STROBOSCOPE Installation

Minimum System Requirements - Microsoft Windows

Stroboscope can be installed in any recent version of Microsoft Windows (32-bit or 64-bit). The default user interface is the Stroboscope IDE (Integrated Development Environment). The IDE (similar to the Windows Notepad) provides a text editor in which to type and enter the statements that make up a Stroboscope simulation model. The IDE also provides the controls by which to run and debug a simulation model, and to view and save the simulation model output.

Recommended System Requirements - Microsoft Visio

In addition to the base system, the Stroboscope Setup program also installs three graphical systems that facilitate the development of Stroboscope simulation models, and which require Microsoft Visio. The use of these graphical systems is strongly recommended

These three graphical systems require a recent version of Microsoft Visio which needs to be installed separately. All recent versions of Microsoft Visio are supported, from Visio 2021 back to Visio 2000. 

IMPORTANT: Starting with Stroboscope version 5,22,1,15, the Stroboscope GUI works with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Visio. In earlier versions of Stroboscope, the Stroboscope GUI supported only the 32-bit version of Visio and would not work with the 64-bit version. (EZStrobe and ProbSched are programmed entirely in Visio and thus have always worked with both the 32-bit and the 64-bit versions of Visio.) 

Download the Stroboscope Installation Package

The Stroboscope installation package is a single executable file named Stroboscope_Setup.exe which can be downloaded from the following links.

Current Stroboscope Release 5,24,6,4 (full support for Visio x64)

VS2019 Stroboscope Release 6,24,9,4 (full support for Visio x64)

VS2022 Stroboscope Release 7,24,9,7 (full support for Visio x64)

Older Stroboscope Release (4,2,0,0) (partial support for Visio x64, see above)

Stroboscope Installation Instructions

Important: The installation of Stroboscope requires Administrator privileges.

To install Stroboscope, double-click and run the Stroboscope installation package

    Stroboscope_Setup.exe.

Installation Notes:

Troubleshooting Stroboscope

Rarely, when you run Stroboscope for the first time, you may see the following message.:

Ordinarily, this error should not appear, because the installation of Stroboscope also installs or repairs the "Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)"
To correct this error, install manually the "Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)" from one the following sources.

Troubleshooting Visio - EZStrobe - Stroboscope GUI

The Stroboscope installation program Stroboscope_Setup.exe makes the necessary entries in the Windows registry by automatically running the appropriate script shown below that registers the Visio-based tools (that are included with Stroboscope) with all versions of Visio (up to 2021). 

This is done only for the current Windows user. See below on how to register Stroboscope with Visio for other Windows users.

Script to Register Stroboscope with Microsoft Visio

If EZStrobe or the Stroboscope GUI do not work correctly in Visio, you can run the same automated script again (and register the Stroboscope Visio-based tools for the current Windows user) as follows:

This runs the appropriate script shown below that registers the Visio-based tools (that are included with Stroboscope) with all versions of Visio (up to 2021) for the current Windows user. 

This script should make Visio work correctly with EZStrobe and the Stroboscope GUI (for the user currently logged into Windows).

Manual Definition of Automation Settings in Microsoft Visio

If EZStrobe or the Stroboscope GUI still produce errors in Visio, you can also register the Stroboscope Visio-based tools with any version of Visio manually.

As an example, the following steps assume that you have Visio 2021 and wish to enable automation between Visio and Stroboscope. (If you have a different version of Visio, then the new entries that need to be made are the same as those below, but their locations in the Visio menus may be slightly different):

Stroboscope, EZStrobe, ProbSched, Vitascope and Vitascope++ are based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants No. 9733267, No. 0113890, and No. 0732560. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.