User interface

IPSA+ has a full graphical user interface. All of the common features of such interfaces are present, such as toolbars, scroll bars, menus, stack bar and dockable windows. The dominant central feature is the drawing canvas. This is the place where the single line diagram of the power system is created and modified, and where the results of studies will be displayed.

Diagrams are created in the same manner as other drawing packages, namely selecting the kind of item to draw from a toolbar and simply placing it on the diagram in the appropriate place. Facilities are provided to resize items, align items and change their drawing symbols. The diagram itself can be zoomed in or out, panned, scrolled and printed. For large networks a search facility is provided to locate and display selected network items.

The IPSA user interface

The parameters of network items are available for viewing and modification in both dialog and tabular form. An item’s dialog is displayed when double-clicking on the item in the display (or selecting the appropriate context-sensitive menu entry). Tabular displays of data are available from icons in the stack bar, displayed to the left of the diagram.

Once data entry is complete studies can be conducted by selecting the appropriate menu or stack bar icon entries. A progress window at the bottom of the display provides constant updates as to what is happening in the program. The status bar also displays progress during long calculations and when appropriate an estimate of how long the calculation will take to complete, together with an option to terminate the calculation prematurely.

When results are available reports can be generated and saved to disk or viewed directly from within the program. Tabular results are also available.

Note that IPSA+ does not require a diagram in order to perform calculations. All data can be entered via tables with no drawing, or with only part of the network drawn, and all study results displayed in tables.

A sample results table display