DSS MATLAB: First preview release

This is our first test release! Please file an issue or contact me for feedback (pmeira at ieee.org).

What's this?

DSS MATLAB is a new member of the family of multi-platform language bindings based on the DSS C-API project, which exposes EPRI's OpenDSS with a custom API intended to replace and extend the functionality of the official COM object API. For other languages: check DSS Python, OpenDSSDirect.py and DSS Sharp.

As with DSS Python and DSS Sharp, this package tries to mimic the COM object structure to facilitate the transition and keep most of the existing code valid. The package is usually faster than the COM object. Most of the missing features are related to the plotting methods from OpenDSS, which are not available in DSS C-API. You can, of course, use MATLAB's plotting capabilities.

Download

All files for 64-bit systems:

• Linux: dss_matlab_v0.10.0a1_linux_x64.tar.gz
• macOS: dss_matlab_v0.10.0a1_macos_x64.tar.gz
• Windows: dss_matlab_v0.10.0a1_win_x64.zip EDIT (2019-04-23): if you find any issues with the Windows version, try this version with updated DLLs: dss_matlab_with_capi_0.10.3a7.zip

Basic usage

1. Download and extract the package appropriate for your system.
2. Add the folder containing +DSS_MATLAB to your MATLAB path (e.g. path(path, 'c:\dss_matlab');).
3. Instantiate DSS_MATLAB.IDSS. For example:

dss = DSS_MATLAB.IDSS;

If you code is based on DSSStartup.m from the examples included in the official distribution, in general you only need to replace the Obj = actxserver('OpenDSSEngine.DSS'); line. That is, update DSSStartup.m to:

%--------------------------------------------------------------------------
function [Start,Obj,Text] = DSSStartup
    % Function for starting up the DSS
    
    %instantiate the DSS Object
    Obj = DSS_MATLAB.IDSS;
    %
    %Start the DSS.   Only needs to be executed the first time w/in a
    %Matlab session
    Start = Obj.Start(0);

    % Define the text interface
    Text = Obj.Text;    

If you want some code to play with, you can use the MATLAB examples from the official OpenDSS distribution, from a local installation (e.g. C:\OpenDSS\Examples\Matlab) or from the official SVN repository.