easyMelts 0.2.x beta (c) 2020 Einari Suikkanen
Contact: einari.suikkanen[at]gmail.com

easyMelts is a GUI application for running MELTS on Windows, macOS and Linux. easyMelts is designed to be an approachable alternative for the more advanced tools in the MELTS family. Feature-wise, easyMelts is comparable to the the original GUI MELTS.

System requirements

• 64-bit operating system
• OpenGL 3.3 compliant GPU and drivers
• (Windows) Windows 7/8/10
• (Linux) X11-compatible environment. Tested on Ubuntu 18.04 and newer, and on Fedora
• (macOS) 0.2.4 tested on version 10.14 (Mojave) and newer (previous versions also tested on El Capitan)

Running easyMelts

On Linux and macOS: Open terminal, navigate to folder containing the executable and run easyMelts with the command ./easyMelts

On Windows: Simply double-click the easyMelts.exe program

New (June 2021): easyMelts can be started from Finder on macOS by double-clicking easyMelts.command (not easyMelts).

Operating instructions:

0. Hover mouse on the red (?) symbols for important tips

1. Title given will be the name of Exported Excel/.melts file

2. Initialize desired MELTS engine (rhyolite-MELTS 1.0.2, 1.1.0, or 1.2.0, or pMELTS) from 'Init'-menu

3. Set initial T & P

4. Set initial composition (sample initial composition is MORB-like). Please give a realistic composition or the program may crash

5. (Optional) Press Liquidus&RedistFeOx to shift starting temperature to system liquidus and to redistribute Fe-oxides according to selected fO2-buffer (it is recommended to set fO2-buffer to NONE after this)

6. (Optional) Set assimilation, fractionation and suppressed phases

• Assimilation works so that assimilated composition/mass is equilibrated with current composition EACH STEP

• Assimilation temperature only affects isenthalpic or isentropic modes

• See troubleshooting below if you encounter a crash on saving liquid assimilant

0. Set run settings, amount of calculation steps and change in parameters between equilibration steps

• Calculation mode restricts which parameters can be changed

• Isothermal mode minimizes Gibbs energy and keeps temperature constant during equilibration (TP can change between steps)

• Isenthalphic mode keeps Enthalpy constant during equilibration (HP)

• Isentropic mode keeps Entropy constant (SP)

• Isochoric mode preserves volume (VT)

0. Press EQUILIBRATE to run the MELTS calculation. Go through calculated steps using the slider on the right side of screen.

1. (Optional) Go to Plot-tab to see graphical output.

• Double-click on plot to fit data!

0. One of the following:

• Go back to 6 to and select different settings and continue calculation from where you left off.

• Reset state and start over

• Select 'Export XLSX' from 'Export' menu to save run to file. File is saved where program executable is located.

• To initialize different version of MELTS, restart the program

MELTS output/input

A MELTS input file can be exported at any time. This input file contains the 'current' state of the system and can be opened in some other MELTS software.

Typical MELTS .out and .tbl files containing all data and mineral information are also produced.

• On Windows and Linux, liquid+mineral tables are created in their own folder "tables". Note that this folder is not emptied automatically and files are overwritten only as necessary.

Troubleshooting

easyMelts crashes to desktop

• MELTS recalculates given oxides as liquid components (like FeSiO3), and may abort the program (leading to a crash) if components cannot be assigned. Give realistic liquid composition (also when assimilating). As a rule: SiO2 should always be present in liquid, except when TiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O, or fluid components are the only oxides present.
• Trying to assimilate graphite or diamond probably causes MELTS to abort program. Any carbonate in assimilation is also problematic and may cause crashes
• If easyMelts crashes when you try to view the plots then make sure you have the latest version (June 2021).

easyMelts does not start

• On macOS Catalina go to Settings->Security and Privacy->General tab and select 'Allow Anyway'
• Check if your antivirus software blocks easyMelts from running
• Check that your system meets the requirements
• 64-bit operating system
• OpenGL 3.3 compliant GPU and drivers
• (Windows) Windows 7/8/10
• (Linux) X11-compatible environment. Tested on Ubuntu 18.10
• (macOS) Tested on version 10.11 (El Capitan) and newer

email the author at einari.suikkanen[at]gmail.com for any questions