Getting Help

Help for the PSS/ADEPT application is available in several forms:

• Printed manual or CD

• Online context-sensitive help

• Siemens PTI Customer Support

1.2.1 Using This Documentation

This users manual is structured to help you learn to build an electrical distribution network, begin-ning with the basics (how to add a node/shunt/branch), and progressing to the analysis features of PSS/ADEPT. A network building exercise will give you hands-on practice using the PSS/ADEPT software.

For PSS/ADEPT, this documentation is also available on CD in Adobe® Acrobat® Reader format (*.pdf files). Use the online manuals for quick intermanual references using the hypertext link fea-ture and for printing reference material.

To view the CD documentation, place the CD in the CD-ROM drive. The readme.txt file has infor-mation on installing the Adobe Acrobat reader and accessing the CD documentation.

Conventions used in this documentation (and in the CD version) include:

bold italic text denotes a menu option the user must select, or a button the user must click.

Examples:

Choose File>Open from the Main Menu.

Click the Open button on the File Toolbar.

Italic text is used to emphasize a word or phrase.

Indicates additional information of interest.

"Click" is a user instruction to click the left mouse button.

"Double-click" is a user instruction to click twice the left mouse button.

"Right-click" is a user instruction to click the right mouse button.

Abbreviations for engineering units used throughout this user manual include:

pu: per unit

pf: power factor, leading/lagging S: apparent power (kVA)

Users Manual Getting Help

1.2.2 Using the Online Help

PSS/ADEPT provides context-sensitive online help while you are working in the application.

Related topics are "hot-linked" for quick access.

To access PSS/ADEPT Help:

1. Choose Help>Help Topics from the Main Menu. The Help Topics window displays.

2. To locate the help topic you want, click the Contents tab to display a hierarchical list of topic headings from which you may select or click the Index tab to look up topics alpha-betically or click the Find tab to perform a word search.

3. Follow the online instructions to navigate to and display the help topic you want.

4. To return to the PSS/ADEPT application and close the Help Topics window, press the Esc key.

To access Help for a dialog or property sheet in which you are working, press the F1 key or click the Help button (if available). The appropriate help topic will display.

To view PSS/ADEPT version information (including a list of required DLLs), choose Help>About PSS/ADEPT from the Main Menu or click the Help button on the standard Windows Toolbar.

1.2.3 Contacting Siemens PTI for Support

The PSS/ADEPT documentation will assist you with the installation and use of the application. If after consulting the documentation and online help you need more information, you may contact Siemens PTI by any of the following methods:

• Send e-mail for technical support to: [email protected].

• Fax to: (518) 346-2777.

• For telephone support between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time Monday through Friday, call (518) 395-5075.

• Siemens PTI Web Site: http://www.pti-us.com.

1.2.4 Submitting Bug Reports and Feature Requests

Included in PSS/ADEPT is a feedback tool that you may use to report bugs, request an enhance-ment, or request technical support assistance. This feedback tool is called SoloBug. You can directly access SoloBug from the Main Menu under Help>Report a problem… Once you have selected this option the SoloBug report a bug or feature request window displays (Figure 1-1).

Figure 1-1. Report a Bug or Feature Request Window

At this point, you will be asked to enter personal information such as your name, your company name, your e-mail address and your phone and fax numbers. Next, you will be asked for your com-puter configuration such as the operating system you have and other information regarding your hardware setup. After you have specified all of the information above to the best of your knowledge, you are now ready to enter a bug or feature request. In the case of a bug report, you may enter a description of the problem and how to reproduce it. If you desire, you may also attach a file con-taining an example of the problem that our technical support services can use to help diagnose whether the problem is in fact a bug. If you are submitting a feature request, use the description area to describe what enhancement you would like us to consider implementing in future releases.

In addition, make sure that you specify a summary of the problem or feature, the product name that you are using, the type of problem, the severity of the problem, and the version number of the appli-cation that you are currently using. The version number of the appliappli-cation may be found in the About box by selecting Help>About PSS/ADEPT.

When you have finished entering the information, save the bug/feature report to a SoloBug file (*.sbg). The next step is to e-mail this.sbg file to the following address: [email protected]. Once we receive the e-mail message, you will be automatically logged into our technical support database. This is the fastest and most convenient way for you to submit problems and feature requests into our technical support queue.

For further information regarding SoloBug, including more documentation on how you can use SoloBug to report bugs and request features, look for the SoloBug help file under your PSS/ADEPT installation under the short cut labeled SoloBug Help. You may also access the SoloBug executable from outside the application by using the short cut labeled SoloBug.

Users Manual Installing and Using PSS/ADEPT