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0001 <chapter id="tutorials">
0002 <title>Getting familiar with &step;: the tutorials</title>
0003 
0004 <para>The <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>Open Tutorial...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item brings you a file dialog where you can load &step; built-in tutorials. There are five tutorials and you will progressively learn how to interact with each of &step; element. The best is to start with the first tutorial by clicking on the file <filename>tutorial1.step</filename>. This will display Tutorial 1 in &step;.
0005 </para>
0006 
0007 <note><para>If you do not see the tutorial properly you can try to zoom in to display it better.</para></note>
0008 
0009 <para>The <guilabel>World</guilabel> panel on the right lists all the objects you have on your scene. By clicking on an object here, the <guilabel>Properties</guilabel> panel below displays this object properties. You can change the properties here by clicking on the one you want to modify.
0010 </para>
0011 
0012 <para>Each tutorial consists in some text presenting the new elements and explaining their properties. Then you are asked to change some properties of the elements in order to achieve a new result of the experiment.
0013 </para>
0014 
0015 <sect1 id="tutorial1">
0016 <title>Tutorial 1: Bodies and springs</title>
0017 
0018 <para>This tutorial presents you bodies and springs and how to start your first simulation.
0019 </para>
0020 
0021 <para>A physical body or body for short is an object which can be described by the theories of classical mechanics, or quantum mechanics, and experimented upon with physical instruments. This includes the determination of position, and in some cases the orientation in space, as well as means to change these, by exerting forces.
0022 </para>
0023 
0024 <para>A spring is a flexible elastic object used to store mechanical energy.
0025 </para>
0026 
0027 <screenshot>
0028   <screeninfo>Tutorial 1 experiment</screeninfo>
0029   <mediaobject>
0030     <imageobject><imagedata fileref="tutorial1.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
0031     <textobject><phrase>Tutorial 1 experiment</phrase></textobject>
0032   </mediaobject>
0033 </screenshot>
0034 
0035 <para>The physical experiment in this tutorial represents two disks linked by a spring. Disks have an initial velocity in a tangential direction (the little blue arrow)  and an acceleration (the red arrow) and springs have a stiffness and the length can be changed. Running the experiment you can see the disks being pulled and pushed by the spring. The tutorial invites you to modify the spring stiffness and also to try to change the system experiment.
0036 </para>
0037 
0038 <para>At the end of this tutorial you should be more familiar with &step; interface and you should also be able to easily change bodies properties.
0039 </para>
0040 </sect1>
0041 
0042 <sect1 id="tutorial2">
0043 <title>Tutorial 2: Controllers and graphs</title>
0044 
0045 <para>You will learn more about controllers and graphs in this tutorial.
0046 </para>
0047 
0048 <para>A controller is a device which allows you to graphically modify a property of a body or a spring. In the tutorial, the controller allows you to change the stiffness of the spring <quote>spring1</quote>. By moving the slider to the right or using the <keycap>W</keycap> key you can increase spring1 stiffness value and by moving the slider to the left or using the <keycap>Q</keycap> key you can decrease it. Right-clicking on the controller brings you several context actions and the <guimenuitem>Configure Controller...</guimenuitem> item shows a dialog allows you to change each property of the controller.
0049 </para>
0050 
0051 <screenshot>
0052   <screeninfo>Tutorial 2 experiment</screeninfo>
0053   <mediaobject>
0054     <imageobject><imagedata fileref="tutorial2.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
0055     <textobject><phrase>Tutorial 2 experiment</phrase></textobject>
0056   </mediaobject>
0057 </screenshot>
0058 
0059 <para>Graphs allow you to graphically visualize the relationship between two variables. The example in the tutorial prints the evolution of the position of particle1 while time advances in world1. With a right click on a graph you can clear or delete the graph as well as edit the configuration dialog and change here all the properties for this graph.
0060 </para>
0061 
0062 <para>At the end of this tutorial you are able to use controllers to act on your bodies properties and graphs to monitor specific properties in your experiment.
0063 </para>
0064 </sect1>
0065 
0066 <sect1 id="tutorial3">
0067 <title>Tutorial 3: Rigid bodies and tracers</title>
0068 
0069 <para>Tutorial 3 presents you rigid bodies and tracers.
0070 </para>
0071 
0072 <para>A rigid body is an idealization of a solid body of finite size in which deformation is neglected. In other words, the distance between any two given points of a rigid body remains constant in time regardless of external forces exerted on it.
0073 </para>
0074 
0075 <para>A tracer is a tool which shows the trajectory of a given point on a rigid body.
0076 </para>
0077 
0078 <screenshot>
0079   <screeninfo>Disk properties</screeninfo>
0080   <mediaobject>
0081     <imageobject><imagedata fileref="disk-properties.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
0082     <textobject><phrase>Disk properties</phrase></textobject>
0083   </mediaobject>
0084 </screenshot>
0085 
0086 <para>When a rigid body (here a disk) is selected you see three grey handlers on it. Using them by clicking on them and moving them, you can change the velocity, the angle and the angular velocity of the body.
0087 </para>
0088 
0089 <screenshot>
0090   <screeninfo>Tutorial 3: 2 tracers</screeninfo>
0091   <mediaobject>
0092     <imageobject><imagedata fileref="tutorial3.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
0093     <textobject><phrase>Tutorial 3: 2 tracers</phrase></textobject>
0094   </mediaobject>
0095 </screenshot>
0096 
0097 <para>The experiment in Tutorial 3 shows a disk and a box linked by a spring. A tracer (the blue one) is already on the box. You can add a second one: select the <guibutton>Tracer</guibutton> button in the <guilabel>Palette</guilabel> panel then click on the box on the point where you want the tracer to be. In the <guilabel>Properties</guilabel> panel, click on the <guilabel>color</guilabel> line and on the right of this line you can click on the blue square and a color palette appears: you can choose a new color for the tracer. The screenshot above shows two tracers after the simulation is run for a few seconds.
0098 </para>
0099 </sect1>
0100 
0101 <sect1 id="tutorial4">
0102 <title>Tutorial 4: Motors and forces</title>
0103 
0104 <para>You have two sorts of motors available in &step;: linear motors and circular motors. A linear motor applies a constant force to a given point on a body while a circular motor applies a constant angular momentum to a body.
0105 </para>
0106 
0107 <para>Three different forces can be added to bodies: the weight force, the gravitation force and the Coulomb force. By default all forces are turned off in &step;. Coulomb force is a force which existed intrinsically between two charges.
0108 </para>
0109 
0110 <screenshot>
0111   <screeninfo>Tutorial 4: Motors</screeninfo>
0112   <mediaobject>
0113     <imageobject><imagedata fileref="tutorial4.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
0114     <textobject><phrase>Tutorial 4: Motors</phrase></textobject>
0115   </mediaobject>
0116 </screenshot>
0117 
0118 <para>In the experiment you have a disk and a box linked by a spring. A flat box at the bottom will make a boundary. The disk and the box both have a linear motor applied to them. Two controllers allow you to change the force value of each motor. Start the simulation and play with the controllers. Then stop the simulation and add a weight force in the world (forces are global and apply to the whole world). Restart the simulation and analyze the difference.
0119 </para>
0120 
0121 <para>You can also remove the linear motor on the box and add a circular motor instead. Press on the <inlinemediaobject><imageobject><imagedata fileref="step_object_CircularMotor.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject></inlinemediaobject> <guibutton>CircularMotor</guibutton> button in the <guilabel>Palette</guilabel> panel and then click on the box. The circular motor is applied to the box. You then need to set the torque value by clicking and moving the grey handler of the motor.
0122 </para>
0123 
0124 <screenshot>
0125   <screeninfo>Circular motor</screeninfo>
0126   <mediaobject>
0127     <imageobject><imagedata fileref="circular-motor.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
0128     <textobject><phrase>Circular motor</phrase></textobject>
0129   </mediaobject>
0130 </screenshot>
0131 
0132 <para>This tutorial introduced you with motors and forces and you should now be able to add those to bodies.</para>
0133 </sect1>
0134 
0135 <sect1 id="tutorial5">
0136 <title>Tutorial 5: Joints</title>
0137 
0138 <para>Joints are objects that attaches bodies to each other or to the background. You have a the following joints in &step;: anchors, pins and sticks. An anchor is a joint that fixes position of the body. The body cannot move when it has an anchor. A pin is a joint that fixes one point of the body, the body can still move around the pin. A stick is a joint that fixes the distance between two points on two bodies.
0139 </para>
0140 
0141 <screenshot>
0142   <screeninfo>Tutorial 5: double pendulum</screeninfo>
0143   <mediaobject>
0144     <imageobject><imagedata fileref="tutorial5.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject>
0145     <textobject><phrase>Tutorial 5: double pendulum</phrase></textobject>
0146   </mediaobject>
0147 </screenshot>
0148 
0149 <para>Tutorial 5 describes a double pendulum.
0150 </para>
0151 
0152 <para>Add a <inlinemediaobject><imageobject><imagedata fileref="step_object_Particle.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject></inlinemediaobject> <guibutton>Particle</guibutton> to the scene then join this particle to Particle2 with a stick. Press the <inlinemediaobject><imageobject><imagedata fileref="step_object_Stick.png" format="PNG"/></imageobject></inlinemediaobject> <guibutton>Stick</guibutton> button on the <guilabel>Palette</guilabel> panel. You then need to select the first object attached to the stick (particle2) with the left mouse button then drag the mouse to the second object (particle3) and release the mouse button on particle3. You now have a triple pendulum!
0153 </para>
0154 </sect1>
0155 
0156 </chapter>