Getting started on windows

[Sarah]

Hi,
I hope you'll bare with me as I'm really new to MELTS.  I have just downloaded it from the website and tried to run through the getting started section to test that I have installed everything correctly.  Perhaps very unimportantly, what I can see on this web page is nothing like the programme that I seem to be running when I open up adiabat_1ph.exe.  However, I am also unable to follow these steps thorough.  I have successfully read in one of the input files created, but how am I able to find the liquidus. Any help will be grately appreciated. Thanks, Sarah

[Paula]

Hi Sarah,

Hopefully we will be able to get Adiabat_1ph working on your system but there are a couple of questions I have first...

• Have you installed Perl?  You'll need it to be able to use run_adiabat.pl, which makes adiabat_1ph.exe more manageable.  If you need Perl for Windows then go to http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/?_x=1
• How are you opening adiabat_1ph.exe?  At the command line with run_adiabat.pl or by double-clicking?  Double-clicking isn't recommended as you'll only be able to do the default calculation (isentropic, no trace elements etc.).

It sounds like you are trying to work through one of the manual pages for the graphical-user-interface (GUI) version of MELTS i.e. the original version by Mark Ghiorso that is now hosted at the OFM Research website.  Adiabat_1ph has the same underlying algorithm but a text based front-end so some things have to be done in a rather different way, as I think you are discovering.  This is especially true of the 'Find Liquidus' function.  Working through the example MELTS calculation is a good idea to make sure that everything is working properly so I have posted a tutorial-style topic at:

Adiabat_1ph version of MELTS tutorial: 'Quick start using MELTS'

on the 'General Usage' board as it will be relevant to new users on Linux and Mac also.  The tutorial-topic explains how, with the Adiabat_1ph software, to reproduce the calculation described at:

http://melts.ofm-research.org/Manual/UnixManHtml/examples-test.html

which was made using the GUI version of MELTS.  At some point I'll post similar topics for some of the other examples given in the MELTS manual.

Before you actually run the program you'll want to set the PATH variable in Windows.  Make sure adiabat_1ph.exe and run_adiabat.pl are in the same directory ('D:\phmelts\windows_adiabat_1ph' in my case).  Open 'cmd.exe' and navigate to wherever your input files are (e.g. 'Morb.melts' and 'frac_xtal_tutorial.txt'):

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

D:\phmelts>cd users\paula

D:\phmelts\users\paula>set PATH=%PATH%;D:\phmelts\windows_adiabat_1ph

D:\phmelts\users\paula>dir

... etc ...

02/07/2007  12:22 PM    <DIR>          .
02/07/2007  12:22 PM    <DIR>          ..
02/07/2007  12:47 PM               710 Morb.melts
02/07/2007  12:49 PM               875 frac_xtal_tutorial.txt

... etc ...

D:\phmelts\users\paula>run_adiabat.pl -f frac_xtal_tutorial.txt

... etc ...

and then continue as described in the tutorial-topic.

Let me know how you get on
Paula

[Sarah]

Hi Paula,
Thanks so much for the help, I think that I'm beginning to get the hang of it!  I'm sure I'll be back soon with more questions, but so far so good!
Sarah

[Sarah]

Just left a post, but I've since managed to figure out the answer!

[xuan-ce wang]

Hi Paula,
     How to create a input file? I have produced a input file- filename.melts.
    But when I run_adiabat.pl, can not open the file (Erro in SILMIN file input procedure. cannot open the file)

Cheers
Xuan-ce wang

[Paula]

If you get the error message "Error in SILMIN file input procedure. Cannot open file: filename.melts" it means that it cannot find the file filename.melts in the directory that you started run_adiabat.pl in (often this will be the one that run_adiabat.pl is located in).

Try putting in the path to the file e.g. "myinputfiles/filename.melts" (replace "/" with "\\" if you use Windows).  Alternatively, use one of the methods described in the manual for setting the path to run_adiabat.pl and then start run_adiabat.pl from the directory where filename.melts is.

Cheers,
Paula