Launch the file 'Laser.exe'. If all goes well, two forms entitled 'Main' and 'Visualisation' will be created. If something goes wrong, please follow the recommendations given in the installation tutorial.


Step 1. Open the demonstration project


Search the menu bar on the top of the form entitled 'LASER / F Main'

  1. > 'Projet' > 'Ouvrir',

  2. select the subdirectory 'Demo' in the dialog box ,

  3. choose the 'construction.lsr' file > 'Open': the project entitled 'construction' will open.

Step 2. Visualization of the 3D scene


The 3D scene corresponding to the project is now displayed in the background form entitled 'Visualisation'. Bring this form into the front. The 3D scene is displayed in the black viewer component.

  1. Move your mouse over the viewer,

  2. Choose a point on the scene by right-clicking on any coloured object ,

  3. Zoom in or out of the 3D scene with the wheel,

  4. Rotate around a selected point by keeping the left mouse button pressed and move.

  5. Rotate the scene with the arrows of the NUMERIC KEYPAD: left, right, top, down.

Some basic information are displayed in the groupbox 'Info' in the lower part of the 'Visualisation' form.
A list of objects is also available in the treeview located in the upper left part of the form. You can choose any object in the list by clicking on it. Each object is identified with a unique number and name stored in the 'construction.geo' file.
Activate the checkboxes in the viewing options groupbox (beware: some of them are not active!).
It is possible to create a brief video of your 3D scene by clicking on the 'Video' checkbox. This creates a file in *.avi format. Activate the checkbox and give a name to the file in the dialog box that will open. The content of the viewer component is registered in the *.avi file until you deactivate the checkbox. The *.avi file can then be viewed, as for example with Windows Media Player.

Step 3. Launch a simulation


  1. Activate the 'Main' form and click on the 'Simulation' page (see beside),

  2. In the groupbox 'Fichiers', click on the white label entitled 'Nom du fichier de forçage météo' to choose the file that contains the weather forcing corresponding to the simulation period. In the dialog box that will open, select the file 'Fichier_Forcage.csv' > 'Open',

  3. In the groupbox 'Fichiers', click on the white label entitled 'Nom générique du fichier de sauvegarde' to choose a generic name for the files in which the results will be saved to disk. In the dialog box that will open, type a name, for example 'test' > 'Enregistrer',

  4. Save the project: 'Menu bar' > 'Projet' > 'Enregistrer',

  5. Launch the simulation: in the 'Simulation' page, click on the 'Simulation' button. This will launch a simulation for a period of 24h, with a time step of 900s, from 6am on july 7 to 6 am on july 8, 2016. Results are stored on disk files every 3600s. This will typically take about 2mn on a PC equipped with a Intel Core i5 2.3GHz processor. Follow the task progression on the progress bar located at the bottom of the 'Main' form. The 'Stop' button allows you to cancel the simulation (effective after all parallel processes have ended).

The 'Simulation' page

Step 4. Visualization of the results


Once the simulation is fully completed, the results that were saved on disk can be viewed in 3D.

  1. In the menu bar of the 'Main' form, > 'Résultats' > 'Exploiter une simulation',

  2. Make sure you are in the directory where you requested to store the results. In the list of * .reb files, choose a file among all those whose name starts with the generic name that you defined beforehand (e.g. 'test-20160707-100000.reb') > 'Ouvrir',

  3. Click on the 'Visualisation' page. In the groupbox 'Résultats', 'Sélection principale' check the result you want to visualize:
    'Temp. surface' for example if you want to see the surface temperatures,

  4. Activate the 'Visualisation' form to see the results in 3D,

  5. Use the set of buttons at the bottom of the viewer to move forward or backward in time (this will also change the active *.reb file)

If you want to see the materials again, check 'Voir matériaux' (default option). The choices in 'Sélection principale' groupbox are mutually exclusive.
If you want to visualize the components of the radiation balance, check 'Flux' in 'Sélection principale' groupbox, and check one variable available in the 'Flux' groupbox. Warning: these variables can be added all together, for example it is possible to check simultaneously 'Direct' and 'Diffus' to visualise the solar global radiation.

More information about how exploit the results can be found in 'Results' tutorial.