Release Notes and ChangeLog for MasterSimulator

IMPORTANT

Version 0.9.3 of MasterSim will be the last one hosted on SourceForge. Binaries will now be hosted on GitHub as well, which greatly reduces deployment effort for me.

Changelog for Version 0.9.3 (13.01.2022)

The release of MasterSim only contains minor, cosmetic fixes. Most changes between 0.9.0 and 0.9.3 were related to updating of third-party libraries, improving deployment and translation file handling, and creation of Debian/Ubuntu packages.

On Ubuntu, MasterSim can now be installed via PPA:

# add repository
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ghorwin/sim
sudo apt-get update
# install mastersim
sudo apt install mastersim

Changelog for Version 0.9.0 (13.09.2021)

MasterSim has been used in quite a lot of projects (both research and industry) already, and most feature additions / bug fixes were motivated from those projects. But, as you can see, these are all minor issues - MasterSim just works :-)!

The manual (both german and english) should be pretty complete now. The printable PDFs are included in the installers, but for easier reference I'd recommend using the web-versions at https://bauklimatik-dresden.de/mastersim/documentation.php.

As I am using primarily git in my open-source projects and over the last year of SIM-VICUS development on github (https://github.com/ghorwin/SIM-VICUS) gained a bit of experience with github usage, I've decided to move development to git. The source code is now hosted on github (https://github.com/ghorwin/MasterSim) and also the tickets/issues are managed on github in the future.

• Bugfix: [Ticket #91] - Fix crash when FMU slave returns nullptr upon string query
• Feature: [Ticket #90] - Add link to webpage in about dialog
• Feature: [Ticket #89] - Add main menu option for Linux Desktop integration
• Bugfix: [Ticket #88] - Add check against nullptr returned from fmi2GetString() calls
• Feature: [Ticket #87] - Add support for "file:/​/​/​path/​to/​project.msim" protocol prefix
• Feature: [Ticket #86] - Run solver in visible terminal on Linux (XTerm/​Gnome Terminal)
• Feature: [Ticket #85] - Add support for string parameters with leading spaces
• Feature: [Ticket #83] - Deploy examples/​validation files on Mac as well
• Feature: [Ticket #82] - More improvement on german and english manual

Changelog for Version 0.8.3 (16.10.2020)

This is a minor update release, which includes a few usability features. Also, the german and english manuals have been improved (although there appears to be still some work left).

Also, the annoying MacOS compatibility issue is gone (required Qt libraries to be installed). MasterSimulator and its user interface now run nicely on all MacOS from 10.11 ... 10.15 and should be running on earlier versions as well (though I didn't test it).

• Feature: [Ticket #81] - File menu: add entry to open project directory in file manager
• Feature: [Ticket #80] - Improve english and german manual
• Feature: [Ticket #79] - Add option to highlight not-connected output variables
• Feature: [Ticket #78] - Add shortcut/​file menu entry for "open folder with project file"
• Feature: [Ticket #77] - Help menu: add link to webpage
• Feature: [Ticket #76] - Help menu: add links to online manual and bug report/​feature tracker
• Feature: [Ticket #75] - Usability: remember project save path and use this path as base path when importing FMUs
• Feature: [Ticket #74] - Usability: prompt for saving project file after "New..."

Changelog for Version 0.8.2 (14.11.2019)

It is done. 60 pages of user manual in one week! Thanks to Asciidoctor even with a decent layout. And, interestingly, by documenting all the features very neatly, quite a few bugs appeared (and where fixed right away):

• Feature: - Welcome page shows thumbnails of simulation scenarios
• Bugfix: [Ticket #73] - Pass start time via setupExperiment() to slaves
• Bugfix: [Ticket #72] - Fix unit conversion in output files
• Bugfix: [Ticket #71] - Block network does not remember to show model.png image from FMU as block image
• Bugfix: [Ticket #70] - Fix evaluation for file reader slaves and bool/​int/​enum values
• Feature: [Ticket #69] - Add support for csv excel export flavor
• Feature: [Ticket #67] - Write html color codes in project file in 6 digit form when alpha=ff
• Bugfix: [Ticket #66] - Fix header of progress.txt
• Bugfix: [Ticket #65] - MasterSim UI should check for valid slave names (no spaces!)
• Bugfix: [Ticket #62] - results (values) are written in the wrong order.

The documentation is available on https://bauklimatik-dresden.de/mastersim/documentation.php.

Changelog for Version 0.8.1 (07.11.2019)

Only two days later the next release! Well, two small and meaningful extensions/bug fixes were added and also some usability upgrades. Most useful is the ability to define transformation rules between output and input variables (e.g. for flux sign inversion or unit conversion). Also important is a performance upgrade that allows usage of FMUs with many (> 10000) exported parameters.

• Feature: [Ticket #64] - Improve parameter editing - currently bad scalability when importing FMUs with >10000 parameters
• Feature: [Ticket #61] - Apply changes in simulation settings when clicking on start button or pressing F9 for simulation start
• Feature: [Ticket #60] - Add properties to connections, such as unit conversions or sign inversions
• Feature: [Ticket #55] - Detect data type of csv-input slave's variables from connection graph

Changelog for Version 0.8.0 (05.11.2019)

This is a major update, which first introduces graphical routing and a simulation network display (including printing/export to PDF). Also, a lot of usability features have been added to the user interface.

• Feature: [Ticket #59] - Show unit of variables in connection view
• Feature: [Ticket #38] - Add button to clear start page of recently used projects
• Feature: [Ticket #23] - Implement slope-based error test using history information only
• Feature: [Ticket #12] - Highlight invalid connections in the connection graph
• Feature: [Ticket # 2] - Block-Modelling Data Structure and Interface to library

Changelog for Version 0.7.1 (03.08.2019)

This is a minor update, with only fine-tuning and a compatibility feature needed for cross-checking/validation of MasterSim (the 'prevent overstepping' feature). Also, on the Mac starting the simulation spawns a new terminal application window, so no more running jobs in the background.

• Feature: Ticket #52 - Add option to 'prevent overstepping of end time'
• Feature: Ticket #54 - Open Terminal.app on MacOS when launching MasterSimulator
• Feature: Ticket #56 - Remove target directory when running new simulation from GUI
• Feature: Ticket #57 - Fix problem when FMU uses same value reference for several (different) variables

Changelog for Version 0.7.0 (09.07.2019)

This release is centered around standard compliance - a lot of small adjustments were necessary, to run FMUs from very different tools.

One major improvement is the ability of the user interfance and solver to treat csv-format time series files (format specs see wiki) as a calculation slave that generates variables by means of linear interpolation between tabulated values.

Another major addition is the ability to specify slave-specific parameter values in the user interface.

Here's a list of all features and bug fixes (details can be checked in the ticket system of the SourceForge project):

• Feature: Ticket #50 - Enable output of parameters and locals
• Feature: Ticket #48 - Detect synonymous variables and create a file that holds this information
• Feature: Ticket #47 - Distinguish between valuereference and value index when writing outputs
• Feature: Ticket #46 - Raise error if simulation is started that does not generate any outputs
• Feature: Ticket #43 - Add UI support for selection csv/​tsv files as input files.
• Feature: Ticket #42 - Add test case for FileReader slave
• Feature: Ticket #41 - Add feature that keeps application settings when upgrading to newer version
• Feature: Ticket #40 - Add shortcuts Ctrl+O (open project) and F9 (run simulation)
• Feature: Ticket #39 - Read internal variables and add option to write outputs for internal variables
• Bugfix: Ticket #37 - Fix start page (recently opened projects and examples)
• Feature: Ticket #31 - Allow specifying fixed/​tunable parameters in GUI
• Feature: Ticket #29 - Enable reading of CSV-files with input variables and using them in connection graph

Changelog for Version 0.6.0 (23.05.2019)

Key focus in this release was the ability to run quite a lot of the FMU test cases from the FMI cross-check repository. Interestingly, this involved reading up a bit on the standard specs and finding out, that quite a few descriptions are a bit ambiguous or at least unclear, for example whether the 'unit' attribute of Real-TypeDefinitions is mandatory or now. In my opinion it is, yet Dymola doesn't write a unit... Anyhow, MasterSim now treats it as optional and uses an undefined unit for outputs.

Also, output files are now written in standard csv-format, that can be easily imported into both PostProc 2 and Excel and the like.

Here's a list of all features and bug fixes:

• Feature: Ticket #36 - Make unit attribute optional in TypeDefinitions section of model description file.
• Bugfix: Ticket #35 - Missing 'variability' attribute shouldn't prevent MasterSim from running the FMU
• Feature: Ticket #34 - Change output format to csv
• Feature: Ticket #33 - Automatic stepsize calculation when stepsize = 0
• Feature: Ticket #30 - Ensure that integration does not surpass end time point
• Feature: Ticket #27 - Automatically show log file after simulation has finished
• Bugfix: Ticket #26 - Fix configuration/​settings name (registry/​.config file path)
• Bugfix: Ticket #25 - Logfile cannot be opened from UI when filename contains a '.'
• Feature: Ticket #24 - Improve message output so that it is easier to grep through results
• Feature: Ticket #22 - Adjust format of step-statistics file to be usable in PostProcessing
• Feature: Ticket #21 - MasterSim should be deployed with icon files and create a .desktop file on Linux
• Feature: Ticket #20 - Iterative algorithms without time step adjustment should continue when max iters have been reached
• Feature: Ticket #19 - Improve diagnostic messages from iterative algorithms
• Feature: Ticket #18 - Add button in UI to show simulation log file
• Feature: Ticket #17 - Match timesteps in all output files
• Feature: Ticket #16 - Improve simulation log
• Feature: Ticket #15 - Boolean outputs are written to integer output file
• Feature: Ticket #14 - Improve display of project file comments on welcome page
• Feature: Ticket #13 - Add summary.txt output for regression test suite
• Feature: Ticket #11 - When loading a project, automatically analyze FMUs in the background without message window
• Feature: Ticket #10 - Enhance output of FMU analysis in UI
• Bugfix: Ticket #9 - MasterSimUI fails to read modelDescription generated by OpenModelica 1.13.0
• Feature: Ticket #8 - Extend error test with slope check
• Bugfix: Ticket #7 - Fix "reload project on external file change"
• Feature: Ticket #6 - Associate file extension msim with MasterSimulator user interface

Changelog for Version 0.5.3 (24.09.2018)

• Feature: Ticket #30 - Ensure that integration does not surpass end time point
• Feature: Ticket #23 - Implement slope-based error test using history information only
• Feature: Ticket #11 - When loading a project, automatically analyze FMUs in the background without message window
• Feature: Ticket #27 - Automatically show log file after simulation has finished
• Bugfix: Ticket #26 - Fix configuration/​settings name (registry/​.config file path)
• Bugfix: Ticket #25 - Logfile cannot be opened from UI when filename contains a .
• Feature: Ticket #24 - Improve message output so that it is easier to grep through results
• Feature: Ticket #14 - Improve display of project file comments on welcome page
• Feature: Ticket #8 - Extend error test with slope check
• Feature: Ticket #22 - Adjust format of step-statistics file to be usable in PostProcessing
• Feature: Ticket #21 - MasterSim should be deployed with icon files and create a .desktop file on Linux

Changelog for Version 0.5.2 (02.08.2018)

• Feature: Ticket #20 - Iterative algorithms without time step adjustment should continue when max iters have been reached
• Feature: Ticket #19 - Improve diagnostic messages from iterative algorithms
• Feature: Ticket #18 - Add button in UI to show simulation log file

Changelog for Version 0.5.1 (23.01.2018)

• Bugfix: Ticket #15: Boolean outputs are written to integer output file (also fixes the segfault when having booling and integer outputs)
• Feature: Ticket #16: Improve simulation log (add solver version for bug reporting)
• Feature: Ticket #17: Match timesteps in all output files (use same number precision for time points)

Changelog for Version 0.5.0 (17.11.2017)

• Bugfix: Ticket #7: Fixed reloading of project files modified by external applications (editors)
• Bugfix: Ticket #9: MasterSimUI fails to read modelDescription generated by OpenModelica 1.13.0 (to strict error check)

New feature:

• Ticket #13: Added summary.txt output for regression test suite (automated regression testing is now supported and used)
• added support for whitespaces and linebreaks (encoded) in string parameters when specified in project file

Changelog for Version 0.4.4 (15.12.2016)

• Bugfix: Minimum time step size is now honored by the error test
• Bugfix: Output time grid is kept fixed even for variable stepping runs

New features:

• solver and algorithm options are now checked more thoroughly, so that invalid combinations are flagged during initialization
• improved algorithm option selection, so that algorithm variants can be specified more clearly (see also wiki-pages on algorithms and project file)
• the leading comment block in a project file is now preserved, so annotations remain there when project is edited in user interface
• step statistics are now written to the log/stepstats.txt file when master is run with verbosity level > 1

Changelog for Version 0.4.3 (06.10.2016)

• 32bit and 64bit Windows platforms supported
• Bugfix: Main window short cuts work again
• Bugfix: Project file format correctly written from user interface (parameter format fixed)

Changelog for Version 0.4 (14.06.2016)

• Bugfix: when adding slaves before project had been saved already, UI got stuck
• Stability improvement: added Gauss-Jacobi initial value iteration (when FMUs are in initialization mode).

Changelog for Version 0.3 (13.06.2016)

• User Interface is now completed to a point where definition of master scenarios is possible
• Project file format has changed slightly, parameter names are now the same as member variables in project (simplifies code maintenance)

Things you can do:

• you can add slaves
• you can define connections, even with the "same-name" auto-connection feature
• you can specify simulation parameters and run the simulation

Changelog for Version 0.2 (03.06.2016)

• UI Implementation has progressed a lot, Simulation can be started from UI and solver parameters can be edited
• project file format has been extended
• translation has been updated
• slave adding/removing/editing is implemented

Changelog for Version 0.1

First release, so there is no changelog yet. See svn-commits for details.