CPN Tools is a tool for editing, simulating, and analyzing Colored Petri nets.

The tool features incremental syntax checking and code generation, which take place while a net is being constructed. A fast simulator efficiently handles untimed and timed nets. Full and partial state spaces can be generated and analyzed, and a standard state space report contains information, such as boundedness properties and liveness properties.

New Features in Version 3.2

  • New (optional) notion of fairness suitable for simulation-based analysis
  • Open source
CPN Tools 3.2 also inherits these features from 3.0
  • Support for 64-bit Windows
  • Support for running under virtualization software such as VMWare and Parallels (use safe mode if you get errors under Parallels)
  • New simulator which is up to twice as fast for both automatic simulation and state space generation
  • Support for prioritized transitions
  • Support for real time

The latest version is version 3.2.2 from October 2011. Get it from the Download page. We also have a development version with more fixes and features, but in a less tested version available there. For a full list of new features for each version of CPN Tools and Access/CPN refer to the Whats New?-list.

CPN Tools is originally developed by the CPN Group at Aarhus University from 2000 to 2010. The main architects behind the tool are Kurt Jensen, Søren Christensen, Lars M. Kristensen, and Michael Westergaard. From the autumn of 2010, CPN Tools is transferred to the AIS group, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.

Michael's Blog on CPN Tools