads)

Installer says: not a valid Windows application
If after downloading the installer, the installer does not run, with the message that the installer is not a valid Windows application, most likely the download got aborted before it was complete. Make sure that the file size of the installer matches the size reported in the downloads section. If not, restart or complete the download.

How do I become a contributor?
COCO is free of charge, but it not an open-source project. Contributions can be made in the form of stand-alone components, in the form of flowsheet benchmark and testing documents, in the form of online discussions, etc
If you define your own models (thermo dynamics, unit operations, numeric solvers, ...) and you want these to be shipped with COCO, or you feel that in any other way you can contribute to the COCO simulation environment, please contact us.