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There are
certain requirements that an assembly must meet in order to
be analyzed by CSI. These requirements are listed below:
1.
The top-level assembly must contain one Document
component, one Fluid component and one Timing
component.
2.
The top-level assembly must contain at least one
component in the hydraulic schematic (the computation engine
DLL requires at least a source connected to a line and
discharge).
3.
The hydraulic circuit must not loop back on itself,
that is, a component’s outlet port cannot connect to a
component upstream from it
4.
The hydraulic schematic must conform to one of the
mathematical models supported by the computation engine DLL.
(For more information, refer to the
Valid Assemblies section)
5.
Only one hydraulic circuit may be included in the
assembly schematic.
6.
All components must have all their properties
properly initialized.
To run an
analysis, open the top-level assembly and press the Play
button on the main toolbar (a little triangle pointing to
the right). CSI runs a series of tests to ensure that
requirements 1, 2, 3 & 5 above are met. Requirement 6 is
checked during the definition of the components themselves.
Because the supported mathematical models will vary with
versions of the computation engine DLL, it is the
computation engine DLL that checks for the validity of the
hydraulic circuit. If the complete hydraulic circuit falls
within the definition of those supported by the current
version of the computation engine, the circuit is analyzed
and the results written to the following three files:
·
Header file: Analysis information file
(your input data only) as read by the computation DLL. This
file is best suited for creating reports with Microsoft
Word.
·
Summary file: Includes the header file
plus results tables (computed output values). This file is
best suited for creating reports with Microsoft Word or
viewing with Notepad.
·
Output file: Comma delimited numeric
file. This file is best suited for creating charts in
Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet applications.
The files listed above are temporary
files that are written into the folder along with the
program executable file, CSI.EXE. These files are
overwritten each time an analysis is run. If you want
to save the results, it is usually best to save the file
from Word or Excel.
In addition a more permanent file named
asemblyname_summary.txt is written into the folder
that contains the database file, databasename.mdb.
This file is only overwritten when an analysis is run on the
same assembly again. It is identical in content to the
Summary file described above.
After a successful analysis run, CSI
automatically displays the Output dialog box (see Figure 3)
where the user can choose from three different applications
for viewing the results files. The user may choose not
to open an external application by selecting the options
under the red cross. In this case the built-in charting
utility can be used to view and chart the results. The
charting utility is described in the next section.
To access
the built-in charting utility in CSI, open the assembly for
which results are to be charted and press the Chart
button. This will open a window like the one shown below:
Figure 27
The top of
the window shows the database where the applicable assembly
is saved. Immediately below the filename, two tabs labeled
Chart and Numeric allow the user to access the
two views in the charting utility.
The chart
view allows the user to create charts with the available
curves for the selected assembly. (To see how to make
component output available to the charting utility see
Specifying component output options)
The chart
view has the following controls:
·
Component name style: Allows the user to
display the component name (both on the chart legend and the
variables hierarchy tree) in one of the following formats:
·
Component name: This is the name the user gave
the component via the appropriate component dialog box
·
Sequence name: This is name CSI gave the
component while analysis was taken place. It is in the form
Type_n where Type is the component type
identifier (accum, tubing, etc.) and n is a sequence
number.
·
Component + sequence: A concatenation of the
two names explained above
·
Available variables: This displays the
variables available to the charting utility for the selected
assembly. Checking the boxes to the left of the variable
name causes will make the associated curves to appear on the
chart. Checking the boxes to the left of a component icon
will cause all the variables associated with said component
to appear on the chart.
·
Current series setting: Allows the user to
modify the properties of the active chart curve. To activate
a curve, either click on it directly on the chart (if
visible), or select it on the Available variables
hierarchy tree. The name of the active curve will appear
within the box just below the chart area.
·
Color: Click the colored box to change the
color for the active curve.
·
Pen width: Modifies the weight (width) of the
active curve
·
Pen style: Modifies the style of the active
curve (solid, dotted, etc.)
To view the value of an individual point on any visible
curve, first make the curve active as described above, and
then click the desired point (double-clicking the point will
not work, it’s one click to activate the curve, wait a bit,
the click to activate a point). The abscissa and ordinate
values will show within the box just below the charting
area.
·
Chart: This area shows the chart itself. The
title of the chart is the same as the name of the assembly.
The legend always displays the chart names as
ComponentName.Curve. Because the axes always
expand and contract to display the full numerical range of
all the selected curves, displaying multiple curves with
widely differing numerical ranges will make one of them
invisible or hard to read. For example, selecting a pressure
curve with range 0-2000 psi together with a flow curve with
range 0-5 gpm will display the pressure curve correctly but
the Y-axis will show the flow curve as a nearly flat line
near the X-axis.
Use this
view to either browse the numeric data or to send it to
Microsoft Excel as explained in the
Advanced topics section of this manual. |
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