Welcome to AAI's monthly Innovations, where we share with you the best practices in simulation engineering through case studies and industry experience. This month, we address an issue of interest to everyone who will be involved with a simulation project - deciding which simulation software product to use.

Selecting from the two dozen or more commercially available software products designed for general-purpose simulation modeling applications is not easy. No single product is best suited for every application. There are real differences in how different products approach modeling problems -- and making the right choice will affect not just the chances of success for the first project, but also how useful the product will be to you in the future.

Unfortunately, most comparisons that have been published address these differences by listing features, with little or no judgment about how the features relate to the goals and requirements of different modeling projects. With over 15 years of experience as an expert-level user of simulation software products, Automation Associates, Inc. has developed some internal guidelines that we follow when choosing the platform for a new project. Read the entire simulation software analysis and view a reference list of relevant commercial simulation products, located on our website.

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Did you miss last month's issue of AAI Innovations: Optimizing Resource Utilization Through Proof-of-Concept Modeling?