Reactor Design Program

    So like many people relatively new to playing with IC2 installed, I set my noobish sights on building myself a reactor beneath my castle. However, being an engineering student, I have that quirky tendency to need to plan everything out before I start something, as opposed to "mining straight down" and ending up with a brand-spankin'-new crater where that costly reactor used to be. As someone who also takes an interest in working with Java, I thought I'd give myself a project, something to get back in the swing of coding, so I thought I'd make a reactor simulator. I've noticed there are one or two versions people seem to use to a fair extent, but I thought I'd try and make one that seems a little more intuitive, is not browser-based, and might (hopefully) have a good save feature, in addition to satisfying a few unmet desires of the nuclear mine-gineering community (for example, I've noticed a few people that want to be able to power on/off the Redstone signal to their reactor mid-cycle, in order to allow for cooldown).


    Screenshots will be up in a little bit (gotta put some more time into the GUI before it can be shown), but I do have a few questions first:


    - Regarding reactor component heat capacities: I understand that components also have heat capacities of 10000, but does this also apply to Uranium Cells, Depleted Isotope Cells, other heat-producing cells, etc.? Do empty buckets (or water/lava buckets, or blocks of ice for that matter) still store 10000 heat? What about melted components?


    - If a component melts, does it become scrap? Where does its heat go?


    - Does any non-air/non-water block (including torches, Redstone wire, etc.) count as an "other block" for purposes of external cooling? These "other" blocks do not affect cooling one way or another, right?


    If I think of any others, I'm sure I'll let you guys know....


    Any suggestions/requests for features would also be greatly appreciated.



    Good to finally be on the forums.


    - MastaSchmitty


    P.S. I still think the little Advanced Machine emoticon looks like a cube from Portal. :Advanced Machine:

    -only cooling cells and heat dispenser have 10000 heat capacity.
    -when are component melted they just disappear with heat.
    -i think redstone and torch count as full block.

    Quote from MastaSchmitty

    - Regarding reactor component heat capacities: I understand that components also have heat capacities of 10000, but does this also apply to Uranium Cells, Depleted Isotope Cells, other heat-producing cells, etc.? Do empty buckets (or water/lava buckets, or blocks of ice for that matter) still store 10000 heat? What about melted components?


    Uranium and Isotope cells also have damage values but it theses are the 'fuel levels' within them not heat stored as they cannot store heat.


    Quote from MastaSchmitty

    - If a component melts, does it become scrap? Where does its heat go?


    If a compment melts, it just vanishes and takes the stored heat with it.


    Quote from MastaSchmitty

    - Does any non-air/non-water block (including torches, Redstone wire, etc.) count as an "other block" for purposes of external cooling? These "other" blocks do not affect cooling one way or another, right?


    Correct, any block not completely empty will not be concidered 'Air' as far as cooling is concerned.