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9 Calling TOMLAB using MATLAB Engine
This section describes an example of calling TOMLAB using the MATLAB
Engine from a stand alone application written i C.
9.1 The MATLAB Engine and TOMLAB
A stand alone application can utilize the MATLAB Engine API to
literally start a MATLAB session and run commands in it as if it
was a normal MATLAB session. The application can also create MATLAB
data structures and put to the workspace of the MATLAB Engine
workspace.
One can use the MATLAB Engine to call TOMLAB if one wants to be able
to use the TOMLAB functionality as if it was run from MATLAB
directly. For example, one advantage of the MATLAB Engine is when
upgrading TOMLAB. Then your applications will use the upgraded version
of TOMLAB without the need of recompiling the application. A drawback
with the MATLAB Engine is that a MATLAB session requires much memory
and takes more time to start than a compiled stand alone TOMLAB
solution.
Calling TOMLAB and MATLAB using the MATLAB Engine doesn't require a
TOMLAB stand alone license (TOMLAB SAL) or a MATLAB compiler license.
9.2 Compiling the example
In the TOMLAB distribution in directory:
/examples/sal/engine
there is an example of how to call TOMLAB using the MATLAB Engine.
On Windows make sure you have set the PATH environment properly
according to the section:
Building the example ->
Setting paths in the README file in
/examples/sal/engine. If you are using Microsoft Visual Studio
C++ then call
exmake.bat. If you are using another compiler
then you could need to change the name of MATLAB compiler options file
in
exmake.bat. Some compilers need special treatment with
floating point exception handling. See the MATLAB help for more
information on this. The command line for compiling this stand alone
application using the MATLAB Engine looks like this:
> mex -f <engine options file> tomeng.c
where
<engine options file> is the options file to use for the
compiler used by mex. In case of Microsoft Studio Visual C++ it is:
<matlabroot>\bin\win32\mexopts\msvc50engmatopts.bat
On Unix make sure dynamic library path is set according to
the section:
Building the example ->
Setting paths in the README file in
/examples/sal/engine. Then call
exmake.sh to compile the
application. The command line for compiling a stand alone application
under Unix looks exactly as it does for Windows, but the
<engine options file> is:
<matlabroot>/bin/engopts.sh
instead.
9.3 Running the example
The example application sets up a QP problem by passing data to the
MATLAB Engine workspace from the C part of the application. Then it
uses a TOMLAB assign routine to create a TOMLAB representation of the
problem and solves it using an arbitrary solver, chosen by the user.
The executable created when compiling the application should be called
with two arguments:
> tomeng <tomlab directory> <TOMLAB QP solver name>
Assume TOMLAB is installed in
c:\tomlab on a Windows system
and
/usr/local/tomlab on a Unix system and we want to use
snopt to solve the problem, then the execution of
tomeng would look like this respectively:
> tomeng c:\tomlab snopt
or
> ./tomeng /usr/local/tomlab snopt
If any of the steps during program execution fails it probably is
because of an invalid TOMLAB installation at the chosen TOMLAB
directory, an invalid TOMLAB license or a bad solver choice.
The source code of this example is situated in
/examples/sal/engine/tomeng.c.
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