FAQs

Application interface

The application is frozen. What do I do?

Convexity is still in development and at times you may encounter a frozen application state. If this happens, you can right-click anywhere on the app and press the "Reload" button. This will restart the app. If this does not work, please shut down and restart the app.

If this is a persistent issue, please contact us to report the bug. We appreciate your feedback and issue reports as it helps us to improve the product for everyone.

The map is showing data or a network that I removed from my workspace. How do I remove it?

Convexity is still in development and at times you may encounter a latency or lag issue with the map. If you're seeing data that you should not be, try and refresh the map by right-clicking on the map and clicking "Refresh Network". This will force a hard refresh of the map, which should resolve your issue.

If this is a persistent issue, please contact us to report the bug. We appreciate your feedback and issue reports as it helps us to improve the product for everyone.

Integration and collaboration

How does Convexity's open-core work?

Convexity follows an open-core architecture, which means the core functionality is built on open-source technologies and standards. The computational backend uses open-source libraries like PyPSA and Linopy, and models are stored in standard SQLite database files (.db files) that can be accessed programmatically without a license.

This approach allows you to:

• Share models with collaborators who don't have a Convexity license
• Access and modify model data programmatically using Python
• Export models to PyPSA format for use with other tools
• Use the underlying open-source libraries directly if needed

The desktop application provides a user-friendly interface for building and managing models, while the open-core backend ensures your models remain accessible and portable. For more information, see the Open-source dependencies documentation.

I am working with someone who does not have a Convexity license. Can they run a Convexity model without a license?

Yes! Thanks to Convexity's open-core framework, it's easy to share and run Convexity models even when you don't have a license. There are two main approaches:

Method 1: Using pyconvexity

Simply send your .db file to your collaborator. If they have Python installed, they can run:

pip install pyconvexity

Then they can solve the model programmatically:

import pyconvexity as px

# Solve the model
result = px.solve_network("your_model.db", solver_name="highs")
print(f"Optimization successful: {result['success']}")
print(f"Objective value: {result['objective_value']}")

For more examples and API documentation, see the pyconvexity documentation.

Method 2: Using PyPSA

If your collaborator prefers to work with PyPSA directly, you can export your model from Convexity:

1. Open the model you want to share in Convexity
2. Click the File I/O button in the Toolbar
3. Select "Export PyPSA" (instructions here)
4. Send the exported PyPSA netCDF file to your collaborator

Your collaborator can then import and run the model using PyPSA:

import pypsa

# Import the network
network = pypsa.Network("exported_model.nc")

# Solve using PyPSA
network.optimize()

# Access results
print(network.objective)

For more information on PyPSA import/export, see the PyPSA documentation.