The most common use of a File element An element whose purpose is to simply control copies of auxiliary files that may be required by External elements and Spreadsheet elements. is to ensure all necessary support files are passed to Clients when using the GoldSim Distributed Processing Module.
The Distributed Processing Module allows you to use multiple computers connected over a network to share the computational burden of a Monte Carlo simulation. This is accomplished by having a Controller GoldSim executable connect to multiple Client Also referred to as a Client process. A GoldSim executable running on a client machine that can be used to carry out distributed processing of a Monte Carlo simulation using the Distributed Processing Module. GoldSim executables.
The first step in such a simulation is for the Controller to transfer the necessary files (the model files and any support files) to the Clients.
If the model uses any External or Spreadsheet elements, the Controller automatically transfers the DLLs and spreadsheet file, respectively, to the Clients. If, however, these elements reference any other files (e.g., if the DLL reads in a separate data file the first time it is called), GoldSim has no way of knowing this, and could not send the required files to the Clients.
The File element can be used to overcome this problem. Any file referenced by a File element is automatically sent to Clients in a distributed processing simulation.
Hence, when using the Distributed Processing Module with external function elements that reference other files, a File element should be created for each file.
The file name should be entered in the Local file name field of the File element, and the Database checkbox should be cleared. If no path is provided, the file should be placed in the same directory as the model file, and if the file cannot be found locally, the Status area displays "Local file missing", and the simulation is not allowed to proceed.