Etap Plot Manager ❲Premium Quality❳

Crucial insight: If you delete the result file but keep the plot definition, Plot Manager shows an empty graph with a "Missing Data" overlay—it does not crash. You can later re-link to a new .rps file.

| Tier | Component | Example | Persistence | |------|-----------|---------|--------------| | | Project / Study Case | "MyPlant_BaseCase", "MyPlant_2025_Expansion" | Saved in .etap project | | 2 | Plot Definition | "Gen1_Rotor_Speed_During_Fault" | Saved as XML inside the project | | 3 | Result Snapshot | The actual time-series array from a simulation run | Stored in .rps (results) files | etap plot manager

# Access Plot Manager via ETAP COM plotMgr = project.PlotManager plot = plotMgr.GetPlot("Gen1_Rotor_Speed") plot.ResultFile = "C:\Results\FaultStudy.rps" plot.YAxisVariable = "Speed (pu)" plot.XAxisStart = 0.0 plot.XAxisEnd = 2.0 plot.Refresh() plot.ExportAsImage("Gen1_Speed.png", width=1920, height=1080) This allows integration with automated report generation pipelines (e.g., run 50 fault scenarios overnight, Plot Manager generates 150 standardized plots, a script inserts them into a Word report). Crucial insight: If you delete the result file

In Plot Manager, select all 12 plots → right-click Refresh from Latest Results . All plots populate simultaneously. In Plot Manager, select all 12 plots →

When you double-click a plot in Plot Manager, the property sheet reveals non-obvious controls:

At its simplest, the ETAP Plot Manager is a centralized output management module. But conceptually, it is far more: it is a that decouples result computation from result presentation . Unlike traditional tools where you re-run a study to see updated graphs, Plot Manager stores plot definitions (metadata: what data, on what element, for which study, with what axes) separately from the raw simulation results.