OOF2: The Manual

3.14. The Scheduled Output Page
	Chapter 3. Task Pages

3.14. The Scheduled Output Page

The Scheduled Output page determines what additional actions OOF2 will perform while computing a time dependent solution. The possible actions are described by the ScheduledOutput class, and include

Updating the Graphics Window.
Computing anything computable on the Analysis or Boundary Analysis pages.
Saving the current state of the Mesh in a file.
Computing time step statistics.

These operations are generically called “Outputs” in this manual page, because that's the name of the first column of the list. They should really be called “Output Operations” or “Output Actions”.

	Note
	If the solution is not time dependent, or if no output is required between the solution's start time and end time, the Scheduled Output page can be ignored.

Figure 3.23. The Scheduled Output Window

The page contains the usual widgets at the top for selecting a Mesh. Below the Mesh selector are three buttons:

The New button brings up the dialog box for creating a new scheduled Output. The new Output will appear in the Output List below the buttons. It will need to have its Schedule and Destination assigned before it's useful, though. In Figure 3.23, the third Output has no Schedule or Destination yet.

In the New dialog, if the Output's name is <automatic>, OOF2 will generate an unwieldy name that summarizes the Output's parameters, as seen in Figure 3.23. If you provide a name that is already in use, OOF2 will append <x> to it, where x is an integer.
The Delete All button deletes all Outputs from the list.
The Rewind All button rewinds all of the Outputs in the list. If the Outputs go to files, the files will be overwritten the next time a solution is computed.

The Output list is divided into four columns:

Checkboxes that enable and disable a scheduled Output.
The Output column, which lists the quantities being computed or actions being performed.
The Schedule column, which indicates when and how often the quantity is to be computed or action is to be performed.
The Destination column, which indicates where the results go.

After creating an Output with the New, select it by clicking and use the buttons at the bottoms of the columns to modify it, or to add or edit a Schedule or Destination. Double clicking an item in the list is the same as selecting it and clicking the Edit button below that column.

3.14.1. The Output Column

The Output column lists the actions that will be performed.

The Edit button brings up a dialog for changing the currently selected item in the Output lists. Every aspect of the item can be changed, except for its name.
The Copy button duplicates the currently selected Output. The duplicate can be created in the same or a different Mesh. The duplicate's name can be specified or generated automatically.
The Rename button changes the name of the currently selected Output.
The Delete button deletes the selected Output.

All Outputs in a Mesh must have unique names. The Copy and Rename operations will create a unique name if necessary by appending <x> to the given name, for some integer x.

3.14.2. The Schedule Column

The Schedule column determines when and how often the corresponding entry in the Output column is to be computed. If an Output hasn't been scheduled, the Schedule column contains “---”.

The Edit button brings up a dialog box for defining or editing the ScheduleType and Schedule for the Output. The ScheduleType indicates whether the times in the Schedule are to be interpreted as absolute times or are relative to the solution's starting time. A third option, Conditional is not fully implemented.
The Copy button copies the selected Schedule to another Output, which might be in another Mesh.

It is not possible to delete the Schedule from an Output. An Output with no Schedule is unusable. If you do not want to use an Output, delete the whole Output or disable it with the check box in the first column of the list.

3.14.3. The Destination Column

An Output's OutputDestination determines how its results are handled. Like the Schedule column, the Destination column contains “---” if a Destination hasn't been set yet.

A header is prepended to output to text-based Destinations, such as OutputStream (i.e. a file) and MessageWindowStream (the Message Window). The header contains comments describing the output and the contents of each column, if appropriate. The characters demarcating the comments and dividing the columns can be selected in the OOF.Settings.Output_Formatting menu in the main OOF2 menubar. This allows you to tailor the file format to the needs of your plotting program, for example.

Outputs can share their OutputDestination's. If the destination is a file, lines from each Output will be interleaved. To avoid confusion, the data headers will be repeated each time the file switches from one Output to another.

The Edit button opens a dialog box for defining or editing an OutputDestination for the selected Output. Not all types of OutputDestination are appropriate for all types of Output. Only the appropriate ones will be shown in the dialog box, and if there is only one choice (for example, for GraphicsUpdate) the Edit button will be disabled.
The Rewind button is only useful if the selected OutputDestination is a file (i.e, an OutputStream or DataFileOutput). If more than one solution sends its results to the same OutputDestination, the results of the later solutions are appended to the results of the first. Rewinding the Destination file will cause the earlier results to be discarded the next time that the file is written.


3.13. The Boundary Conditions Page		3.15. The Solver Page