Solver Tools for Developers

Easily deploy them on desktops, servers, or in the cloud with or without Excel

If you are looking to develop optimization or simulation applications for clients inside your own company or for other companies you’ve come to the right place. Our SDKs and optional plug-in solver engines allow you to create your models in your choice of platforms and languages, solve them with your choice of the best solvers, and even create models in desktop Excel and run them on servers without Excel.

For more than 15 years, corporate developers and other software companies have relied on Frontline Systems Solvers in "callable library" form. From departmental applications with a few users to high volume commercial products with hundreds of thousands or millions of users (as in Mathcad and Microsoft Excel), Frontline Solvers have been proven in use.

Choose the SDK Tool Which Best Meets Your Needs

We offer two SDK products. Our easiest to use and most powerful SDK tool, Solver SDK Platform, and our less expensive, SDK tool, Solver SDK Pro with more limited capabilities. Both allow you to easily build and deploy optimization and simulation applications using your choice of platforms and languages, while Solver SDK Pro has some smaller problem size limits, doesn’t accept plug in solver engines, and can’t load existing Excel workbooks. You can see a side-by-side comparison here.

See below for a quick overview of each product, our plug-in solver engines, flexible licensing, and to learn how to get a free 15-day trial to see the power and flexibility for yourself.

Solver SDK Platform

Ultimate Simulation and Optimization Power Outside Excel

Our "flagship" product for developers is the Solver SDK Platform. It may well be all you need, because it can handle every type of optimization and simulation problem up to certain size limits:

  • Linear and quadratic programming problems up to 8,000 variables
  • Conic and mixed-integer programming problems up to 2,000 variables
  • Smooth nonlinear, global, and nonsmooth optimization problems up to 1,000 variables
  • And a powerful new Solver for Monte Carlo simulation and simulation-optimization applications!

Given the breadth and depth of its optimization capabilities alone, the SDK would be a great product.

But there's much more! Other "callable library" optimizers emphasize fast solution times, but they can be difficult to use for a developer who doesn't have a PhD in operations research. In contrast, the Solver SDK Platform emphasizes ease of use and fast development times! The SDK features:

  • A new object-oriented API that helps you work at a higher level -- closer to a modeling language than a programming language. Learn more about our APIs here.
  • Deep support for .NET (VB.NET, F#, C# and C++), COM (Visual Basic and C++), Java, and MATLAB. Learn more about our supported languages and operating systems.
  • IntelliSense -- Visual Studio shows you available choices and completes program statements for you as you type!
  • XML-based Balloon Help in Visual Studio .NET -- just hover your mouse over a program statement to get hints and assistance!

For Intranet, Web Server, or Web service applications, the Solver SDK Platform is ideal -- it's thread-safe, supporting multiple sessions concurrently; it's very high performance; and it offers Flexible Use Runtime licenses that don't require tracking of named users or client computers. And it's easier than you think -- you can use Visual Studio-supplied Wizards with the SDK's Wizards to create a working Web server or Web service application in minutes!

Learn more about Solver SDK Platform and register to get your Free trial.

Solver SDK Pro

Professional Optimization and Simulation for Developers

What if you don’t need all the powerful and flexibility of our Solver SDK Platform but are still looking for a feature rich optimization and simulation development tool? Solver SDK Pro gives you that and more. For a lower price than our Solver SDK Platform you still get an incredibly powerful and flexible development tool while only giving up the ability to use additional plug-in solver engines, load and solve excel workbooks, and some smaller size limits on certain problem types.

It is a far less expensive solution than writing your own code, trying to use open source libraries with limited or no support, or spending up to ten thousand dollars for a powerful optimizer with its own specialized APIs (usually without any simulation capabilities). Solver SDK Pro, new in our V11.0 product line, offers a better alternative. It is a far less expensive way to get started with a supported, professional grade product, and is upgradeable for unlimited expansion potential – all the way up to the largest Monte Carlo simulation models running on compute clusters, and LP/MIP optimization models will millions of decision variables.

In addition, Solver SDK Pro’s modern object-oriented API is fully compatible with its “big brother”, Solver SDK Platform, and with the VBA object models in our Excel products. And it has rich support, with scores of example programs, in C/C++, C#, Visual Basic, VB.NET, Java, and MATLAB.

Learn more about Solver SDK Pro and register to get your free trial.

Plug-in Solver Engines for Large-Scale Problems

If your optimization problem is likely to exceed the size limits of the Solver SDK Platform for the type of problem you want to solve, then you'll want to choose a Solver Engine that handles larger-scale problems of that specific type.

Even if your problem fits within the size limits of Solver SDK Platform, you may find that you can obtain much faster solutions with one of our large-scale Solver Engines. It makes sense to choose a Solver Engine that uses algorithms or methods most efficient for your type of problem, especially if the problem is larger size. We’re happy to help you determine which one may be best for you. Feel free to contact us to discuss your situation and goals.

For more information on Solver Engines you can visit our Plug-in Solver SDK Engines page for an overview of the engines or click on one of the following links to see which engines are best suited for each specific types of optimization problems:

Note: Every Frontline Systems Solver product will handle problems with integer variables, including variables subject to the "alldifferent" constraint. If your problem involves many such variables, however, you may find much faster solutions using the Solver Engines found through the link "Integer and Constraint Programming Problems" above.

Flexible SDK and Solver Engine Licensing for Deployment

Do you plan to deploy your application to users within your organization, or to external customers? Frontline's runtime licenses give you the right to embed the Solver SDK Platform or the Premium Solver Platform and -- if required -- one or more of our Solver Engines into your application and duplicate or distribute copies, or make the application accessible to users on an Intranet or Web server, or via a Web service. And our runtime license management options make it easy to monitor and control use of the software, using either Frontline-provided tools or your own tools.

If you need only one of the Solver SDK Platform's five Solvers -- or just one of our plug-in Solver Engines -- for deployment, you can still develop with the Solver SDK Platform. Runtime licenses allow you to pay for only the Solver features you need in your application; they can be matched to your method of licensing or controlling use of your application software. Click to find out more about SDK and Solver Engine runtime licensing.

Visit our SDK and Solver Engine Licensing page to learn more.

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