System and method for computer simulations

A method performed by a computer processor executing program instructions for tracking and displaying computer files used in running computer simulations of an engineered process plant, the method comprising:

• running a computer simulation of the process plant on a computer system including a computer processor and computer readable medium operably accessible to the processor and containing program instructions executed by the processor, wherein the computer simulation is run on a plurality of grid computers, each grid computer configured to receive instructions from the computer processor;
• the processor implementing a data object that tracks, stores, retrieves and displays all simulation-related files used or created during the computer simulations, said data object configured to receive data and instructions from one or more grid computers of said plurality of grid computers performing the computer simulations in real time during the computer simulation, wherein each grid computer is configured to run at least one of a plurality of different modeling calculations;
• compiling a list, during the simulation, of all simulation-related files used or created during the simulation by storing information identifying each simulation-related file in the data object;
• automatically associating, in real-time during the simulation, each simulation-related file with a respective software program required to open and display the contents of each simulation-related file;
• and
• the processor displaying the list of simulation-related files in the data object to a user on a graphic display device.

A system for identifying and displaying electronic files in a distributed computer system accessed or created during a computer process, the system comprising:

• a computer having a processor and in communication with the distributed computer system;
• a memory in communication with said processor;
• wherein said processor is adapted to execute machine readable instructions stored on said memory, said instruction operable to cause the processor to:
• implement a data object that tracks, stores, retrieves and displays all files used or created during the computer process, said data object configured to receive data and instructions from one or more grid computers performing the computer process in real time during the computer process, wherein each grid computer is configured to run at least one of a plurality of different modeling calculations;
• use said data object to track all files accessed and/or created during the computer process, wherein said tracking includes determining a software program that accessed and/or created each file and automatically associating, in real-time during the computer process, each file used or created with a respective software program required to open and display the contents of each file used or created during the computer process;
• store in the data object information relating to each file accessed and/or created during the computer process, wherein the file information includes at least the software program that accessed and/or created an associated file, a full path name of the associated file, and a type of the associated file wherein the type of the associated file is one of:
• a design/details file, a data file, and a results file;
• retrieve the information relating to each file from the data object and record the information relating to each file in a tracking-review file;
• retrieve said file information for at least some of the files accessed and/or created during the computer process from the tracking review file;
• and
• display on a graphical display device, said retrieved file information.