Default Values

For each component there is at least one data record with the name ”standard“. In the case of many components, however, other data records are available as well, sometimes up to more than 20,000 (in the photovoltaics module, Component 137). Which data record is to be used by default when inserting a component can be set under [chapter (General Settings and Model Options > Overview General Settings > User Interface > Standard values)]. If the component is not inserted via the quick selection in the component wizard bar but via the icons or the menu navigation, the desired data record can also be selected directly in the case of the menu navigation, or all available data records can be displayed via the item “Show library…”.

To load another data record into an existing component, there is the dropdown list button “Load default values…”, which is located both below the component image on the right hand side of the component properties window and in the tab “Basic Properties“. Clicking on this button will then open the dialog “Load Library Values“, where the dropdown list under “Name“ is already expanded and the desired entry can be selected. It is also possible to type letters into this field and thus limit the selection to those entries that contain the entered combination of letters. This is particularly helpful in the case of components with a large number of data records.

Originally, the default values were stored in a Microsoft Access database and later in an XML file stdvalues.xml. For reasons of performance, however, the values have meanwhile been stored in binary form within Ebsilon. The file stdvalues.xml still exists in the directory Data\Database, but only for the purpose of users’ information. Moreover, it is write-protected.

However, users can store own default values as well. To do so, the desired specification values and characteristic lines have to be entered into a component first. To transfer the values of this component into the user-specific default values, there is a dropdown list labeled “Load default values“ in the tab “Basic Properties“ in the field “Load default values…”. When you expand this dropdown list, you can select the item “Save user-specific default values“. A dialog appears where you can define the name and the description of the entry and select which ones of the specification values, characteristic lines or matrices are to be adopted into this entry. Only those will then be inserted when loading subsequently while the other specification values, characteristic lines, and matrices will remain unchanged. By removing the check mark in front of a numerical specification value, that value will not be overwritten or will remain empty.

The user-specific default values are stored in an XML file with the name uservalues.xml whose path is defined in the General Options. By default, this file is located under the respective user under AppData\Roaming\EbsilonProfessional\database.

The file uservalues.xml can also be edited manually by means of a more or less comfortable xml editor. If none is available, a simple editor (e.g. notepad++) can be used as well. As, however, the file is imported only when Ebsilon is started, the changes will take effect only after restarting Ebsilon.