Using Adams/View/Insight/Solver, etc., non-interactively

[pvman1]

Hello All!,

Firstly, let me explain that I am not an MSC.Adams user. I am UNIX System administrator. But I have a rudamentary knowledge of Adams/View. I am looking to change the way some of my users work. I would like to know of there is a way that they can run simulations on their models using Adams/View in a non-GUI/command-line manner.

My goal is to get them to a point where they can submit a case to be analyzed into a batch queuing system (e.g. NQS, LSF, or PBS) that will be able to run the simulations on any number of available computing resourses without their interaction.

There is some rumblings that by using the MDI INSIGHT BUILD command in Adams/View, once can create .adm/.acf file pairs necessary to run a simulation in Adams/Insight.

I also heard that it may be possible to translate the command (.cmd) files in Adams/View into .acf files and run those through Adams/Solver.

Our models run in either one of two configurations. In the first, there is collection of files that contain initial conditions that are fed to the model. These initial conditions are the parameters for each simulation. The second method is to have a forcing function that is applied to various part or sections of the model at different times (I may not have that explination accurate, I need to consult my engineer).

So, for me, it currently boils down to 2 questions:

1.) Are we going down the righ road creating the .adm/.acf files?

2.) Once that's done, can we run Admas/Insight or Admams/Solver in a command-line fashion to simulate all of our cases?

pvman1

 

[GregLocock]

Yes you can definitely do it. Talk to the MSC salesbod, he'll tell you how. I haven't done it in View, but that doesn't matter it should be the same, it's basically just a command line call to the solver with an acf file and a few arguments.

I run up to sixty jobs across 6 processors overnight, typically, although an insight job can be 600 runs, albeit usually just on one processor.







Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[pvman1]

Forgive me for not knowing the jargon, but what/who is an MSC "salesbod"?

pvman1

 

[GregLocock]

salesperson for MSC, the developers of the software.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[pvman1]

Mr. Locock,

Salesperson . . .? I'm really surprised to see you suggest that. My experience with sales people is that they aren't usually technically savvy enough to tackle specific operational questions such as this. I'll give it a try.

Back to the tech issues: Are you implying from your statement about Insight, that one can not easily breakup the Insight run in a manner where it could use multiple CPUs? What about partitioning the model to use some sort of message passing?

pvman1

 

[GregLocock]

You can almost (>>99%) certainly break the Insight batch file up to allow it to run on different CPUs, I just haven't done that. If you look at the structure of the Insight batch file it'll tell you all you need to know about running batch jobs.

It would be nice to be able to allocate jobs on the fly to any underused CPUs, I have not been offered the facility to do that.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.