Getting Started

Table of Contents

• Downstream C++ project
• Utility binaries
• Python script

Once the NEML2 library is built following the installation guide, the immediate question is

How do I evaluate a NEML2 material model?

Downstream C++ project

NEML2 core capabilities are implemented as a library, not a program. As a library, it will be used by another C++ program to parse and evaluate a material model defined in an input file. Boilerplate for the C++ program can be found in this set of tutorials, and external project integration is documented in the installation guide.

Utility binaries

We acknowledge the common need to use NEML2 as a standalone program and therefore provide utility binaries for common tasks.

As documented in build customization, the NEML2_TOOLS CMake option can be used to create these binaries.

When tools are enabled, NEML2 builds the following standalone executables:

• neml2-diagnose
• neml2-inspect
• neml2-run
• neml2-syntax
• neml2-time

When installed, these binaries are placed in the installed bin directory.

For the Python package, matching CLI wrappers are registered in pyproject.toml:

• neml2-diagnose
• neml2-inspect
• neml2-run
• neml2-syntax
• neml2-time

These commands dispatch to the shipped binaries bundled inside the Python package. See each tool's help message (for example, neml2-run --help) for further details.

Python script

The other option to evaluate NEML2 material models is to use the NEML2 Python package. As mentioned in the installation guide, NEML2 also provides a Python package which provides bindings for the primitive tensors and parsers for deserializing and running material models. This set of tutorials describes the usage of the package.