Create Test Plans

Creating a New Test Plan

You need to select a test plan to construct models or designs.

To create a new test plan:

• Enter mbcmodel to open the Model Browser.

  In the Model Browser, you create new test plans from the project level.

• Click New in the Test Plans pane.

  You can see the Test Plans pane at startup and whenever you select the project node in the model tree.

Alternatively, make sure the project node is selected first, and then do one of the following:

• Click the New Test Plan icon ( ) in the toolbar.

• Select File > New Test Plan.

• Press Insert immediately after clicking the tree.

These steps all open a dialog box with the choice of One Stage , Two Stage, or Point-by-Point test plans, or you can browse for other test plans. You can create new test plan templates so you can reuse the setup for one test plan with another set of data. See Creating New Test Plan Templates.

A new test plan node appears in the model tree. To view the new test plan:

Change to test plan level:

• Select the node in the tree by clicking it.

  Alternatively, double-click the new test plan in the Test Plans pane, as in Windows Explorer.

The Model Browser changes to test plan level, showing the block diagram representations of models in the main display, and the Test Plans pane changes to the Response Models pane (empty until models are set up).

For the next steps in model construction, see

• Setting Up Models

• Loading Data from File

• Compare and Select Best Models

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Creating New Test Plan Templates

You build user-defined templates from existing test plans using the Make Template toolbar button or TestPlan > Make Template.

The procedures for modeling engines for calibrations are usually repeated for a number of different engine programs. The test plan template facility allows you to reuse the setup for one test plan with another set of data. You can alter the loaded test plan settings without restriction.

A list of test plan templates is displayed when you build a new test plan. There are built-in templates for one- and two-stage models.

Test plan templates store the following information:

• Hierarchical model — Whether the model is one- or two-stage and the default models for each level.

• Designs — If they were saved with the template (check box in the Test Plan Template Setup dialog box)

  The design for one type of engine might or might not be appropriate for a similar type of engine. You can redefine or modify the design using the Design Editor.

• All response models (for example, torque, exhaust temperature, emissions) — If they were saved with the template (check box in the Test Plan Template Setup dialog box)

• Numbers and names of input factors to models

• Model types (local and global)

• Summary Statistics for display (see Summary Statistics)

• No model child nodes are included, just the top level of the test plan (response models, and local and global models for two-stage models).

The response models are automatically built after you assign data to the test plan; see Using Stored Templates.

Saving a New Template

From the test plan node that you want to make into a template:

• Click the Make Template toolbar icon or choose TestPlan > Make Template.

  The templates are stored in the directory specified in the File > Preferences dialog box.

The Test Plan Template Setup dialog box appears, in which you can change the name of the new template and choose whether to include designs and/or response models.

Using Stored Templates

• When you load a new test plan from the project node, any stored templates appear in the New Test Plan dialog box.

  From the project node, select File > New Test Plan, or use the toolbar button, or click New in the Test Plans pane.

• Selecting templates in the New Test Plan dialog box displays all templates found in the directory specified in the Preferences dialog box (File menu). Select by clicking to see the information on a particular template; the number of stages and factors is displayed in the Information pane. You can use the Browse button if the required template is not in the directory specified in the File > Preferences dialog box.

• Click OK to use the selected test plan template. The new test plan node appears in the model tree.

Use stored templates in exactly the same way as the default blank one- and two-stage templates. Models and input factors are already selected (including the response if that was saved with the template) so you can go straight to selecting new data to model. You can still change any settings and design experiments.

Double-click the Responses block to launch the Data Wizard and select data for the test plan. The response models are automatically built after selection of data.

Note   The data selection process takes you through the Data Wizard. If any signal names in the new data do not match the template input factors, you must select them here, including the responses. If signal names match the factor names stored in the template, they are automatically selected by the Data Wizard, and you just click Next all the way to the end of the wizard. When you click Finish the response models are built automatically.

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Work with Model Browser Projects

Use Test Plans to Set Up Designs, Data, and Models

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