ReliaSoft API Reference

The Synthesis API can be used to accomplish many of the same tasks as within Synthesis applications, and it also enables seamless integration of the Synthesis Platform with other systems within your organization—all through a programmer's own custom-developed code. This allows you to create customizable and automated solutions to reliability engineering problems by integrating Synthesis functionality into other applications.

This reference describes all of the programming elements in the API. The sample code and documentation have been prepared for .NET, VB6 and VBA development environments, and it is assumed that the reader is familiar with them.

Requirements

Before using the Synthesis API, note the following requirements:

• Your code must include a reference to the ReliaSoft Synthesis API Library. The library is located in the folder where ReliaSoft Synthesis is installed. By default, this folder is "C:\Program Files\ReliaSoft\Synthesis 10" (for version 9 users it is "C:\Program Files\ReliaSoft\Synthesis 9").
  • .NET developers – use the SynthesisAPI.dll library
  • VB6 / VBA developers – use the SynthesisAPI.tlb library

• The version of the Synthesis Platform that you've installed (32- vs. 64-bit) must match your installed version of Microsoft Office. If they do not match, you may see an error related to ActiveX controls.

API Elements

The Synthesis API includes a rich set of programming elements that allow you to work with any of the following components of the Synthesis Platform:

• Repositories: Allows you to connect to a standard or enterprise Synthesis repository to access/edit repository-level information. This includes accessing/adding/modifying resources, exporting/importing BlockSim and XFRACAS XML files and exporting data to the Synthesis Data Warehouse (SDW).
• Weibull++ Data Sets: Provides the functionality of a Weibull++ standard folio, including entering data in a data set, specifying analysis settings and fitting a distribution to the data set.
• ALTA Data Sets: Provides the functionality of an ALTA standard folio, including entering data in a data set, specifying analysis settings and fitting a distribution and life-stress relationship to the data set.
• Weibull++/ALTA Plots: Creates a plot based on a fitted model in a WeibullDataSet or ALTADataSet object.
• Resources: Use these classes to create resources, edit their properties and calculate reliability metrics from fitted models.
• Displayed Language: Sets the language of the entire library.

A complete list of all the classes and enumerations in the Synthesis API is available here.

Application Examples

Excel VBA Samples

Use the following links to download macro-enabled Excel files (*.xlsm) that utilize the Synthesis API. Note that to run/view the underlying code, the Developer tab must be enabled in Excel so you can enter the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) environment by choosing Developer > View Code. Also, you must have macros enabled to run the example files. If Excel displays a warning regarding macros in these files, select to enable them.

• Use Synthesis analysis engines in Excel
  • Life Data Analysis in Excel (243 KB) (Code explanation)
  • Accelerated Life Testing Analysis (ALTA) in Excel (224 KB) (Code explanation)
• Transfer data from Excel to the Synthesis Reliability Data Warehouse (RDW)
  • Excel to Standard Repository (2.64 MB)
  • Excel to Enterprise SQL Repository (2.64 MB) Requires code modification to reference a SQL repository.
• Use Excel to update Universal Reliability Definitions (URDs) used in BlockSim, etc.
  • Update URDs with Excel (108 KB)