AstroGrav iconAstroGrav Help /Menus /Evolve /Evolve To...Version 5.0.1

Evolve / Evolve To...   ('Evolve / Evolve To...' icon)

Operating Systems: All
Window Types: All
Simulation Types: All

Summary

Evolves the frontmost simulation forward or backward to a specified date/time, or evolves to the next or previous event of a particular type.

Description

When you select this command, an input dialog will be displayed allowing you to specify the date/time that you wish the frontmost simulation to evolve to. If you fill this in and accept the input dialog, AstroGrav will evolve the simulation forward or backward to the specified date/time or until you stop the evolution.

Alternatively, the input dialog allows you to specify the next or previous event of a particular type. If you fill in the appropriate fields and accept the input dialog, AstroGrav will evolve the simulation forward or backward until the specified event is reached or until you stop the evolution. The following types of event are available.

When evolving to an event, an automatically calculated time step is used, regardless of the setting that is displayed with the Evolve / Settings... command. Also, collision detection is temporarily switched off while evolving to an event. If you request an event (such as the next collision of Jupiter and Saturn) that never occurs, AstroGrav will evolve indefinitely searching for the event until you stop the evolution.

An Animate checkbox allows you to choose whether or not to display the state of the simulation after each time step. If evolution is animated, you can watch the simulation evolve as when you use the Evolve / Run Backward and Evolve / Run Forward commands. While AstroGrav is calculating the next state of the system, the Evolve / Stop command is available for you stop the evolution, and the Evolve / Settings... command is available for you to change the time step. If evolution isn't animated, a progress bar is displayed if evolution is going to take more than a couple of seconds, and a Cancel button is available to stop evolution if desired. Non-animated evolution is usually much faster than animated evolution, so you should only use animated evolution if you want to watch what's happening.

There is also a Beep when finished checkbox that can be useful if you're doing a very long evolution and want an audible alert when it's finished.

The time that it takes AstroGrav to evolve the system through one time step is extremely variable, but depends mainly on the following factors.

See Also:



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