OMDEC | Optimal Maintenance Decisions Inc.

Installation and Demo Databases

EXAKT 3.2/3.3 (February/December 2003)

Uninstalling the old version of EXAKT (recommended)

  1. Before uninstalling the old version of EXAKT, move any databases from the old version that you wish to keep to a different directory.
  2. If your previous installation of EXAKT registered itself in the Windows registry, you will be able to uninstall the last version of EXAKT. (In this case your previous databases will remain intact.) To uninstall: Press the Windows "Start" button, then select "Settings", then "Control Panel". From the control panel window, double-click on "Add/Remove Programs". In the list of programs, select "EXAKT" and press the "Add/Remove" button. If EXAKT does not appear in the list, it was not registered and you will have to delete the old version by deleting the whole directory where it was installed. (But be careful not to delete any databases you need.)

 

Installation of EXAKT 3.2/3.3

About 15 megabytes of hard disk space are needed to install the software. There is a setup program on EXAKT installation disk in the folder /fscommand. Place disk in the CD drive. The Flash Menu program will usually auto start. If not, hit omdec.exe in the root folder of the CD. When the Flash program starts hit Optimizing CBM | Install Exakt.

 

You will get the following:

  1. The 'Welcome' screen, warning you to close all other applications.
  2. The 'User Information' screen asking you to enter your name and company.
  3. The 'Choose destination location' screen where you specify where you want EXAKT installed. The default location is c:\Program Files\EXAKT. Feel free to change the directory to suit your circumstances.
  4. The 'Select program folder' screen will add two icons for running EXAKT to the Start button Programs folder: 'EXAKT for Decisions' and 'EXAKT for Modeling'. Please, be aware that this version of EXAKT has two .exe files.

 

If you want to uninstall EXAKT 3.2/3.3

The installation procedure will register EXAKT 3.2/3.3 in the Windows registry under the name "EXAKT". This allows for the automatic un-installation of the current version. To uninstall: Press the Windows "Start" button, then select "Settings", then "Control Panel". From the control panel window, double-click on "Add/Remove Programs". In the list of programs select "EXAKT" and press the "Add/Remove" button.

 

Backup of demo data - do it now

The demo databases are installed in a sub-directory called Demo in the directory where EXAKT is installed. If you use the default installation directory, it will be in c:\Program Files\EXAKT\Demo. Copy the demo directory as a whole, giving it a name such as DemoBkup. This is necessary as it is very easy to overwrite the demo data during experimentation.

There are four demo databases related to the "Hyponators" example. To distinguish among them, we use the suffixes _MES, _WMOD, _DMDR and _WDEC and we strongly recommend that you follow the same naming convention. Thus:

"Hypo_MES.mdb" contains measurements,

"Hypo_WMOD.mdb" is the EXAKT working database for modeling,

"Hypo_DMDR.mdb" stores decision models and decision,

"Hypo_WDEC.mdb" is EXAKT working database for decisions.

 

Running EXAKT for the first time

Please, be aware that you have two ".exe" files in this version of EXAKT.

To run the EXAKT for Modeling (EXAKTm - red icon):

  1. Click on the EXAKT for Modeling icon (red one) which can be found in the Programs list on pressing the Windows Start button.
  2. EXAKT for Modeling will start up, with its banner screen disappearing after a few seconds.
  3. Use the File Menu button to open an existing working database for modeling. For the Hyponators Demo, it is Hypo_WMOD.mdb.

 

To run the EXAKT for Decisions:

  1. Click on the EXAKT for Decisions icon (EXAKTd - yellow icon) which can be found in the Programs list on pressing the Windows Start button.
  2. EXAKT for Decisions will start up, with its banner screen disappearing after a few seconds.
  3. Use the File menu button to open an existing working database for decisions. For the Hyponators Demo, it is Hypo_WDEC.mdb.

 

More on the hyponators demonstration databases

EXAKT for Modeling

  1. To get the Hyponators demo data for modeling, first run EXAKT for Modeling, and choose File:Open. In the Open window, choose the directory where EXAKT was installed and choose the Demo directory. Then choose "Hypo_WMOD.mdb" from it. Don't try to open other databases. They are not suitable for modeling (see Backup of demo data topic above).
  2. You should now have a smaller window named "Hypo_WMOD.mdb" on the screen, containing the names of various tables, queries and EXAKT programs. To complete the setup of your demo working database for modeling, double-click on the program name "ModelDBAttachScript, and then press the 'Save' button. This will attach the tables from the "Hypo_DMDR.mdb" database, and their names will appear in the database window.
  3. Your demo data set for modeling is now ready for experimentation. You can, for instance:

- Double-click on all the Tables and Programs to look at their contents. The Events and Inspections tables contain the data as read from the dummy corporate database called Hypo_MES.mdb.

- Plot the data by using the 'Inspections', 'Events' and 'Cross-graph' menu items under the 'View' menu.

- A few models (PHM and Simple Weibull) have already been built. Choose 'Select Current Model' from the 'Modeling' menu to get a list of the models and choose one. If you create models yourself, their names will also appear here. If you choose the model 'HypoMod', submodel 'NP' you will be able to go directly to the decision part to look at the optimal policy. The Model/Submodel 'HypoMod/NPG' is not complete.

EXAKT for Decisions

  1. To get the Hyponators demo data for decisions, first run EXAKT for Decisions, and choose File:Open. In the Open window, choose the directory where EXAKT was installed and choose the Demo directory. Then choose "Hypo_WDEC.mdb" from it. Don't try to open other databases. They are not suitable for decisions (see Backup of demo data topic above).
  2. You should now have a smaller window named "Hypo_WDEC.mdb" on the screen, containing three sub-windows: for decision models, report lists and decisions data. To complete the setup of your demo working database for decisions, choose Setup: Connect to Model Database Script, and then press the 'Save' button. This will attach the tables from the "Hypo_DMDR.mdb" database, and the name of the model "HypoMod" will appear in the decision models sub-window.
  3. Your demo data set for decisions is now ready for experimentation. You can, for instance:

- Click on '+' sign to review the list of the units associated with the decision model or included in the report list.

- Click on the decision model name, or on the report list name to use View options, such as 'Details' to see and print the short decision report.

- Perform decisions either for report lists, or for singe units. Choose first the list name (such as "Group1"), then the option 'Create Reports' from the 'Reports' menu. This will create decision reports for all elements from the list. If you don't close the current decision graph, you can review and print all decision graphs using the common options PageUp, PageDown, etc. from the keyboard, or from the View menu.

 

Feedback

We will appreciate it very much if you report any error you find during installation or running the program. When reporting errors, try to remember what you did before the problem appeared and try to give a full description of the program behavior and related conditions. Send your messages to: support@omdec.com

 

Good luck!!!

 

OMDEC and the CBM Lab.

 

 

OMDEC | Optimal Maintenance Decisions Inc.
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