The initial idea of Ecolego was to facilitate creation of large and complex models and to be able to solve difficult numerical problems. With the purpose to make complicated models with many interconnections easier to overview, the models in Ecolego are represented with the help of interaction matrices instead of the traditional flow diagrams. Combined with hierarchical containers (sub-systems), the interaction matrix greatly facilitates construction and documentation of large and complex models. Objects can be assigned comments, images, units, and hyper links to other documents or Ecolego objects. Ecolego can also create reports that contain everything from interaction matrices, to parameter values, equations, decay chains, plots and tables. The report can be saved in many different formats, including PDF and HTML. In order to increase the flexibility for the user, Ecolego has no restrictions on the order of creation – for instance, a parameter can be used in equations before it is defined. A real-time validation engine reports problems to the user, such as not-yet-defined objects, objects lacking values or having invalid equations.
Quality assurance Modules can be created by defining inputs and outputs for sub-systems. By adding modules to the integrated library, a user can create a palette of validated building blocks that can be combined to form new models. The library can be exported, so that users with Ecolego Player can use it to create models without the need of an Ecolego license. Several other features in Ecolego promote quality assurance: • Unit checking • Version handling of models through
subversion • Parameter databases (internal or external) • Integrated database for radionuclide properties
Simulations The typical Ecolego model is a
compartmental model which requires a solver of differential equations. There is a wide array of numerical solvers to choose from. Some are optimized for
stiff and numerically difficult models, others for trivial models. With an extensive list of
probability density functions, together with
Monte Carlo and
Latin hypercube sampling and parameter correlation settings, Ecolego holds all the required tools to perform advanced
probabilistic analysis. ==Ecolego Player==