Command Line Help

Modified on Mon, 2 Oct, 2023 at 1:23 PM

The toolboxes come with integrated features to help you learn about and interact with the toolbox at the command line. These features include:

Detailed headers of each function and demo that are printed using help
Module and folder-level contents files that are also printed using help
First line searchable with lookfor
Related functions linked via see also lines
Published demos linked to demo help

Our video shows the command line in action:

Here is an example. First, let's get the help on module "SC":

>> help SC
  PSS Toolbox Folder SC
  Version 2023.1      17-Jul-2023
 
  Directories:
  Actuator
  Attitude
  BasicOrbit
  DemoFuns
  Demos
  Demos/Actuator
  Demos/Attitude
  Demos/CAD
  Demos/Disturbances
  Demos/Dynamics
  Demos/Environs
  Demos/Ephemeris
  Demos/GOESRead
  Demos/GUIPlugIn
  Demos/MagneticControl
  Demos/Sensor
  Demos/SystemDesign
  Disturbances
  Dynamics
  Environs
  Ephem
  GOESData
  GOESRead
  GUIPlugIn
  Hardware
  MagneticControl
  SCData
  SCDatabase
  SCMat
  SCModels
  Sensor
  SystemDesign
  Visualization

Let's dig deeper into the demos. Let's get more help on the Disturbance demos.

>> help SC/Demos/Disturbances
 
 
  SC/Demos/Disturbances
 
  A
     AccommodationFlatPlate    - Surface accommodation drag demo on a flat plate
 
  C
     CylinderFreeMolecularFlow - Surface accommodation drag on a cylinder
 
  D
     DisturbanceBatchDemo      - Run the disturbance model for a spacecraft with two rotating arrays.
     DisturbanceFlatPlate      - Disturbance analysis of two thin plates.
 
  S
     SCDisturb                 - Demonstrate disturbance modeling with shadowing.
     SphereFreeMolecularFlow   - Surface accommodation drag on a sphere

Each of these filenames is now a link, and you can click on it in the command window and get the help for that file displayed directly. Let's slick on the first one in the list, AccommodationFlatPlate:

--- help for AccommodationFlatPlate ---

  Surface accommodation drag demo on a flat plate
  The drag and lift are parameterized by the ratio of the orbital velocity
  (the flow velocity) to the thermal velocity of the atmospheric particles.
  This speed ratio is "S". The demo compares specular and diffuse
  accommodation coefficients to those in the reference and those computed
  from experimental data, then computes the lift and drag as a function of
  angle of attack of the plate for S=3 and S=infinity.
 
  * Hypermolecular flow/fully accommodated: S = infinity, tA ~ 0 K.
  * Typical spacecraft orbit parameters: S = 3-10, tA ~ 1000 K
 
  * Specular reflection: sigmaN = sigmaT = 0
  * Diffuse reflection: sigmaN = sigmaT = 1
  * Reference values: sigmaN = sigmaT = 0.7
 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
   References: Storch, J. Aerodynamic Disturbances on Spacecraft in
               Free-Molecular Flow, Aerospace Report TR-2003(3397)-1,
               https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/40722%28153%2960
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
   See also: FAeroSurfaceAccommodation, AeroF
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------    Published output in the Help browser
       showdemo AccommodationFlatPlate

Each of those functions listed in "See also" and after the "showdemo" will be links, which you can click on to either see the related function help or the published HTML of the demo. A screenshot of the published demo is shown below, it will include the full output of the demo including any plots and command line printout.