Orchid® Configuration Manager (Orchid® CM) is L3 MAPPS' simulation configuration management application. Orchid® CM manages application software source code and simulator configurations.

Orchid® CM handles all operations required to make modifications and updates to your simulator configuration. Through its easy-to-use graphical interface, the user can access all functions required to update simulator configurations, including database management and regeneration of configuration modules.

Orchid® CM supports Microsoft Visual Studio and Intel Fortran compilers to build its simulation configuration. Through Visual Studio, Orchid® CM offers fully graphical debugging capabilities, allowing the user to effectively resolve simulation issues.

Orchid® CM is used to efficiently manage configurations both locally and over the simulation network. Configurations can be created, copied, renamed, password-protected, backed up, deleted, and restored. Orchid® CM stores all the elements required by the runtime simulator within its configurations, including application model source code, compiled executables, databases, graphics, setting files, initial conditions, and lesson plans. This way each simulator configuration is stand-alone and can be easily dispatched or retrieved in full, at any time; a mechanism that ensures proper reversibility.

At the network level, Orchid® CM’s powerful configuration server mechanism can be enabled. This feature addresses the complexity of managing copies of the simulator configuration across different machines, a process that is error-prone if performed manually. Orchid® CM can be configured to point to a central repository of information, through which configurations can be checked in/out from any machine on the network. Orchid® CM indicates the status of local configurations in comparison to those stored in the central repository. Through Orchid® CM, users can check out configurations from the server (either a full configuration with all source, or only the executables and runtime elements) or check in a locally modified configuration to make them available to other machines. Through this mechanism, configuration management errors can be reduced, and redundancy across the network machines can be properly managed.

Features

• Support for multiple configurations
• Extensive logging and reporting features
• Graphical debugging capabilities
• Built-in configuration management features
• Configuration check-out/check-in for distributed development environments
• Export simulation to run off a USB key (jump drive/memory stick)

Benefits

• Reduced maintenance effort and configuration update lead times
• Greatly simplifies complex configuration management tasks
• Allows export of runtime simulation to a memory stick, expanding training capabilities (portable USB Simulator)
• Efficient and centralized management of multiple simulator configurations