Components

Components are the main elements of a Simbrain simulation. They are visible as windows in the Simbrain desktop. Neural networks, plots, and virtual environments are examples of components.

When default update is used, at every iteration of the workspace each component is updated. Update can be manually turned off using the Component tab of the property tabs at the bottom of the Simbrain desktop. A component's GUI representation can also be turned off (but update left on) in order to speed up a simulation.

There are some generic properties that are common to most component types:

Adding components: To add components press the relevant button on the toolbar, or use the Insert menu. Components can also be added from scripts.

Saving / Opening: Use the save, open buttons and the File menu.  Most components are saved using human-readable xml (using a library called XStream).

GUI Visibility (settable in the component Property Tab): Whether the component is visible in the desktop.  Making a component invisible can be useful when trying to speed up a simulation.

Update (settable in the component Property Tab): Whether the component should be updated  when the workspace is iterated.