Selecting your Microsoft® Visual Studio Software
If using the Intel® Parallel Studio Composer Edition for FORTRAN (IVF) to compile PSCAD projects, Microsoft® Visual Studio (VS) software is also required. This article is intended to help users to select a suitable edition and version of VS. For further information on IVF software, refer to Selecting your Compiler for Fortran Code and C-Code.
Selecting Your VS Edition
Five editions of VS are suitable for use with IVF to compile PSCAD projects. Table 1 below lists the features and limitations for these VS editions to help PSCAD users of PSCAD v4.3 and newer to select a VS edition that will best meet their needs. A sixth VS edition, Standalone Shell, is not supported with PSCAD, and is specified as such in Table 1.
- Table 1 is provided strictly as a courtesy to PSCAD users of version 4.3 or newer. MHI does not guarantee the currency or accuracy of the information provided in Table 1, nor does MHI endorse or recommend any particular edition of VS. PSCAD users must conduct their own investigation to determine the VS edition that would best meet their needs.
- For PSCAD non-precompiled projects containing c-code, VS editions that contain a C-compiler will be required, to compile c-code to *.obj files.
Note - A VS edition containing a C-compiler is not required to run cases containing pre-compiled (*.obj) files containing c-code. - The VS Express Edition has not been extensively tested by MHI for the feature identified; however, preliminary testing indicates that it may potentially support the feature identified.
- The VS Integrated Shell Edition (also known as the Premier Partner Edition) comes bundled with the Composer edition of IVF 19, Update 2 and older. The Integrated Shell Edition does not come bundled with the: (i) Composer edition IVF 19.0 Update 3 and newer; or (ii) IVF Trial Edition.
Selecting Your VS Version
The following should be considered for selecting the most suitable version of VS:
- Compatibility with pre-compiled libraries or object files: See Charts 3.a and 3.b of the PSCAD Compatibility Charts document, posted here.
Note
The supported version should normally be specified by the supplier of the pre-compiled files.
- Compatibility with PSCAD: See Chart 2.c of the PSCAD Compatibility Charts document, posted here.
- Compatibility with IVF: See Chart 4 of the PSCAD Compatibility Charts document, posted here.
Note - If you have multiple versions of Visual Studio installed, Intel will always try to use the newest compatible version.
Obtaining the Software
The standalone editions of VS may be obtained from Microsoft® (Current Version / Older Version).
Or to obtain a download from the MHI Support desk, please indicate the version and edition of Visual Studio, as well as your PSCAD license number.
The Integrated Shell Edition, which comes bundled with IVF as specified in Chart 5 of the Compatibility Charts, posted here, may be obtained as per Selecting your Compiler for Fortran Code and C-Code.
Setting up the Software
Information on setting up the IVF and VS software is available on this webpage. This information pertains to the IVF Composer Edition, as well as to the free time-limited Trial Edition.
Please feel free to contact the MHI Support Desk if you have any additional questions (support@mhi.ca).