Creating Input Files

Home

The input files for OpenMOC are structured in a set of XML files. XML, which stands for eXtensible Markup Language, is a simple format that allows data to be exchanged efficiently between different programs and interfaces.

Anyone who has ever seen webpages written in HTML will be familiar with the structure of XML whereby “tags” enclosed in angle brackets denote that a particular piece of data will follow. Let us examine the follow example:

<person>  
  <firstname>John</firstname>  
  <lastname>Smith</lastname>  
  <age>27</age>  
  <occupation>Health Physicist</occupation>  
</person>  

Here we see that the first tag indicates that the following data will describe a person. The nested tags firstname, lastname, age, and occupation indicate characteristics about the person being described.

In much the same way, OpenMOC input uses XML tags to describe the geometry and materials for a method of characteristics simulation. To assemble a complete model for OpenMOC, one needs to create separate XML files for the geometry and materials and pass these files to the simulation at runtime as described in Run OpenMOC. In addition, you may have to change some compile time flags as described in Build OpenMOC if you are not using the default number of polar angles or energy groups.

Now that you are familiar with XML syntax, try creating your own geometry and materials input files by going through the tutorials below.

Create Geometry Input Files

Create Material Input Files