Re: writing your own component

[Werner Keilholz <werner@xxxxxxx>]

Ruut Brandsma wrote: 

Dear reader, 

I plan to make a greenhouse component in Trnsys. I studied chapter 2 and 3 
of the reference manual and I also studied the description of type 61 
(calling external DLL). Could you tell me what the disadvantages are of 
calling an external DLL instead of making a component with Fortran. 

With kind regards, 
 

Dear Ruut, 

Using a DLL is rather considered as an advantage, in that you can 
use other programming languages than FORTRAN (C, C++, ... 
anything that can produce a DLL). 

The only disadvantage I see in type 61 is that it is currently limited 
to one TYPE. If you want to make more than one component, 
you'd have to use a parameter to indicate a sort of 'sub-type' 
(and then use it in your program to decide which function to 
call). 

TRNSYS 16 will be even more flexible as far as the DLL 
architecture is concerned, since it will allow as many DLLs 
as you want simultaneously, containing as many types as 
you wish each... So I'd say, DLL is the future ... (2004 ?). 

Werner 
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