VMCalculator designed to provide an easy way to use the Virtual Materials Group's VMGThermo package to perform either simple property calculations or create models of varying degrees of complexity. It isn't a process simulator, but could be used to model many process situations as well as equipment design problems, economic evaluations and indeed any type of problem involving fluid properties.

The target audience would be engineers who understand the problems they are trying to solve and aren't adverse to a bit of Basic programming (Basic is the language used to program models in the calculator). In essence the calculator is a very simple interactive development environment (IDE) for engineers who have problems to solve involving fluid properties.

The program comes down heavily on the side of flexibility and transparency as compared to black box solutions. While it is possible that significant libraries of models might evolve as starting points for problem solving and situations might arise where models developed by engineers are used by others in testing and other routine applications, it is unlikely this program would find utility in the type of black box design, which unfortunately is becoming common with some engineering programs. As such though, it might have a useful role in education.

Whether this program is ever commercialized is unknown at this point, but anyone interested in following or commenting on the development of it is welcome to join the discussion group or check my personal blog. There is also a screen cast available, which although somewhat dated, should still convey the basic concepts.