Following a hugely successful beta earlier this year, we’re excited to announce that SIMUL8 Online – the world’s most advanced online process simulation software – has officially launched!

Over the last six months, our team has been working hard to incorporate all the invaluable feedback we received from our users during the beta test to make SIMUL8 Online the most feature-rich online process simulation tool available.

This launch is the latest industry-disrupting innovation in our 25-year history. Drag and drop building is now so fundamental to many simulation tools. SIMUL8 delivered that first. The ability to run simulations on the web is another core feature. We delivered that first, completely download-free. And now, we’re pushing industry boundaries again as the first to deliver the ability to build simulations completely online – no installation or downloads needed – using an unrivaled feature set.

We’re also pleased to announce that SIMUL8 Online is included as part of the benefits of Annual Maintenance at no extra cost, giving our users the flexibility to use both SIMUL8 for desktop or online. This means no matter where you are or what device you’re using, you’ll always have the ability to build, run and experiment with simulations.

Why introduce SIMUL8 Online?

As SIMUL8 CTO, Frances Sneddon, outlined in her previous blog post, SIMUL8 Online is a result of our team’s passion to support our users to the very best of our ability and help evolve their decision-making capabilities with the next generation of simulation tools. Many of the business and productivity tools our users rely on day-to-day have made the move online, enabling a more agile and flexible working approach. We wanted to be first to deliver this flexibility for our users and continue to push our industry forward in the process.

We also know our users value SIMUL8’s long history of feature development and enhancements so we wanted to ensure SIMUL8 Online was not just ‘SIMUL8 Lite’. A fundamental requirement for SIMUL8 Online was setting a hard constraint of keeping a single unified code base that would deliver an identical edition on both web and desktop and that every feature had to be migrated. Keeping this unified code base was absolutely critical to us because we did not want to ever be in the position where we had features in the online version that weren’t available to our desktop users.

Our goal was all about making SIMUL8 accessible on any device, regardless of user preference. We were determined to support our users on whatever platform was best for them whether that was Windows or Mac, desktop or web. With the launch of SIMUL8 Online, we’re proud to have achieved this goal. No matter what version of SIMUL8 you use, you’ll experience the same expansive feature set, intuitive interface and speed of results.

What are the advantages of SIMUL8 Online?

• All-in-one simulation solution: The only industry vendor to offer our users the ability to build, run and analyze simulations on both desktop and the web.
• Easily accessible: Open a browser, log in and start building, experimenting with and getting actionable insight from your simulations.
• Same SIMUL8 experience: Our intuitive drag and drop interface, extensive features and fast results across both web and desktop tools.
• Save your simulations to the cloud: Convenient and secure access to your simulation project files with 5GB of cloud storage included as standard.

Convenient, secure access to your simulation project files

As well as building and editing your simulations on the web, SIMUL8 Online gives you the ability to upload, save or download your simulation files from the cloud, including external files such as Microsoft Excel or CSV sheets. This means that in Visual Logic or other instances where you want your simulation to talk to an Excel or data file, you can treat these files as you would if they were saved to your PC to enable the connection.

If you’ve made changes to your files in SIMUL8 Online and would like to continue making edits in SIMUL8 for desktop, you can quickly and easily download your project files to your PC and continue making changes.

Every SIMUL8 Online account includes 5GB of storage, providing a large amount of space for all your project files.

SIMUL8 Online FAQs

With the introduction of SIMUL8 Online, we know our users will likely have a few questions! We’ve included some key questions and answers below.

Do I need to download or install any software to use SIMUL8 Online?
No, SIMUL8 Online is download and installation-free. You will only need an HTML5 compatible web browser and internet connection to start building simulations with the full functionality and power of SIMUL8. You’ll also receive access to the latest SIMUL8 feature updates without installation.

Are there any feature differences between SIMUL8 Online and SIMUL8 for desktop?
SIMUL8 Online offers the same power, speed and breadth and depth of features set as SIMUL8 for desktop. As an online tool, some features that require connections to external programs, such as OptQuest, are not currently supported.

Will SIMUL8 Online work on a Mac?
Yes, SIMUL8 Online can run on a Mac. One of the many benefits of SIMUL8 Online is that it can run in most web browsers, regardless of hardware or platform.

What release is SIMUL8 Online based on?
SIMUL8 Online will always offer the most up-to-date release of SIMUL8, including Annual Maintenance quarterly release features and updates.

Will SIMUL8 for desktop still be available?
Yes, SIMUL8 for desktop will continue to be available. SIMUL8 Online is designed to complement our desktop offering, providing our users the ability to work on their simulations on the move or on a device where the desktop application isn’t installed.

For more information and FAQs, visit the SIMUL8 Online page on our website.

The beginning of an exciting new era of simulation

Today is just the beginning. SIMUL8 Online will continually evolve and our development team are already working hard on our next set of features, including the ability to share your simulations with stakeholders.

We’re so excited to finally share SIMUL8 Online with our users after years of work and we’ll be listening closely to your feedback to guide our development. If there are any other features or improvements you’d like to see, please get in touch with the team.

Our Annual Maintenance users will receive an email invitation to register their SIMUL8 Online account today. If you’re not yet a SIMUL8 user, or you’re a SIMUL8 user not on Annual Maintenance, you can learn more about SIMUL8 Online or contact our team for more information.