Directories

Each optimization cost, constraint, or sensitivity evaluation results in a complete simulation.

Simulation results are stored in a directory when a sensitivity analysis is done. The summary.log file for the four-bar model indicates that 31 sensitivity evaluations were performed.
  • First, the initial_run directory is created. This directory contains the results of a simulation performed with the original model, before any optimization is attempted.
  • Next, for each iteration k, a directory iter-k is created as shown in the figure below.
    Figure 1. The directory hierarchy from an optimization of the four bar mechanism


Each directory contains all the output that was generated by MotionSolve. No output is discarded. The option to create some output files is specified in the MotionSolve input language; their generation may be optional.
Figure 2.


Taking the four-bar example once again, each simulation creates the following files:

  • test-4bar.xml, the MotionSolve XML deck.
  • test-4bar.log, the MotionSolve log file for the simulation.
  • test-4bar.abf, the binary file that can be used for plotting.
  • test-4bar.h3d, the binary file that can be used for animation and graphical results visualization.
  • test-4bar.mrf, the binary MotionSolve results file.
  • test-4bar.plt, the ASCII plotting file.