README

pyavl is a python interface to the AVL (Athena Vortex Lattice) program

Requirements:
- python
- pexpect
- AVL executable
- Traits, TraitsGUI and Mayavi from code.enthought.com


What pyavl does currently: (23/06/2009)
- provide a python interface to run the avl program through pexpect
- ability to load existing .avl input files, change the geometry by adding/removing/modifying
   surfaces, sections and bodies through python and saving the .avl file
- visualize the geometry through vtk (mayavi) : incomplete; only the section chords are
    currently displayed, and the surfaces do not honor the scale and translate keywords
- case .run files can be loaded into the running avl instance (they are not parsed in python)
    the loaded run cases are interpreted into python from the output of avl. The various
    constraints and parameters can be modified from python
- GUI is not not developed. To see a primitive GUI the user can call the .configure_traits()
    method on any instance of a class derived from HasTraits class. The displayed GUI has
    suitable editors for all Traits defined for the instance
- Using the pexpect spawn instance avl, the user can send arbitrary commands to the avl engine
    Make sure to return to base state after that by calling AVL.goto_state(avl) so that the
    other calls from python are not confused

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Sample pyavl session:
- For starting the pyavl usage check the test functions in testing.avl and testing.case modules