Launcher Tutorial

Introduction to Launcher 2022

cmgl.ca #FutureOfSimulation
22.CMG.20
 Contents
CMG's Launcher Application ............................................................................................... 3
Launcher Sections ................................................................................................................ 4
Section 1 ............................................................................................................................................... 4
Section 2 ............................................................................................................................................... 4
Section 3 ............................................................................................................................................... 5
Section 4 ............................................................................................................................................... 5
Projects ................................................................................................................................. 7
Documentation Browser and Help Materials ...................................................................... 8
Documentation Browser ..................................................................................................................... 8
Manuals ................................................................................................................................................. 8
Contents Browser .............................................................................................................................................9
Keyword List ..................................................................................................................................................... 9
Search Option ................................................................................................................................................. 10
Template Files .................................................................................................................................... 10

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 CMG's Launcher Application
CMG’s Launcher application was designed to aid users in organizing files and programs as well
as running CMG simulators. Launcher contains numerous advantages to using Windows
Explorer such as allowing the user to create projects to organize files, allows convenient access
to help manuals and tutorials, and organizes all installed versions of CMG software.

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 Launcher Sections
1. When installed, the Launcher icon will appear on the desktop. Double-click on the icon
to open Launcher (if not already open).

2. Once open it can be noted that Launcher is divided into 4 main sections:

Section 1
The purpose of Section 1 is to help in the organization of folders. Specific folders can be
navigated to by using the buttons on the top menu bar.

Section 2
After the appropriate folder has been navigated to in Section 1, the contents of the
folder will appear in Section 2.
The files being shown in this window can be filtered based on their associated use (e.g.
Simulator files, Results files, etc.) by using the filter option on the top toolbar (highlighted
below):

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 Files in this section can be copy/pasted by right clicking on them and selecting
copy/paste.
Files in this section can be opened in a CMG product or run in a simulator by 'dragging
and dropping' it onto the associated executable’s icon in Section 3.

Section 3
This section contains CMG products organized by version in different tabs. Certain
products with graphical user interfaces (GUIs) can be opened by double clicking on them
such as Builder, Results, WinProp, cEDIT and CMOST-AI. The simulators (IMEX,
STARS, and GEM) do not have associated GUIs and should be run by dragging a
dataset file onto their icon.
When new CMG versions are installed, the user will be prompted to add icons the next
time they open Launcher. This can also be done through Configuration → Icons and
Projects → Import Release Manifest.
Non-CMG executables may be added to this window as shortcuts. Common programs
may include Microsoft Office products (Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), text editing software
(Textpad, Notepad, etc.), or other programs (ExamDiff).

Section 4
This section displays information on queued, completed, or running datasets.
To launch a dataset the user drags and drops the dataset file (.dat) onto the associated
simulator. After selecting the appropriate run options from the window which appears
(covered in the tutorial) the run will be launched and appear in this section.

Information displayed relating to the runs that will be of most interest include: Job Name
(file name), Status, Scheduler, Submitted time, Started time, Finished times and Message.

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 Shown in the above image is what a user may expect to see when a simulation is
Complete, Running, and still waiting to start.
If a run has failed to launch to then it will turn Red (as opposed to the Green shown
above) indicating that it has encountered an issue. It should be noted, though, that this
may not be related to the run terminating abnormally or due to an error while running (as
often these runs will display Complete and the user will need to look at the .Log file to
determine if the run was successful).
Scheduler refers to the computer or resource that the simulation was ran on. If Local is
listed then the run was done on the current machine. Launcher allows users to send a
simulation to a separate computer or cluster through different schedulers (common ones
include Microsoft HPC, IBM Platform LSF, and Oracle Grid Engine).
'Submitted At' indicates when the simulation was launched. This may not necessarily
coincide with the 'Started At’ time as when a simulation starts will be based on
availability of both computer and license resources. Simulations may also be queued by
the user to start running based on numerous controls (a specific time, after another
specified simulation is complete, etc.).
'Finished At' indicates the date and time that the simulation was completed. The
difference between the 'Started At' and 'Finished At' times give the elapsed run-time.
This can also be found at the bottom of the .log file.

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 Projects
Users can create Projects to associate their files with. Projects can act as a bookmark
for runs associated with each other. To add, modify, or delete a project use the
shortcuts on the menu bar:

Projects can be quickly switched by using the top toolbar’s Project dropdown.

Please note that a project is a shortcut to a particular file location and that deleting a project just
deletes the shortcut but the files associated with it are not deleted.

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 Documentation Browser and Help Materials
To assist users in the application of CMG software manuals and template files have been
included with each installation.

Documentation Browser

The Documentation Browser (opened with the toolbar shortcut or the Help Menu)
sorts the available manuals and help materials by version for the easy viewing.

Materials displayed will include the Manuals and other related documents. By checking
the box to Show All Files the user is able to view additional materials such as Readme
files contained in the documentation.

Manuals
Double-clicking on the manual through the CMG Documentation Browser will open the
manual in your default web browser. There are 3 main options for locating information in
the manual:
1. Contents Browser
2. Keyword List
3. Search Option

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 Contents Browser
The Contents Browser is an interactive table of contents which is organized based on
the different sections of a dataset. By clicking on a section in the Contents List, the
corresponding section will be shown on the page on the right.

Keyword List
A list of all keywords available in the associated simulator which appear when opening a
simulator dataset in a text editor such as cEDIT. All available keywords are listed in
alphabetical order. The list can also be filtered using the search option located above the
list.
This list is helpful for users who are working in a text editor in the dataset and wish to
gain a better understanding of a particular keyword or for those who wish to enter a
keyword by typing directly into the dataset.

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 Search Option
The search option will search the manual pages for the words input. Multiple matching
pages may be returned and results are sorted based on the best match to the words
entered.

In a given manual section the user is able to gain knowledge on all aspects of the
particular feature or keyword. This includes breakdowns of all available options for Input
Values and their definitions, Keyword Syntax, Default Values (if applicable), Conditions
of usage, Explanation, and Literary References (if applicable).

Template Files
Template files are automatically installed with any CMG installation. By default, the
template files can be found in the CMG directory. The location of the CMG directory
may vary from one computer to the next but the default location will be:
C-Drive → Program Files (x86) → CMG → Associated Simulator (i.e. STARS, IMEX,
etc.) → Associated Version (i.e. 2020.10, 2021.10, etc.) → TPL

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 These files may also be found in the My Documents folder if the 'Add Projects' box was
checked when adding an icon tab following installation. These can be later copied and
included in the project list through Configuration → Icons and Projects → Import
Release Manifest.
In the TPL folder there will be multiple subfolders and a text file commonly named
template.txt or template.lst. This text file is a list of all associated templates. For
example, the first template referenced in this file for IMEX is mxdrm001.dat. This file’s
information is displayed below:

The location of this template is described by its name. The 'mx' refers to the simulator
(e.g. mx = IMEX, st = STARS, gm = GEM, etc.). The next 3 letters refers to the
subfolder it is located in (e.g. folder drm). The final 3 numbers are which dataset in the
subfolder it is (in this example the first file).
Template files are fully built datasets which may be ran, opened in Builder, or opened in
a text editor such as cEDIT for examination. The template files give additional
understanding for the keyword setup/syntax for certain processes. The template.txt file
is a text document which means it may be searched in a text editor for a specific process
being investigated to find template files associated with it. There are template files
available for IMEX, STARS, GEM, CMOST-AI, WinProp, Builder, and Results.

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