Additional Tools

File Chooser

The File Chooser provided works much like most file choosers in other applications. It allows the user to navigate the file system to select a file or directory. When the GUI requires a directory only, then only directories will be shown. When file selection is required, file and directory information will be shown.

Figure 1. Local file selection.

By default, the file chooser opens in the current working directory for local file selection. But if the user is authenticated to a remote machine (see Configure Panel) then remote files and directories will be selected. The speed of response of the system view depends on the network connection. In most cases, only a slight pause is noticed during navigation of a remote system.

Figure 2. Remote file selection.

After a file or directory is selected, the name is passed from the File Chooser window to the GUI. For local files the full path and file are returned. For remote files, only a relative path in the user's working is returned. This will change in future versions as the server evolves.

NOTE: It is important that the user make use of the File Chooser for remote file selection. It is the process of remote file selection through the File Chooser that informs the GUI that it must get/put/run files remotely.

Editor Window

The Editor Window is a generic text editor with a few personalized options for running with the GUI. Files can be opened from the local or remote computer. Several Editor Windows may be open at one time but it is recommended that only one window be open while running a simulation. The GUI assumes that the last window open contains the script to be run. Multiple windows may cause confusion and the wrong script may be sent to the compute engine.

Figure 3. File options in the Editor Window

When the GUI generates compute engine specific script (e.g. matlab script) it can be viewed, and altered, in the Editor Window before it is sent to the compute engine. Often a user may want to generate the script, view it in the Editor Window, then save it to the local machine. The user can the run the script independently of the GUI. After changes are made in the Editor Window, simply clicking outside of the Editor Window saves the changes in the GUI's buffer.

Figure 4. Refreshing the template in the Editor Window.

It was mentioned that any time there is a change in parameters or equations in the GUI, the template must be refreshed before the changes are accepted by the GUI. The Editor Window contains the template, and can be manually refreshed by pressing the "Template -> Refresh" option at the top.

NOTE: The GUI process of building script is one-way. If manual alterations are made to the GUI generated script in the Editor Window, these changes are not reflected in the GUI tables and equations. If the template is refreshed after manual alterations are made in the Editor Window, those alterations will be lost.