What is in this Article?

1. Working Folder and Data Structure

2. Default Working Directory

3. Changing Working Directory

4. What’s in Working Directory

Working Folder and Data Structure

Besides the software folder (usually stored at “C:\Program Files\Akselos”), Akselos Modeler also needs access to another directory in order to store data of Digital Twin assets or collection data. We refer to this directory as the working directory or Akselos Data Directory.

Default Working Directory

By default, the data directory is located inside the current user’s AppData directory i.e. C:\Users\User_Name\AppData\Local\Akselos\Modeler\5.1.0 

Figure 13. The default working directory

Changing Working Directory

To manage the working folders efficiently, users can change the location of the data directory by clicking Help → About  → Change  button next to Data Directory on pop up window → selecting desired directory. 

After changing the data directory, Akselos Modeler must be restarted to take the change into effect.

Figure 14. Clicking Help → About

Figure 15. Clicking Change next to Data Directory 

In the example shown in the figure below, the data directory is set to be “F:\aks_data”.

Figure 16. Setting a new data directory

What’s in Working Directory

The working directory is the space that stores all contents of projects or Digital Twin models on the users’ local machines.

Figure 17. Working directory - data structure

Users can realize the similarity between the Root Contents (Section 2.6) on the Akselos Dashboard and the collections folder in Akselos Data Directory, this folder could store many organizations which contain several collections (data storages of Digital Twin assets).

Figure 18. Organization folders inside the working directory

In addition, the collection data of a Digital Twin model would include: aks_files folder, components  folder, ports  folder and collection.json, etc. 

Figure 19. Folders and files inside a collection

The function of each folder or file in the collection is as follows:

• components folder: this folder stores all components of a model. The name of this folder can be changed and we also can create many folders at this level to separate the components into groups.
  • component_type.json: this is the JSON data of a component. The name of this file must always be component_type.json.
  • component*.exo: this is the mesh file of the component.
  • component*.exo.pickled: this file is generated automatically when we open the component in Akselos Modeler.
• ports folder: this folder stores all ports of a model. Likewise, the components folder, its name can be changed and we can use many folders to put ports in groups.
  • port_type.json: this is the JSON data of a port. Its name must always be port_type.json.
  • port*.exo: this is the mesh file of the port.
• aks_files folder: this folder stores all AKS files and usually also ASL files.
  • *.aks files: an AKS file is written on the information of a model. 
  • In case the model has 1D beam elements, the .aks file stores all cross-section and material information of those 1D beam elements.
  • *.asl files: the solution of a model is saved as an ASL file.

• collection.json: this is the JSON data of the collection.