Ariel Performance Program

Ariel's Performance Program Includes the Ariel Application Manual and Databook, and Other Features:

An easy to use interface
A robust gas properties program, allowing for the estimation of interstage water and hydrocarbon dropout
Compressor selection and performance prediction
Multi-service and multi-stage compressors
A case manager and packager manager for the evaluation of multiple operating points and multiple-unit selections
Adjust-to-flow and adjust-to-load calculations

Frame and cylinder data sheets
Extensive report generation features
Calculation of crank-effort and mass elastic
Standard comments and exceptions to API and ISO specifications
Access to equipment outline drawings and gas passage data
Multi-run calculations with compressor performance plots

Members Only Download

Ariel Performance Software is an intuitive Windows-based application designed for the selection of new gas compressor configurations or the evaluation of existing configurations and is available to Ariel Members only. Click on a button below to login or to request an account. Signing up for an account allows you access to valuable information and software available only to Ariel members.

Install Guide

Ariel Performance Program End User License Agreement (this “Agreement”)

IMPORTANT – READ CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE PROGRAM (AS DEFINED BELOW). BY DOWNLOADING, INSTALLING, IMPLEMENTING, OR USING THE ARIEL PERFORMANCE PROGRAM SOFTWARE AND DATABASE (INCLUDING ANY ASSOCIATED DOCUMENTATION, COLLECTIVELY, THE “PROGRAM”), YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL OF THESE TERMS, DO NOT DOWNLOAD, INSTALL OR USE THE PROGRAM, AND IF YOU DOWNLOADED OR INSTALLED THE PROGRAM, DELETE IT WITHOUT USING THE PROGRAM. YOU AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE PROGRAM ACKNOWLEDGES THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT, UNDERSTAND IT, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ITS TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

License Grant:

Ariel Corporation (“Ariel”) hereby grants you a royalty-free, limited, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable license to download, install and use the Program on any of your computers, subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement (the “License”). The License includes the right for any of your contractors to download, install, and use the Program solely for the purpose of providing services to you relating to Ariel’s products. You shall not (i) except as permitted in the immediately preceding sentence, permit any third party, other than, your disaster recover vendor or an affiliate, to use the Program, (ii) use the Program to process or permit to be processed the data of any third party, (iii) use the Program in the operation of a service bureau for any third party, (iv) make copies of the Program except as otherwise permitted hereby or as necessary to use the Program in accordance with this Agreement, (v) reverse engineer, disassemble or reverse compile any of the Program, (vi) sell, let for hire, sublicense, distribute, give away or otherwise supply to a third party any of the Program, (vii) use any of the Program to create any computer software program or user documentation that is substantially similar to the Program, or (viii) modify or create derivative works of any of the Program. You may not export any of the Program except in compliance with applicable export laws of the United States, and the ECCN number for the software portion of the Program is EAR99.

The License shall be perpetual, except it may be terminated by you or by Ariel immediately upon providing notice for any or no reason. Upon termination of the License, you shall immediately cease using the Program and shall delete all copies of the Program.

Ariel owns all proprietary rights in and to the Program, including any corrections, enhancements, updates, or other modifications to the Program. You may not remove and proprietary rights notices in the Program.

Disclaimers and Limitations of Liability:

THE PROGRAM IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ARIEL FURTHER DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, NONINFRINGEMENT, OR THOSE ARISING BY LAW, STATUTE, USAGE OR TRADE, COURSE OF DEALING OR OTHERWISE. THE ENTIRE RISK ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM, INCLUDING ITS OUTPUT, REMAINS WITH YOU.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL ARIEL BE LIABLE FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, OR OTHER DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF REVENUE OR PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, DOWNTIME COSTS, LOSS OF OR DAMAGE TO BUSINESS INFORMATION OR OTHER CONFIDENTIAL OR COMMERCIAL INFORMATION, OR OTHER PECUNIARY LOSS) ARISING OUT OF THIS AGREEMENT OR THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM OR ITS OUTPUT, EVEN IF ARIEL HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. BECAUSE SOME STATES/JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. ARIEL DOES NOT ENDORSE, WARRANT, OR GUARANTEE ANY OUTPUT PROVIDED BY OR THROUGH THE PROGRAM.

Governing Law and Jurisdiction:

This Agreement shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Ohio without regard to the conflicts of law principles thereof, and the state and federal courts sitting in Franklin County Ohio shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of this Agreement.

Download the Full Version; 'Run' the install (.exe file). The install will update all necessary files to upgrade to the latest release. The install uses an InstallShield Install script.

To install the application, follow the on-screen instructions:

Determine the drive where you want to install. C:\Program Files\Ariel is the default location for the application. You may choose another path or folder.
Uncheck any components that you do not want installed.
a. The ‘Application Manual’ should only be installed locally if you will not have an Internet connection at some time while using the program.
Once the install finishes, there will be shortcuts in the Start-Programs-Ariel group. A shortcut for Ariel Performance will also be put on your desktop. You may need to restart your PC for the shortcuts to appear.

If this is installed by the Administrator, make sure the following steps are done before the finish.

Configure the proper Security Access Rights to these folders. (Refer to Folder Security Rights)
Request Security Key if pricing is required. (Refer to Requesting Security Key)

If there is a need to create a silent installation in order to push this installation to all Client PCs, there are a few steps that you need to follow in order to create and execute a silent install.

First, you have to create a Setup.iss file that will be used to tell the install what selections and input to use while doing the silent install. Therefore, we have to create this file first and then use it while running the install on the Client PC.

Create the Setup.iss file

Download the ‘Full Installation’ – ArielCompressorSoftware.exe and save it to disk.
Run the install on a test PC with the following command line parameter.
1. Drive:\Path\ArielCompressorSoftware.exe –r.
This will create the Setup.iss in the C:\Windows Folder of that PC.
You can move this file to the same location as the install and also rename it, but you will need to use that name in the next step when running the silent install.

Running the Silent Installation

Drive:\Path\ArielCompressorSoftware.exe /s /f1”drive:\Path\Setup.iss”

The Performance Program needs to know where certain information is located, so there are a few ways to configure this information. If the INI file is not used, then the program has an interface to change the File Locations, Main Menu –> View –> File Locations. When changes are made through that interface, the locations are stored in the Registry of that PC. Then whenever the program is started, either from a local install or network install, it will read the registry and use the file locations stored there.

However, you may have a need, usually network installs, to always set the location no matter who is running the program. That is where the INI files come into use. The program will read the INI file first and use whatever locations that are set first, then it will go to the Registry for locations.

The INI file has one section, [PATH], which is used to set all the file locations. Within an INI file, you can comment a line just by putting a ";" (semi-colon) at the beginning. The install creates an initial INI file, but every line is commented. If you need to set one or more locations, just remove the semi-colon from that line and edit the path.

The Ariel.INI file is located in the same folder as the Ariel.exe application file, which is in the program files \ Ariel \ Performance folder.

Explanation of each Path:

Run Path – Location of RUN files and Multirun CSV files.
Support Path – Location for user data created from with program.
Databook Path – Location of ArlData.mdb; All required databases.
AppManual Path – Should not be used unless Application Manual was installed locally.

The installation creates a few folders and these folders require different security rights. The following is a list of the folders that are created and what rights they require. The folder locations are listed base on a standard installation.

Main Performance Program
\Program Files (x86)\Ariel\Performance
- This folder contains all the databases required by the program.
- The folder could be Read-only, but we use a Microsoft Access MDB file as our main DB. Access creates an ldb (lock) file whenever anyone runs the program. Because of that, you cannot secure this folder.
- Read / Modify / Write Access
\ProgramData\Ariel\Performance\Support
- This folder contains all support data created with running the program. It is data that can be user-specific or All users, i.e. Drivers DB, Shipping Address, option groups, etc.
- Full Control Access.
Documents
\My Documents\Ariel\Performance
- This folder is not created by the installation, but by the program. The program creates the folder that is defined as the ‘Run Path’. This is the default location.
- This folder contains the RUN files and Multirun CSV files
- Full Control Access.

The Security Key is used to turn on/off different features of the program. The Key is a request by sending Ariel a Security Code. The Key is then Saved in the Ariel.pwd file in the Program Files\Ariel\Performance folder, so make sure you have write rights when entering the Key.

Run the Performance Program
Go to Main Menu -> Security -> Setup -> Access Key
Click the 'E-mail Code' button in the lower-left corner of the dialog.
a. This will send an email to Ariel requesting the key.
b. Ariel will generate the Security Key and email it back to you.
Once you receive your Security Key, repeat steps 1 and 2.
Copy and Paste your Security Key from the email to the 'Security Key' field.
Click 'Accept Key'.
Verify that your 'Current Access' is what you requested.
Click 'Close'; you have finished the Security setup.

When you run the program the next time and find out that your requested rights are no longer there, then you probably only have read access to the Ariel.pwd file. You will have to contact your Administrator and re-enter the Security Key, steps 4 – 8.

Can I open old RUN files?
a. Older version RUN files should always open with a new version of the program.
When I try to select a Frame or Cylinder, my list is completely empty.
a. The program cannot find the Ariel Database (Databook). The Performance program uses this database and needs to know where it is located. Go to the Main Menu –>View –> File Locations. Enter the location of the Ariel Databook or use the Browse button to find its location. The Ariel Database is Arldata.mdb.
When I try to select a Frame or Cylinder I get an Error.
a. You are connected to an older version of the Database. The Database and program are a matched set. If they become out of sync, then this kind of error is possible. I would try to run the installation again and do a ‘Repair’.
The Program starts, but I get an Error message telling me that it cannot create ldb (lock) file.
a. This is because you do not have the proper rights to the Database location. Contact your Administrator and have them refer to ‘Configure Folder Security Rights’.
The program crashes when starting up.
a. We have had different issues that have caused this to happen. The reason usually is because the required Micosoft DAO 3.6 feature is not installed or is corrupted. Refer to FAQ on Installing DAO 3.6.
b. If that does not fix the crash, then email Ariel with your contact information and a screen shot of the splash screen with the error.
How do I install DAO 3.6?
a. This is supposed to be installed when the performance program is installed; however, we have seen when this does not always happen.
b. You must be the Administrator in order to run the DAO install.