Using Zapdos
Running an Input File and Viewing Results
After Zapdos is installed and tested, you should now be able to run input files using the zapdos-opt executable located at ~/projects/zapdos. Input files demonstrating the capabilities of Zapdos can be found in ~/projects/zapdos/tutorial and ~/projects/zapdos/tests. Any input file (say, one called example_input.i) can be run with the following basic syntax:
~/projects/zapdos/zapdos-opt -i example_input.i
Information about the simulation and its progress will then be displayed on the screen. If a log file of the iterative solution process is also desired, the console output can be sent to a text file:
~/projects/zapdos/zapdos-opt -i example_input.i --color off 2>&1 | tee log.txt
The --color off option is to de-clutter the log file from extraneous mark-up resulting from the displayed console text colors.
For parallelism, users can use the Message Passing Interface (MPI) protocol. The MPICH implementation of MPI is provided with the MOOSE environment packages. A parallel simulation using 4 processors can be run with the following basic syntax:
mpiexec -n 4 ~/projects/zapdos/zapdos-opt -i example_input.i
Many test input files also create an output file with the name format example_input_out.e that contains all the simulation results that have been selected for output. These results are best viewed using a visualization tool like ParaView.
Using Zapdos with Peacock, the MOOSE Graphical User Interface (GUI)
While using Zapdos on the command line is the standard and recommended method for using the code and visualizing the results, a GUI is available for use through the MOOSE framework. Peacock is a general front end for MOOSE input file syntax, simulation, and visualiztion. General directions compatible with all MOOSE-based applications can be found at this link.
Zapdos Tutorial and Tests
In general the tutorial directory is meant to be a showcase of "production" Zapdos capability. Users are encouraged to start there when learning Zapdos and setting up new simulations. The test/tests directory, on the other hand, holds all Zapdos regression, verification, and validation tests for both complete and in-progress capability. These files should not be modified, so that periodic tests of Zapdos function can be performed successfully.
As Zapdos is developed (by you hopefully!) and more capabilities are added, the tests directory will continue to grow. If you feel that you have added important new functionality, please create a test for it, such that any future changes will not break that capability.