One of the main nodes is the Parametric Sweep (
) job configuration, which can loop over a given set of parameters. For each set of parameters, it runs the sequence defined by its subnodes. You can combine the sequence with other
Batch, Parametric, or
Cluster Computing sequences in a hierarchical way by adding a job configuration that points to another node. You can, for instance, create a
Parametric Sweep node that does a LiveLink™ update and then runs a
Cluster Computing node that in turn runs a second
Parametric Sweep sequence on another node.
Use the Defined by study step list to specify that the settings are synchronized with the corresponding study step.
You define the parameters in the Parameter name and
Parameter values fields. The parameters can be loaded from file by clicking the
Read File button when you have selected the file through the
Load Parameter Values dialog box, which you open by clicking
Browse. You can add a
Stop condition that is evaluated after each solution. The last solution, which breaks the stop condition, is discarded from the set of solutions returned (the
Parametric Solutions node) but is included in probe table outputs. Once the condition evaluates to a negative value, the
Parametric node is stopped.
Select the Plot check box to allow plotting of results while solving. Select what to plot and when from the
Plot group list. The data set of the selected plot group is plotted as soon as the results become available.
Use the Probes list to select any probes to evaluate. Use the
Accumulated probe table to accumulate data during a sweep. The accumulation is over solver variations (time, frequency, and so forth) and variations over the parametric sweep. For independent variation of parameters, you can use the accumulated table with the
Format: Filled to change the table data into a matrix format that can be used for response surface plots.
Errors are usually stored in the Error table. If you want to get the error message at once, select the
Stop if error check box.
You can distribute the sweep on several computational nodes by selecting the Distribute parameters check box. If the problem is too large to run on a single node, enable the
Maximum number of groups field to use the nodes’ memory more efficiently. In this case, the same parameter is solved for by several nodes that cooperate as if running a nondistributed sweep. The number of nodes that cooperate is equal to the maximum of the total number of nodes divided by the
Maximum number of groups setting and 1. So if the total number of nodes is 12 and the
Maximum number of groups is 3, 3 groups with 4 nodes each cooperate.
