Boundary Conditions Flyout

Description

The Boundary Conditions Flyout allows the manipulation of boundary conditions in an active document. Boundary conditions can be added or deleted and their properties changed.

The top tree view displays the boundary conditions that are present in the active document. The bottom tree view displays boundary conditions from a boundary conditions databank, which can be used for all documents. The Properties Flyout shows the properties of the selected boundary conditions.

Figure 1: Boundary Conditions Flyout

Creation, Modification, Duplication and Deletion of Boundary Conditions

The following description is valid for both the top boundary conditions list (current document) and for the lower list (database).

To create a new boundary condition, click on the icon in the Flyout. Alternatively, you can use the context menu command (right click) New Boundary Condition. The new material can be defined in the Boundary Condition dialog window. After you have defined the properties, click on OK and the new boundary condition appears in the active category.

If you would like to modify the properties of an existing boundary condition, select it in the list, and click either on the icon, or use the context menu command (right click) Edit , or double click on the boundary condition you wish to edit. This opens the same dialog window that is used to define a new boundary condition. You can now modify the properties of the boundary condition.

If you wish to rename a material you can do so by choosing the context menu command (right click) Rename . You can also rename the boundary condition by selecting it and then clicking on its name just as you would rename a file under Windows Explorer.

To duplicate a boundary condition entry with an unique name click on the icon in the Flyout. Alternatively, you can create a duplicate by using the corresponding command in the context menu (right click) Duplicate. All properties of the copy are identical with the ones of the source, if needed the properties can be adapted in the Boundary Condition dialog window .

Grouping Boundary Conditions into Categories

If you are using many boundary conditions, it makes sense to organize these into groups or categories .

Categories are comparable to file folders and directories; this is why they have the same symbol. Upon creation, every document generates a General category. You can create further categories by clicking on the icon in the Flyout or by right clicking on an existing category and using the context menu command New Category. The category is created within the selected category. You can also define a name for this category.

To delete a category select the category and click on the icon, or use the context menu command (right click) Delete. You can rename a category by selecting it and then clicking on the or by using either the context menu command (right click) Edit or Rename. Alternatively, you can rename the category by selecting it and then clicking on it again to rename it just as you would rename a file under Windows Explorer.

Only empty categories can be deleted.

To move a boundary condition from one category to another you can simply drag the boundary condition with the mouse into the desired category.

Copying Boundary Conditions

You can copy boundary conditions from the database to the boundary conditions list of the current document (or vice-versa) by dragging the boundary condition to the desired location.

Exporting and Importing Boundary conditions

The Export command from the context menu (right click) for the database, category, or boundary conditions allows you to export the corresponding boundary conditions to a comma separated (CVS) file. The selection of the exported boundary conditions is defined by the mouse cursor position at the time the context menu is prompted.

The files comprise individual lines where the 1st line is a version line, and the the 2nd line is a label line and all the other lines are data lines. The 1st line should not be modified. If the exported file is inserted into a spreadsheet program (e.g. Excel) then all corresponding values will be located in the same column.

Besides loading an existing boundary condition database or creating a new database (cf. Options), you can complement the existing flixo professional boundary condition database with data from specially structured text files. To do this, use the context menu command (right click) Import. The data will either be inserted into the database or into a category. The position for the insertion of the data depends on whether you right click on the database icon or on the category icon.

The structure of the comma separated text file corresponds to that of the boundary condition export file. To create a comma separated text file with the correct structure, it is easiest to export an existing database and then edit that file with a spreadsheet program (e.g. Excel) making sure to save the file as a CVS text file.

The structure of the comma separated text file is as follows:

Boundary Condition Database	=	Version label {data lines}.
Version	=	"Version:;BC;" Number.
Label	=	"ID ; Name;Type;Number of Substyles;Temperature; heat flux density;h-value;Description; Red Component;Green Component;Blue Component;Style;Width;Category;Subcategory".
Data lines	=	ID ";" Name ";" Type";" Number of Substyles";" Temperature ";" W.stromdichte ";" h-value";" Description";" Red Component";" Green Component ";" Blue Component ";" Style ";" Width ";" Category ";" {Subcategory}.

The version as well as the label lines should not be modified because otherwise the data can not be imported.

The data lines have the following columns, meanings and conditions:

Column	Meaning	Condition
ID	ID of boundary condition	ID has to be defined and must lie between 0 and 999 for new entries. 0: every user can modify this entry. 1 to 999: this ID-range can be used for all customers. The entry cannot be modified from within the program. 1000 and greater: this ID-range is reserved exclusively for infomind ltd. for maintaining purposes and should never be assigned to own boundary conditions. These entries cannot be modified.
Name	Name of boundary condition	The name must be defined and unique.
Type	Type of boundary condition	Must be defined as (1, 2, 3, 4 or 5): 1: for temperature h-value boundary conditions 2: for temperature boundary conditions (Dirichlet) 3: for heat flux density boundary conditions (Neumann) 4: for temperature - heat flux boundary conditions (Cauchy) 5: for interior window frame boundary conditions
Number of Substyles	Number of substyles	In the current database version, this must be always be 0 for for the types 1, 2, 3, 4, and 2 for the type 5.
Temperature	Room and Surface temperature [K]	For the types 1, 2, 4 & 5 this value must be defined and greater than 0.0 K. This value is ignored for type 3 entries.
Heat Flux Density	Heat flux density on the surface	Must be defined for boundary conditions with a heat flux density (i.e. type 3 & type 4). This value will be ignored for other entries.
Description	Text description and commentary for the boundary condition	Can be empty.
Red Component	Whole number of red component for RGB color	Can be empty. If the value is defined, it must be greater or equal to 0, or lesser or equal to 255.
Green Component	Whole number of green component for RGB color	Can be empty. If the value is defined, it must be greater or equal to 0, or lesser or equal to 255.
Blue Component	Whole number of blue component for RGB color	Can be empty. If the value is defined, it must be greater or equal to 0, or lesser or equal to 255.
Style	Style Index	For the current database version this number must always be 0.
Width	Width of the line in 1/10 mm.	Can be empty.
Category	Category in which the boundary condition is located.	Can be empty.
Subcategory	Subcategory in which the boundary condition is located.	Can be empty.

Url: http://www.infomind.ch/bph/en/flixo/help/version5/index.html?bars_bar_object_bc.htm