What’s New in RAM Commander version 7.7

This document describes new features of RAM Commander 7.7. The document covers only the features which were added to the RAM Commander 7.7 since 7.62 version. Please, see RAMC_7_62_ReleaseNotes and other previous documents for earlier versions new features.

General

MSG-3 module Updated User Manual ATA Numbers Library Improved support for comma decimal delimiter More user-friendly introduction to Demo/Tutorial project

Reliability

Updated Component Library Improved Part Number automatic recognition Stress/Strength – support for Weibull distributions RBD – Update RAM and FMECA information in selected RBD and all its Sub-RBDs GPRD – "FR source" field Component Library import improvements (new parameters) Predicted FR is not deleted when switching to "Manual" or "Field" FR source Improved component library support for SN29500 (Siemens) Component library – batch search by Part Number Reliability Prediction bug fixes

FMECA

Alpha display precision customization FMECA fields' capacity increased twice (Failure Mode, EE, NHE etc.) FMEDA Report Testability (Quantitative) Report Calculator for Alpha (calculate Alpha from given FM Lambda) "Equalize Alpha" option Delete all Failure Modes option FMECA fixes

FTA

Improved MCS calculation speed MCS Calculation results are saved after calculation and available for reuse Different calculation options – Quick/Full Cut-off parameters per fault tree Import from CAFTA More exact calculation using first/second order approximation New basic event calculation model - Latent FTA Summary report FTA Calculation For All Phases report Basic events report – event filtering and Q(t) calculation for given time

A.L.D. Headquarters52 Menachem Begin Road, Tel-Aviv, 67137 ISRAEL

Phone: (972-3) 791-3200 Fax: (972-3) 791-3210 E-mail: support@ald.co.il Web : www.aldservice.com

Importance/Sensitivity Chart "Show list of linked failures" option FTA – Update RAM&FMECA information – speed improved, Name and Description are

also updated (optionally) New fields "Group" and "Sub-system" to group fault trees created by different

groups or for different systems. Semi-automatic switch off of tree rearrange option

Safety

Failure description, Actions, Verification and other fields length is increased "Recalculate all Assessment Means" option Improved display/report generation speed Possibility to reorder Failure Conditions using Drag-Drop Safety Severities Library – objective probability field

MMEL

Show only marked test types in "Detection" column

FMEA

Team Work using SunARS Audience Response System Export FMEA flowchart to file (EMF)

Licensing & Security

License expiration warning Advanced Access Permissions User Activity Log User Manager Utility is now available for System Manager only

Installation of RAMC 7.7For the local stand-alone installation, run the RAMCW770.EXE downloaded from the A.L.D. web site (www.aldservice.com), or run RAMC\setup.exe from the installation CD. For additional instructions and for client-server configuration, see User Manual: Installation Guide.

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RAM Commander version 7.70 Release Notes

General

MSG-3 module

New RAM Commander module is used by aircraft manufacturers or aircraft operators (airlines) to perform aircraft Scheduled Maintenance Development analysis according to Air Transport Association (ATA) MSG-3 document.

The MSG-3 module is integrated with RAM Commander basic, Reliability and FMECA modules. It divides the procedure into 7 steps including system definition, maintenance significant items selection, failure effect categorization, task selection and development and report generation:

Module uses intuitive interactive decision diagrams, the same as used in the original MSG-3 document:

As an output of the procedure user gets final report generated in MS-Word with all the data inside. Report is generated based on customizable MS Word template; user may change the template design.

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Updated User Manual

RAM Commander User Manual was revised and updated, new chapters (MMEL, Safety, Event Tree Analysis) were added. The updated user manual is available on RAM Commander CD or you may download it from ALD Software Downloads web site.

ATA Numbers Library

RAM Commander includes ATA numbers library (number according to Air Transport Association Standard Numbering System, Information Standards for Aviation Maintenance). System number could be selected from this library and saved in "ATA Number" field of product tree items:

Improved support for comma decimal delimiter

Users in Russia, France, Germany and other countries use comma as decimal delimiter. Previous RAM Commander version had problems with this delimiter in several cases. In the new version this problem is solved. There is also an option to manually define decimal delimiter for RAM Commander, separately from the operating system regional options. See ramc.ini file in RAMC32/BIN folder for more details about the configuration.

More user-friendly introduction to Demo/Tutorial project

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Entrance to RAM Commander demo version or to TUTORIAL project will display clickable RAM Commander main modules flowchart, where user may select desired module and open it by clicking its block on the diagram:

Reliability

Updated Component Library

New analog device components added – component library size is now 64,500 components.

Improved Part Number automatic recognition

Automatic recognition now does not require Manufacturer definition. It tries to detect matching manufacturer using Part name patterns. Still manufacturer definition is recommended for more precise recognition, if available.

Stress/Strength – support for Weibull distributions

Stress/Strength reliability calculation method now supports Weibull distribution for both Stress and Strength parameters definition:

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The list of supported distribution combinations is provided below:

Stress distribution Strength distributionExponential NormalNormal NormalWeibull Weibull

RBD – Update RAM and FMECA information in selected RBD and all its Sub-RBDs

"Update RAM information" and "Update from FMECA" options of the Reliability Block Diagrams Module refresh reliability/maintainability data of RBD elements from product tree, reliability and FMECA modules. In case that current RBD has sub-RBDs, previous version of RAM Commander updated only current RBD elements. The new version updates also all elements of all nested sub-diagrams recursively.

GPRD – "FR source" field

New field called "FR source" and designed to store description of FR data origin. It is available on item data screen in GPRD library.

Component Library import improvements (new parameters)

Lead configuration and Distance fields added to the Component Library and to the supported import format specification.

Predicted FR is not deleted when switching to "Manual" or "Field" FR source

Predicted FR is not set to 0 any more when switching from Predicted to User-defined or Field failure rate definition modes. For example, it allows comparison of field FR to predicted FRs.

Improved component library support for SN29500 (Siemens)

Different fixes performed; several component types' translation improved from library to method processor data and back (Quartz Crystal, IC Digital/Analog/Memory).

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Component library – batch search by Part Number

The new option is useful when user wishes has a list of parts and wishes to make sure that these parts exists in RAM Commander's component library, and if not – get a list of parts which are not there.

To use this feature, enter component library, select "PN Batch Compare" from the Library menu. The following dialog will appear:

Copy and Paste you list of part numbers to the large box, select search target (Global or Project Library) and press Ok. Ram Commander will perform the search for each Part Number in the list and will provide a report with information about existing/absent parts.

Reliability Prediction bug fixes

217Plus – non-hermetic IC components calculation fixed – wrong humidity factor calculation.

Siemens SN – Wrong Pie t calculation in Flash memory with CMOS Technology fixed

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FMECA

Alpha display precision customization

Standard precision of Alpha is 3 digits after the decimal point. Now it could be customized using the "Advanced Entry Customization" feature of FMECA grid. Change the size of Alpha column and its precision will be adjusted accordingly:

1. Open Advanced Entry Customization mode - right-clicking the FMECA table header:

2. Change Alpha field width (in pixels, 8 pixels=1 digit):

3. Alpha display is changed:

FMEDA report

New FMEDA (Failure Mode, Effects and Diagnostics Analysis) report is available in RAM Commander, FMECA module:

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Testability (Quantitative) Report

New Testability module report is located in FMECA module reports, Testability reports section:

It is similar to regular Testability Information report, but contains NHE field, FM Alpha and Cm criticality fields.

FMECA fields' capacity increased twice (Failure Mode, EE, NHE etc.)

Failure Mode, End Effect, Next Higher Effect, Cause fields now have a capacity of 800 characters.

Calculator for Alpha (calculate Alpha from given FM Lambda)

There are cases when FMECA analysts has lambda of specific Failure Mode and Lambda of item and should calculate Alpha of this Failure Mode. RAM Commander now provides Alpha calculator for that purpose:

To use it, right-click on the corresponding Alpha field and choose "Calculator for Alpha" from the popup menu.

"Equalize Alpha" option

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Equalize Alpha option is available from the Failure Mode popup menu. It sets equal Alphas for all Failure Modes of the currently selected items so that the total sum of Alphas is 1.

Delete all Failure Modes option

Option is available from the Failure Mode popup menu. It deletes all Failure Modes of currently selected product tree item.

FMECA fixes

Criticality Analysis Report – list only relevant severities. FMECA reports – Functional Blocks – if "Automatically fill FB cause" option is selected,

user-defined causes will not be deleted by automatic cause generation. Bug fixed – if several long End Effects are very similar and differs by last characters

only, they are taken as one EE by several reports Bug fixed: FMECA Library – "Delete all unused EE" function – Safety module was not

examined. May result in deleting EE used in Safety/FHA. Reports – possibility to control line break using "\\" in FMECA grid. For example, \\ may

be put between several causes of the same failure, so that these causes appear in separate lines in FMECA reports.

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FTA

Improved MCS calculation speed

Our MCS calculation algorithm was refactored and improved, which gave dramatic improvement in FTA calculation speed – up to 40 times for large trees.

MCS Calculation results are saved after calculation and available for reuse

MCS Calculation results are stored to the disk after calculation. User may close the Fault Tree and exit RAM Commander, then open it again another day and go to "View MCS results" menu item in "FTA Calculation" menu – it will display the last calculation results immediately without recalculation (if MCS calculation was performed at least once before). Stored calculation results of sub-trees are also re-used during the "parent" tree recalculation, improving the calculation speed.

Different calculation options – Quick/Full

User may choose calculation type: Quick (stored previous calculation results will be used if possible) or Full (tree will be completely recalculated with MCS regeneration):

Cut-off parameters per fault tree

Cut off parameters are managed per each separate Fault Tree and not globally as before. It gives possibility to fine-tune the calculations speed and precision differently for different trees.

Import from CAFTA

RAM Commander is now able to import Fault Trees from CAFTA. It supports CAFTA format called " Free-formatted File (*.fre)". To import Fault Tree from CAFTA, 3 CAFTA files are required:

- Events list file - Gates list file- Tree structure file

(all files should be stored in format called "Free-formatted File(*.fre)").To start import, enter any tree in FTA module, select "Import FTA from CAFTA" from "Tools" menu and provide links to required import files:

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More exact calculation using first/second order approximation

RAM Commander 7.7 supports first/second order approximation of the results in addition to Easary-Prochan formula. It gives more exact calculations but slows down the calculation speed. User may select approximation type from 3 types available:

Type ExplanationAutomatic The best type will be selected by RAM

Commander. In most cases it Easary-Prochan will be selected, except cases when there are XOR or NOT operations in the fault tree

Easary-Prochan Easary-Prochan formulaF1:F2 First/second order approximation

New basic event calculation model – Latent

New Latent basic events calculation model is available. It is used when we have components with failure rate which are tested periodically and which failure will not be detected until the test is performed. Two input parameters are required – FR and test interval Ti.

The display symbol of such event is two nested circles, probability calculation is performed using formula Q(t) = 1-(1-q)*exp(-FR*Ti).

FTA Summary report

New report lists all Fault Trees in the project with their details and calculation results:

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FTA Calculation for All Phases report

New report calculates and prints current FTA calculation results for all defined FMECA/Safety phases. Calculation of each phase is performed using phase duration as calculation time for Q(t):

Basic events report – event filtering and Q(t) calculation for given time

Basic events report now supports filtering by different parameters and provides event probability calculation for given time:

User may set tiem for Q(t) calculation, choose basic events scope (all basic events in the library or only basic events used in the current tree and all its subtrees), select required gate types and required event calculation models.

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Importance/Sensitivity Chart

Importance/Sensitivity Analysis now provides results output in both report and chart format:

"Show list of linked failures" option

Safety module uses fault trees as safety assessment means for failure condition probability calculation. Looking at Failure Condition in Safety module we may see a list of Fault Trees used to calculate its probability. Sometimes there is a need to see the connection from the opposite side – e.g. to see which Failure Conditions use the currently open Fault Tree. To do it, use "Show linked Safety Failures" item of Tools menu in FTA module:

FTA – Update RAM&FMECA information – speed improved, Name and Description are also updated (optionally)

FTA module provides function called "Update RAM & FMECA information" which updates reliability and maintainability parameters of basic events linked to product tree items and/or FMECA failure modes. Now this function may update also names and descriptions of basic events (optionally):

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It also works much faster than before.

New fields "Group" and "Sub-system" to group fault trees created by different groups or for different systems.

Fault Tree properties dialog contains new fields – Group and Subsystem:

These fields may be used to separate multiple fault trees build by different groups or for different subsystem of the same system inside single RAM Commander project. The same fields are available for sorting in "Open FTA" dialog.

Semi-automatic switch off of tree rearrange option

Tree automatic rearrange option is switched on by default. It means that the tree is rearranged on each change, and if user changes element positions his changes will be lost after the rearrange. New option will offer user to cancel automatic rearrange feature for the current tree on first attempt to change element positions manually:

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Safety

Failure description, Actions, Verification and other fields' length is increased

Listed Safety fields' capacity in the new version is not limited (old version's limit was 200 characters).

"Recalculate all Assessment Means" option

Failure Conditions in Safety module has linked Safety Assessment Means – FTA diagrams used to calculate Failure Condition probability. The new version contains an option to run recalculation of all linked Fault Trees at once – use Calculation-Recalculate Assessment Means option of Safety Module:

Improved display/report generation speed

Failure Conditions list display and all Safety reports generation speed is improved.

Possibility to reorder Failure Conditions using Drag-Drop

Failure Conditions may now be reordered using Drag & Drop approach: just drag the failure and drop it on another failure – the source failure will be moved and inserted before the drop target failure (similar to FMECA and FMEA behavior).

Safety Severities Library – objective probability field

Safety Severity library in Safety/FMECA library now contains new field – Objective Probability by Safety Requirements. It is taken into End Effects library when new End Effect is created or when its Safety Severity ranking is changed:

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End Effect may have different Safety Severity in different Phases, and thus objective probabilities for Safety Severities and End Effects could also be different among phases.

MMEL

Show only marked test types in "Detection" column

New field called "MMEL-relevant" is added to the "Test types" tab of FMECA Library:

Tests which belong to test types which are not marked as "MMEL-relevant" will not be taken into account during MMEL report generation. MMEL report now contains a list of relevant tests in "Detection" column, instead of "Yes" or "No" indication printed by previous RAM Commander version.

FMEA

Team Work using SunARS Audience Response System

Process/Design FMEA module now allows Team Work using audience response system. Team members use keypads to provide their Severity, Occurrence and Detection rankings:

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Team facilitator starts voting and team members provide rankings, which are stored in the database.

SunVote company hardware is used for that purpose. The required set of hardware consists of USB receiver and a number of voting keypads with 10 voting keys:

Export FMEA flowchart to file (EMF)

FMEA flowchart or design diagram may now be saved directly to file. Windows Enhanced Metafile format is used, which is compatible with Microsoft Office applications such as Visio, Word, Excel etc. It contains vector components and diagram remains editable and scalable

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when imported to Visio or Word. The option is available from "Diagram" menu of FMEA module, "Export to file" menu item.

Licensing & Security

New RAM Commander contains a number of features designed to manage and control access to information stored in RAM Commander. The new features provide possibility to define user access rights for specific projects and also to control user activities using activity log.

License expiration warning

In case that RAM Commander license (network plug, local plug or license file) has expiration date, user will get warning message 10 days before the license will actually expire. User will be able to continue working with RAM Commander and will have time to obtain the resolve the licensing issues with ALD/software vendor.

Advanced Access Permissions

This feature allows definition of users which may access the project and definition of specific allowed operations for each user.

New project permission type is added – "Advanced". Only project author may switch advanced permissions on. He should define security administration code for the project, and any user may manage access control list for this project using this code. Project permissions level may be also switched back to "All" or "User" level using the same administration code.

1. To switch advanced project permissions on:a. Open project data (Right click on project and select Edit from popup menu).b. Select "Advanced" in the "Permission" drop-down list (only project owner may

perform this operation):

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c. Define administration code which will be used later to manage the permissions:

d. The access control list will appear. It contains list of users in the upper part of the screen and list of permissions for the selected user in the lower part of the screen. Selected (blue) permissions are granted, not selected permissions are denied for the selected user.

e. Press "Add user" button to add more users to the list. You may select users from the list or enter user name manually:

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f. Select user and press Ok.g. To delete specific user, select user in the list and press "Remove user" button.h. To view or set permissions for specific user, select user in the list above and his

permissions will appear in the list below. Select (grant) / deselect (deny) permissions by clicking them in the list below.

i. Press "Ok" button to save the permission changes.j. Press "Ok" on the project data screen to save the changes.

2. To edit advanced project permissions perform the same procedure as described above, entering administration code defined before.

3. To switch advanced project permissions off:

a. Open project data (Right click on project and select Edit from popup menu).b. Change the value of "Permission" drop-down list.c. You will be asked for administration code – enter administration code defined before

(when the advanced permissions were switched on and configured for the first time).d. Project permissions setting will be changes.e. Press Ok button to save the changes.

User Activity Log

RAM Commander records major user activities in the central application activity log file to give system manager better control over system use and information access.

Among logged events are login into the system, log off, project operations (backup, restore, delete, rename), data access (open project, open FTA, open RBD, open Safety module, open Library), import/export operations. For each operation exact time, computer name, user name, target project name and operation description are stored.

Only System Manager may view the User Activity Log.

Here are two options to view the user activity log:

1. Open RAM Commander, close Welcome window, choose "User Administrator" from the Drive menu, and select "User Activity Log" option from the "User" menu.

2. Run User Manager Utility from the Start-Programs-ALD Engineering menu and press "User Activity Log" button.

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User activity log will appear on the screen:

User Manager Utility is now available for System Manager only

"Create New Manager" function of User Manager Utility is now password-protected and may be performed by the current System Manager only.

"View User Activity Log" function is also password protected and available to the current System Manager only.

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