Creating an ACE3P Project
=========================

.. figure:: images/ace3p-menu.png
    :figwidth: 40%
    :align: right

Most of your menu interactions will be with the :guilabel:`ACE3P` project menu, which has items to open existing ModelBuilder projects, create new projects, save projects, and close projects. It also includes a menu item "Export Analysis..." to generate an :program:`ACE3P` input file from your project, and "Login to NERSC" which enables you to  submit :program:`ACE3P` simulation jobs to computing resources at NERSC.

To provide a working example, we will be using the ``pillbox-rtop4.gen`` mesh file from the :program:`ACE3P` code workshops. You can download a copy of this file from the `ModelBuilder for ACE3P Data Folder <https://data.kitware.com/#collection/58fa68228d777f16d01e03e5/folder/60aef5cf2fa25629b9b69632>`_ if needed.

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1\. Specify a New Project Directory

To begin, open the :guilabel:`ACE3P` menu and select the :guilabel:`New Project...` item. In response, ModelBuilder displays a dialog for setting the project name and file system location for storing persistent data.

.. image:: images/new-project-name.png
    :align: center


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2\. Input the Analysis Mesh

When you click the :guilabel:`Next` button, modelbuilder displays a dialog to select the mesh geometry file from the local file system. You can enter a Genesis (.gen) file or NetCDF (.ncdf) file. Use the :guilabel:`Browse` button to locate and enter the ``pillbox-rtop4.gen`` file and click the :guilabel:`Create Project` button.

.. image:: images/new-project-meshfile.png
    :align: center

:program:`ModelBuilder for ACE3P` will then create the new project and import the geometry file. When done, the dialog will display a :guilabel:`Finished` message. When you click the dialog's :guilabel:`Close` button, modelbuilder will display the pillbox mesh in the 3-D view and the :guilabel:`Attribute Editor` tab will contain a child tab labeled `Modules`.

.. image:: images/project-created.png
    :align: center
