[altDSS - Python] - How to manipulate a specific element?

[JairoJr89]

I'm learning how to work with altDSS, but I still have some basic questions:

a) How can I manipulate the values of a specific element, such as a particular load? I tried using altdss.Load.Name, but it doesn't work. Should I be using altdss.Load.find instead?

For example, I want to enable and disable a specific load during the simulation. How can I do that?

b) I also feel there is still a lack of documentation with more usage examples and clearer descriptions of altDSS functions. However, the tool has already proven to be extremely helpful and has simplified many tasks compared to dss-python. I frequently promote altDSS within my research and professional circles.

c) What is the correct way to cite the altDSS tool in academic papers and technical reports?

Tks

[PMeira]

(Sorry for the late reply, missed some notifications from GitHub)

a) How can I manipulate the values of a specific element, such as a particular load? I tried using altdss.Load.Name, but it doesn't work. Should I be using altdss.Load.find instead?

Yes, either that or the [] operator, e.g. altdss.Load['load_name']. A numeric index is also supported.

You can keep a reference to this load during the simulation and enable/disable it as you wish; this is slightly faster than getting a new reference every time. If you toggle a lot of loads, prefer using batches. I'm resuming the publication of new packages soon, including some fixes to batches. In fact, docs are some of the missing items, but we can at least publish some beta packages before a full release.

# after the circuit is loaded
loadx = altdss.Load['loadx']`

#... later during the simulation
loadx.Enabled = False

We might rename some functions in the future to make them more explicit. find might not be obvious for Python users.

b) I also feel there is still a lack of documentation with more usage examples and clearer descriptions of altDSS functions. However, the tool has already proven to be extremely helpful and has simplified many tasks compared to dss-python. I frequently promote altDSS within my research and professional circles.

Yep, I'm on-boarding someone else to help with docs and examples; I think we'll be in a much better place by the end of the year. Thanks for the feedback! Right now we have zero funding for these projects, so docs tend to get less priority.

Note that there are API docs, e.g. https://dss-extensions.org/AltDSS-Python/apidocs/altdss/altdss.Load.html#altdss.Load.ILoad.find
I do agree that API docs are not as easy to read as some simple examples, but most of the API is indeed documented.

c) What is the correct way to cite the altDSS tool in academic papers and technical reports?

For AltDSS-Python, I'd recommend linking to the specific release page on PyPI, e.g. https://pypi.org/project/altdss/0.2.4/
Besides that, either its repository (https://github.com/dss-extensions/AltDSS-Python/) or docs site (https://dss-extensions.org/AltDSS-Python/) is fine.

We're considering adding Zenodo support to generate DOIs for most repositories. Might be overkill, but seems to be the most general solution for all programming languages.