Running Bladed

Bladed Knowledge Centre Help library Getting started Running Bladed

Overview

Once Bladed has been installed and access to the license has been set up, it is recommended that you follow the steps below to help verify that the Bladed GUI can be used to open projects, run simulations, and view results as expected.

If any error messages or unexpected screens are shown (that are not mentioned below), please contact us with details of the issue (e.g. screenshots, steps to reproduce the issue, etc.).

Starting the Bladed GUI

Open the Bladed GUI using the Bladed application shortcut on the Desktop or in the Start menu.

If the GUI opens successfully - without any error messages being shown - it is likely that your Bladed installation and license configuration is correct. Continue to the Running simulations section below.

Some of the common error messages and issues which may occur at this point are:

• The “Security device not found” error message is displayed (for Bladed 4.15 and earlier):
  
  
  
  
• The “Bladed license was not found” error message is displayed (for Bladed 4.16 and later):
  
  
  
  
• The text size of the menu bar in the main window appears to be too large:
  
  
  
  
• The “Could not find Batch framework” error message is displayed:
  
  
  
  

If any of these error messages or issues occur, please see the Troubleshooting section below for further advice.

Running simulations

1. Open the demo_a project file (demo_a.prj), which can be found in the DemoModels / Demo_a subfolder, in the Bladed 4.16 application folder:
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. In the Calculations window, select the “Steady Power Curve” calculation, and click the “Run Now” button.
   
   
   
   
3. Select a location on your machine to save the calculation output (e.g. the “results” subfolder within the Bladed installation folder, although any folder can be used). The default run name can be left unchanged. Click the “OK” button.
   
   
   
   
4. If the Starting Calculation dialog is shown, click the “Start” button.
   
   
   
   
5. The calculation will start running. If all has worked correctly, the Calculation Progress window will appear as follows when the calculation has completed:
   
   
   
   
6. Click “Close” to close the Calculation Progress window.
   
   

Viewing results

1. To view some graphical results, click the “Data View” button in the main window toolbar.
   
   
   
   
2. Click the “Channel 1” button on the Graph Parameters window.
   
   
   
   
3. Select the Steady power curve in the Data Group panel, and select a variable in the Variables panel (e.g. Electrical power). Click the “OK” button.
   
   
   
   
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 above to select further outputs to display in some of the other channels. The Graph Parameters window should look similar to this (note that some of the units have been changed from their default values):
   
   
   
   
5. Click the “View Graph” button. The graph window should look similar to this:
   
   
   
   

MATLAB runtime

Certain Bladed screens depend on the MATLAB runtime, which is installed when running the Bladed installer. To verify that the runtime has been installed correctly, please try opening the Blades and Tower screens, using the steps below:

1. Click the “Blades” button in the main window toolbar.
   
   
   
   
2. The Blade Properties window should appear like this:
   
   
   
   
3. If the window displays correctly, and no error messages are shown, click the “Cancel” button. If an error message is shown, click here for further advice.
   
   
4. Click the “Tower” button in the main window toolbar.
   
   
   
   
5. The Tower window should appear like this:
   
   
   
   
6. If the window displays correctly, and no error messages are shown, click the “Cancel” button. If an error message is shown, click here for further advice.
   

If you have reached the end of these steps without encountering any issues, it is likely that Bladed has been installed successfully on your machine. You will soon be ready to start using Bladed.

Troubleshooting

“Security device not found” or "Bladed license not found" error message

If an error message is displayed stating that the Bladed security device or license was not found, this indicates that Bladed cannot find a valid license on the machine.

• If using a license on a dongle plugged into the local machine:
  • Check that the instructions in the License Setup tab have been followed.
• If using a license hosted on a remote machine (i.e. a network license):
  • Click the Configure Network License button on the error message dialog box or click here to open the license manager website, and check that the instructions in the License Setup tab have been followed.

Please contact us for further assistance if:

• A browser error message is shown when trying to load the license manager website.
• The list of license features does not appear on the license manager Features page: http://localhost:1947/_int_/features.html

Menu text size is too large

The Windows display scaling setting may need to be adjusted if the text size of the menu bar in the main Bladed GUI window appears to be too large.

To try to resolve the issue:

• Close the Bladed GUI
• Right-click on the Windows desktop and click “Display settings”
• Change the text size setting to 100%
  
  
  
  
• Restart Bladed

If this does not resolve the issue, click here for further suggested workarounds for resolving font and display issues (click here to download the "Font Fix.reg" file referenced in the document).

“Could not find Batch framework” error message

If an error message is displayed stating that the Batch Framework could not be found, try running the Bladed installer again to reinstall Bladed.

If the same error message still occurs, please contact us for further assistance.

MATLAB errors

If an error message similar to "Failed to call GHView.dll" is displayed, this indicates that there is a problem with the MATLAB runtime (which certain screens and functionality depend on). To try to resolve this error, please see the Troubleshooting page, which lists various suggested actions that you can try. If none of these suggestions resolve the issue, please contact us.

Need help?

For further assistance please contact us.