Overview

Philote-Cpp provides C++ bindings for the Philote MDO (Multidisciplinary Design Optimization) standard. The library enables distributed computing for engineering disciplines using gRPC for remote procedure calls.

Key Concepts

Disciplines

A discipline represents a computational analysis or simulation component. Philote supports two types:

Explicit Disciplines: Direct function evaluations (e.g., f(x) = y)
Implicit Disciplines: Residual-based evaluations that must be solved (e.g., R(x,y) = 0)

Variables

Variables in Philote are multi-dimensional arrays that can represent:

Inputs: Data provided to the discipline
Outputs: Results computed by the discipline

Each variable has:

A unique name
A shape (dimensions)
Physical units

Partials (Gradients)

Disciplines can optionally provide gradient information (Jacobians) for optimization algorithms. Partials represent derivatives of outputs with respect to inputs: ∂f/∂x

Prerequisites

C++20 compliant compiler
gRPC and Protocol Buffers
CMake 3.23 or higher

Building Philote-Cpp

Build Instructions

mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make -j 8

Running Examples

Start a server:

./paraboloid_server

In another terminal, run the client:

./paraboloid_client

Next Steps

Explicit Disciplines - Learn how to create explicit disciplines
Implicit Disciplines - Learn how to create implicit disciplines
Working with Variables - Working with variables and arrays
Client Usage - Connecting clients to servers