Running the Marmot code#

This is a short introduction to running Marmot. This guide will demonstrate how to run Marmot directly as an application, or import as a module into your own code.

Runing Marmot as an application#

The most common way to use Marmot is by launching the code from the command line and treating it as an application. Marmot uses a seperate launcher file for the formatter and plotting applications.

The files are located in the Marmot/bin directory.

Note

To get any useful output, you will need to setup the Marmot_user_defined_inputs: csv file first before starting Marmot. If you are new to Marmot be sure to check out the Getting-Started Tutorials.

Start Marmot formatter#

To start the Marmot formatter run the following in any terminal setup with python

First change directory to Marmot\bin:
```
cd E:\Marmot\bin
```
If needed activate your python environment:
```
conda activate marmot-env10
```
Run the following to launch the program:
```
python run_marmot_formatter.py
```

Start Marmot plotter#

Similiarly to start the Marmot plotter run the following

Change directory to Marmot\bin:
```
cd E:\Marmot\bin
```
If needed activate your python environment:
```
conda activate marmot-env10
```
Run the following to launch the program:
```
python run_marmot_plotter.py
```

Importing Marmot as a module#

Importing Marmot as a module involves interacting with the internal API code. The main access points being:

marmot.marmot_h5_formatter.MarmotFormat for the formatter.
marmot.marmot_plot_main.MarmotPlot for the plotter.

To use Marmot as a python module that can be imported, it first needs to be made visible to the python package directory. This can be done two ways, either by pip installing Marmot (preferred method) or by adding the Marmot directory folder to the system path.

pip install Marmot#

Open a cmd window that is setup with python and change directory to your desired install location. Type the following:

pip3 install git+https://github.com/NREL/Marmot.git#egg=marmot

This will install Marmot from the current master branch, however this can be changed to a specific commit or tagged release if desired by adding @comit_id after Marmot.git and before the # symbol. For example, the following can be used to install Marmot release v0.11.0:

git+https://github.com/NREL/Marmot.git@v0.11.0#egg=marmot

If no error messages appeared, Marmot has been installed correctly.

Warning

It is recommended to install Marmot into a separate environment than the one used for running the code as an application. This will prevent the python interpreter from choosing the incorrect Marmot instance.

Import the main classes#

To import the formatter or plotter, use the following import commands in a python session

from marmot.marmot_h5_formatter import MarmotFormat

from marmot.marmot_plot_main import MarmotPlot

When importing Marmot directly, the Marmot_user_defined_inputs: csv file is not used. However, several other input files are still required which are passed in through the main class init methods in marmot.marmot_h5_formatter.MarmotFormat and marmot.marmot_plot_main.MarmotPlot.