ASPEN is a widely used process simulator. Cranium and Synapse can generate ASPEN input files. These input files can contain both physical property data and parameters for physical property models. Once these files are generated, commands within ASPEN can be used to read the contained physical property values into ASPEN databases.

The following window displays an example ASPEN input file. The application also generates a ".xlog" log file that details the sources and procedures used to generate the exported physical property values.

1. Open a Knowledge Base using either Cranium or Synapse.
2. Click on the File menu and select the Export Values command.
3. The application will activate the KB Export Dialog.
4. Select 'ASPEN Input File Format' from the Output File Format list and press the Export button. The Create a ASPEN Property Databank dialog is activated.

   1	Browse button for entering the name of the export file.
   2	List of chemicals selected to be exported.
   3	Commands for: Select All: select all listed chemicals Select None: select no listed chemicals Detail: shows details, e.g., structure and properties, about the selected chemicals Use Bkmrk: use a bookmark to select chemicals Find: Use the Find Chemical dialog to find a chemical by its name, synonym, chemical formula, etc.
   4	Export button

5. Press the Browse button to select the file into which the exported values will be written.
6. Select one or more chemicals from the central list. Use the Use Bkmrk (Use Bookmark), Detail and Find buttons to facilitate your selection.
7. Finally press the dialog's Export button. Cranium or Synapse will compile and estimate the required physical properties, regress these properties into models if needed and write these values and parameters into the named Aspen Input file.

The following input file was generated by exporting seven chemicals (acetic acid, cyclohexanol, ethanol, ethyl acetate, n-hexane, toluene and vinyl chloride).

Example File	Description
AspenInputFile01.inp	An ASPEN input file containing data for several common chemicals.
AspenInputFile01.xlog	A the log file generated by Cranium and Synapse documenting the data values and estimation methods used to generate the values exported to the input file.

Topic	Description
Estimating Chemical Properties	a short video demonstrating how to estimate the physical properties of pure chemical using either Synapse or Cranium.
Getting Started using Cranium	provides a quick tour of Cranium's capabilities including physical property estimation and a discussion of structure editing.