Introduction

This page is the C++ code documentation of the VOTCA package (http://www.votca.org). The main target of VOTCA-CSG is the implementation of systematic coarse-graining techniques. However, it offers a powerful, object-oriented framework to develop analysis tools for particle based molecular simulations.

A later addition is the VOTCA-XTP package for charge/excition transport and electronic structure calculations using GW-BSE. Here we focus on CSG first.

Getting started

To start developing custom analysis tools, a good place to start is the csgapps folder:

https://github.com/votca/votca/tree/master/csg/src/csgapps

It contains several small analysis tools which were implemented based upon the VOTCA-CSG framework. We highly recomment to use an IDE such as Visual Studio Code for development since it offers lots of guides to get started with new code (code completion, code documentation popups, navigation through code, ...).

The main container for the whole structure is the Topology, so it is a good advise to get comfortable with this class. Also the standard applications in csg/src/tools might help.

For beginners: how to avoid frustration

For those not familiar with object oriented code: don't try to dig into every single function in order to understand what exactly is going on. This strategy only works for very small projects and is not intended for oject oriented programs. Think about the code in layers of abstraction! Your main focus should be on the global structure and understand how objects relate to each other. The code was designed that you don't have to redo and understand all the nasty details!