Headless Mode (Batch Processing)

PetroVR offers the possibility to operate in headless or batch mode, which consists in sequentially simulating any number of PetroVR Plan projects (.pvr) and Econ models (.eco) in an unattended way and collect their respective result files.

This mode is entirely operational from the Windows command line prompt. In headless mode PetroVR behaves like a DOS-like command line program that reads parameters appended to its name and runs accordingly.

Headless Mode Syntax

Unattended processing can be started from the command line prompt using the following syntax:

The argument of the -process: switch is the pathname of the folder (directory) where the input files are located. Projects in sub-folders will be automatically included.

When running in batch mode the system sequentially loads all .pvr files in the folder and executes them. Associated economic models are automatically loaded when running Plan files. PetroVR will search for associated economic modules in the same folder as the projects; see Files Tab for the policies PetroVR applies to locate missing modules.

Adding Change Sets in Headless Mode

PetroVR supports the automatic addition of change sets for both .pvr and .eco files to be run in headless mode. The changes are applied only for the headless mode simulation, without modifying the project file. To use this feature, create a folder 'scripts' in the same directory where the projects are located, and include there one change set for each project you wish to modify, with the extensions .script.pvr.ch or .script.eco.ch. Note that if a project is located in a sub-folder of the one specified as argument, the changes to be applied must in turn be in another 'scripts' sub-folder nested within that sub-folder.

Headless Mode Output Files

The batch process runs PetroVR in deterministic and stochastic mode and yields two result files for each project: a .rlt file containing all project results and a .rdt file containing Monte Carlo data (see PetroVR Files). These result files will be saved to the location specified in the Files Tab of each project, and can be later loaded in PetroVR for further examination of both deterministic and stochastic data.

In order to use PetroVR in Headless mode a special license type is required. Please contact the PetroVR Help Desk service for more information.

Operating PetroVR in headless mode opens (and afterwards closes) a hidden session of Excel.

When running PetroVR in Headless mode, the log window is by default not displayed. You can activate it by setting the hideTextWin key to false in the The System Initialization File (petrovr.ini).