ASCE™ - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. ASCE Licensing
2. ASCE Installation
3. ASCE Usage
4. ASCE Plugins
5. ASCE Notations
6. Training
7. Known Issues/Bugs
8. Technical FAQ
9. Pricing
10. Special FAQ for ASCE 3.5.10

An evaluation copy operates as a fully functional version of ASCE for 30 days only. Afterwards, it shifts to read-only mode, which means that you can read networks and modify them, but you cannot subsequently save them.

No, you cannot. Attempting to re-install an evaluation copy breaches the terms of the license. Moreover, re-installing an evaluation copy on a computer on which it has already expired will NOT re-enable ASCE (even if it has been uninstalled before). Installation on to another computer is, however, permitted and will succeed as long as no prior evaluation copy has run out on that machine.

To upgrade an evaluation copy, you must purchase a license.
Run ASCE and select "Register ASCE" under the Help menu. Write down the keycode that appears on the screen and call Adelard on +44 (0) 20 7490 9450. Please, ensure that you have your keycode at hand.

Users who have a genuine need to extend the evaluation period can obtain a free passcode. A passcode is a code that you type in and restores ASCE to its full functionality for a limited period of time. Contact Ad elard (+44 (0) 20 7490 9450) for more information. Note that Adelard reserves the right to refuse the extension of an evaluation period.

Yes, you can. ASCE is free for academic institutions for teaching and non-commercial research purposes. You will need to fill in a request form for an educational license. The form is available in your ASCE insta llation folder (typically, C:\Program Files\ASCE-v30\academic_licence.txt). Academic licences are issued on an annual basis.


This is caused by installing ASCE without full administrative permissions. In order to fix this problem, uninstall ASCE and then reinstall it. However, reinstallation must be carried out by a user who has got full administrative permissions.

Yes, it is. However, ASCE has various Windows dependencies. Thus, additional software has to be installed to provide these services. The two main options for running ASCE under Linux/OSX are:

1. Using a virtual machine, such as VMWare, Parallels, Virtual PC or QEMU, and then installing Windows and ASCE into the virtual machine.
2. Using a replacement for Win32 libraries, such as Wine.

More information on this issue can be found at the knowledgebase.


This problem is due to the KB891781-hotfix update released by Microsoft on 8 February 2005. The hotfix is known to have broken the functionality of certain libraries (in particular, DHTMLEdit.ocx, which ASCE uses for HTML editing).

Adelard has developed a patch which solves this problem on WinXP and Win2k. The patch is available at knowledgebase.

Yes, there is. Node narrative is based on plain HTML. Hence, anything that can be done in HTML can be done in the node narrative too.

If you want to change the text style of a particular paragraph, you can do it using HTML class attributes and CSS. If you select some text, you can edit the HTML code directly as well.

Yes, it is. However, the only fields that are displayed graphically in the main window are the node ID and the title. Hence, if you want a specific character to appear on the display, these are the only two place s to put it.

Currently, ASCE does not support non-western alphabets, but it does accept all European characters.

Typically, it is possible to print the main view directly from ASCE, but if this does not work properly, you may try to export it into another application and print it from there.

An image of the network graphic can be exported in EMF (Enhanced Metafile) format via the clipboard, clicking on the menu options "Edit->Copy selection as enhanced metafile". Once the nodes have been copied to the clipboard you can paste the graphic into any Windows application that accept Enhanced Metafiles (including Microsoft Excel, Powerpoint, Word, etc). Excel is particularly good at printing large graphics as it is designed to print large virtual canvases.

Sometimes, when importing an ASCE network into Word97, images may disappear. You may also get a Microsoft Word error message saying "Windows registry has reported that one or more required files are damaged or missing. To correct the problem, run the Word setup program".

Since running the setup program may not fix the problem, we recommend that you should reinsert the pictures manually.

Note that more recent versions of Microsoft Word do not cause this problem.

This is due to a problem between the default settings employed by HTML Tidy, which ASCE uses to clean up HTML code, and the Microsoft HTML editor.

In order to fix this problem, you just have to add an option to the ASCE tidy filters as follows:

fix-uri: no

You can add this option in a single line using a text editor. You should add the line to each of the three filters, namely, paste-special-full.tidy, paste-special-minimal.tidy and sanity-check.tidy. These filters are all in the folder C:\Program Files\ASCE-v35\tidy-filters.

This occurs only when using the manual link setting in ASCE v3.5. Close the export path window down. Then, select the auto layout (View-Link attachment-Auto layout) and reset back to manual after you have created your export path.

At present, we are working on a maintenance release that will eliminate the cause of this error. Meanwhile, you may try to open ASCE first and then the file you wanted to use (via the File->Open option in the main menu). Restarting your computer will solve the problem too.


Plugins are XML files that extend the functionality of ASCE with macros and additional user interface windows. They are implemented as external scripts, but run inside ASCE. Among other things, ASCE plugins may help to analyse the structure of a network, interact with third party tools, collect information from the user or enhance the ASCE node editor.

Yes, you can. To download some examples of plugins visit the ASCE plugin page. You may even wish to write your own plugins following the draft developer documentation available at ASCE plugin page. Note that all plugins must be stored in the "plugins" folder of the ASCE installation.

The images in your report may be "links" to files in your computer. Hence, after sending your document via e-mail, those links may not be resolved properly on the destination machine. You can verify they are Micr osoft Word fields by selecting them and pressing Shift-F9. Then, you may update (or "unlink") those fields to avoid this problem.

Another option is to install and run the One-Click Export plugin, which fixes this problem. This plugin is available at the ASCE plugin page.

There is a known issue with the One-Click Export plugin, which is related to problems caused by HTML code pasted directly from Microsoft Word.

A simple solution to this problem is to run the HTML Tidy plugin on the network before exporting it. If you have not yet installed the HTML Tidy plugin in your computer, you can get it from the ASCE plugin page.


Yes, there are. The example-networks folder on your ASCE installation contains a few examples (based on real safety cases). Also, the Adelard Safety Case Development Manual, which includes an example of a safety case, is installed with ASCE or can be downloaded from the ASCAD page.

If you require additional examples, please contact Adelard directly on +44 (0) 20 7490 9450 to discuss your needs.


Yes, we do. Adelard runs courses ranging from one-day introductions to in-depth technical training over several weeks. Courses comprise ASCE usage, hazard analysis, safety risk assessment, legislation and standardisation in safety-related issues and formal methods for software development. Contact us for further information.


See ASCE - pricing