Make Interactive Simulation (OPC UA server) work with Cpp runtime

[Rüdiger Franke]

Interactive simulation shall be introduced with OpenModelica 1.13. So far it does not work with the Cpp runtime.

The only documentation I'm aware of is the ​thesis by Christoffer Fors Johansson about "A prototype was developed".

[Francesco Casella]

Rescheduled to 1.14.0 after 1.13.0 releasee

[anonymous]

Industrial user here. With current stable release 13.2, interactive simulation from OMEdit is unusable. While the UA Server seems to be set up okay, I can not get the simulation to run with no combination of synchronous/asynchronous simulation mode and different combinations of real time scaling factors, using the run or step variables as well as the enableStopTime variable.
If I remember correctly, the system worked better a while back. The absolute lack of any decent documentation makes the system a pain to work with for industrial users.

[anonymous]

Furthermore, there are many valid questions about interactive simulation to be found in the forums and the vast majority of them are simply never replied to.

[Francesco Casella]

Replying to anonymous industrial user:

The Open Source Modelica Consortium (OSMC) resources are quite limited. Our developers are mostly paid by funded research projects, which have their own goals, priorities, deliverables, and deadlines. There are some human resources paid by the Open Source Modelica Consortium that work on core functionality (e.g. new frontend, OMEdit, etc.), but we have to prioritize what they do.

As I remember, this specific functionality was developed as a task in a funded project. End of project -> end of task -> end of development and support, unless somebody has a specific interest. Software which is not actively maintained decays and stops working, that's a sad fact of life.

There are two development models in software. For commercial software, you pay a licence fee and in return you (may) get support and new features being developed. For open source software, you need to get involved with the community. There are a number of ways to do that:

• File tickets with clear and unambiguous descriptions of issues you experience, preferably with test cases we can run ourselves, so we can try to diagnose them and fix them. Generic complaints are hard to address, so they don't get prioritized (hence, they never get fixed).
• Join the ​Open Source Modelica Consortium, thus supporting the development more actively, and make your voice heard about what are your priorities. If there are many consortium members that need a certain feature, the Board can change the development priorities and invest core development time in developing them.
• Propose a DFD (directly funded development) activity: your company pays a certain amount of money, and the Consortium develops one specific feature of OpenModelica in return (see appendix K of the ​OSMC bylaws).
• Contribute to the source code, or to the documentation, in cooperation with the developers. Many OSMC members already do that (e.g. ABB, Bosch-Rexroth). For example, you may interview some developers that know how this feature works (or is supposed to work), and that may provide useful material (e.g. deliverables of projects with some relevant info), write the documentation, have them review it, and eventually make it available to the community.

[Francesco Casella]

Releasing 1.14.0 which is stable and has many improvements w.r.t. 1.13.2. This issue is rescheduled to 1.16.0

[anonymous]

Hi,

Did anyone find a straightforward method to run an interactive simulation in OpenModelica?
Due to the limited time I have, I won't be able to understand the programming aspects and really need to get down to using the software. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Francesco Casella]

Retargeted to 1.17.0 after 1.16.0 release

[Francesco Casella]

Retargeted to 1.18.0 because of 1.17.0 timed release.

[Francesco Casella]

Ticket retargeted after milestone closed