Application Builder Updates
For users of the Application Builder, COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.6 brings layout templates, themes, and a Knob form object, as well as several Form Editor and Method Editor improvements. Read about these Application Builder updates in detail below.
Layout Templates
Layout templates make it easier and much quicker to set up an app with a structured layout from the outset. Select one of the predefined templates and populate it with the content of your model in the updated New Form wizard. When selecting which content to include in your model, you are able to be more specific with where the content will be grouped and located. You can also create your own templates and reuse them for all your apps.
Themes
The new Themes node in the Application Builder lets you control the overall visual theme of your apps. The theme can be set to either Default, Dark, or Light. It is easy to change the theme in the Application Builder, and the changes will have immediate effect throughout; all form objects are adopted to the selected theme. Use this as-is or combine it with the custom color support already present in previous versions of the COMSOL Multiphysics® software.
Knob Form Object
The new Knob form object works like a circular slider and can be useful for a more compact design. Like other form objects, the knob is highly customizable. The Mouse movement option supports Distance, Circular, and Vertical choices, where Distance changes the value when the user makes a linear mouse movement in any direction, Vertical changes the value when the user moves the mouse vertically, and Circular lets the user rotate the knob with a circular mouse motion. By modifying the appearance, the colors can be adopted to fit the design of the rest of the app.
Card Stack Size
The Card Stack form object has become more flexible, as you can now choose to adjust its size to the currently selected card. Previously, the card stack always took the size of its largest individual card, which meant that even small or empty cards still took up space in the layout. Now, when a card is empty, the Card Stack will disappear.
Local Forms
Forms can now be local to other forms, which enables you to create a better structure when developing apps. For instance, for a complex global form made up of many different subforms, the helper forms can be local forms displayed as children in the Application Builder tree.
Form Editor Updates
There are also a number of updates to existing functionality in the Form Editor. The Data Display form object supports options for selecting which unit to use when displaying the value. Toggle Buttons and Toggle Items contain a new setting for the selected icon, making it possible to have different icons for the selected and deselected state, without writing a method. The Selection Input form object has two new events: On data change and On activate, which allow you to run custom methods when the selection changes or the selection becomes active. Test in Web Browser supports Microsoft Edge®. When selecting icons to use in form objects (and other places), the combo box now displays a preview in the list of options.
Method Editor Updates
New Copy as Code options for derived values and evaluation groups in Results make it easier to get the code necessary for retrieving numerical results inside methods. In addition, there are several general improvements to code completion, available such as when clicking Ctrl+Space in an editor. New built-in methods include zoomToSelection, to zoom to the current selection in a graphics form object, and a new byte order mark (BOM) argument to writeCSVFile and writeFile, to optionally include a BOM in the written file.
New Applications
COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.6 brings one new example application. Additionally, for the more than 40 example apps from different engineering fields, all apps have been reviewed and updated with the latest functionality included in the Application Builder.
Lithium Battery Pack Designer
Application Library Title:
li_battery_pack_designer
Download from the Application Gallery