Workshop: Simulation Assistant Simulation Assistant: Workshop Content - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Workshop: Simulation Assistant

• Java macros: simple demonstration
• Wizards: high-end Java
• Simulation Assistants as an end user: two examples

– Internal Flow – Muffler aero-acoustics

• Simulation Assistants in detail
• Edit and enhance an existing Simulation Assistant

– Netbeans – Add a new scene to a Task

Simulation Assistant: Workshop Content

• The Simulation Assistant

– A tool to help guide users through STAR-CCM+ setup processes

• Exposed as a side panel
• Leverages the power of Java

– A framework for Authors to replicate best practices and simulation workflows

• The Simulation Assistant

– Enhances user experience – Ensures repeatability of a process – Enforces consistency of results – Speeds up learning curve – Shortens time to productivity for

• Users new to STAR-CCM+ or to CFD
• Sophisticated and industry specific analysis workflows

What is a Simulation Assistant?

• Simulation Assistant provide a visual workflow

within STAR-CCM+

– A flexible approach allowing a scalable level of sophistication

• Users

– Designed to be a simple way of executing simulation steps without

• Knowing STAR-CCM+ UI
• Mastering the physics to analyse
• Authors

– Designed to be a simple way of executing simulation tasks without high levels of Java knowledge

• Different to macros which are inherently procedural
• Use event driven programming

Why Simulation Assistant?

• The Simulation Assistant appears in a

new frame on the right hand side of the STAR-CCM+ window

• The workflow is divided up into different

steps

– Each step may have a number of actions – Actions are used to execute operations within STAR-CCM+

• Single operation – e.g. change a value
• Complex operations – e.g. setup a continuum
• Swing operations – e.g. pop-up a new panel

The Simulation Assistant

Where can I learn about …?

• Examples

– Three example Simulation Assistants are available for users

• Documentation - Help

– A dedicated section in the Help coves using and developing a Simulation Assistant – A tutorial is available showing the route to building the Internal Flow Assistant

• The Simulation Assistant is loaded from the File menu

– Java files that contain the structure of the Simulation Assistant – May be .java or compiled .jar files

Launching a Simulation Assistant

Main Components

Tasks:

• The major stages in

your workflow

• May be expanded or

collapsed Steps:

• Operations within a task
• Typically presented as

bullet points Actions:

• Hyperlinks that

execute a function Sub-Tasks

• May be expanded
• r collapsed

within a task

Task Layout

Pre & Post-Conditions:

• Optional automatic

enabling/ disabling of tasks

• Ensures required

actions are completed before moving forward Images

• May be embedded

in text

• Can be used to

execute actions Information Tags

• Clickable icons

that expand

• May be used to

provide additional information/ instructions

Authoring a Simulation Assistant

• The Simulation Assistant framework provides

– A structure to execute actions in a logical and consistent manner

• It can be thought of as executing a series of STAR-CCM+ java macros one by
• ne

– A documented API and consistent coding style

• Provided with STAR-CCM+ are

– Tutorial – Documentation – Example Assistants – Javadocs – NetBeans template

How do I Write an Assistant

The Structure of a Simulation Assistant

Compiled project .jar Compiled Assistant bundles all project files in a single file that can be easily distributed Assistant .java The top level assistant is a placeholder for subsequent tasks Task .java Each task may contain a number of actions as well as sub-tasks

Text/Layout .xhtml Text defined by XHTML, may be embedded in task or separate file Stylesheet .css If xhtml files are used, the style of text may be defined by a stylesheet

• It is recommended to use the NetBeans IDE for developing

Simulation Assistants

– It can be downloaded from https://netbeans.org/ – The same IDE helps in writing STAR-CCM+ macros

• Once downloaded install the STAR-CCM+ Simulation Assistant

template

– Go to Tools > Plugins > Downloaded > Add plugins – Point the plugin manager to nbm file available to download through the Steve portal – Accept the license terms and usage and continue

Step 1 – Setting up an IDE

• Each Simulation Assistant should be a separate NetBeans

project

– Go to file > New Project. The STAR-CCM+ template should be seen with the Simulation Assistant Project

• Next choose the title, name, location and package/class details
• f your project

Step 2 – Creating a Project

• The final step in creating the Simulation Assistant project is adding the

STAR-CCM+ libraries

– If not already present, create a new library by choosing Manage Libraries…

• Use Add JAR/Folder to add all the files in the lib, core, core\locale, modules,

modules\ext & modules\locale sub-directories

– These can be found in the STAR-CCM+ installation directory under lib/java/platorm

• Important Note:

– On Windows it’s recommended to install STAR-CCM+ in the top level of your hard drive or move the Java libraries from STAR-CCM+ into a separate location – If STAR-CCM+ is installed to the default location you project may not compile due to a bug in NetBeans

Step 3 – Adding STAR-CCM+ Libraries

• When a simulation assistant project is created, the top level task is

automatically created

• The top level assistant.java simply references each of the subsequent

tasks

– The tasks are added to an ArrayList

Structure of the Top Level Assistant

@StarAssistant(display=“Assistant Name") public final class AssistantClass extends SimulationAssistant { public AssistantClass() { List<Task> tasks = new ArrayList<Task>(); tasks.add(new Task1name()); tasks.add(new Task2name ()); tasks.add(new Task3name ()); tasks.add(new Task4name ()); setOutline(tasks); } }

Name of the assistant displayed in STAR-CCM+ Assistant Tasks

• To create a new task, right click on the assistant package and

choose “New > Simulation Assistant Task”

• Choose the name and location of the task
• Before creating the task you can also choose whether the xhtml

is embedded in the task or an external file

Creating a Task

• The main function of the task is to provide actions for the user

– The actions themselves, generally take the form of snippets of java code used to perform STAR-CCM+ tasks i.e. sections of java macro – One task may contain many actions – Actions are exposed via XHTML

Structure of a Task

@StarAssistantTask(display = “Task Name", contentFragment = "<ul><li><a href=\"staraction:action\">action name</a></li></ul>", controller = NewTask.NewTaskController.class) public class TaskName extends Task { public class NewTaskController extends FunctionTaskController { public void action() { notifyUser("Example TaskController function."); } } }

Name of the task displayed in STAR-CCM+ xhtml fragment displayed in STAR-CCM+ Task class referenced in the top level java file Reference to the action, displayed as a link Individual action containing code snippet

• May be created and are shown nested in another task

– Each subtask is a new java file

• Added to a tasks by creating an ArrayList

Subtasks

List<Task> subTasks = new ArrayList<Task>(); subTasks.add(new Task1A()); subTasks.add(new Task1B()); subTasks.add(new Task1C()); setSubtasks(subTasks);

Task Expanded subtask Collapsed subtask

• In many instances a client-server object (cso) such as a may be

needed across multiple tasks

– e.g. I choose a boundary in task 1 and then want to modify it in task 2 – To keep track of these hierarchical lookups are used

• To add an object to the lookup list

– addToTaskLookup(cso)

• To retrieve objects

– lookupObject(class) - returns the first object of that class from list – lookupObjects(class) – returns all objects of that class from list – getLookup() – returns the entire list – removeFromTaskLookup(cso) – removes a cso from the list – clearTaskLookup() – clears the entire list

Using Lookups

• To highlight the area where an action is working on or where the

user should input values, it is possible to expand nodes in the tree

• Two methods are available

– selectAndExpandNode(ClientServerObject[] csos)

• Selects the associated nodes in the tree and expands when not visible

– selectNodeExclusive(ClientServerObject[] csos)

• Selects the associated nodes in the tree and collapses all other branches

Expanding Nodes

• Conditions are available to automatically enable/disable tasks

– e.g. Task 1 creates a geometry, task 2 meshes it – Moving onto task 2 before task 1 is complete is clearly not valid

• Use of conditions can

– Help to guide users through the workflow – Add a level of safety so that errors aren’t thrown unnecessarily

• Pre-conditions signify when a task is ready to be executed
• Post-conditions signify when it is completed
• When combined with lookups, the conditions may automatically scan the simulation

for changes that may satisfy them

– Means you can write a Simulation Assistant that recognizes and responds to objects created outside

• f itself

– e.g. User can do some tasks in a Simulation Assistant, then some tasks manually, then come back to the Simulation Assistant

Conditions

Conditions in the Assistant

Conditions are displayed in tabs at the top of tasks When a task has pre- conditions that aren’t met, they are greyed out When conditions are met a tick is placed next to it and information on what the object is that satisfies it When all conditions in a task are met, the task is ticked

• It is recommended to put conditions in a separate file so that their class can be

easily integrated into more than one task

• The conditions watch lookups for changes so they may evaluate the condition

Creating Conditions

public static synchronized CSOCondition<ConditionType> createCondition() { CSOCondition<ConditionType> conditionName = new CSOCondition<ConditionType>(); conditionName.setDesc(“Description of how the condition works"); CSOLookupConditionTrigger<ConditionType> conditionNameTrigger = new CSOLookupConditionTrigger<ConditionType>(ConditionType.class); conditionName.setTriggers(Collections.singleton(conditionNameTrigger)); conditionName.setPredicate(new Predicate<ConditionType>() { Condition } });

Sets the type of condition, e.g. PhysicsContinuum, CADPart etc Create the Condition Description Create a trigger that monitors the lookup Sets the trigger to the

• ne above

Sets the predicate (true/false) evaluation Create the condition that returns true or false

• Once conditions are created they may be added to tasks

– One or more may be added to a single task – To add a conditions use either

• setPostconditions
• SetPreconditions
• To add a single condition
• To add multiple conditons, create an array of conditions then

add it

Using Conditions

setPostconditions(Collections.singleton(conditionsclass.createConditionmethod ())); List<Condition<?>> arrayname = new ArrayList<Condition<?>>(); arrayname.add(conditionsclass.createConditionmethod 1()); arrayname.add(conditionsclass.createConditionmethod 2()); setPostconditions(arrayname);

• Simulation assistant text is created using XHTML

– XHTML is well formed HTML – May be embedded in the task but this is relatively inflexible, especially for tasks with multiple actions – Greater flexibility is achieved using an external xhtml file

• To use external xhtml contentFragment = … is replaced with

contentPath = “link.xhtml”

• Content style may be controlled via a CSS file

– Default “workflowStyle.css” is automatically created

• Simulation assistants also support the use of images and tables

embedded in the xhtml

Using XHTML

• For a complete reference, including attributes for the below tags

– http://xhtml.com/en/xhtml/reference/

• Start/end a paragraph

– <p></p>

• Use a defined style from the CSS

– <style></style>

• Bold type

– <strong></strong>

• Actions from tasks are referenced by

– <a href=“staraction:action”>action</a> – Images may also be used to perform an action with <a href=“staraction:action”><button><img src=….></button></a>

• Images

– <img src=xx></img> inserts images, the size may additionally be defined by width=xxx and height=xxx attributes

• Tables

– Tables are started/ended by <table></table> – Each row starts and ends with <tr></tr> – For each column, headings are defined by <th></th> and cell data as <td></td>

Useful XHTML Tags

• If you wish to embed additional information into an action,

information tags may be used

– <information></information>

• A small icon appears in the task where the information is placed

– Clicking the icon expands the information

Information tags

• Un-ordered Lists

– Presented as bullets – Entire list and each level started and ended by<ul></ul>

• New lines in list started and ended by

<li></li>

• Ordered lists

– Each level numbered – Started and ended by <ol></ol>

• New lines in list started and ended by

<li></li>

Lists

• Simulation Assistant provide a visual workflow in STAR-CCM+

– A tool to help guide Users through STAR-CCM+ setup processes – A framework for Authors to replicate best practices and simulation workflows – Enhances user experience – Ensures repeatability of a process – Enforces consistency of results – Speeds up learning curve

Conclusions

Thank You