Standard Plug-ins

Isight provides plug-in types that you can use to create your own standard plug-ins.

The following standard plug-in types are available from SIMULIA:

  • Approximation Techniques

  • Approximation Error Analysis Methods

  • Calculator Functions

  • DOE Techniques

  • Exploration Strategies

  • Grid

  • Monte Carlo Sampling Techniques

  • Optimization Techniques

  • Random Variable Distributions

  • Target Solver Techniques

For many of the SIMULIA-supplied plug-ins, implementation of that specific Java interface is the only way to provide a new plug-in instance (see Overview of Calculation Plug-Ins or Grid Plug-Ins). However, for approximation and optimization plug-ins, Isight supports the use of an external executable program (see External Executable Plug-ins). External executable programs are simpler to create than standard plug-ins and do not require knowledge of Java.

Isight also offers the ability to add a new type of plug-in to the system. This option is useful for when you are developing a component and you want to represent some functionality in the component using a plug-in so that it can be extended easily. For example, in the The Plate Example, it is desired to represent the shape of the plate using a plug-in so that new shapes can be added to extend the capability of the Plate component. Thus, if you want to create plug-ins for some specific functionality, you can create the plug-in and use it by looking for plug-ins of that type in the library. If you want that plug-in type to be available within the SDK Generator tool, you must first create what is called a plug-in generator to represent that plug-in type (generators are provided by SIMULIA for most of the plug-in types listed above). The process of creating a new plug-in generator is discussed in Overview of Creating a New Plug-In Type.

As with component development, the most involved step in developing a plug-in is the creation of any necessary Java wrapper. Each plug-in type will require the development of a Java wrapper, and each of the SIMULIA-provided plug-in types offers a template that you can use to help you develop the appropriate wrapper. For more information on other plug-in types, contact SIMULIA technical support.

All the Java interfaces and utility classes necessary for developing the wrapper classes for your plug-in are available in the SMAFIPsdk.jar and SMAFIPdesktopSDK.jar files provided in the <Isight_install_directory>/<operating_system>/docs/java/ directory of your Isight installation. To compile the Java code that you write, you must have version JDK 7 of the Java Development Kit (JDK) installed.