Tips¶

Question: How can I start the Tool quickly and conveniently?

Answer: There are many ways to quickly start the Tool, including pinning the application to taskbar, adding a short cut to your desktop, etc.

Question: I export the model as CSV files, open some of the CSV files with Microsoft Excel, and make some changes. After saving the modified CSV files, I import the CSV files back to the Tool. It is found some of the attribute values have been changed in addition to those explicitly changed. For example, value ‘false’ is changed to ‘FALSE’.

Answer: These unintended changes are caused by the auto-formatting of Microsoft Excel. While there are no ways to disable the Excel auto-formatting feature, there is a workaround to resolve this issue.

Question: Can I enforce the Tool to validate my CIM/XML file against a specified profile?

Answer: Yes, you can. But you are not supposed to do so. The Tool has a built-in mechanism to identify which profile the instance model file is compatible to. However, this mechanism may not work as expected, if your CIM/XML file conforms to more than one profile. For example, you may have an Equipment type model that conforms to both ENTSOE-E edition 1 and CPSM 7 profile. In that case, the tool just picks up one profile to check against. If you want to switch to another profile, you may define a data source to enforce the proper profile.

Question: Why does the Tool highlight the standard classes/properties in my model as unrecognized modeling entities?

Answer: The Tool is governed by the supported CIM profiles, which defines the classes/properties of the exchanged model. If your model contains the classes/properties that are undeclared in the governing profiles, they are treated as “foreign”, even these classes/properties are defined in CIM. This designed behavior conforms to the standard profile-based model exchange methodology.

Question: My model contains some extended modeling entities. The Tool doesn’t allow me to edit them.

Answer: This is the designed behavior. Check the model editing rules for detail. You must naturalize these extensions in order to make your extended model fully editable.

Question: How do I know whether two crossed lines/buses are actually connected in Substation and Neighborhood Diagrams?

Answer: Change the diagram Display Options to enable the pin connection option for highlighting the connection points or line-crossing option to distinguish the electrical connection from the graphical connection.

Question: My mouse doesn’t have a right button. How to invoke the context menu?

Answer: If a mouse doesn’t have a right button, it shall end in the trash can. Throw away your mouse and get a new one.

Question: How to zoom/pan a graphical diagram?

Answer: You mainly rely on mouse activities to navigate a graphical diagram. To zoom in/out a diagram, you should move the cursor to the part of the diagram where you want to center, and then scroll the mid-wheel in the mouse to zoom in/out the diagram. Additionally, a zooming bar is provided to accelerate the zooming activity. To pan (move) a diagram, you need drag-and-drop the diagram using the right mouse button. In general, the graphical navigations of the Tool are quite similar to those of the on-line maps, such as Google Map or Yahoo Map.