OrcaFlex provides several important facilities for automating and post-processing work:
- OrcaFlex is supplied with a special Excel spreadsheet which enables you to automate the extraction of simulation results into your own spreadsheet. You can then use the normal Excel calculation facilities to do your own customised post-processing and graphing.
- The batch processing facility enables you to run a set of simulations in unattended mode, for example as an overnight job. The simulations can either be of pre-prepared data files, or else can be specified by a batch script file that defines the simulation as variations on a base data file. The OrcaFlex spreadsheet mentioned above also has facilities for automating the production of batch script files and text data files. Models can define post calculation actions which are executed after batch analyses.
- OrcaFlex includes a well-documented programming interface called OrcFxAPI (short for OrcaFlex Application Program Interface). See the OrcFxAPI help for details. OrcFxAPI is a Windows dynamic link library (DLL) that is installed with OrcaFlex, and which provides facilities for programatically setting data, calculating static positions and extracting results from those calculations or from pre-run simulation files. For example you can write programs to automate post-processing or that use OrcaFlex as a statics calculation engine. The easiest way to drive OrcaFlex through OrcFxAPI is using our interface to MATLAB and the Python scripting language – both are included in the OrcaFlex installation. Other examples of using OrcFxAPI include real-time monitoring of pipes, moorings etc. and linking to other modelling software. For further information or to discuss possible applications of OrcFxAPI, please contact Orcina.
