WIP: Merge dist2dist branch?

@felix.wege

Can we please agree whether or not there is content in the dist2dist branch that is worth merging? The branch is WAY behind the master and I would like to clean up a little. Do you have any comments?

examples/grids/d2d_test/components.csv

+1,Slack,2000
+2,Node,2,0,0,400.0
+3,Node,2,0,0,400.0
+4,Node,2,0,0,400.0