Solving Models in MPL
The Model Definitions Window
The Message Window
Using Projects to Manage Models
Using the MPL Help System
Context Sensitive Help
The following is a quick overview on how to work in MPL and what you can do with each menu.
To start working on your model go to the File menu and choose either New to create a new model or Open to edit an existing model file. When you have finished editing the model you can save it using either Save or Save As from the File menu.
You can use the Cut and the Copy command from the Edit menu to copy block of text to the clipboard and then the Paste command to place it elsewhere in your model. If you make a mistake while entering your model you can use the Undo command from the Edit menu to correct it.
If you need to search for a text string in your model, you can use the Find command from the Search menu or if you need to replace the text with an another text string use the Replace command.
If you are using MPL to work on multiple models, that use different files and option settings, it may be beneficial to use Projects to manage the models. Projects are used to store information about open model files and windows, the default working directory, and all the current option settings. The Project menu is used to create new projects, and then open, save or close different project files.
After you have created your model in the editor choose Solve <solvername> from the Run menu to optimize the model. While optimizing, MPL displays a status window that gives you information on the solution progress. When the model has been solved, the solution is written to a solution file.
After the solver is finished optimizing the problem, you can use options from the View menu to display various parts of the solution. You can also use the Graph menu to display a graph of the matrix and of the objective function.
The Options menu allows you to change various default settings for MPL, including which solvers you have, native solver options, contents of the solution file and other preferences.
The Windows menu is used to either tile or cascade the currently open windows, arrange at the bottom minimized windows, and select from a list of open windows, the window you want to bring to the front.
Through the Help menu you can access the context sensitive on-line help system which has multiple screens containing useful reference information. While you are running MPL you can also enter the help system by pressing the F1 key.
We will now explain the Status Window and the MPL Error Message Window that are used while while you are reading and solving your models.