OCTA FAQ

What is OCTA?: OCTA is an integrated simulation system for soft materials. Current version of OCTA consists of four simulation engines (COGNAC, PASTA, SUSHI, and MUFFIN), and additional engines NAPLES, KAPSEL and a simulation platform GOURMET. All the engines use UDF (User Definable Format) for their input and output files. By using GOURMET, you can edit input UDF files, run the engines, and analyze the output UDF. OCTA is free of charge and distributed with an open source policy. For more detail, see What's the OCTA page.

I have an OCTA installer in DVD. Can we (my friends) use it to install OCTA to their machines?: Yes, they can use OCTA in DVD. We recommend them to register from OCTA-BBS site as member (It's free) to get newest information of OCTA.

What is UDF?: UDF is a file format used by simulation engines in OCTA. You can view, edit and analyze UDF file by using GOURMET, the user interface software in OCTA. By using UDF for input/output files of your simulation engines, you can easily add your engines to OCTA system and use powerful analysis tools in GOURMET. UDF is a plain text file, and consists of definition part and data part. In the definition part, you can define the data structure of your engine in a simple and natural way. The data in UDF can be easily accessed and modified by using UDF interface libraries for C/C++, Fortran and Python.

What kind of problems can I solve by OCTA?: The engines included in OCTA covers from coarse-grained molecular dynamics to continium field dynamics, and can study wide range of temporal and spacial scales. They can be applied to various problems in soft materials (polymers, interfaces, etc.). Please check Examples page for sample applications.

What operating systems are supported by OCTA?: GOURMET and eache engine runs on Windows, Intel-based Linux, and Mac OS X.

Who can use OCTA?: There is neither limitation nor restriction for OCTA users. Anyone can use it for research and/or development. Students, professional researchers, engineers, etc. Feel free to try it. It is appreciated if you could submit your response to OCTA BBS.

How can I get any information about version-up (or bugs)?: Please visit our web-site, http://octa.jp. Pre-release version may be available at OCTA BBS.

Can I use the results obtained by OCTA for a scientific paper?: Congratulation for your success in using OCTA! Please acknowledge OCTA in the form "using OCTA (<http://octa.jp>)" in your paper.

Can I commercialize OCTA?: A right to commercialize OCTA is kept by OCTA licensing committee. Please contact the commitee and get certification. For more detail, please consult our BBS.