Tutorials

The tutorials form one path from a single chain to a coupled floating wind turbine. Each is self-contained, runs a deck from the examples/ folder in seconds to a minute, shows the real console output and result files, explains what the numbers mean, and ends with exercises. Work them in order the first time; each one introduces a concept the next relies on.

#	Tutorial	You learn	Run time
1	Tutorial 1 — A grounded catenary chain	deck anatomy, static equilibrium from a trivial seed, `.out` and `.static.out`, touchdown, mesh convergence	< 1 s
2	Tutorial 2 — A spread mooring and its output channels	multi-line systems, the full output-channel vocabulary, per-line files, restoring force	< 1 s
3	Tutorial 3 — A lazy-wave power cable	finite bending stiffness, buoyancy sections, sag/hog bends, curvature and bend radius	< 1 s
4	Tutorial 4 — Prescribed fairlead motion	time-domain dynamics with a prescribed fairlead trajectory (`motionFile`)	< 1 s
5	Tutorial 5 — Current, waves, and convergence	current, regular and JONSWAP waves; time-step and mesh convergence	seconds
6	Tutorial 6 — Synthetic ropes	polyester and nylon: linear, viscoelastic, and Syrope constitutive models	seconds
7	Tutorial 7 — Buoys, bodies, and rods	6-DOF rigid buoys (`BODIES`) and rigid rods (`RODS`) in a mooring system	seconds
8	Tutorial 8 — Python studies and post-processing	parameter sweeps, provenance, statistics, rainflow fatigue, and spectra from Python	seconds
9	Tutorial 9 — A floating wind turbine in OpenFAST	the IEA-15MW VolturnUS-S floating turbine with CableDyn in `openfast.exe` (`CompMooring = 5`; OpenFAST is maintained by NLR, the National Laboratory of the Rockies, formerly NREL) and the MoorDyn A/B	~1 min
—	Standalone driver tutorial	a compact standalone-driver checklist: deck order, option reference, the three Lozon cables, prescribed motion, and convergence practice	seconds

Before you start

Complete Quickstart: first result in five minutes so the executable, the examples folder, and a results folder are in place. Commands are shown for the Windows release in PowerShell, run from the folder that holds CableDyn_driver.exe and examples:
```
C:\CableDyn> .\CableDyn_driver.exe .\examples\<deck>.dat .\results\<root>
```
Built from source? Use build\bin\cabledyn.exe (Windows, conda toolchain) or ./build/cabledyn (Linux/macOS) instead of .\CableDyn_driver.exe, and examples/ from the repository root. Everything else — arguments, files, exit codes, numbers — is identical.
Never edit the shipped decks in place: copy one, rename it, and edit the copy. Decks that reference auxiliary files (motion, Syrope, bathymetry) must be copied together with their data folder, because those paths are relative to the deck.
Skim Key concepts for the vocabulary (line, section, point, End A / End B). Units are SI throughout; tensions are in N, angles in degrees, z is positive up with the still-water line at z = 0.

A zero exit code is not validation

Every tutorial ends by checking the result against physics you can estimate by hand, or by refining the time step or mesh. Keep that habit for your own models.