[Gmat-developers] GMAT with Python

[Koller, Josef]

Hi GMAT developers,

 I'm new to GMAT and I have some basic questions:

1) Does anybody have experience in how to call GMAT routines with Python? I know matlab would be an alternative but I'd prefer Python for various reasons.

2) when I download the src trunk with svn, it gives me over 2GB? This seems a bit much.  Do I need the other files or is everything in gmat/trunk/src sufficient to compile etc?

Thanks,

 Josef

--

Josef Koller, Ph.D.      (TSPA/Correspondence)

Space Science and Applications, ISR-1, MS D466

Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM  87545-1663

Phone: (505) 665 3399   http://www.koller.info

Fax:   (505) 665 7395   email jko...@lanl.gov

              

[Parker, Joel J. K. (GSFC-5950)]

Hi Josef,

 

About Python, I don’t personally have experience using it with GMAT. The usual method would involve using Python to write or edit a GMAT script, then running the GMAT executable with the script file as input (for example using os.execl()).

 

There’s actually support in the SVN repository for a limited C interface that will let you run a script or use GMAT’s force models with your own integrator. This could be used from Python’s ctypes library, perhaps. The API is here: http://gmat.sourceforge.net/doc/nightly/capi/_c_interface_functions_8h.html. It’s not documented from a user perspective, so let me know if you’re interested in this option and I’ll give some advice.

 

The 2GB repo size is mostly because of large data files in the trunk/moredata directory. At the very least, you’ll need trunk/application, trunk/build, and trunk/src build a working copy (plus some external libs). We have some VS2010 instructions here that may be of help on other platforms as well: http://gmatplugins.sourceforge.net/blog/?page_id=46.

 

Good luck!

- Joel