Scene and nodes

Scene and nodes#

A node is an item or element in a model. For example a ship or a force. A Scene is a collection of nodes.

The common way of working is as follows:

  1. Create a scene

  2. Add nodes to it

Nodes are added to the scene using .new_nodetype() where nodetype is the type of the node. Each node has a unique name. This is always needs to be provided to the .new_node function. A complete list of node types and corresponding functions is provided later.

s = Scene()                               # create an empty scene
s.new_point('point 1')                      # creates a poi with name anchor
s.new_point('point 2', position = (10,0,0)) # create a second poi at x=10
s.new_cable('line',endA = 'point 1', endB = 'point 2')
	  # creates a cable between the two points
s.save_scene(r'test.dave')              # save to file

Nodes in a scene can be referenced by either name or by reference. The .new_nodetype() functions return a reference to the newly created node.

s = Scene()
a = s.new_axis('axis')
	# a is now a reference to node 'axis'

p1 = s.new_point('poi_1', parent = a )       # refer by reference
p2 = s.new_point('poi_2', parent = 'axis' )  # refer by name

A reference to a node can also be obtained from the scene using square brackets:

s = Scene()
s.new_axis('axis')

a = s['axis']
print(a.position)

Scene#

Apart from methods to create nodes, Scene also harbours functionality to delete, import, re-order and export nodes.

Creating scenes#

A Scene is not a singleton. Multiple scenes can exist next to eachother.

A new and empty Scene can be created as follows:

s = Scene()

where s can be anything, for example my_scene but s is nice and short which is usefull as it will be used a lot.

Optionally a filename can be provided to the constructor. In that case that file will be imported.

my_vessel = Scene('path/to/my_vessel.dave')

It is also possible to create a (deep) copy of a scene. This is done as follows:

copy_of_scene = Scene(copy_from = other_scene)

Adding content#

Nodes can be added to the scene using the s.new_point, s.new_axis, etc.. functions which were introduced in the previous section.

Multiple nodes can be imported from file or directly from another Scene object using Scene.load_scene() or Scene.import_scene() respectively.

Note: Beware of name-conflicts when importing. The Scene.import_scene provides the option to add a prefix to names of imported nodes.

Access nodes#

A list of nodes is maintained as the ._nodes property of a scene. It is advised not to use this directly.

Obtaining a reference to a single node can be done using its name:

node = s['node_name']

This is the reason why all node names should be unique. To get a list of all available node names use Scene.print_node_tree()

It is also possible to:

  • Get all nodes of a type, use : Scene.nodes_of_type()

  • Get all nodes that depend on a node : Scene.nodes_depending_on()

  • Get all child nodes : Scene.nodes_with_parent()

Deleting nodes#

Removing nodes can be tricky due to nodes depending on eachother. For example deleting a poi which is also used a endpoint for a cable will cause problems for that cable. The same applies to axis systems with nodes on it (children)

Scene.clear() can be used to delete all nodes from a scene.

To delete a single node there are two options:

  1. Scene.delete(node). This deletes a node from the scene. All nodes that depend on this node will be deleted as well.

  2. Scene.dissolve(node). This “evaporates” the node. Attempts to maintain child nodes. Often used in combination with the containerize option of Scene.import_scene

Saving or exporting#

The standard file-format for saving DAVE scenes and nodes is vanilla python.

The contents of a Scene can be save using Scene.save_scene(filename). The python code to re-create the scene can be obtained using Scene.give_python_code().

Solving#

Solving static equilibrium is done using Scene.solve_statics(). If there is a static equilibrium condition then this function will attempt to find it by changing the non-fixed degrees of freedom of the scene.

Optimalizations#

A goal-seek function is available: Scene.goal_seek().

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