Python for Psse Tutorial for Beginners

Send this to any electrical engineer starting out with Python

Once you’ve used Python for a few months, writing new scripts is easy. Most
engineers are able to write a new script pretty quickly and if something goes
wrong they know where to look to fix it.

But starting out is hard. It took me a long time to find where all the good
Python resources were. Over the years, I’ve kept track of where I learnt
the most.

Here is the result of those years of learning, a guide for a younger me
starting out with Python and PSSE.

Which version of Python?

Pick the version of Python to match your version of PSSE. It may have already
installed when you installed PSSE. If you didn’t install Python, don’t worry
here is how:

PSSE 32 use Python 2.5

PSSE 33 use Python 2.7

Here are some links to download libraries when using Python for PSSE

Which tutorial should I use?

Depending on your experience with previous languages and learning style
there are a few good resources:

• The official Python tutorial is a
  good place to start. It was written by the inventor of Python and others.
• If you are more of a video sort of person.
  udacity
  run a free course online that teaches you the basics of Computer Science with
  Python as its language.
• Finally there is Learn Python The Hard Way
  which despite the title is great for beginners who are first picking up Python.

Tutorials for beginning with Python and PSSE

The how and why of running PSSE from inside Python. You’ll never write
your code the same way again once Python is in the driver’s seat. This one
is an absolute must:
Run PSSE from Python and not the other way around

All engineers will need to interact with data at some point. We discussed
how to read and write CSV files at:
reading and writing CSV files

The best way we know to generate beautiful charts is by using Matplotlib.
Once you’ve set up a script to create a chart, you can re-create similar
charts over and over without much hassle.
Matplotlib and PSSE

We’ve also started writing video tutorial posts. Here is a list of
our Video tutorials for PSSE and Python. If you have
ideas for more, send us an email – we’ll put it on the list.

If you have questions

We are here to help you learn Python:

• Ask (or answer) a question on the
  Python for PSSE forum
• We can come and run training at your company (it is what we do best)
  Python for PSSE training
• Enter your email below for regular Python tips.