Getting started

Previous: Installing additional components

Foreword

LabRPS is a computation tool for the numerical simulation of random phenomena. It is primarily made for researchers, but also serves all other who need to numerically reprent a random phenomenon without being involved with coding.

LabRPS has been under development since 2015, and it offers a large list of features. Capabilities are still missing but it is powerful enough for hobbyist use, and small workshops. There is a fast-growing community of enthusiastic users who participate in the LabRPS forum, and you can find many examples of quality projects developed with LabRPS there.

Like all free software projects, LabRPS depends on its community to grow, gain features, and fix bugs. Don't forget this when using LabRPS; if you like it, you can donate and help LabRPS in various ways, such as writing documentation.

Installing

First of all, download and install LabRPS. See the Download page for information on current versions and updates, and the installation instructions for you operating system (Windows, Linux or Mac). There are install packages ready for Windows (.msi), Debian and Ubuntu (.deb), openSUSE (.rpm), and Mac OSX. LabRPS is available from the package managers of many other Linux distributions. A standalone AppImage executable is also available, which will run on most recent 64-bit Linux systems. As LabRPS is open-source, you can also grab the source code and compile it yourself.

Exploring the interface

File:LabRPS interface base divisions.svg

The standard LabRPS interface

See a full explanation in Interface.

1. The main view area, which can contain different tabbed windows.

2. The graph view, showing the graphical representation of the simulation data or any data involved in the application.

3. The spreadsheet view, showing the simulation data or any data involved in the application in the form of spreadsheet.

4. The tree view (part of the combo view), showing the hierarchy.

5. The property editor (part of the combo view), which allows viewing and modifying properties of the selected objects.

6. The report view (or output window), where messages, warnings and errors are shown.

7. The scripting console, where you can enter MuParser code.

8. The result log, where the simulation results, analysis results and informations are displayed.

9. The project explorer, where the content of the project document is displayed.

10. The status bar, where some messages and tooltips appear.

11. The toolbar area, where the toolbars are docked.

12. The phenomenon selector, where you select the active phenomenon.

13. The standard menu, which holds basic operations of the program.

The main concept behind the LabRPS interface is that it is separated into plugins. A plugin is a collection of tools suited for a specific task, such as working with power spectrum matrix decomposition, or computing the modulation function.

When you start LabRPS for the first time, you are presented with the Start page. Here is what it looks like for version 0.001:

File:Start center 0.001 screenshot.png

The Start page allows you to quickly jump to some parts of the application, open one of the recent files, or see the latest news from the LabRPS world. You can change the default phenomenon in the phenomenon selector.

Navigation style

LabRPS has anavigation style , that changes the way you use your mouse to interact with the items in the 3D view and the other views.

First steps with LabRPS

LabRPS's focus is to allow you to numerically generate random phenomena in an accuarate and realistic way, to allow researchers quicky developing new simulation tools. It is therefore very different from some other applications made for similar purposes. Its learning curve is make very short. If you are struck at some point, don't forget that the friendly community of users on the LabRPS forum might be able to get you out in no time.

The plugin you will start using in LabRPS depends on the type random phenomenon you need to simulate: If you are going to work on random wind velocity, you'll probably want to try the windLab Plugin. If you will work on seismic ground motion, then switch to the Seismic groud motion phenomenon, and you may need seismicLab Plugin. There are also many community-developed external plugins available.

You can switch phenomenon at any time.

Working with WindLab

WindLab is a module in LabRPS that provides and manages all LabRPS's capabilities for the simulation of stochastic wind velocity. This module is automatically actived when wind velocity is selected in through the phenomenon selector. Don't confuse WindLab and windLab plugin. WindLab is LabRPS internal module providing the simulation framework of random wind velocity while windLab plugin is one of the plugin provided by LabRPS for simulation of random wind velocity. This is a typical WindLab workflow:

Define wind velocity direction (along wind, across wind, or vertical wind)
Choose Wind type (stationary or non-stationary)
Input the number of simulation locations
Input the number time increments (the length of the simulated wind process)
Select a spectrum model
Choose a mean wind profile
Choose a simulation method
Choose a simulation mode (large scale simulation mode or not)
Run the simulation

Which gives you the simulated wind velocity data like this:

File:WindLab example.jpg

Working with SeismicLab

Section TBD

Working with SeaLab

Section TBD

Scripting

And finally, one of the most powerful features of LabRPS is the scripting environment. From the integrated scripting console, you can gain access to some part of LabRPS, create or modify RPS objecs.