Getting Started with Simantics
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Simantics Installation Instructions
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Getting Started with Simantics
What is Simantics
Put in a nutshell: Simantics is a software platform especially for modelling and numerical simulation. That is, it is a basis, a grounding to build a modelling and simulation software or to integrate different software tools. Simantics package does not include any "Simantics solver", but all the solvers are third party components. At the time of writing this document, Apros, Balas, and Modelica integrations are under construction.
The platform contains a graphical client software Proconf build on Eclipse software framework and a database server Procore holding all the data. For an end user working on a workstation the server can be seen as a process running when the software is started, so in many cases you don't have to care about the client-server architecture and all its fine nuances. On the right there are some screen shots to show how Simantics look like. It is meant to be a fully featured, industrial strength modelling tool. Still, the main idea is something new and more that what modelling and simulation experts have used to. It is definitely worth giving it a chance!
Some examples of what Simantics can be used for:
- Graphical modelling environment for system simulation: For example plant modelling or electric circuit design using 2D diagram style graphical tools.
- Solver communication and integration solution: A solution for connecting existing numerical solvers for co-simulation.
- Solution for complex modelling data management: Data model for complex, large model base management, large model database that is developed by several modellers around the internet.
- Platform and a set of tools for distributed model development and simulation: Large, worldwide organisations need tools that support their distributed organisation. Simantics architecture is designed from the very beginning to support this.
The innovation under the hood in Simantics is its semantic data model used for practically everything from 2D graphics to modelling data and model domain mappings - this is the already mentioned database server. This technology allows the model database to be intelligent and flexible so that the data in the database is kept up-to-date and user's unnecessary work is minimised. The really nice feature of the semantic data model is the built-in ability to easily map somehow related data in the data base - as a matter of fact, the data does not have to be related at all. All kind of data can be mapped if the user wants it. Another nice feature is that the user can add rules to the data and so implement e.g. model validation into the data. This is especially useful for managing complex system models and large data sets. Imagine if you have to keep a model of a whole power plant or paper machine consistent and you have thousands of model components that have cross relations in the model.
Introduction to Simantics Concepts and Conventions
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Tutorial: Simantics Platform User Interface
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