AFTV v.1 FAQ, last updated on 9/11/2008.

What is AFTV?

AFTV means Advanced Fault Tree Viewer and does just that. It works on fault tree and database files exported as text from CAFTA^™ and Microsoft Access^®.

Do you have screenshots of AFTV?

Yes. There are multiple screenshots in the User Manual.

Who uses AFTV?

Anybody who needs to share or view fault tree files from CAFTA^™. Since CAFTA^™ is mainly used for System Safety application then AFTV should be used mainly by System Safety Analysts or anyone else who needs to review their work but doesn’t need to learn or purchase CAFTA^™.

What are the minimum hardware requirements?

OS: Microsoft^® Windows^® 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista^®
CPU: 1.0 GHz Pentium^® 3 Processor or Equivalent
Hard Drive: 5 MB available
RAM: 512 MB
Video: Hardware Acceleration with OpenGL^® support
Input: Keyboard and Wheel Mouse

Is the transition to AFTV easy when one knows CAFTA^™?

Yes. AFTV uses many of the CAFTA^™ shortcuts. CAFTA^™ users won’t be lost. However, you'll have to learn the commands specific to AFTV.

What Operating System is supported?

AFTV is currently only available for Microsoft^® Windows^® 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista^® but the underlying technology is designed to be cross-platform. Porting AFTV to other Operating Systems will be considered if the need arises.

AFTV does not really edit fault trees, right?

Yes, this is only a fault tree viewer. AFTER (available mid-2009) will extend AFTV to support fault tree generation, computation, simplification, and many other functions. You need AFTER if you want to create and compute fault trees or to generate reports.

How do I download and install AFTV?

Download and execute the AFTV installation file available at www.safeaircraft.com or use the link at the top of this page.

How do I uninstall AFTV?

The AFTV setup also creates an uninstallation wizard. Either select “Start” “Programs” “AFTV” or use the Control Panel “Add or Remove Programs” to run the uninstall program.

What is the license?

AFTV is distributed as a freeware program. It is available for use at no cost, for the benefit of all. The AFTV license is shown for approbation during the installation and is also installed in your main AFTV directory (typically “C:\Program Files\AFTV”), see file "license.txt".

Who owns the code?

AFTV - Copyright © 2008 Francois Besnier, all rights reserved.

Who is the author?

Francois Besnier. I have been working as a system safety engineer and consultant for the last 14 years. My resume is available at http://www.besnier.net.

How do I report a bug?

Try saving a session (Shift+Ctrl+S) right before or after the bug occurs. Then e-mail the session file, along with a description of the bug and its context to francois@besnier.net.

I can't see the text that well, what's going on?

You probably need to turn on the Full-Scene Anti-Aliasing (FSAA) of your video card.
To be sure, compare any of the screenshots from the User Manual against your own view of AFTV. If FSAA is not turned on, the difference is obvious.
Turning on Full-Scene Anti-Aliasing (FSAA) should not significantly slow down the GPU and the display will look much nicer. You will also be able to display more legible cells per display area.
For an NVIDIA video card, click on "NVIDIA Settings" on the right bottom corner of your screen then on menu "Performance & Quality Settings", "Anti-aliasing settings" to turn on the GPU multisampling.
For any other video card, please refer to your video card documentation.

Why can’t I convert CAFTA^™ files?

First you need to make sure that the PC used for the conversion has both CAFTA^™ and Microsoft Access^® installed. Once the CAFTA^™ files are exported as text, they can be distributed and viewed freely with AFTV.

If AFTV is installed on a PC with both CAFTA^™ and Microsoft Access^® installed, then importing CAFTA^™ files into AFTV should be as simple as using the AFTV menu “Convert/Import a CAFTA model... (Ctrl+I)”.

However, this part of AFTV is quite dependent of your CAFTA^™ and Microsoft Access^® installation and has been tested only with one installation of CAFTA^™ 5.2 and Microsoft Access^® 2003. So, it may not properly work with some other configuration. To facilitate user customization, the CAFTA^™ converter “AFTVconverter.exe” has been separated from the rest of the code and its source is provided.

If you are unable to make the “Convert/Import a CAFTA model... (Ctrl+I)” menu work, then you have two options:

Option 1

Adapt the AutoIt Script AFTVconverter.au3 located in the main AFTV directory to your own configuration, compile and replace AFTVconverter.exe. AutoIt v3 is available free of charge at http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/

Option 2

Manually convert the files using the following procedure:

Let’s say that you want to export a fault tree file SYSTEM.caf with its associated database SYSYEM.rr or SYSTEM.mdb to an AFTV fault tree model called SYSTEM.

With CAFTA^™: Open SYSTEM.caf
  Select menu “File”, “Save as…” then type “SYSTEM.fre” and select Free-formatted file (*.fre).
  Clean up the database using menu “Project”, “Purge Database”

With Microsoft Access^®: Open SYSTEM.rr or SYSTEM.mdb.
1) Right click on the “BE” table and select “Export…”.
Select the same directory as FTA.fre
The file name to export to is SYSTEM_BE.txt
Save as type “Text Files (*.txt, *.csv, *.tab, *.asc)”
Click "Export"
In the Export Text Wizard, make sure that the default “Delimited” is selected then click "Next"
Still in the Export Text Wizard, make sure that the default “Comma” is selected
Check “Include Field Names on First Row”
Click “Finish”
2) Right click on the “GT” table and select “Export…”. The file name to export to is SYSTEM_GT.txt. Follow the same procedure as for the “BE” table.
3) Double click on the "TC" table. If it is not empty then export the "TC" table like you just did for tables "BE" and "GT". The file name to export to is SYSTEM_TC.txt

The set of the text files SYSTEM.fre, SYSTEM_BE.txt, SYSTEM_GT.txt, and eventually SYSTEM_TC.txt constitutes a single AFTV fault tree model that can now be opened and viewed.

Do you have examples of CAFTA^™ and AFTV files?

Yes. See the “sample” directory (typically located at “C:\Program Files\AFTV\sample”) which has two examples of CAFTA^™ files (version 5.2) with their associated exported text files to AFTV.

This FAQ does not anwer my question...

First, check that your question is not already answered in the AFTV User Manual.
If so, send your question to francois@besnier.net.