Graphical User Interface

The GLOBIOM_GUI repository provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for running GLOBIOM and analyzing results. Installation instructions are found here.

The GUI offers a user-friendly way to run GLOBIOM and perform interactive analysis of the model output. One or more output GDX files resulting from GLOBIOM scenario runs can be loaded for charting, mapping, tabulation and comparison.

The GUI is an optional add-on to GLOBIOM: those who prefer more in-depth control can still choose to run GLOBIOM from the GAMS IDE or GAMS Studio as before, or perform analysis using R or some other tool of choice.

Post installation

After installation via GitHub, the GUI window should open when running the globiom.bat script located in the GUI directory. If this fails, run the script from the command prompt or terminal so that you can read the error message, check whether you have configured a valid path in GGIG_java_path.txt.

The first time you launch the GUI, default settings are used. You can adjust the settings to match your system via the settings dialog that opens via the Settings >> Edit settings menu item.

Adjust the following settings in particular:

  • User name in the User Settings tab.

  • Path to GAMS.exe in the GAMS and R tab. Point it to the gams or gams.exe binary/executable in your GAMS installation directory.

  • Path to r.exe in the GAMS and R tab. Point it to the Rscript or Rscript.exe binary/executable of your R installation so as to be able to run R scripts from the GUI. Beware, on Windows the 64-bit R executables are in a x64 subdirectory of a bin directory that holds the 32-bit executables. You typically will want the former, not the latter. For more information see Using R with GLOBIOM.

  • Make sure that the Output set with meta information to include file checkbox in the Other options tab is not checked.

Managing the GUI settings

The GUI stores its settings in the settings.ini file in the GUI directory. This .ini file contains the settings you enter via the configuration dialog, but also per-task or per-analysis-view window state. This is convenient, but sometimes you will want to return those to a default state. To clear all per-task settings, select the Settings >> Remove task-specific settings menu item. To clear all analysis view settings, select Settings >> Remove view-specific settings.

To revert all settings to their defaults, exit the GUI and delete the settings.ini file. The next time you start the GUI (via globiom.bat), default settings are loaded.

To backup and restore settings, use the Settings >> Save current settings to ini file and Settings >> Load current settings from ini file menu items.

High-DPI diplays

When you have a high-DPI diplay, the GUI may display with a tiny font and widgets. In this case, trying a higher Java version (9 or higher) may resolve the issue. This is untested. Alternatively, if you use Windows 10, you can try the following quick fix:

  1. Find java.exe you installed.

  2. Right click -> Properties

  3. Go to Compatibility tab

  4. Check Override high DPI scaling behavior.

  5. Choose System for Scaling performed by.

Further reading

For an overview, see the A GUI for GLOBIOM presentation.

To learn more about the powerful interactive analysis capabilities of the GUI, please see the GGIG User Guide. To open an offline copy of the User Guide from the GUI, select the Help >> GGIG User Guide menu item.

Acknowledgments

The GLOBIOM GUI is based on GGIG, the Gams Graphical Interface Generator. We are grateful for the generous guidance and assistance concerning GGIG provided by Wolfgang Britz and Torbjörn Jansson.