Simulation Flow (SF)

Owned by Anonymous
29 Jan, 2014
2 min read

"Simulation Flow" substitutes the "Simulation Events" window and provides a very comfortable and well-structured tree view. By expanding the individual branches, you have access to the pre-built simulation events and you are able to add your own scripts there. Since "Simulation Flow" is a regular part of RealFlow’s GUI, it provides the same control elements as any other window. It can also be integrated into a custom layout.

“Simulation Flow” is not just an editor for Python scripts, but a comfortable programming and scripting environment. The new graphs provide powerful visual possibilities, allowing you to construct event-based actions without writing a single line of code. The graph editor is integrated into the “Simulation Flow” window – you can read more about how to access and use this fantastic tool a little later.


 

The Layout

Events scripts are always connected to a certain project and stored directly with the scene. They can also be saved as individual files and used for other scenes, but in this case they normally have to be adapted. Events are start and end of a simulation or the beginning of a new frame or time step. Scripts are not limited to one of these events. You can write one part that is only executed at the beginning of the simulation and another one that is applied at each simulation step. These types of “split” scripts are often used to initialize a scene or reset values to defaults, and then perform the actual calculation.

The first impression shows a split window. The left part consists of a tree with several branches:

  • SimulationPre

  • Frames

  • Steps

  • SimulationPost

“Frames” and “Steps” also carry “+” or “-” symbols, indicating that these parts can be expanded or collapsed. The branches of the tree are the events where you can place your own scripts and directly determine when they will be executed. This tree also represents the internal simulation hierarchy:

A. Simulation > B. Frame > C. Step

Simulation events can carry more than one script. It is possible to add one or more scripts for any event that wears a “Pre” or “Post” suffix. The scripts can be appended by choosing the desired event, e.g. "FramesPre", and right-clicking on it. This action opens a context menu – a description of the menu's entries follows directly below.