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DSS MATLAB 0.13.2
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@PMeira PMeira released this 25 May 19:38
· 10 commits to master since this release
0.13.2
be77e3b

Version 0.13.2 is a minor release. On the MATLAB side, the comment strings were updated. Read below regarding engine changes.

What's this?

DSS MATLAB is a member of the family of multi-platform language bindings based on the DSS C-API project, which exposes an alternative/customized implementation of the original EPRI's OpenDSS, with a custom API intended to replace and extend the functionality of the official COM object API, while also adding and improving some of the DSS engine internals. For other languages: check DSS-Python, OpenDSSDirect.py and DSS Sharp. See more alternatives at https://dss-extensions.org/

As with DSS-Python and DSS Sharp, this package tries to mimic the COM object structure to facilitate the transition and keep most of the existing code valid. The package is usually faster than the COM object. Most of the missing features are related to the plotting methods from OpenDSS and A-Diakoptics, which are not available in DSS C-API yet. You can, of course, use MATLAB's plotting capabilities.

We are currently evaluating reimplementing DSS_MATLAB using MEX. This would potentially allow us to integrate some plotting functions and also parfor support with pool('threads').

⚙️ DSS C-API Version 0.13.2

Minor release.

  • Integrate some of the code ports from the official OpenDSS. A few changes were left in the next_svn_merge branch to be integrated after there is a new OpenDSS release.
  • Fix and complement some header code and comments.
  • Refactor more of the internal code (huge merge still pending).
  • Plotting: callback messages now include bus marker information. This is used only in Python at the moment.
  • Add more error-checking to avoid accidental crashes in case of unexpected calls by the user code.
  • Text_CommandBlock: rewritten, now reuses the internal DoRedirect function, which allows block comments and also complements the error backtrace, when necessary.
  • Obj_GetClassIdx: fixed both header and implementation.
  • Build scripts updated. The version in the header is automatically updated on release.
  • JSON exports: new flags implemented, and whole behavior adjusted to better exporting all classes, including some problematic cases See DSS-Extensions — JSON exports for notes and examples.

📦 Downloads

Download the file according to your platform, as each file contains platform-specific binaries:

macOS ARM/M1/etc. support will be added when there are stable MATLAB releases, probably in 2023. ARM support is already available for other DSS-Extensions and it should be easy to use it on ARM Macs (just replace the binaries from DSS C-API).

If you want to try DSS_MATLAB with a sample circuit, a simple example for the IEEE13 system is also included in the download package, under the examples folder. Continue reading for more.

Basic usage

  1. Download and extract the package appropriate for your system.
  2. Add the folder containing +DSS_MATLAB to your MATLAB path (e.g. path(path, 'c:\dss_matlab');).
  3. Instantiate DSS_MATLAB.IDSS. For example:
dss = DSS_MATLAB.IDSS;

If you code is based on DSSStartup.m from the examples included in the official distribution, in general you only need to replace the Obj = actxserver('OpenDSSEngine.DSS'); line. That is, update DSSStartup.m to:

%--------------------------------------------------------------------------
function [Start,Obj,Text] = DSSStartup
    % Function for starting up the DSS
    
    %instantiate the DSS Object
    Obj = DSS_MATLAB.IDSS;
    %
    %Start the DSS.   Only needs to be executed the first time w/in a
    %Matlab session
    Start = Obj.Start(0);

    % Define the text interface
    Text = Obj.Text;

If you want more code to play with, you can use the MATLAB examples from the official OpenDSS distribution, from a local installation (e.g. C:\OpenDSS\Examples\Matlab) or from the official SVN repository.

Sandia's GridPV toolbox has been confirmed to work with very minor changes. Note that the toolbox seems to be out-of-date for some features, so don't expect everything to work even with COM (e.g. Google Maps integration seems broken).

As a general advice (valid for COM and DSS_MATLAB), avoid using the get function without parameters on OpenDSS classes. Some properties like First and Next used for iteration of elements change the current active element and can lead to misleading data!

Known differences and more

We maintain a list of important differences between the official COM implementation and DSS C-API at:

https://github.com/dss-extensions/dss_capi/blob/master/docs/known_differences.md

Most of these apply indirectly to DSS_MATLAB.

Credits / Acknowledgement

This project is derived from EPRI's OpenDSS and the same style of license (BSD style) is used. As OpenDSS, the project also depends on KLUSolve and SuiteSparse, licensed under the LGPL. The licenses are included in the installation packages.

See the DSS C-API project for more details and source files.

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