Remember that changes in our alternative OpenDSS engine, currently known as DSS C-API, are always relevant. See DSS C-API’s repository for more information.
Released on 2023-06-12.
Upgrade the backend to DSS C-API 0.13.3. Includes important fixes to some OpenDSS components affected by bugs for several years. This matches the changes in OpenDSS v9.6.1.2, plus our custom changes as usual.
Add DSS.Error.UseExceptions to allow disabling the automatic mapping of error numbers to Python exceptions. When disabling, users take full responsibility to actually check for errors through the DSS.Error interface.
Add DSSCompatFlags.SaveCalcVoltageBases.
Transformers: add a warning in the docstrings of WdgCurrents, WdgVoltages (these don’t work well when the transformer has open terminals).
Plotting: handle GICLines in circuit plots.
Released on 2023-05-25.
Append DSS-Python’s version in DSS.Version.
Complement and fix most plot types, leaving only a couple of plots without implementation. An example notebook will be added later.
Upgrade the backend to DSS C-API v0.13.2.
Fix some batch property setters, namely when the values are lists of lists, lists of arrays, or 2-d arrays.
Update Obj and Batch to include newer DSS properties.
Add JSON option SkipDSSClass.
Coupled with the backend changes, the JSON output should be more well-behaved for Transformer and Line variations.
Released on 2023-04-13.
Fix issue with newer NumPy versions with YMatrix (GetCompressedYMatrix), after the removal of numpy.complex.
Use some mode enums.
Released on 2023-04-03.
Same as version 0.13.1, except that the organization of the module has changed to facilitate fast iteration of the Python side of the code.
We introduced the new package dss_python_backend that will contain all native libs and CFFI bindings from this point on. This leaves DSS-Python itself as a pure Python package, which is much easier to package and distribute.
Released on 2023-04-02.
Engine updated to DSS C-API 0.13.1. Contains tiny changes to address potential issues with a few PVSystem properties (which passed undetected by our tests).
DSS.AdvancedTypes: fix Lines.Yprim and PDElements.AllCurrentsMagAng when AdvancedTypes is enabled.
Released on 2023-03-28.
Engine updated to DSS C-API 0.13.0, which is very compatible with OpenDSS 9.6.1.1 (plus some official SVN commits up to rev 3595, plus our own changes.
New test suite, which runs many more files and validates more of the API. We now use pytest for some more complex tests, while the numeric validation is done with the new compare_outputs.py.
New DSS.AdvancedTypes: toggle matrix shapes and complex numbers in many of the properties and functions of the API. This is disabled by default.
New DSS.CompatFlags: to address some concerns about compatibility, we added a few toggles to toggle behavior that matches the official OpenDSS more closely. This flags will be refined in later releases.
Drop deprecated IR classes and a few undocumented functions.
Use more enums throughout the code, which helps both readability and documentation. Some enums were complemented.
DSS.AdvancedTypes toggle: enabling AdvancedTypes allows using array/matrix shapes and complex numbers as results from properties/functions in the API.
Plotting: Implement several plot types. Only a few issues need to be addressed to consider the plotting system complete!
Notebook integration: Initial prototype available. It is enabled automatically when DSS.Plotting.enable() is run in a notebook, providing integration with some DSS messages and outputs.
It also registers the %%dss cell magic. Use it in a cell to run DSS-language code directly. We found it useful for exploration and learning.
Updated patch_dss_com to patch a few more classes.
Drop Python 3.6 support, include 3.11 officially in the tests.
DSSContext disposal: use CFFI to track the disposal of the contexts instead of manually tracking. This could remove memory leaks if you application creates too many DSSContexts (which is not recommended).
DSS.Obj: remove some redundant properties, fix several issues. While it’s not complete yet (some known limitations), you can see the tests for a few examples of how to create circuits without .DSS scripts/files in tests/test_obj.py and tests/test_batch.py — the first creates each object explicitly, while the second uses batch operations to fill properties from arrays and lists.
Add typing_extensions as a dependency to address Python typing needs in the main API code and the new Obj API.
Docs: mark more properties as “(API Extension)”.
Internal code refactoring and clean-up.
Clean-up several files to ease the transition from Pascal to C++; more enum usage, remove redundant internal properties, rename some class members, etc. Some final steps still remain (that work is done in private branches).
Fixes a couple of minor memory leaks.
Removed our old Legacy Models mechanism. Right now, the API functions still exist, but will have no effect when setting and will throw an error. For a future version, the functions will be removed. This toggle was introduced in 2020, some time after the removal of the legacy models in the official OpenDSS. We believe users had enough time to fully migrate and the extra maintenance burden is not justified anymore.
Transition some deprecated and buggy properties to throw specific errors, instead of generic messages. Issue: https://github.com/dss-extensions/dss_capi/issues/118
Export command: When the user provides a filename, use it as-is, otherwise could be an invalid path in case-sensitive file systems (e.g. Linux, most likely).
Dump and Save commands: in some cases, our internal “hybrid enums” were not being converted correctly for dumps. A few classes had incomplete dump implementations since v0.12.0; some strings needed to be escaped for correct output.
CtrlQueue: adjust string formatting of items; although this doesn’t affect the numeric results, the strings from the queue had some truncated numbers.
Property system: For compatibility with the official version, allow autoresizing some arrays when given conflicting number of elements through the text interface or scripts.
Like property: Although not recommended and deprecated in the official OpenDSS, the sequence of properties filled in the original copy is also copied. If you use Like, remember to check if the copy actually worked since some classes are known to not copy every property correctly.
Plotting and UI: The engine side plotting callback system is now complete. There are fixes for DaisyPlot and GeneralDataPlot, especially multi-platform handling. Changed how some properties are exposed in the JSON interchange to the callbacks. Implement argument handling and callback dispatch for DI_Plot, CompareCases and YearlyCurves.
New commands: Fix potential issue with null pointers and duplicate names when DuplicatesAllowed=False.
EnergyMeter: Fix error message when the metered element is not a PDElement.
CIMXML export: Fix issues present since v0.12.0; reported in https://github.com/dss-extensions/OpenDSSDirect.py/issues/121
Parser: properly error out when given excessive number of elements for matrices; implemented due to the report in https://github.com/dss-extensions/OpenDSSDirect.py/issues/122
Port most changes from the official OpenDSS up to SVN revision 3595 (OpenDSS v9.6.1.1 + a couple of CIMXML updates); check OpenDSS v9.6.1.1 README.txt for some complementary info to the list below.
Relay, UPFC, UPFCControl changes ported.
CIMXML exports: Various updates.
RegControl: More log and debug trace entries.
LoadMult: Set SystemYChanged when changing LoadMult through a DSS script or DSS command (doesn’t affect Solution_Set_LoadMult)
Port PVSystem, Storage, InvControl, and StorageController changes, including the new grid-forming mode (GFM). For DSS-Extensions, we added a new class InvBasedPCE to avoid some redundancy and make things clearer.
Port DynamicExp and related functionality. In our implementation, we also add a new class DynEqPCE to avoid some redundant code (could still be improved). the Generator and the new InvBasePCE derive from this new DynEqPCE. Note: the DynamicEq functionality from the upstream still seems incomplete and some things are not fully implemented or maybe buggy, so we only ported now to remove the burden of porting this down the line. If you find issues, feel free to report here on DSS-Extensions, but we recommended checking first with the official OpenDSS — if the issue is also found in the official version, prefer to report in the official OpenDSS forum first so everyone gets the fixes and our implementation doesn’t diverge too much.
CktElement/API: add a few new functions related to state variables.
Circuit, Line: port the LongLineCorrection flag now that it seems to be fixed upstream. Note that we didn’t publish releases with the previous buggy version from the upstream OpenDSS (that applied the long-line correction for everything).
LineSpacing: port side-effect from upstream; changing nconds now reallocates and doesn’t leak previously allocated memory. Not a common operation, so it’s not very relevant.
CktElement: port code for handling losses in AutoTrans
Other API updates:
DSSContext API: allow null pointer for the prime/default instance. This should ease the transition. Issue: https://github.com/dss-extensions/dss_capi/issues/119
Error API: add Error_Set_Description to allow easier setting an error message from callbacks (this is for advanced usage)
Batch and Obj API:
For a couple of fast-path operations, add checks for edit state, automatically issuing BeginEdit and EndEdit for the objects in the batch.
Allow passing strings (object names) instead of pointers for object references
Automatically add new elements to the current DSSContext (since we have not yet published a manipulation API)
For symmetric matrices, if the user passes only the triangle, follow the same convention as the Text interface. Includes specific fix for (parts of) complex matrices (like the R or X matrices when internally Z is stored). If the user provides full matrices, the previous behavior was correct, no changes required.
Fuses_Reset: fix C header (remove extra/unused parameter)
Fuses_Get_State and Fuses_Get_NormalState: add missing string copy. Sometimes this could cause memory corruption.
Bus_Get_ZSC012Matrix: check for nulls
Bus_Get_AllPCEatBus, Bus_Get_AllPDEatBus: faster implementations
Meters_Get_CountBranches: reimplemented
Monitors_Get_dblHour: For harmonics solution, return empty array. Previously, it was returning a large array instead of a single element ([0]) array. A small issue adjusted for compatibility with the official COM API results.
Reactors_Set_Bus1: Match the side-effects of the property API for two-terminal reactors.
New DSS_Set_CompatFlags/DSS_Get_CompatFlags function pair: introduced to address some current and potential future concerns about compatibility of results with the official OpenDSS. See the API docs for more info.
New DSS_Set_EnableArrayDimensions/DSS_Get_EnableArrayDimensions: for Array results in the API, implement optional matrix sizes; when setting DSS_Set_EnableArrayDimensions(true), the array size pointer will be filled with two extra elements to represent the matrix size (if the data is a matrix instead of a plain vector). For complex number, the dimensions are filled in relation to complex elements instead of double/float64 elements even though we currently reuse the double/float64 array interface. Issue: https://github.com/dss-extensions/dss_capi/issues/113
Note that a couple of SVN changes were ignored on purpose since they introduced potential issues, while many other changes and bug-fixes did not affect the DSS C-API version since our implementation is quite different in some places.
Released on 2022-07-16.
Expose Storages in Python
Include the missing property descriptions from 0.12.0
Use DSS C-API v0.12.1 for some incremental fixes
Released on 2022-07-14.
Removed CmathLib: not useful in Python or most programming languages targeted by DSS-Extensions.
Allow creating multiple DSS engine instances via DSS.NewContext().
Reenabled Parallel interface and PM functions (actors and so on), based on a new implementation.
Enable incremental Y matrix options — controlled by DSS.YMatrix.SolverOptions, options listed in SparseSolverOptions.
New ToJSON functions to dump object properties (power flow state is not included at the moment)
Initial implementation of the new DSS.Obj API for direct DSS object and uniform batch manipulation, covering all DSS classes implemented in DSS C-API. The shape of this API may change for the next releases. At the moment it is intended for advanced users. For example, if you get an object handle from the engine and load a new circuit, the handle is invalid and you should not access it anymore (otherwise, crashes are expected).
Initial (work-in-progress) implementation of plotting functions. This will also be finished and polished in following releases.
Due to some changes ported from the official OpenDSS since 0.10.7, some results may change, especially for circuits that used miles as length units. The same is observed across the official OpenDSS releases.
Includes porting of most official OpenDSS features up to revision 3460. Check the OpenDSS SVN commits for details.
Since version 0.11 accumulated too many changes for too long (nearly 2 years), making it hard to keep two parallel but increasingly distinct codebases, version 0.12 is a stepping stone to the next big version (planned as 0.13) that will contain all of the 0.11 changes. As such, only some of the 0.11 features are included. The previous 0.10.8 changes are also included here.
This version still maintains basic compatibility with the 0.10.x series of releases, but there are many important changes. Version 0.13 will break API and ABI compatibility since function signatures and datatypes will be extensively adjusted. Still, if you use DSS C-API through one of the projects from DSS-Extensions, we expect that your code will require few or no changes.
The binary releases now use Free Pascal 3.2.2.
The library name was changed from dss_capi_v7 to dss_capi. The codebase was cleaned up and reorganized.
The code was finally unified, merging remaining features from OpenDSS v8+ (with few exceptions). Most of the DSS PM commands and functions were enabled. To achieve this, most of the global variables from the OpenDSS engine were encapsulated in a new class, a DSS Context class. Multi-threaded features are based on DSSContexts, both the original OpenDSS PM features and new extensions.
Using DSS Contexts, user threads are now possible.
Initial ARM64/AARCH64 support added. ARM32 building scripts were also added. Support includes Apple M1 support, including parallel/multi-threading features.
Finally use KLUSolveX (our KLUSolve fork, rewritten and extended), enabling incremental Y updates for transformers and capacitor banks. Documentation including usage notes and limitations still not written. This was planned for version v0.13, but moved back to v0.12 to enable ARM32 (armv7l) support and better results in ARM64 (aarch64).
Experimental callbacks for plotting and message output. Expect initial support in Python soon after DSS C-API v0.12 is released.
Introduce AllowChangeDir mechanism: defaults to enabled state for backwards compatibility. When disabled, the engine will not change the current working directory in any situation. This is exposed through a new pair of functions DSS_Set_AllowChangeDir and DSS_Get_AllowChangeDir, besides the environment variable DSS_CAPI_ALLOW_CHANGE_DIR.
New setting to toggle DOScmd command. Can be controlled through the environment variable DSS_CAPI_ALLOW_DOSCMD or functions DSS_Get_AllowDOScmd/DSS_Set_AllowDOScmd.
Use OutputDirectory more. OutputDirectory is set to the current DataPath if DataPath is writable. If not, it’s set to a general location (%LOCALAPPDATA%/dss-extensions and /tmp/dss-extensions since this release). This should make life easier for a user running files from a read-only location. Note that this is only an issue when running a compile command. If the user only uses redirect commands, the DataPath and OutputDirectory are left empty, meaning the files are written to the current working directory (CWD), which the user can control through the programming language driving DSS C-API. Note that the official OpenDSS COM behavior is different, since it loads the DataPath saved in the registry and modifies the CWD accordingly when OpenDSS is initialized.
File IO rewritten to drop deprecated Pascal functions and features. This removes some limitations related to long paths due to the legacy implementation being limited to 255 chars.
Reworked TPowerTerminal to achieve better memory layout. This makes simulations running LoadsTerminalCheck=false and LoadsTerminalCheck=true closer in performance, yet disabling the check is still faster.
Use TFPHashList where possible (replacing the custom, original THashList implementation from OpenDSS).
New LoadShape functions and internals:
Port memory-mapped files from the official OpenDSS, used when MemoryMapping=Yes from a DSS script while creating a LoadShape object.
Release the LoadShape_Set_Points function, which can be used for faster LoadShape input, memory-mapping externally, shared memory, chunked input, etc.
Some new functions:
Circuit_Get_ElementLosses
CktElement_Get_NodeRef
DSS_Get_COMErrorResults/DSS_Set_COMErrorResults: New compatibility setting for error/empty result. If enabled, in case of errors or empty arrays, the API returns arrays with values compatible with the official OpenDSS COM interface.
For example, consider the function Loads_Get_ZIPV. If there is no active circuit or active load element:
In the disabled state (COMErrorResults=False), the function will return “[]”, an array with 0 elements.
In the enabled state (COMErrorResults=True), the function will return “[0.0]” instead. This should be compatible with the return value of the official COM interface.
Defaults to True/1 (enabled state) in the v0.12.x series. This will change to false in future series.
This can also be set through the environment variable DSS_CAPI_COM_DEFAULTS. Setting it to 0 disables the legacy/COM behavior. The value can be toggled through the API at any time.
Drop function aliases: previously deprecated function aliases (LoadShapes_Set_Sinterval and LoadShapes_Get_sInterval) were removed to simplify the build process. Use LoadShapes_Set_SInterval and LoadShapes_Get_SInterval instead.
Monitor headers: From the official OpenDSS, since May 2021, the monitor binary stream doesn’t include the header anymore. When porting the change to DSS-Extensions, we took the opportunity to rewrite the related code, simplifying it. As such, the implementation in DSS-Extensions deviates from the official one. Extra blank chars are not included, and fields should be more consistent. As a recommendation, if your code needs to be compatible with both implementations, trimming the fields should be enough.
Error messages: most messages are now more specific and, if running a DSS script from files, include the file names and line numbers.
Spectrum: To reduce overhead during object edits, now required to exist before the object that uses it. This is consistent with most of the other types in OpenDSS.
New object and batch APIs for direct manipulation of DSS objects and batches of objects
New experimental API for loading scripts/data from ZIP files
New convenience functions to bulk load commands from the API
User-models: headers updated, and removed support for user-models in LegacyModels mode. LegacyModels will be removed in v0.13.
New functions to export the DSS properties of objects as JSON-encoded strings
The C headers for our library were updated to include the const modifier for various of the parameters. A few function declarations were fixed.
Initial batch of i18n changes.
Due to the high number of IO changes, we recommend checking the performance before and after the upgrade to ensure your use case is not affected negatively, especially if your application relies heavily on OpenDSS text output. If issues are found, please do report.
Released on 2020-12-29.
Maintenance release.
Updated to DSS C-API 0.10.7, which includes most changes up to OpenDSS v9.1.3.4.
Includes an important bug fix related to the CapRadius DSS property. If your DSS scripts included the pattern GMRac=... rad=... or GMRac=... diam=... (in this order and without specifying CapRadius), you should upgrade and re-evaluate the results.
New API properties ported from the official COM interface: Bus.AllPCEatBus, Bus.AllPDEatBus, CktElement.TotalPowers, Meters.ZonePCE
DSS C-API 0.10.7 changes:
Simple maintenance release, which includes most changes up to OpenDSS v9.1.3.4 (revision 2963).
Includes an important bug fix related to the CapRadius DSS property. If your DSS scripts included the pattern GMRac=... rad=... or GMRac=... diam=... (in this order and without specifying CapRadius), you should upgrade and re-evaluate the results.
This version should be fully API compatible with 0.10.3+.
A reference document listing the DSS commands and properties for all DSS elements is now available at https://github.com/dss-extensions/dss_capi/blob/0.10.x/docs/dss_properties.md
New functions API ported from the official OpenDSS include: Bus_Get_AllPCEatBus, Bus_Get_AllPDEatBus, CktElement_Get_TotalPowers, Meters_Get_ZonePCE.
The changes ported from the official OpenDSS include the following (check the repository for more details):
“Adds LineType property to LineCode and LineGeometry objects.”
“Correcting bug found in storage device when operating in idling mode. It was preventing the solution of other test feeders (IEEE 9500)”
“Enabling fuel option for generator, fixing bug found in TotalPower command.”
“Adding kvar compensation calculation for normalizing reactive power at feeder head. v 9.1.2.4”
“Adding: - Line type variable to line definition. - AllPCEatBus and AllPDEatBus commands to the executive command set. - AllPCEatBus and AllPDEatBus commands to bus interface in COM/DLL. (…)”
“Adding capability to energy meter for getting the list of all PCE (shunt) within a zone. Interface “AllPCEatZone” for COM/DLL created.”
“Fixing bug found when calculating voltage bases with large amount of numbers (large array).”
Released on 2020-08-01.
Updated to DSS C-API 0.10.6, which includes most changes up to OpenDSS v9.0.0.3.
Debug builds of DSS C-API are now included. See the Debugging document.
New DSS.LegacyModels: allow using the legacy/deprecated models for PVsystem, Storage, InvControl, and StorageController.
New DSS.Error.ExtendedErrors: controls if the new extended error messages are used.
Many new properties and functions in DSS.ActiveCircuit.PDElements.
Now most of the low-level API calls are checked, mapping the errors from the DSS.Error interface to Python exceptions more frequently.
DSS C-API 0.10.6 changes:
This version should be fully API compatible with 0.10.3+. The behavior of some functions changed with the new extensions. Especially, empty strings are explicitly return as nulls instead of “\0”. This conforms to the behavior already seen in arrays of strings.
The binary releases now use Free Pascal 3.2.0. We observed the solution process is around 6% faster, and results are even closer to the official OpenDSS.
The releases now include both the optimized/default binary and a non-optimized/debug version. See the Debugging document for more.
Extended API validation and Extended Errors mechanism:
The whole API was reviewed to add basic checks for active circuit and element access.
By default, invalid accesses now result in errors reported through the Error interface. This can be disabled to achieve the previous behavior, more compatible with the official COM implementation — that is, ignore the error, just return a default/invalid value and assume the user has handled it.
The mechanism can be toggled by API functions DSS_Set_ExtendedErrors and DSS_Get_ExtendedErrors, or environment variable DSS_CAPI_EXTENDED_ERRORS=0 to disable (defaults to enabled state).
New Legacy Models mechanism:
OpenDSS 9.0+ dropped the old PVsystem, Storage, InvControl, and StorageController models, replacing with the new versions previously known as PVsystem2, Storage2, InvControl2 and StorageController2.
The behavior and parameters from the new models are different — they are better, more complete and versatile models. Check the official OpenDSS docs and examples for further information.
The implementation of the new models in DSS C-API was validated successfully with all test cases available. As such, we mirror the decision to make them the default models.
As an extension, we implemented the Legacy Models option. By toggling it, a clear command will be issued and the alternative models will be loaded. This should allow users to migrate to the new version but, if something that used to work with the old models stopped working somehow, the user can toggle the old models. The idea is to keep reproducibility of results while we keep updating the engine and the API.
Since EPRI dropped/deprecated the old models, we might drop them too, in a future release. Please open an issue on GitHub or send a message if those old models are important to you.
The mechanism can be controlled by API functions DSS_Set_LegacyModels and DSS_Get_LegacyModels, or environment variable DSS_CAPI_LEGACY_MODELS=1 to enable (defaults to disabled state).
WireData API: expose the CapRadius property as a new pair of functions.
PDElements API: extended with many batch functions exposing equivalents to some CSV reports: AllNames, AllMaxCurrents, AllPctNorm, AllPctEmerg, AllCurrents, AllCurrentsMagAng, AllCplxSeqCurrents, AllSeqCurrents, AllPowers, AllSeqPowers, AllNumPhases, AllNumConductors, AllNumTerminals.
CktElement_Get_SeqPowers: fix issue for positive sequence circuits (wrong results could corrupt memory).
Many API functions were optimized to avoid unnecessary allocations and copies.
Some bugs found in DSS C-API and also reported upstream (already fixed in SVN):
CapRadius DSS property: if the radius was initialized using GMRac, CapRadius was left uninitialized, resulting in invalid/NaN values.
Sensors API: some functions edited capacitors instead of sensors.
Updated to the official OpenDSS revision 2903, corresponding to versions 9.0.0+. Changes include:
ExportCIMXML: updated.
Relay: Fix in GetPropertyValue.
Line: In DumpProperties and MakePosSequence, the length is handled differently for lines with LineGeometry or LineSpacing.
Bus API: new LineList, LoadList functions.
Lines API: SeasonRating now returns NormAmps if there’s no SeasonSignal.
New command DSS Zsc012: “Returns symmetrical component short circuit impedances Z0, Z1, and Z2 for the ACTIVE 3-PHASE BUS. Determined from Zsc matrix.”
PVsystem2, Storage2, InvControl2, StorageController2 updated and renamed.
Released on 2020-03-03. This is a maintenance release.
Updated to DSS C-API 0.10.5, which includes most changes up to OpenDSS v8.6.7.1. Includes new properties and new experimental components (under testing).
New properties exposed: ActiveClass.ActiveClassParent, PVSystems.Pmpp, PVSystems.IrradianceNow.
For the time being, dss.v8 doesn’t use the parallel-machine version anymore. This will be addressed in a future release, most likely in the 0.11.x series coming in the following months.
DSS C-API 0.10.5 changes:
Disable builds and distribution of v8-only variation — the extra/missing parallel-machine will be completely merged in a mixed (v7+v8) codebase in the coming months.
This version should be fully API compatible with 0.10.3+.
Bus and CktElement API functions reworked with some more checks.
Updated up to revision 2837 of the official OpenDSS code:
Ported changes from SVN (v7 and v8) into DSS C-API v7 variation (v8 was left untouched).
4 new API level functions (ActiveClass_Get_ActiveClassParent, PVSystems_Get_Pmpp, PVSystems_Set_Pmpp, PVSystems_Get_IrradianceNow)
4 new components: PVsystem2, Storage2, InvControl2, StorageController2 — added for early testing, no dedicated API functions yet. At the moment, please consider them experimental features subject to change.
CIM100: several changes
ExpControl: new Tresponse property
ConductorData, LineConstants, LineGeometry: new Capradius property
XfmrCode, Transformer: new Seasons and Ratings properties
Bus_Get_puVLL and Bus_Get_VLL — see revision 2836 (official SVN). Included an extra fix in DSS C-API to avoid some corner cases.
Other small bug fixes like the Full Carson fix — see https://sourceforge.net/p/electricdss/discussion/861976/thread/2de01d0cdb/ and revision 2805 (official SVN)
Released on 2019-11-16. This is a maintenance release.
Updated to DSS C-API 0.10.4.
Fix dss.enums.YMatrixModes
Make DSS.ActiveCircuit.CktElements iterable (e.g. for element in DSS.ActiveCircuit.CktElements: ...);
DSS C-API 0.10.4 changes include:
Updated up to revision 2761 of the official OpenDSS code. The changes affect at least the following components: CIMXML export, Capacitor, InvControl, LineGeometry, PVsystem, StorageController, Storage, Vsource, VCCS.
This version should be fully compatible with 0.10.3.
Fixes issue with long paths on Linux, potentially other platforms too.
Released on 2019-05-22. This is the last release to provide pre-built binaries for Python 3.4.
Includes fix for issue with the line parameters on Linux and macOS due to memory-address aliasing issues.
Prebuilt binaries for DSS C-API and KLUSolve are used instead of rebuilding everything from source.
Prebuilt packages (wheels) for 32-bit Linux are now available.
Development artifacts are now included in the distribution package. This enables advanced usage and easier integration with compiled languages (examples pending, please open an issue if you’d like to know more).
ReduceCkt ported from COM: new circuit reduction methods available in DSS.ActiveCircuit.ReduceCkt
Lines: ported from COM, new seasonal ratings mechanism that allows changing the current rating through the simulation
Optimization and extended error-checking in many properties
Includes new Settings.LoadsTerminalCheck: on static scenarios (no open terminals for loads) to toggle the costly checks for open terminals. If set to false, it can save around 25% of simulation time, depending on the circuit characteristics.
All components now can be accessed by index (idx property)
All components now have faster Name iteration
Ported to v7/default interface: the DSS commands CalcIncMatrix, CalcIncMatrix_O, Refine_BusLevels, CalcLaplacian, and related export options: IncMatrix, IncMatrixRows, IncMatrixCols, BusLevels, Laplacian, ZLL, ZCC, Contours, Y4. Also includes related Python-level properties.
Some other new properties:
CktElement.IsIsolated
Lines.IsSwitch
Transformers.LossesByType and Transformers.AllLossesByType
Released on 2019-02-28.
CtrlQueue: Add the missing function Push. See CtrlQueueTest.py for an example ported from the Excel VBA example.
New DSS.AllowEditor: this new property controls if the external editor is called on DSS commands like Show. If set to False, the editor is not called, but other side effects should not be affected (e.g. files can be created).
The enum34 module was added as a dependency for Python < 3.5.
The Options enumeration was split into several new enumerations (AutoAddTypes, CktModels, ControlModes, SolutionLoadModels, SolutionAlgorithms, RandomModes). It is now marked as deprecated for future removal.
LoadShapes are faster due to changes from DSS C-API
Released on 2019-02-17.
This is a minor DSS-Python release that contains lots of changes from DSS C-API. See also the changes from DSS C-API for details, including changes from the official OpenDSS code since 0.10.0.
DSS-Python has recently moved from https://github.com/PMeira/dss_python/ to the new https://dss-extensions.org/ and https://github.com/dss-extensions/dss_python/
Major changes:
More and faster error-checking! Python exception will be raised for more errors and with a lower overhead.
Fix for YMatrix.getI and YMatrix.getV (ported from OpenDSSDirect.py)
Fix for ActiveCircuit.ActiveCktElement.Variable and ActiveCircuit.ActiveCktElement.Variablei: now returns a tuple of (value, errorcode), compatible with COM.
New DSS.Error.EarlyAbort: controls whether all errors halts the DSS script processing (Compile/Redirect), defaults to True.
Released on 2018-11-17.
Major changes:
The creation of the binary modules has been automated using Travis-CI and AppVeyor. We expect that this will allow us to release more often, bringing new features sooner.
Integrates many fixes from the upstream OpenDSS and changes specific to DSS C-API.
Reorganizes and reuses the code across DSS versions (v7 and v8)
Uses __slots__ to simplify attribute handling.
Exposes both the our classic API (e.g. dss.v7.DSS_IR for the immediate/direct results) and global result API (e.g. dss.v7.DSS_GR for the global result interface). See DSS C-API’s docs for a detailed explanation. We default to the GR interface since it will generally be faster at the cost of a small memory overhead.
Although still experimental, the v8/PM module is more stable. If you try it, please give feedback.
Error checking is now done for most API writes. That is, if a an OpenDSS error occurs, it should cause a Python exception soon after. Previously, you need to call CheckForError() manually to trigger this. This change was introduced after user reports indicated that manually checking for errors is a common behavior.
Exposes API extensions for the classes LineGeometry, WireData, LineSpacing, CNData, TSData, Reactor.
Makes most DSS classes iterable (including buses), e.g. you can now use:
for l in DSS.ActiveCircuit.Loads:
print(l.Name)
Adds a COM patching function (dss.patch_dss_com) — that is, extend the COM instance with iterators like above and some other few functions to make it easier to exchange between COM and DSS-Python:
import win32com.client, dss
com = dss.patch_dss_com(win32com.client.gencache.EnsureDispatch("OpenDSSEngine.DSS"))
# ...compile a circuit, etc.
for l in com.ActiveCircuit.Loads:
print(l.Name, l.kva)
for b in com.ActiveCircuit.ActiveBus:
print(b.Name, b.x, b.y)
If you were using set_case_insensitive_attributes (previously use_com_compat) to allow mixed-cased attributes, it should work better than before. You may now use set_case_insensitive_attributes(warn=True) to warn when you use an attribute that wouldn’t exist without calling set_case_insensitive_attributes. The intention is that the user should run their code to get a list of warnings, fix it, and then remove set_case_insensitive_attributes since it does have a small performance impact.