What is RCE?

RCE is an Open Source distributed, workflow-driven integration environment. It is used by engineers and scientists to design and simulate complex systems (e.g., aircraft, ships, or satellites) by using and integrating their own design and simulation tools.
An overview about RCE and some of its application fields gives this survey article.
If you're interested in contributing to RCE please don't hesitate and contact us. The source code is distributed as a zip archive along with each release. We will provide general public access to our source code repository soon.
Follow us on for latest news concerning releases, talks, related science etc. Check our YouTube channel for screen casts and other nice stuff concerning RCE.

Cite us

If you use RCE in your research project, please cite either the software itself or our reference publication in SoftwareX:

Brigitte Boden, Jan Flink, Niklas Först, Robert Mischke, Kathrin Schaffert, Alexander Weinert, Annika Wohlan, and Andreas Schreiber. "RCE: an integration environment for engineering and science." SoftwareX 15 (2021): 100759. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.softx.2021.100759.

Brigitte Boden, Jan Flink, Robert Mischke, Kathrin Schaffert, Alexander Weinert, Annika Wohlan, and Andreas Schreiber. (2019). RCE (10.0.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3691675.

You can obtain the preprint of the SoftwareX-article from arXiV.

Work with us

We are always open to working together with users to extend RCE and to apply it to new use cases. For this, we often participate in collaborative research projects. Please contact us at rce@dlr.de.

News

Release 2.3.7

Changelog

  • added new concept for sensitive workflow configuration values
  • re-designed Excel workflow component for stability and usability purposes
  • added support for Optimizer component (Dakota) in Linux versions
  • added view for cluster job monitoring
  • fixed bug in configuration GUI of Simple Wrapper component (occured only in Linux versions)
  • fixed bug in …

Release 2.3.6

Changelog

  • added option to create a workflow examples project (new -> other -> RCE)
  • fixed problems and inaccurate problem descriptions in optimizer component
  • fixed some gui issues in optimizer component
  • fixed minor issues

Release 2.3.5

Changelog

  • fixed bug that caused an error in running a distributed workflow
  • fixed bug in merger component
  • fixed bug in merger and converger components gui
  • workflow data browser nodes can now be deleted
  • removed context menu entries for sorting of entries in workflow data browser
  • ixed minor issues

Release 2.3.4

Changelog

  • added Design of Experiments component (test state)
  • added sorting order for workflow data browser
  • added toggle buttons for workflow data browser
  • added default explaining script in python component
  • added storage for persistent settings
  • textfields for commands in sql and simplewrapper component now resize when view gets resized
  • connection lines …

Release 2.3.3

Changelog

  • added Converger component (test state)
  • added Merger component (test state)
  • added support for compression data management
  • added filter for workflow components in connection editor
  • added support for Coliny Cobyla algorithm in optimizer component
  • fixed input queue view showing pending inputs of components (shows input in wrong order if a …

Release 2.3.2

Changelog

  • added support for RCE headless mode: workflow execution without GUI
  • added workspace chooser at RCE start up
  • improved workflow scheduler logic: support of different input usages (required, initial, optional)
  • added compare function for text files in workflow data browser
  • added "Reset search" button for workflow console filter
  • added "Save …

Release 2.3.1

Changelog

  • added support for sorting in workflow data management browser
  • added support for data export to Excel in parametric study component
  • unified configuration tabs in parametric and optimizer runtime graphical user interface
  • restored "goal" option when editing variable in optimizer component configuration
  • fixed start up validator for JSON configuration files …

Release 2.3.0

Changelog

  • added optimizer component (currently for Windows only)
    • Black-box optimization with Dakota
    • Currently supported algorithms: Quasi-Newton method, HOPSPACK Asynch Pattern Search, Coliny Evolutionary method (all of them single- and multi-objective)
  • improved "simple wrapper" component
    • added Jython as pre- and post-processing scripting language
    • added support for OS-independent and multiple commands
  • graphical …

Release 2.2.5

Changelog

  • added Simple Wrapper component (0006339, 0007079)
  • fixed Excel component: refresh formula after insertion of data (0007033)
  • fixed Excel component: export to Excel(0007034)
  • fixed list of platforms involved in a workflow: add the controller platform even no component is running there (0006989, 0006932)
  • improved workflow data browser: add "collapse …

Release 2.2.4

Changelog

  • fixed unnecessary undo/redo steps in workflow editor (0006897)
  • fixed performance issues when connecting to multiple servers (0006904, 0006900)
  • fixed crash issue when running distributed workflows (0006895)
  • fixed output channel of Python component firing when it is not assigned in the script (0006921)
  • fixed minor workflow-related UI bugs (0006901 …