Installing and using PHYSICA

When I have to install PHYSICA I am given 3 files and then some example cases. the 3 files are:

1. physica3g.exe
2. phy3g.bat
3. phylic.dat this one is the licence file

According to the physica website you are given a CD with a file called pinstall.bat I was never given this, so I have to do this manually. The first step is to group these 3 files and the examples into a folder call it 'Physica' and put it in the root of the computer (i.e. for windows computers it should be in the path C:\Physica). After this we need to add some paths in the computer so it knows what to run. For Windows XP computers:

• Step 1: Right hand click on 'My Computer' and select properties OR press the 'Start' button then click 'Control Panel' and click on 'System'
• Step 2: There are a number of tabs on the top of 'System Properties' you will be automatically on the 'General' tab, click on the 'Advanced' tab. This will have Performance settings, User profiles settings, start up and recovery settings. You can ignore all of these as you want a button called 'Environment Variable'.
• Step 3: Under 'System Variables' section You need to create a new variable called 'PHYKEY' so click 'New'. The Variable name will be 'PHYKEY' and the Variable Value will be the path to physica.exe so it should be 'C:\Physica'.
• Step 4: We are not yet done with 'System Variable'. You need to edit 'Path' Variable. Select the variable and click edit (or double click path variable) Under Variable Value we need to ADD something to the end of it. Put ';C:\Physica' and click 'ok' and you are done.
• Step 5: Testing. Run one of the test cases to check it runs. Open up the 'command prompt' located by clicking start button, click 'All programs','Accessories' then 'Command Prompt'. Back up to C:\ by typing 'cd ..' do this until it says 'C:\' then type 'cd ' then the path to one of the test cases then type 'phy3g' or if your 'phy3g.bat' is called something different type that in and it should work perfectly.

If you are getting started with Physica or your out of practise with physica you can use the Website or the website I designed for my MSc project. My one actually generates the inform file for you, it also can generate mesh and plotpar files you can use (you have to rename them as just 'inform','filename.md' and 'plotpar' though).

Plotpar files produce pretty images, although you do have to install Ghostscript and GSview to view these images, these application are free to download

What is a facebook page rss feed?

The author who i found this out from ahrengot.com/ found out when you go to a page it sometimes has numbers after it i.e. Mousehunt which page is

http://www.facebook.com/pages/MouseHunt/273678496019476

You can use the number to create a rss feed which looks like this

http://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?format=rss20&id=273678496019476

This works, some pages still have this feature which is brilliant.

Unfotunately facebook has upgraded the pages, which is good for design and looks good but they forgot about the people who like rss. Fear not, whilst scrolling through the comments one person (Stanwin) found the solution. What he did was on the page you want the rss off, go to photos (i presume this works with other stuff) click on an image and the url will look like this:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=354695431234035&set=a.318573378179574.69412.318522041518041&type=1&theater

The number in bold is the one your interested in and you repeat what you did before so rss looks like

http://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?format=rss20&id=318522041518041

And there you go it's all done.

Physica website testing week 1

The website is finished (sort of Scalar module isn't done yet), all that is left to do is testing. I have received all the Physica test cases and as of Monday I have begun testing the website. Unfortunately some of the test cases are 6 years old so they may need to be updated and isn't exactly helpful.
On the plus side I will be able to test any silly mistakes I have made whilst making the website. Silly mistakes I have made so far and have corrected:

1. In the Geometry module, gravity couldn't be set below zero.
2. Also in Geometry module gravity Z wouldn't display
3. In the Monitor module OUTPUT_INTERVAL was misnamed
4. In Generic module the code doesn't include "TRANSIENT_RUN"
5. Also in Generic module>transient>Delta_t>Cfl_Based CFL_LIMIT misnamed
6. under Generic module>Transient END_TIME default is 1.0E+20
7. In Inform Option New doesn't reset everything. Also need to add a confirm button for option New
8. Material properties module doesn't display the code after refresh
9. not put a confirm new button on inform page
10. not put in the extra JavaScript needed to display content when clicked on
11. put an option for FALSE_TIMESTEP and UNDER_RELAXATION to use

Some mistakes that need further investigation:

1. In Free Surface module>SOLVE_FREESURF CONVECTION_METHOD is missing, one of the options is VAN_LEER
2. under Free surface module>Level_set_method LSM_WIDTH not found when running Physica
3. test cases>apps>fill04 run-time error M6201:MATH

Note to self

1. in the test cases under apps fill01, fill02, fill03, fill04 removed the extension ".gz". gz extension is a file compression
2. fill04 Inform file solidification module a lot of the code can be set in material properties module
3. mesh builder page has been updated to included everything, does need checking though
4. Generic module USER_INTERVAL_SAVE produces images if you have the plotpar file, if not use USER_MODULE
5. have to put Geometry file first for some reason otherwise it produces errors