Command Line

The VirtualBow executables are named

virtualbow-gui        // Model editor
virtualbow-cli        // Solver

The solver executable takes a .bow model file as its input, performs the simulation and saves the results as a .res file. The type of simulation (static or dynamic) as well as other options are set by the command line arguments. The detailed usage as shown by the --help option is:

Usage: virtualbow_cli [OPTIONS] <MODE> <INPUT> <OUTPUT>

Arguments:
  <MODE>    Mode of simulation [possible values: static, dynamic]
  <INPUT>   Input model file (*.bow)
  <OUTPUT>  Output result file (*.res)

Options:
  -p, --progress  Print simulation progress
  -v, --version   Print version
  -h, --help      Print help

Note

To use the command line interface on Windows, you have to either specify the complete path to the respective executable or add the installation directory to your PATH environment variable. There is an option to do this automatically during installation of VirtualBow.

Note

On macOS, the VirtualBow executables are hidden inside the application bundle. They can be accessed by their full path though, or their location can be temporarily added to the PATH environment variable with the command export PATH=$PATH:/Applications/VirtualBow.app/Contents/MacOS. Put this line into your shell’s startup file (.zshrc for the default zsh, .bash_profile for bash) if you want it to be added permanently.