OpenDSS-G

A graphical view of OpenDSS

Version 2.0.1
 OpenDSS-G
A graphical view of OpenDSS
Version 2.0.1
Technical Update, March 2018

D. Montenegro

ELECTRIC POWER RESEARCH INSTITUTE

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 ABSTRACT
OpenDSS-G (former DSSim-PC) is a graphical interface for driving and controlling EPRI’s open
source simulator called OpenDSS. The previous version of OpenDSS-G (DSSim-PC) was aimed
to develop Real-Time simulators, which makes it useful for certain applications but leaving it
separated from other advanced functionalities available in OpenDSS for planning and operations
studies. The first version of DSSim-PC was developed in Colombia and France in 2013 by
Universidad de los Andes and Université Grenoble-Alpes respectively, and it is the base for
several Real-Time applications such as protections testing and distribution system metering
schemes analysis, among others.
However, there was something missing, since OpenDSS has been evolving into a parallel
processing software (OpenDSS-PM) it was required to develop a better interface for covering the
future smart grid needs in terms of planning and operation studies. Version 2.0 of DSSim-PC is a
comprehensive interface developed by EPRI that looks for facilitating the use of the advanced
features of OpenDSS, giving to the development environment a look closer to a control room
surrounded by graphical tools that can be intuitively interpreted by the users.
It is expected that OpenDSS users will feel identified immediately with this interface as well as
previous DSSim-PC users. You will find that this interface is much more flexible and dynamic
than the previous ones providing all the tools to make your simulation experience unique and
simple to cover the needs of your study. This interface aims for showing the path to the industry
in terms of methods and models for analyzing electric power systems while presenting graphical
tools for situation assessment, distribution planning and operation studies and transforming data
into information in the electrical power domain.
This interface will keep evolving to cover new aspects of the interaction between engineers,
operators, technicians and all the personal related with the design, analysis, study, operation and
planning of electrical power systems. This being said, please enjoy this user’s manual and the
software tools that through EPRI we bring to you.
Keywords
Advanced analysis, co-simulation, distribution system analysis, operation studies, planning
studies, power system simulation, power system studies, and real-time simulation.

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 CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... V
1 INTRODUCTION TO OPENDSS-G ....................................................................................... 1
The history behind OpenDSS-G ............................................................................................ 1
The architecture of OpenDSS-G............................................................................................ 1
The graphical environment in OpenDSS-G ........................................................................... 4
The Graphical panel ........................................................................................................ 5
The Control panel .......................................................................................................... 10
Navigating in OpenDSS-G ............................................................................................. 12
2 BUILDING YOUR CIRCUIT ................................................................................................ 19
Importing the OpenDSS model into OpenDSS-G ................................................................ 19
Building the circuit from the scratch ..................................................................................... 23
Editing/Creating PDElements ........................................................................................ 25
Editing/Creating Transformers ....................................................................................... 26
Updating a project built with a previous version of OpenDSS-G .......................................... 27
3 SIMULATING YOUR CIRCUIT ........................................................................................... 29
Configuring the simulation ................................................................................................... 29
4 INSTALLING OPENDSS-G .................................................................................................. 1
The OpenDSS-G installer ...................................................................................................... 1
Troubleshooting .................................................................................................................... 5
When starting OpenDSS-G it says that the ODBC cannot be found ................................ 5
I cannot see the NI MASM installer and as a consequence I cannot run OpenDSS-G ..... 5
OpenDSS-G does not start and reports that the database is not running or cannot be
found ............................................................................................................................... 5
References............................................................................................................................ 1

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 LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1-1 The OpenDSS-G architecture .................................................................................... 2
Figure 1-2 OpenDSS-G front panel ............................................................................................. 4
Figure 1-3 Making right click over the graphical panel ................................................................. 5
Figure 1-4 Making click on a Bus within the graphical panel........................................................ 6
Figure 1-5 Layers in OpenDSS-G ............................................................................................... 6
Figure 1-6 Pop-up menu when right clicking over the black screen within a different layer .......... 7
Figure 1-7 Going back to a higher layer using the link Bus .......................................................... 7
Figure 1-8 Red square over an invisible Bus ............................................................................... 9
Figure 1-9 Displaying element’s names ...................................................................................... 9
Figure 1-10 Control panel layers: Constructor (left) and Simulator (right) .................................. 10
Figure 1-11 Tip strips when placing the mouse cursor on top of a button .................................. 11
Figure 1-12 Mode changing buttons: Enable Simulator (left), enable constructor (right) ............ 11
Figure 1-13 SIMULATOR mode, In this case red means that the switch is closed .................... 12
Figure 1-14 Click and grab-Click and drop ................................................................................ 13
Figure 1-15 Drag and drop for moving the diagram to the right ................................................. 14
Figure 1-16 Rotating 3D objects ................................................................................................ 14
Figure 1-17 Zoom in for 3D objects using the Shift key + mouse click ....................................... 15
Figure 1-18 Moving 3D objects using the Ctrl key + mouse click ............................................... 15
Figure 1-19 Select tools subpalette located at the Constructor and Simulator palettes.............. 16
Figure 1-20 Selection subpalette ............................................................................................... 16
Figure 1-21 Selecting a single Bus in a large-scale circuit ......................................................... 16
Figure 1-22 Grabbing one Bus using the select tool .................................................................. 17
Figure 1-23 Selecting a group of elements ................................................................................ 18
Figure 1-24 Moving a group of elements in OpenDSS-G .......................................................... 18
Figure 2-1 Locating the OpenDSS to OpenDSS-G translator in the Constructor palette............ 19
Figure 2-2 OpenDSS to OpenDSS-G translation tool ................................................................ 20
Figure 2-3 Adding a new reference file for the translation process ............................................ 21
Figure 2-4 File list populated for the translation ......................................................................... 22
Figure 2-5 Circuit’s preview ....................................................................................................... 22
Figure 2-6 Palettes needed for building a new circuit from the scratch ...................................... 23
Figure 2-7 Creating a new substation........................................................................................ 24
Figure 2-8 Calling other windows for selecting reference objects when defining an element ..... 25
Figure 2-9 Connections diagram for the new element ............................................................... 25
Figure 2-10 Transformer editor ................................................................................................. 26
Figure 2-11 Defining the connection Bus for a transformer winding ........................................... 26
Figure 2-12 Transformers block ................................................................................................ 27
Figure 2-13 Updating tool included with OpenDSS-G................................................................ 27
Figure 3-1 Simulator palette ...................................................................................................... 29
Figure 3-2 Configuration panel .................................................................................................. 29
Figure 4-1 Welcome to the installation of OpenDSS-G................................................................ 1
Figure 4-2 Defining the installation directory ............................................................................... 2
Figure 4-3 Installation successful of OpenDSS-G ....................................................................... 2
Figure 4-4 Database installation window ..................................................................................... 3
Figure 4-5 Configuring the database installation ......................................................................... 3
Figure 4-6 Firebird ODBC Installation ......................................................................................... 4
Figure 4-7 NI LabVIEW MASM toolkit installer ............................................................................ 4
Figure 4-8 Opening the control panel (Windows 10) ................................................................... 6
Figure 4-9 Firebird Server is running ........................................................................................... 6

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viii
 LIST OF TABLES
Table 1-1 Identifying PDElements by color.................................................................................. 8
Table 2-1 OpenDSS to OpenDSS-G translation tool options ..................................................... 20

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1
INTRODUCTION TO OPENDSS-G
The history behind OpenDSS-G
DSSim-PC was born in 2013 as the proof of concept of my Ph.D. thesis in Universidad de los
Andes (Colombia) and Université Grenoble-Alpes (France). In this initial work there were
several versions of DSSim: PC, RT and MT. Most of the work was made on the RT version for
creating a Real-Time simulator for distribution studies and interconnection with external
equipment. This simulator was based on OpenDSS and all the matrixes used for this simulator
were provided by OpenDSS [1] in the RT version, however, it was important to make it easily
operational so we decided to develop the graphical interface. This platform was user to
demonstrate the effectiveness of the A-Diakoptics method for accelerating simulations of
medium and large-scale distribution systems [2, 3].
Nevertheless, the aim of this development was also to make it portable, which led to the
development of the PC version. This version was able to run under windows environments and
the aim was to return something to the open source community since we have used OpenDSS to
reach our goals. DSSim-PC was made public in June of 2013 and was well received by the web
community as an alternative for interacting graphically with EPRI’s OpenDSS. The interface
was fine but I felt that it was not able to display all the advanced features of OpenDSS to
perform studies that may require fast simulation but no Real-Time.
Then I started the design of the next generation of DSSim-PC (recently called OpenDSS-G) in
the second half of 2015 while I was an Intern at EPRI, in those days we developed a Real-Time
Distribution Management System (DMS) and everybody at EPRI agreed that DSSim-PC was a
perfect vehicle for developing new applications based on OpenDSS, and for introducing the
advanced features of OpenDSS by simplifying the language between the program and the users.
As a result, the new developing architecture of OpenDSS integrates all the algorithms and
processing power inside OpenDSS, transforming DSSim-PC into OpenDSS-G, an interface that
canalizes and facilitates the utilization of these algorithms and methods using a graphical layer.
OpenDSS-G is now focused on translating data into information, is a testbed for new situation
awareness methodologies, planning and operation studies and control room emulation.
Finally, because all the parallel processing algorithms are being translated into OpenDSS,
OpenDSS-G will be the only version (RT-and MT are deprecated) that will include all the
features and capabilities needed for implementing simulators in different time domains: Real-
Time, Fast simulation and off-line simulation among others. The OpenDSS-G (G for graphical)
name was chosen to create a family of tools around OpenDSS that can be easily identified.

The architecture of OpenDSS-G

OpenDSS-G and OpenDSS-PM are both developed using the actor model for handling
parallelism and coordinating multitasking inside the same process. In the actor model as in object
oriented programming everything is an actor, however, in this case each actor is a program
executed in a separate thread that is executed concurrently with other actors. Then, for

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coordinating and guaranteeing consistency these actors communicate each other by sending
messages. This is why it is possible to start a simulation in OpenDSS-PM and at the same time
request for the simulation progress and have access the variable values inside the simulation on
the run; now it is not necessary to break the simulation loop to control get access to the
simulation avoiding the unwanted overhead produced in old fashion co-simulation.
Yet, there is an important difference between OpenDSS-G and OpenDSS-PM: All the actors
created in OpenDSS-PM have the highest thread priority when using a processor (in Windows
OS) and their processor affinity is being controlled, while for OpenDSS-G the execution priority
is standard in order to provide the maximum performance to the simulation. In other words, the
CPU where an OpenDSS-PM actor will be executed exclusively can be controlled, while it will
be the operating system who will handle the hardware resources for executing OpenDSS-G
actors. OpenDSS-G is developed using NI LabVIEW (G language) and utilizes the Direct DLL
interface of OpenDSS-PM to minimize the overhead between both platforms and simplify the
portability and compatibility between platforms. The general architecture of OpenDSS-G is
shown in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1
The OpenDSS-G architecture

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As can be seen in Figure 1-1, there are 3 main actors in OpenDSS-G: OpenDSS, GUI, Database
and TCP Server. These actors interact by sending messages to other actors, creating and
destroying actors when needed to handle data, launching simulations, report data and handling
the user actions among other functionalities. The communication between actors is handled by
using queues to avoid data loses when several actors send data to a single one.
All the OpenDSS actions are handled and centralized by the OpenDSS actor, so every time an
actor requires to perform an operation in OpenDSS or needs data from OpenDSS it sends a
message to the OpenDSS actor and waits for an answer if required. This reinforces the
inconsistency robustness keeping the simulation synchronized with all the actors around
OpenDSS, including those outside of OpenDSS-G such as co-simulation platforms and external
code connected to DSSim through the TCP server.
New functionalities have been added to the TCP server in OpenDSS-G in order to provide access
from external programs to the new functionalities of DSSim. These new commands are
documented in the TCP/IP server for OpenDSS-G user’s manual.
In this version of OpenDSS-G all the graphical environment variables have been moved to the
database actor, which means that now the graphical environment can be customized by affecting
their variables in the database. As a result, if the user wants to translate OpenDSS-G into another
language the only thing he needs to do is to translate the content of the records of certain tables
of the Database included with OpenDSS-G, an operation that can be performed in run time and
that will not require to modify the program’s source code. We are providing the instructions for
modifying these tables and the content’s description for better understanding the purpose of the
text.
Finally, the GUI actor is much faster than its predecessors due to a highly vectorized approach.
In this DSSim version the GUI is a high contrast approach looking for emulating the control
room experience and also to highlight circuit’s features using color scales. The color scales can
be also used remotely and even the colors for each lie on the circuit can be manipulated using the
TCP actors. The GUI also counts with a floating control palette to control the simulation
environment, a floating window for showing a scaled representation of the circuit when the main
panel is zoomed, and many more graphical controls for making DSSim a graphical experience
for data exchange between OpenDSS and the user. All the panels have been designed as
equipment front panels and we expect to keep improving them to facilitate the users’ interaction
with OpenDSS.
OpenDSS and OpenDSS-G users should intuitively feel identified with this new version of
OpenDSS-G since it is closer to the scripting interfaces of OpenDSS, all the menus and objects
have a graphical representation in order to provide access to all the functionalities included in
OpenDSS-PM. OpenDSS-G also includes modules recognition, which is a special feature that
checks for the installed modules for OpenDSS such as the DSS Advanced Visualization Tool and
DSS GIS among others and enables menus to have access to these modules through DSSim.
As can be seen, OpenDSS has become a modular multicore processing simulation engine that
integrates multiple technologies using a modular and scalable architecture, and OpenDSS-G is a
tool for allowing users to have rapid and accurate access to these tools and functionalities
without compromising the simulation performance. Many applications and studies can be
implemented using this interface as you will see while reading this manual, but at the same time,

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we expect to provide an interactive simulation experience to get the maximum performance of
your simulations based in a powerful simulation engine for electrical engineering.

The graphical environment in OpenDSS-G

As previously mentioned in OpenDSS-G everything has a graphical representation and the best
example of it is the OpenDSS-G front panel. When you double click on the OpenDSS-G icon
placed in your desktop or in the All Apps menu (Windows) the OpenDSS-G front panel will
appear as shown in Figure 1-2.

Figure 1-2
OpenDSS-G front panel

As can be seen in Figure 1-2, the front panel in OpenDSS-G has 3 main components:

1. The graphical panel, this is the place in which all the action happens. In this panel the user can
create new circuits, edit existing circuits, see the status of the circuit, search for elements and see
the names of the elements among many other actions related with the circuit’s creation, editing,
navigation, simulation and visualization.
2. The control panel, this is the set of tools available for OpenDSS-G. This panel is a
floating panel that changes depending on the stage of utilization of the program: If the
user is editing the circuit it will show the building tools called CONSTRUCTOR, but if
the circuit is being simulated the panel will change to display the simulation tools called
SIMULATOR.
3. The mini view panel is a floating panel designed to show a miniature version of the
circuit in order to allow the user to see the entire circuit when there is a zoom in/out
action, as a result, it is expected that the user will be oriented on the part of the circuit he
is when making very close zoom in a large-scale circuit. This panel is not static and can
be closed and called again when the user requires.

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The Graphical panel
As mentioned above this panel provides all the tools for allowing the graphical interaction
between the user and OpenDSS. This is the tools that the user uses for scripting in OpenDSS
using a schematic. Unlike previous version of OpenDSS-G version 2.0 is tightly connected to
OpenDSS, this is, instead of generating the script before starting the simulation like in the
previous versions, version 2.0 makes changes in OpenDSS every time the user performs an
action in OpenDSS-G, so the user is scripting OpenDSS in Real-Time through graphical
interfaces.
However, the graphical panel contains extra features that need to be explained. These features
were designed in order to provide tools for working with medium and large-scale circuits
graphically. These tools are available through the control panel or by making right click over the
graphical panel as shown in Figure 1-3.

Figure 1-3
Making right click over the graphical panel

The pop-up menu that appears after right clicking the graphical panel has two versions
depending on if the mouse cursor is over the black screen or over a circuit’s bus. When located
over the black screen, the pop-up menu will display options to activate/deactivate the simulation
(Enable Simulation, Enable Constructor), to create a new Bus, Zoom in (Using a window), Zoom
all, show the element Names, Show Line Names, Find an element and Export the content of the
panel as an image.
In case of being located over a Bus the pop-up menu will change as shown in Figure 1-4. In this
menu only the options for editing the Bus and reviewing branches of the circuit that are not part
of the active layer of the circuit will be presented. For working with medium and large-scale
circuits OpenDSS-G proposes the user of layers and the paths connecting these layers are the
Buses as shown in Figure 1-5. In this pop-up menu there are two menus that are new in
OpenDSS-G, the first is Inspect Bus. The Bus inspector is a functionality that allows to see

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graphically all the elements connected to this Bus directly and indirectly through other layers,
this functionality will be discussed later on. The option called Go to Next layer is designed to
allow the user to go to a different layer using the selected Bus. If the Bus is not a connection
point between layers the graphical panel will turn black showing the selected Bus will appear at
the top-left corner of the screen.

Figure 1-4
Making click on a Bus within the graphical panel

Figure 1-5
Layers in OpenDSS-G

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The link bus at the top-left corner of the screen can be used to go back to the previous layer when
right clicking on it as shown in Figure 1-7, nevertheless, when navigating within a layer and the
user decides to make right click over the black screen the pop-up menu will add another option
to go back to the main layer (Go to Base Layer) as shown in Figure 1-6.

Figure 1-6
Pop-up menu when right clicking over the black screen within a different layer

Figure 1-7
Going back to a higher layer using the link Bus

OpenDSS-G V 2.0 also integrates a simple referencing system for accelerating the graphics
display when working with large-scale circuits. In normal mode (not showing the lines and/or
element names) all the power delivery elements (PDElements) will be shown as lines with
different colors depending on the type of element. The type of element and its color can be
located at Table 1-1.

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Table 1-1
Identifying PDElements by color

Type Description Color

Line N –phases line
Transformer N-phases, N-windings
Capacitor N-phases, series capacitor
Reactor N-phases, series reactor
Opening branch Switch, recloser, fuse, relay

At difference of its predecessors this version of OpenDSS-G does not shows the Buses all the
time or the elements connected to the buses at all times. In fact, in previous versions of
OpenDSS-G there were connections and lines as link branches between nodes. Now the
connections have been eliminated and only lines are required to serve a connection links between
buses as in OpenDSS.
There are two ways for displaying the buses locations in the diagram:
a. By placing the mouse cursor over a Bus even if this is not visible in CONSTRUCTOR
mode.
b. By showing the elements names
When OpenDSS-G starts it does it in CONSTRUCTOR mode. In this mode even when the
element’s names are not visible if the user moves the mouse and there is a Bus in that location
OpenDSS-G will draw a red square over that location as shown in Figure 1-8. With this guide the
user will be able to click on the Bus for editing the schematic without requiring the extra
information provided by OpenDSS-G when selecting to show the element’s names.
In CONSTRUCTOR or SIMULATOR modes the option Show Elements Names is always
available through right click pop-up menu so the user can see the names of the PDElements and
Buses at all time. However, this option can be helpful depending on the zoom level selected by
the user as shown in Figure 1-9.

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Figure 1-8
Red square over an invisible Bus

Figure 1-9
Displaying element’s names

As can be seen in Figure 1-9 if the circuit is a small-scale circuit it will be easy to see the names
of the buses and lines in the diagram. However, if the circuit is a medium/large-scale diagram it
will be required to make a zoom in for facilitating the visualization of the elements names. The

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Show elements names option displays only the names of Buses, transformers, capacitors
(connected in series), reactors (connected in series), switches, reclosers, fuses and relays. For
displaying the line names there is an option called Show line names. These two options are
separated to simplify the amount of information displayed to the user but if desired, both can be
active simultaneously.
The Control panel
The control panel is a floating panel that contains all the controls and gives access to all the
forms, editors and tools available for building/editing your circuit and for simulating it. The
control panel is polymorphic, which means that depending on the active mode
(CONTRUCTOR/SIMULATOR) the panel will display different options to the user. The mode in
OpenDSS-G can be changed using two methods:
a. By selecting Enable Simulator/Enable Constructor option from the pop-up menu when
right clicking the graphical panel
b. By clicking on the Constructor/Simulator icon inside the controls panel
Both layers of the control panel are shown in Figure 1-10. It is expected that the draws of each
button will facilitate the identification of the functions available on the panel, however, it is clear
that for first time users the panel and conventions may result not familiar. To deal with it the
panel and almost every panel and object in OpenDSS-G has tip strips that will tell the user what
is the name or functionality of the button when moving the mouse cursor on top of it as shown in
Figure 1-11.

Figure 1-10
Control panel layers: Constructor (left) and Simulator (right)

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Figure 1-11
Tip strips when placing the mouse cursor on top of a button

Figure 1-12
Mode changing buttons: Enable Simulator (left), enable constructor (right)

The buttons for enabling the constructor and simulator modes are located at the lower right
corner of the control panel. These buttons are shown in Figure 1-12 and can be used at any time
for moving from one mode to the other.
When activating the SIMULATOR or CONSTRUCTOR mode there will be changes on the
graphical panel. When OpenDSS-G is operating in SIMULATOR mode the breaking (switch,
recloser, etc.) elements will be highlighted with green/red squares depending on its state
(open/close), the color also will depend on the selected colors configured at the configuration
panel (see configuring OpenDSS-G). These squares are also editable by clicking on them, so the
user will be able of opening/closing breaking elements just by clicking on the graphical panel as
shown in Figure 1-13.

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Figure 1-13
SIMULATOR mode, In this case red means that the switch is closed

In CONSTRUCTOR mode the breaking elements will be shown as empty green boxes and if any
color combination was active in SIMULATOR mode it will be disabled, showing the circuit’s
diagram in white color and the normal colors for the PDE according to Table 1-1.
Navigating in OpenDSS-G
Since OpenDSS-G is a graphical interface it is necessary to know the navigation conventions
inside the program to avoid unexpected behavior when using it. For moving elements in
OpenDSS-G the used method is click and grab- click and drop, this is, in order to be more
ergonomic when translating objects we have adopted this methodology for making more
comfortable the objects movement. This method consist in three steps and is illustrated in Figure
1-14. The following instructions only apply for CONSTRUCTOR mode. For grabbing an element
like a Bus first make click on the Bus once it is enclosed in a red square when moving the mouse
cursor on top of the Bus. This will turn the cursor into a pointing hand, if the Bus has link
branches to other buses these branches will turn into dotted lines and finally, a large cross acting
as a big cursor reference will appear on the screen.
Now the element is ready to move and you don’t have to keep pressing the mouse left button,
just move the mouse around and when you are ready to drop the object into its new coordinates
make click again. After the latest click all the dotted lines will be solidified, the reference cursor
will disappear and all the attached lines and buses will have their new coordinates. To cancel this

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action just press the escape (Esc) key on your keyboard ad everything will back to normal if you
do it before the second click. This process is shown from left to right in Figure 1-14.
On the other hand, for moving the diagram across the screen the classic drag and drop
methodology was adopted. For moving the diagram just make click over a place on the screen
where there is no element and make click, hold while moving the screen to the desired position
and release the left button when the new position is reached. During this action the mouse cursor
will turn into a grabbing hand so the user can identify if the screen movement is taking place.
This functionality is illustrated in Figure 1-15.

Figure 1-14
Click and grab-Click and drop

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Figure 1-15
Drag and drop for moving the diagram to the right

Finally the 3D objects, OpenDSS-G has several 3D object panels for illustrating equipment as a
general idea of how your model would look like in the real world, of course is just a general idea
and is an interface that we will keep improving in the future versions of this software package.
The 3D object container is a window that allows you to rotate the object in 360 degrees using a
reference axis shown in Figure 1-16.
However, the 3D objects allow more than just rotation, you can zoom in, zoom out and move
up/down the object. For zooming in just keep pressed the Shift key on your keyboard and then
click on the 3D object window holding the mouse button. Then move the mouse up and down to
make zoom in and out respectively as shown in Figure 1-17. Finally, for moving the object up
and down the procedure is similar to the zooming process but this time instead of pressing the
Shift key hold the Ctrl key, follow the same indications and the object will be displaced as shown
in Figure 1-18.

Figure 1-16
Rotating 3D objects

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Figure 1-17
Zoom in for 3D objects using the Shift key + mouse click

Figure 1-18
Moving 3D objects using the Ctrl key + mouse click

OpenDSS-G also incorporates mouse wheel integration for zoom in /out the graphical panel, so
by rotating the mouse wheel the diagram will zoom in/out depending on the direction of the
wheel rotation, nevertheless, we kept the old zoom functionalities which are very handful for
medium and large-scale circuits.
Another feature included in this version of OpenDSS-G are the selection options. In the past, it
was possible to select just a single element by clicking over it like when we talk above about
moving a Bus around the circuit diagram. This method is very effective if the circuit is not too
large and the zoom level is good enough to capture the click over the Bus with high precision.
This was a problem and unfortunately a very limiting feature when handling medium and large-
scale circuits, for this reason we have created the selection tools. These tools can be found at the
CONSTRUCTOR and SIMULATOR palettes as shown in Figure 1-19. This subpalette offers 2
options as shown in Figure 1-20.

15
Figure 1-19
Select tools subpalette located at the Constructor and Simulator palettes

Figure 1-20
Selection subpalette

The two options offered in the selection subpalette are to select a single element or several
elements, the operation of each selection tool will vary if OpenDSS-G is in CONSTRUCTOR or
SIMULATOR mode.

Figure 1-21
Selecting a single Bus in a large-scale circuit

16
In CONSTRUCTOR mode the tools can be used to select and move one or several objects. For
example, check the circuit shown in Figure 1-21, this circuit is a large-scale circuit and we want
to move a Bus (orange arrow) from its actual position to another at the other side of the screen,
this operation may take a lot of time working a closer zoom and probably will not result as
expected.
To make it easier can go to the select tools and click on the select one button, then the user must
draw a square or area around the Bus location as shown in Figure 1-22 (not exactly over the Bus
but around it). Once the area has been drawn OpenDSS-G will search for the first Bus in that
area and will give you the control of the Bus, so the user does not have to change the zoom level
to move the Bus to another position with a wider perspective as shown in Figure 1-22.

Figure 1-22
Grabbing one Bus using the select tool

But if the idea is to move several elements simultaneously the user can use the option called
select several, which is the button next to the option called select one presented above. With
select several the user can select several objects in an area and move them around the screen. To
do it just click on the button that activates the select several option, this button is the one on the
right of the selection subpalette. Then draw a square or area over the section that you want to
move and click on the screen to finish as shown in Figure 1-23. Once the area is selected the
elements within it will be highlighted in purple and surrounded by the drawn square. Then the
user can make click within the square to grab it and OpenDSS-G will give to the user control to
move it around the screen as shown in Figure 1-24. The interesting thing is that all the link
branches or ties from the circuit to the moving area will dynamically change in the same way
they do with a single Bus, but this time with a group of elements moving through the screen. On
the other hand the select tools can be used to select one element or several when working in
SIMULATOR mode. This methodology for selecting elements applies when introducing faults or
other functions during a simulations in order to facilitate the interaction with the user at different
zoom levels.

17
Figure 1-23
Selecting a group of elements

Figure 1-24
Moving a group of elements in OpenDSS-G

With this brief introduction we are ready to start developing, which is the next chapter of this
manual.

18
2
BUILDING YOUR CIRCUIT
For building a new circuit OpenDSS-G must be set in CONSTRUCTOR mode. Using the
CONSTRUCTOR palette there are two methods for creating a circuit:
a. Importing the OpenDSS model into OpenDSS-G
b. Building the circuit from the scratch

Importing the OpenDSS model into OpenDSS-G

Since version 0.1 OpenDSS-G incorporates a tool for importing OpenDSS models. This
translation tool has evolved since its later release for making it more flexible and easy to use. To
have access to this tool find the Addons button at the CONTRUCTOR palette in the lower right
corner as shown in Figure 2-1. In the Addons menu there is another button called OpenDSS to
OpenDSS-G Translator which will give you access to the translator for importing an OpenDSS
model into OpenDSS-G. The front panel of the translation tool is shown in Figure 2-2.

Figure 2-1
Locating the OpenDSS to OpenDSS-G translator in the Constructor palette

19
Figure 2-2
OpenDSS to OpenDSS-G translation tool

This version of the OpenDSS to OpenDSS-G translation tool offers several options for
visualizing the model before it is imported, allows the user to select the orientation of the model
on the screen and simplifies the translation routine by requiring only two files to be specified:
a. The model’s OpenDSS file (.dss)
b. The buscoords file (coordinates for the buses)
The options available with this version of the translation tool are described in Table 2-1.
Table 2-1
OpenDSS to OpenDSS-G translation tool options

Adds a new file to the translation tool to be used for compiling,

locating and interpreting the model coordinates and components.

Removes the selected file from the list of files to be used for the
translation

Starts the translation once the reference files have been declared by
the user

An additional tool that can be used to fix the buscoords file in case
it does not have the required format. The translation tool expects a
buscoords file where the separator of the coordinates is a coma
character (,), but if your buscoords file comes with a different

20
 separator you can use this option to adjust the separator to the one
required.

Shows the credits and version of the tool

Draws a preview of the model considering the information

provided by the buscoords file. If the circuit does not have a
buscoords file the translator will give you a set of patterns based on
the number of buses (the automated pattern option is still under
development)

Leaves the tool and goes back to OpenDSS-G

For adding a new reference file for the translation hit the button Add File. Then the window
shown in Figure 2-3 will appear requesting for the type of file (Master file, buscoords file) and
the file path. The File type is a list field so the user can select between both type of files required
and the File path can be specified by manually typing the path or by browsing when clicking the
folder at the right of the field. Once the file type and path are specified just make click on Select
to go back to the translator main window. The selected files will appear at the Files used for the
translation process table as show in Figure 2-4.
With the file list populated the user can choose to have a preview of the model to decide the
model’s orientation, flip and other features on the screen. To do this press the preview button on
the translation tool’s front panel and the circuit’s preview will appear in the black drawing box at
the bottom left corner of the panel. Try several combinations rotating 90 degrees, flipping the
circuit horizontally, vertically to match your preferences as shown in Figure 2-5.
In case of not having a buscoords file the preview will not be available, however, we are working
in a option for allowing users to select patterns that will fit with their designs so they don’t have
to start placing buses manually or generating buscoords files without GIS information. This
option will be ready soon, for the moment, when there is not buscoords file the translation will
estimate a matrix with the organized branch to node matrix to place the circuits buses.

Figure 2-3
Adding a new reference file for the translation process

21
Figure 2-4
File list populated for the translation

Figure 2-5
Circuit’s preview

The next step is to start the translation, this process is started by clicking on the Start translation
button at the top left corner of the front panel and the process will begin. The progress of the
translation will be notified at the top right of the panel and once the translation is finished the

22
user will be notified by a dialog box requesting for the name of the OpenDSS-G project, then the
circuit model will be saved by OpenDSS using the OpenDSS save format. This format will
change the name of the OpenDSS master file as master.dss and will create a separate file for
each class used in the circuit such as PVSystem.dss, load.dss, Line.dss, xycurve.dss etc. These
files will be saved at the same folder specified by the user when asked for the project’s name.
This option is significantly beneficial when working with medium and large-scale circuits that
can be described faster using a script or are already scripted.

Building the circuit from the scratch

Building the circuit from the scratch requires several subpalettes from the control palette. There
are 4 palettes that need to be considered: The Bus palette, PCElements palette, PDElements
palette and finally the controls palette. There are other palettes such as the General OpenDSS
objects and reconnect PDElements that are complementary but at the same time, can simplify
your work when building the circuit by yourself. These palettes are shown in Figure 2-6.

Figure 2-6
Palettes needed for building a new circuit from the scratch

23
Building the circuit from the scratch starts by placing the first bus of the system. To do this,
select the Bus creation tool (item (b) in Figure 2-6) and create the new Bus. The only thing
required by OpenDSS-G will be the name of the Bus. Then proceed to create the new substation,
the substation is in the PCElements palette (item (d) in Figure 2-6), once selected the substation
form will appear in your screen for defining the parameters of the substation as shown in Figure
2-7.
The substation creation panel includes as with all other elements, the most common fields for
creating an element. Also includes a 3D estimation of your device and a text field for extra
OpenDSS definitions that you may want to include for the model according to the OpenDSS
user’s manual. In case of not being sure about what is each control in OpenDSS just move your
mouse over the control and it will tell you the name of the variable in OpenDSS.
The form counts with some other controls that connect forms for making easier the navigation
within the OpenDSS objects. One example are the Daily profile, Yearly profile, Duty profile and
Spectrum controls shown in Figure 2-7. By clicking on the magnifier button at the right of the
field OpenDSS-G will take you to the editor to select/edit/create the profile, spectrum, linecode,
etc. object that you are looking to link to your element. For example, in Figure 2-8 the user
clicked on the spectrum magnifier button and the spectrum editor appears so the user can
select/edit/create a spectrum and send the name to the editing element’s window.
Then, once the user has selected the desired object will click on the select button at the left
bottom corner of the screen and the name of the selected object will be sent to the window in
which the user is creating/editing the element.
Once the parameters of the element have been entered by the user (not all the parameters need to
be specified, is enough with specifying those known by the user and the rest will be calculated or
will take their default values), the user will click on the Save button. Then OpenDSS-G will ask
to the user to make click on the Bus where the PCElement will be connected. Once the user
makes click on the bus the dialog shown in Figure 2-9 will appear asking for the connection
order per phase of the element created.

Figure 2-7
Creating a new substation

24
Figure 2-8
Calling other windows for selecting reference objects when defining an element

Figure 2-9
Connections diagram for the new element

To select a different phase in Figure 2-9 make click on the elements phases (bottom of the
diagram), then make click on the Bus terminal where you want to connect the phase. Sometimes
the user wants to connect the phase to terminals with numbers far than 4 on the Bus, this is not a
problem, just make click on the number of the node at the bus and specify the number of the
node where you want to connect the element, this will be interpreted by OpenDSS. The same
procedure and features applies for every PCElement in OpenDSS-G.
Editing/Creating PDElements
The forms for PDElements are pretty similar to the ones for PCElements, however, once the
element features are defined and the user clicks on Save OpenDSS-G will ask to the user to make
click on the first and second Buses where the PDElement will be connected, this applies for all
the PDElements except for transformers and transformers blocks.

25
Editing/Creating Transformers
Transformers can be very complex due to their number of windings and configurations,
sometimes a certain transformer disposed in the field is characterized with 3 or more
transformers in parallel with different features or separate regulators per phase, among other
configurations. In this case we have covered this graphically with the transformer and
transformer blocks.
The forms for defining a transformer is shown in Figure 2-10. At difference to the other forms
for creating/editing elements the transformer editor also displays the configuration of the
windings nest to the 3D model of the transformer. In this form the connection buses need to be
specified in the field marked with the green arrow in Figure 2-10. To define a Bus double click
on the bus you want to edit and the Bus selector form will appear, so you will be able to select
the Bus and then define the connection diagram for the winding as shown in Figure 2-11.

Figure 2-10
Transformer editor

Figure 2-11
Defining the connection Bus for a transformer winding

26
In transformer blocks (Figure 2-12

) the user can select and see all the transformers grouped in that block, these transformers can be
edited and created using the block interface. Additionally, if the user wants to edit a transformer
contained in a transformers block and selects the edit transformer option, the block editor will
appear as the interface to gain access to the transformer.

Figure 2-12
Transformers block

Updating a project built with a previous version of OpenDSS-G

Projects built with previous versions of OpenDSS-G are not compatible with this version,
however, no worries, we have included a tool to migrate your project to the new version. The
access to the update tool is shown in Figure 2-13. Once you click on the updating tool
application button OpenDSS-G will ask you for the original project file (the one built with the
previous version of OpenDSS-G), then, after upgrading the project OpenDSS-G will ask you for
the destination folder for the new project. I recommend to specify a different folder from the one
with the previous version in case something goes wrong. You will notice that in the new project
the OpenDSS project is defined in a file called master.dss and that all the classes used in the
model are in separate files, this is because this is the order used by OpenDSS and the
conventions are defined by the save command (see OpenDSS user’s manual for details). Once
the translation is done and of there are no error messages you are ready to start with OpenDSS-G
V2.0. If there is any error please let us know.

27
Figure 2-13
Updating tool included with OpenDSS-G

28
3
SIMULATING YOUR CIRCUIT
Configuring the simulation
Once the model is ready and the simulation mode is active click on the configuration button at
the SIMULATOR palette as shown in Figure 3-1 (blue arrow). Once this function is activated the
panel shown in Figure 3-2 will appear.

Figure 3-1
Simulator palette

Figure 3-2
Configuration panel

29
In the configuration panel the user can specify all the features of the simulation such as the
simulation mode, the step size and the number of iteration among other features. The user can
also configure the processor utilization and parallel processing features of the simulation, as well
as the graphics engine and other esthetical features. The interesting about this panel is that the
user will see the side effects when changing any property, for example, when changing the
simulation mode from snap to daily the step size will change to 1 hour and the number of
iterations will change to 24, something that cannot be easily appreciated with the scripting tool
and that leads users to fail when starting with OpenDSS.
After configuring the environment the user can see the simulation mode active as shown in
Figure 3-1 (orange arrow), the result of the simulation (black arrow) and the active layer or better
said, the name of the layer that we are seeing (green arrow). To start the simulation just make
click on the play button (yellow arrow) and wait for the results. There are several interesting
functionalities in this panel that can be explored by the users.

30
4
INSTALLING OPENDSS-G
OpenDSS-G is a software that is supported by two pieces: The NI LabVIEW Run-Time and the
database (Firebird). All the installers are provided with the OpenDSS-G installer but sometimes
installation issues may happen. In this section we are trying to give answers to those issues to
complete a OpenDSS-G installation successfully.

The OpenDSS-G installer

The OpenDSS-G installer can be download from the OpenDSS-G website at sourceforge.net
(available on 02/07/2018):
https://sourceforge.net/projects/dssimpc/
After decompressing the installation file just make click on the setup.exe file (preferably using
administrator privileges). Then the installation wizard will appear to proceed with the installation
as shown in Figure 4-1.

Figure 4-1
Welcome to the installation of OpenDSS-G

After this the installer will as to the user for the destination of the installation, normally is
C:\Program Files\OpenDSS-G but if you prefer this installation directory can be changed at will
as shown in Figure 4-2. However, we recommend to keep the default values.

1
Figure 4-2
Defining the installation directory

Next it is required by the installer to agree some licensing agreements which in case of not being
accepted will cancel the installation of the product in your PC. Finally, the installer will start the
installation process ad depending on your machine, it make take a while and once the installation
is finished, the message shown in Figure 4-3 will display.

Figure 4-3
Installation successful of OpenDSS-G

2
At this point only OpenDSS-G has been installed requiring the installation of the database, the
ODBC and an additional NI installer for the Multi core Analysis and sparse matrix toolkit. These
installers will start once you click on the Next button at the bottom right side of the latest
notification window (shown in Figure 4-3).
The first installation will be the database installation, the installation window for this purpose is
shown in Figure 4-4 (you will have to select it from the different installation windows that pop-
up).

Figure 4-4
Database installation window

The installation process is very standard and should be done using the default values, however,
there is one step that needs to be reviewed and is the database configuration. The firebird
installer comes with an option asking if we want to copy the firebird client into the system folder
(C:\Windows\System32) and the answer is YES. This option is normally unchecked and needs to
be manually checked by the user during the installation process. This option is shown in Figure
4-5 and please check it.

Figure 4-5
Configuring the database installation

3
After this installation the next one is the ODBC installer as shown in Figure 4-6. This installation
does not requires additional configurations and it is enough to click the next button of the
installer until the installation finishes.

Figure 4-6
Firebird ODBC Installation

Finally, the NI installer for the Multi core Analysis and sparse matrix toolkit is the last stage and
is shown in Figure 4-7, it does not require additional configuration or settings so just proceed by
clicking on the Next button at the bottom of the screen.

Figure 4-7
NI LabVIEW MASM toolkit installer

4
Once you have installed all these packages you are ready to start with OpenDSS-G.

Troubleshooting
Of course the installation process sound easy but something can go wrong, in this section we are
going to provide the explanation and solutions to the issues that may happen, or at least, the once
we have experienced in the past.
When starting OpenDSS-G it says that the ODBC cannot be found
Remember that step when installing the database in which we recommended to check the option
copy Firebird client library to <system> directory? Well, it is clear that it did not happen, but no
worries we can still fix this problem. Just go to the installation folder of Firebird, it is normally
located at C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_2_5, there look for the folder called /bin
(C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_2_5\bin).
Inside this folder there is a file called fbclient.dll. Copy this file into the C:\Windows\System32
folder and your OpenDSS-G should run perfectly this time.
I cannot see the NI MASM installer and as a consequence I cannot run OpenDSS-
G
This happens the very first time you install OpenDSS-G on a computer, like in a fresh
installation. The thing is that OpenDSS-G is programmed with NI LabVIEW and as a
consequence it requires the NI LabVIEW Run-Time for its execution. The MASM toolkit used
to be part of the LabVIEW Run-Time in the past (that is why you never saw this installer in
previous versions) but in LabVIEW 2015 NI decided to make this toolkit a separate add-on. So
now it comes with its own installer additionally to the LabVIEW Run-Time installer.
The problem is that when the installation of OpenDSS-G takes place the first time it will require
to restart the PC to finish the installation, but because of that it will not allow other NI installer to
execute unless the PC is restarted, this explain why you cannot see the NI MASM installer in the
first installation. But no worries, we can do it manually.
First finish the installation process for the database and the ODBC, then restart your PC. Once
restarted go to the OpenDSS-G installation folder (normally C:\Program Files\OpenDSS-G),
there find the folder called MASMTRunTimeEngine (C:\Program Files\OpenDSS-
G\MASMTRunTimeEngine) and execute the setup file. Everything should work fine from there.
OpenDSS-G does not start and reports that the database is not running or cannot
be found
Check the database status by going to the control panel as shown in Figure 4-8. There find the
Firebird Server Manager and make sure that the server is running as shown in Figure 4-9. This
should solve the issue.

5
Figure 4-8
Opening the control panel (Windows 10)

Figure 4-9
Firebird Server is running

6
7
References
1 R. C. Dugan and T. E. McDermott, "An open source platform for collaborating on smart grid research," in 2011 IEEE
Power and Energy Society General Meeting, , 2011, pp. 1-7.
2 D. Montenegro, G. A. Ramos, and S. Bacha, "Multilevel A-Diakoptics for the Dynamic Power-Flow Simulation of
Hybrid Power Distribution Systems," IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, vol. 12, pp. 267-276, 2016.
3 D. Montenegro, G. A. Ramos, and S. Bacha, "A-Diakoptics for the Multicore Sequential-Time Simulation of
Microgrids Within Large Distribution Systems," IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, vol. 8, pp. 1211-1219, 2017.

1
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