Fmu Tools

The fmu_tools library offers a set of utilities to import/export any existing model from/into an FMU.

For the FMU export, the library, mainly through its main class FmuComponentBase, provides a higher C++ layer that:

• on the outer side: offers to the final user the standard FMU interface
• on the inner side: offers to the FMU developer an extensive set of utilities to bind its model to the FMU instance

The CMake infrastructure takes care of:

• building the source code;
• generating the modelDescription.xml;
• creating the standard FMU directory layout;
• packaging into a .fmu ZIP archive;
• running compliance checks on the generated FMU.

For the FMU import, the library can dynamically link to any FMU and offers some auxiliary function to easily access internal variables by name, recognizes Modelica visualization shape structures by parsing the modelDescription.xml.

WARNING: please mind that we are currently dealing only with CoSimulation FMUs.

Using the Library

Fmu Export

A simple use of the library consists in just taking the project and modifying myFmuComponent.h and myFmuComponent.cpp based on the user needs. This is the recommended way for simpler projects.

Those who like to use fmu_tools directly from their own projects are invited to look at the Chrono library to have an idea on a more advanced integration. Especially the chrono/template_project_fmu folder.

In either case, this library offers a set of tools that need to be further specialized for the user-specific problem. This is done by inheriting from FmuComponentBase, plus some additional customization. One example is provided by the myFmuComponent class. The impatient user could also just copy and modify this class straight away.

For those that want to develop their own indipendent class, they are required to:

1. in CMake, set the FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER to any valid name (consider your operating system and C-function naming standards); a new target with same name will be created;
2. derive your own class from FmuComponentBase; please refer to myFmuComponent for an example;
3. the derived class should:
   • in the constructor, remember to call FmuComponentBase::instantiateType(_fmuType);
   • in the constructor, add all the relevant variables of the model to the FMU through AddFmuVariable; various measurement units are supported and some default units are already declared; please also remember that all the variables exposed by the FMU must be updated at every _doStep call; it's up to the user to register any updating functions to the list of m_[pre|post]StepCallbacks; these will be called immediately before and after the simulation step;
   • in the initializer list for the base class constructor provide the list of logging categories, together with a list of those logging categories that are meant to be automatically enabled when debug log is requested
   • a predefined time variable comes pre-binded to the FMU: remember to update it as well;
   • override FmuComponentBase::is_cosimulation_available() and FmuComponentBase::is_modelexchange_available() so that they would return the proper answer;
   • override _doStep method of the base class with the problem-specific implementation;
   • optionally override FmuComponentBase::_enterInitializationMode() and FmuComponentBase::_exitInitializationMode(): between these two calls the user should be able to set the parameters of the simulation; after the call to _exitInitializationMode the model should be ready to run;
   • optionally override FmuComponentBase::_preModelDescriptionExport() and FmuComponentBase::_postModelDescriptionExport(): to generate the modelDescription.xml file the class gets constructed, but not initialized; if some setup (e.g. calling _exitInitializationMode) is required to populate the model with all the proper variables this could be done in these methods.
4. provide the implementation of fmi2Instantiate_getPointer similarly to:

   FmuComponentBase* fmi2Instantiate_getPointer(
     fmi2String instanceName,
     fmi2Type fmuType,
     fmi2String fmuGUID)
   {
     return new myFmuComponent(instanceName, fmuType, fmuGUID);
   }
   

Adding variables to the FMU is possible in two different flavours: by just passing the address of any given variable whose type is directly supported by the FMU interface or by providing a pair of getter/setter methods. Since the definition of these function pairs might not be immediate an helper macro MAKE_GETSET_PAIR is offered.

When everything is set up, build the PACK_FMU target to generate the FMU file.

Advanced Options for Export

• in the rare case that the user requires a different set of FMI variable types, it is required to modify fmi2_headers\fmi2TypesPlatform.h accordingly; in this case the TypesVariants.h file should be modified as well, so that the two variants declared do not contain any repeated type;
• while adding new FMU variables, the user can associate a measurement unit to them (otherwise the adimensional unit "1" will be set). However, units needs to be defined before any FMU variable could use them. Measurement units are defined through the UnitDefinitionType class, that stores the name of the unit (e.g. "rad/s2") together with the exponents of each SI base unit (e.g. rad=1, s=-2). The user should create its own object of type UnitDefinitionType and then pass it to FmuComponentBase through its method addUnitDefinition. After this step, the user can use the unit name in any following call to AddFmuVariable;
• the RUN_TESTS target will run the fmuChecker utility over the newly created fmu and makes sure no error is returned (only 'win64' and 'linux64' are available for now);
• the modelDescription.xml file is created by calling a specific function exported by the very same FMU (namely createModelDescription()). This function actually instantiates an object of the class inherited from FmuComponentBase and then calls its FmuComponentBase::ExportModelDescription method. As you may see, no initialization is made on the class/fmu. However, this might be a problem for some models that have no valid default parameters. In order to overcome this limitation, the FmuComponentBase::ExportModelDescription method calls the pair of FmuComponentBase::_preModelDescriptionExport() and FmuComponentBase::_postModelDescriptionExport().

Fmu Import

The target fmu_host shows how to load and run FMUs. By default it is set up to use the FMU generated by the FMU export target, but it can be redirected to any other FMU.

The FMUs gets automatically unzipped.

Features and TODOs

• basic import of CoSimulation FMUs
• basic export of CoSimulation FMUs
• basic import of ModelExchange FMUs
• basic export of ModelExchange FMUs

Common Features

• associate Units to Variables
• keep C++14 compliance (filesystem and variant custom C++14 compliant implementation are offered)
• check compatibility of causality|variability|initial attributes for variables
• accept setter/getter function instead of the usual pointer to variable
• allow non-default types through 'fmi2TypesPlatform.h'

Export Features

• register local variables as FMU variables
• automatic creation of modelDescription.xml based on registered variables
• automatic build, modelDescription.xml generation and zipping (through CMake post-build)
• GUID creation
• setting of Resources folder according to IETF RFC3986 standard (basic support, only from file scheme)

Import Features

• unzip the FMUs (cross-platform, header-only)
• GUID checks (optional)
• additional function to easily retrieve variables through names instead of refvals

Extras and Testing

• test exported FMUs through the importer
• test exported FMUs with fmuChecker
• automatic testing with fmuChecker
• test on Win
• test on Linux (GCC8.5.0)
• test on MacOS
• importing fmu_tools into other project

Developer Guide

The creation of an FMU requires few steps that are automatically carried on by CMake. In order to reuse the code in your own toolchain we are currently suggesting to use CMake FetchContent feature. In this way the targets gets correctly imported in your project togetheir with their properties.

In order to better grasp what is happening under the hood it is important to understand both the target/command dependencies and the order in which they are triggered.

With the various blocks below following the convention:

flowchart TB
    TARGET_EXAMPLE["This is a CMake target"]
    CUSTOM_COMMAND_EXAMPLE[["This is a CMake custom command"]]
    OUTPUT_EXAMPLE[/"This is a build or command output"/]

the dependencies can be depicted as:

flowchart TB
    subgraph DEPENDENCIES_target["Dependencies and resources"]
    direction TB
    COPY_LIB[["`Copy dependencies (FMU_DEPENDENCIES) into FMU_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY`"]]
    COPY_RESOURCES[["`Copy FMU_RESOURCES_DIRECTORY into 'FMU_DIRECTORY/resources'`"]]
    end
    subgraph FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER_target[Build FMU source]
    direction TB
    FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER-->FMU_MI_OUTPUT[/"`Build 'FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER' binaries in FMU_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY=FMU_DIRECTORY/bin/_os_/`"/]
    end
    subgraph modelDescriptionGen[Create modelDescription.xml]
    direction TB
    fmi_modeldescription_build["fmi_modeldescription"]-->fmi_modeldescription_output[/"fmi_modeldescription.exe"/]
    fmi_modeldescription[["Execute 'fmi_modeldescription.exe FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER'"]]-->MODEL_DESCRIPTION[/"Create 'modelDescription.xml' in FMU_DIRECTORY"/]
    fmi_modeldescription_output -.-> fmi_modeldescription
    end
    subgraph zip_procedure["Create FMU file"]
    direction TB
    ZIP[["Execute 'tar --format=zip FMU_DIRECTORY'"]]-->FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER_ZIP[/"Create 'FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER.fmu' in FMU_DIRECTORY"/]
    end
    FMU_MI_OUTPUT --> ZIP
    MODEL_DESCRIPTION --> ZIP
    COPY_LIB --> ZIP
    COPY_RESOURCES --> ZIP
    FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER -.->|POST_BUILD| fmi_modeldescription
    FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER -.->|POST_BUILD| ZIP
    FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER -.->|PRE_BUILD| COPY_LIB
    FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER -.->|POST_BUILD| COPY_RESOURCES

The above layout triggers the various commands/builds in the following order:

flowchart TB
    subgraph FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER_target[ ]
    direction TB
    FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER["<b>TARGET:</b> FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER"]-->FMU_MI_OUTPUT[/"Build 'FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER' binaries in 'FMU_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY'"/]
    end
    subgraph modelDescGenBuild[ ]
    direction TB
    fmi_modeldescription_build["<b>TARGET:</b> fmi_modeldescription"]-->fmi_modeldescription_output[/"Build 'fmi_modeldescription.exe'"/]
    end
    subgraph modelDescription[ ]
    direction TB
    fmi_modeldescription[["<b>COMMAND:</b> Execute 'fmi_modeldescription.exe FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER'"]]-->MODEL_DESCRIPTION[/"Create 'modelDescription.xml'"/]
    end
    subgraph dependenciesCopy[ ]
    direction TB
    dependencies_copy[["<b>COMMAND:</b> Copy 'FMU_DEPENDENCIES' into 'FMU_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY'"]]
    end
    subgraph resourcesFolder[ ]
    direction TB
    resources_folder[["<b>COMMAND:</b> Copy 'FMU_RESOURCES' into 'FMU_DIRECTORY/resources'"]]
    end
    subgraph zip_procedure[ ]
    direction TB
    ZIP[["<b>COMMAND:</b> Execute 'tar --format=zip FMU_DIRECTORY'"]]-->FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER_ZIP[/"Create 'FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER.fmu' ZIP archive"/]
    end
    fmi_modeldescription_output --> dependenciesCopy
    dependenciesCopy --> FMU_MODEL_IDENTIFIER
    FMU_MI_OUTPUT --> fmi_modeldescription
    MODEL_DESCRIPTION -->resourcesFolder
    resourcesFolder --> ZIP