.. include:: header.rst

.. _the-openmm-library-introduction:

The OpenMM Library: Introduction
################################


What Is the OpenMM Library?
***************************

OpenMM consists of two parts.  First, there is a set of libraries for performing
many types of computations needed for molecular simulations: force evaluation,
numerical integration, energy minimization, etc.  These libraries provide an
interface targeted at developers of simulation software, allowing them to easily
add simulation features to their programs.

Second, there is an “application layer”, a set of Python libraries providing a
high level interface for running simulations.  This layer is targeted at
computational biologists or other people who want to run simulations, and who
may or may not be programmers.

The first part of this guide focused on the application layer and described how to run
simulations with it.  We now turn to the lower level libraries.  We will assume
you are a programmer, that you are writing your own applications, and that you
want to add simulation features to those applications.  The following chapters
describe how to do that with OpenMM.

How to get started
==================

We have provided a number of files that make it easy to get started with OpenMM.
Pre-compiled binaries are provided for quickly getting OpenMM onto your computer
(See Chapter :ref:`installing-openmm` for set-up instructions).  We recommend that you then
compile and run some of the tutorial examples, described in Chapter :ref:`openmm-tutorials`.
These highlight key functions within OpenMM and teach you the basic programming concepts for using
OpenMM.  Once you are ready to begin integrating OpenMM into a specific software package, read
through Chapter :ref:`examples-of-openmm-integration` to see how other software developers have
done this.

License
========

Two different licenses are used for different parts of OpenMM.  The public API,
the low level API, the reference platform, the CPU platform, and the application
layer are all distributed under the MIT
license.  This is a very permissive license which allows them to be used in
almost any way, requiring only that you retain the copyright notice and
disclaimer when distributing them.

The CUDA and OpenCL platforms are distributed under the GNU Lesser General
Public License (LGPL).  This also allows you to use, modify, and distribute them
in any way you want, but it requires you to also distribute the source code for
your modifications.  This restriction applies only to modifications to OpenMM
itself; you need not distribute the source code to applications that use it.

OpenMM also uses several pieces of code that were written by other people and
are covered by other licenses.  All of these licenses are similar in their terms
to the MIT license, and do not significantly restrict how OpenMM can be used.

All of these licenses may be found in the “licenses” directory included with
OpenMM.


Design Principles
*****************

The design of the OpenMM API is guided by the following principles.

1. The API must support efficient implementations on a variety of architectures.

The most important consequence of this goal is that the API cannot provide
direct access to state information (particle positions, velocities, etc.) at all
times.  On some architectures, accessing this information is expensive.  With a
GPU, for example, it will be stored in video memory, and must be transferred to
main memory before outside code can access it.  On a distributed architecture,
it might not even be present on the local computer.  OpenMM therefore only
allows state information to be accessed in bulk, with the understanding that
doing so may be a slow operation.

2. The API should be easy to understand and easy to use.

This seems obvious, but it is worth stating as an explicit goal.  We are
creating OpenMM with the hope that many other people will use it.  To achieve
that goal, it should be possible for someone to learn it without an enormous
amount of effort.  An equally important aspect of being “easy to use” is being
easy to use *correctly*\ .  A well designed API should minimize the
opportunities for a programmer to make mistakes.  For both of these reasons,
clarity and simplicity are essential.

3. It should be modular and extensible.

We cannot hope to provide every feature any user will ever want.  For that
reason, it is important that OpenMM be easy to extend.  If a user wants to add a
new molecular force field, a new thermostat algorithm, or a new hardware
platform, the API should make that easy to do.

4. The API should be hardware independent.

Computer architectures are changing rapidly, and it is impossible to predict
what hardware platforms might be important to support in the future.  One of the
goals of OpenMM is to separate the API from the hardware.  The developers of a
simulation application should be able to write their code once, and have it
automatically take advantage of any architecture that OpenMM supports, even
architectures that do not yet exist when they write it.

Choice of Language
******************

Molecular modeling and simulation tools are written in a variety of languages:
C, C++, Fortran, Python, TCL, etc.  It is important that any of these tools be
able to use OpenMM.  There are two possible approaches to achieving this goal.

One option is to provide a separate version of the API for each language.  These
could be created by hand, or generated automatically with a wrapper generator
such as SWIG.  This would require the API to use only “lowest common
denominator” features that can be reasonably supported in all languages.  For
example, an object oriented API would not be an option, since it could not be
cleanly expressed in C or Fortran.

The other option is to provide a single version of the API written in a single
language.  This would permit a cleaner, simpler API, but also restrict the
languages it could be directly called from.  For example, a C++ API could not be
invoked directly from Fortran or Python.

We have chosen to use a hybrid of these two approaches.  OpenMM is based on an
object oriented C++ API.  This is the primary way to invoke OpenMM, and is the
only API that fully exposes all features of the library.  We believe this will
ultimately produce the best, easiest to use API and create the least work for
developers who use it.  It does require that any code which directly invokes
this API must itself be written in C++, but this should not be a significant
burden.  Regardless of what language we had chosen, developers would need to
write a thin layer for translating between their own application’s data model
and OpenMM.  That layer is the only part which needs to be written in C++.

In addition, we have created wrapper APIs that allow OpenMM to be invoked from
other languages.  The current release includes wrappers for C, Fortran, and
Python.  These wrappers support as many features as reasonably possible given
the constraints of the particular languages, but some features cannot be fully
supported.  In particular, writing plug-ins to extend the OpenMM API can only be
done in C++.

We are also aware that some features of C++ can easily lead to compatibility and
portability problems, and we have tried to avoid those features.  In particular,
we make minimal use of templates and avoid multiple inheritance altogether.  Our
goal is to support OpenMM on all major compilers and operating systems.

Architectural Overview
**********************

OpenMM is based on a layered architecture, as shown in the following diagram:


.. figure:: ../images/ArchitectureLayers.jpg
   :align: center
   :width: 100%

   :autonumber:`Figure,OpenMM architecture`:  OpenMM architecture

At the highest level is the OpenMM public API.  This is the API developers
program against when using OpenMM within their own applications.  It is designed
to be simple, easy to understand, and completely platform independent.  This is
the only layer that many users will ever need to look at.

The public API is implemented by a layer of platform independent code.  It
serves as the interface to the lower level, platform specific code.  Most users
will never need to look at it.

The next level down is the OpenMM Low Level API (OLLA).  This acts as an
abstraction layer to hide the details of each hardware platform.  It consists of
a set of C++ interfaces that each platform must implement.  Users who want to
extend OpenMM will need to write classes at the OLLA level.  Note the different
roles played by the public API and the low level API: the public API defines an
interface for users to invoke in their own code, while OLLA defines an interface
that users must implement, and that is invoked by the OpenMM implementation
layer.

At the lowest level is hardware specific code that actually performs
computations.  This code may be written in any language and use any technologies
that are appropriate.  For example, code for GPUs will be written in stream
processing languages such as OpenCL or CUDA, code written to run on clusters
will use MPI or other distributed computing tools, code written for multicore
processors will use threading tools such as Pthreads or OpenMP, etc.  OpenMM
sets no restrictions on how these computational kernels are written.  As long as
they are wrapped in the appropriate OLLA interfaces, OpenMM can use them.

.. _the-openmm-public-api:

The OpenMM Public API
*********************

The public API is based on a small number of classes:

**System**\ : A System specifies generic properties of the system to be
simulated: the number of particles it contains, the mass of each one, the size
of the periodic box, etc.  The interactions between the particles are specified
through a set of Force objects (see below) that are added to the System.  Force
field specific parameters, such as particle charges, are not direct properties
of the System.  They are properties of the Force objects contained within the
System.

**Force**\ : The Force objects added to a System define the behavior of the
particles.  Force is an abstract class; subclasses implement specific behaviors.
The Force class is actually slightly more general than its name suggests.  A
Force can, indeed, apply forces to particles, but it can also directly modify
particle positions and velocities in arbitrary ways.  Some thermostats and
barostats, for example, can be implemented as Force classes.  Examples of Force
subclasses include HarmonicBondForce, NonbondedForce, and MonteCarloBarostat.

**Context**\ : This stores all of the state information for a simulation:
particle positions and velocities, as well as arbitrary parameters defined by
the Forces in the System.  It is possible to create multiple Contexts for a
single System, and thus have multiple simulations of that System in progress at
the same time.

**Integrator**\ : This implements an algorithm for advancing the simulation
through time.  It is an abstract class; subclasses implement specific
algorithms.  Examples of Integrator subclasses include LangevinIntegrator,
VerletIntegrator, and BrownianIntegrator.

**State**\ : A State stores a snapshot of the simulation at a particular point
in time.  It is created by calling a method on a Context.  As discussed earlier,
this is a potentially expensive operation.  This is the only way to query the
values of state variables, such as particle positions and velocities; Context
does not provide methods for accessing them directly.

Here is an example of what the source code to create a System and run a
simulation might look like:

.. code-block:: c

    System system;
    for (int i = 0; i < numParticles; ++i)
        system.addParticle(particle[i].mass);
    HarmonicBondForce* bonds = new HarmonicBondForce();
    system.addForce(bonds);
    for (int i = 0; i < numBonds; ++i)
        bonds->addBond(bond[i].particle1, bond[i].particle2,
            bond[i].length, bond[i].k);
    HarmonicAngleForce* angles = new HarmonicAngleForce();
    system.addForce(angles);
    for (int i = 0; i < numAngles; ++i)
        angles->addAngle(angle[i].particle1, angle[i].particle2,
            angle[i].particle3, angle[i].angle, angle[i].k);
    // ...create and initialize other force field terms in the same way
    LangevinIntegrator integrator(temperature, friction, stepSize);
    Context context(system, integrator);
    context.setPositions(initialPositions);
    context.setVelocities(initialVelocities);
    integrator.step(10000);

We create a System, add various Forces to it, and set parameters on both the
System and the Forces.  We then create a LangevinIntegrator, initialize a
Context in which to run a simulation, and instruct the Integrator to advance the
simulation for 10,000 time steps.

The OpenMM Low Level API
************************

The OpenMM Low Level API (OLLA) defines a set of interfaces that users must
implement in their own code if they want to extend OpenMM, such as to create a
new Force subclass or support a new hardware platform.  It is based on the
concept of “kernels” that define particular computations to be performed.

More specifically, there is an abstract class called **KernelImpl**\ .
Instances of this class (or rather, of its subclasses) are created by
**KernelFactory** objects.  These classes provide the concrete implementations
of kernels for a particular platform.  For example, to perform calculations on a
GPU, one would create one or more KernelImpl subclasses that implemented the
computations with GPU kernels, and one or more KernelFactory subclasses to
instantiate the KernelImpl objects.

All of these objects are encapsulated in a single object that extends
**Platform**\ . KernelFactory objects are registered with the Platform to be
used for creating specific named kernels.  The choice of what implementation to
use (a GPU implementation, a multithreaded CPU implementation, an MPI-based
distributed implementation, etc.) consists entirely of choosing what Platform to
use.

As discussed so far, the low level API is not in any way specific to molecular
simulation; it is a fairly generic computational API.  In addition to defining
the generic classes, OpenMM also defines abstract subclasses of KernelImpl
corresponding to specific calculations.  For example, there is a class called
CalcHarmonicBondForceKernel to implement HarmonicBondForce and a class called
IntegrateLangevinStepKernel to implement LangevinIntegrator.  It is these
classes for which each Platform must provide a concrete subclass.

This architecture is designed to allow easy extensibility.  To support a new
hardware platform, for example, you create concrete subclasses of all the
abstract kernel classes, then create appropriate factories and a Platform
subclass to bind everything together.  Any program that uses OpenMM can then use
your implementation simply by specifying your Platform subclass as the platform
to use.

Alternatively, you might want to create a new Force subclass to implement a new
type of interaction.  To do this, define an abstract KernelImpl subclass
corresponding to the new force, then write the Force class to use it.  Any
Platform can support the new Force by providing a concrete implementation of
your KernelImpl subclass.  Furthermore, you can easily provide that
implementation yourself, even for existing Platforms created by other people.
Simply create a new KernelFactory subclass for your kernel and register it with
the Platform object.  The goal is to have a completely modular system.  Each
module, which might be distributed as an independent library, can either add new
features to existing platforms or support existing features on new platforms.

In fact, there is nothing “special” about the kernel classes defined by OpenMM.
They are simply KernelImpl subclasses that happen to be used by Forces and
Integrators that happen to be bundled with OpenMM.  They are treated exactly
like any other KernelImpl, including the ones you define yourself.

It is important to understand that OLLA defines an interface, not an
implementation.  It would be easy to assume a one-to-one correspondence between
KernelImpl objects and the pieces of code that actually perform calculations,
but that need not be the case.  For a GPU implementation, for example, a single
KernelImpl might invoke several GPU kernels.  Alternatively, a single GPU kernel
might perform the calculations of several KernelImpl subclasses.

.. _platforms:

Platforms
*********

This release of OpenMM contains the following Platform subclasses:

**ReferencePlatform**\ : This is designed to serve as reference code for
writing other platforms.  It is written with simplicity and clarity in mind, not
performance.

**CpuPlatform**\ : This platform provides high performance when running on
conventional CPUs.

**CudaPlatform**\ : This platform is implemented using the CUDA language, and
performs calculations on Nvidia GPUs.

**OpenCLPlatform**\ : This platform is implemented using the OpenCL language,
and performs calculations on a variety of types of GPUs and CPUs.

The choice of which platform to use for a simulation depends on various factors:

#. The Reference platform is much slower than the others, and therefore is
   rarely used for production simulations.
#. The CPU platform is usually the fastest choice when a fast GPU is not
   available.  However, it requires the CPU to support SSE 4.1.  That includes most
   CPUs made in the last several years, but this platform may not be available on
   some older computers.  Also, for simulations that use certain features
   (primarily the various “custom” force classes), it may be faster to use the
   OpenCL platform running on the CPU.
#. The CUDA platform can only be used with NVIDIA GPUs.  For using an AMD or
   Intel GPU, use the OpenCL platform.
#. When running on recent NVIDIA GPUs (Fermi and Kepler generations), the CUDA
   platform is usually faster and should be used.  On older GPUs, the OpenCL
   platform is likely to be faster.  Also, some very old GPUs (GeForce 8000 and
   9000 series) are only supported by the OpenCL platform, not by the CUDA
   platform.
#. The AMOEBA force field only works with the CUDA platform, not with the OpenCL
   platform.  It also works with the Reference and CPU platforms, but the performance
   is usually too slow to be useful on those platforms.


.. _compiling-openmm-from-source-code:

Compiling OpenMM from Source Code
#################################

This chapter describes the procedure for building and installing OpenMM
libraries from source code.  It is recommended that you use binary OpenMM
libraries, if possible.  If there are not suitable binary libraries for your
system, consider building OpenMM from source code by following these
instructions.

Prerequisites
*************

Before building OpenMM from source, you will need the following:

* A C++ compiler

* CMake

* OpenMM source code


See the sections below for specific instructions for the different platforms.

Get a C++ compiler
==================

You must have a C++ compiler installed before attempting to build OpenMM from
source.

Mac and Linux: clang or gcc
---------------------------

Use clang or gcc on Mac/Linux.  OpenMM should compile correctly with all recent
versions of these compilers.  We recommend clang since it produces faster code,
especially when using the CPU platform.

If you do not already have a compiler installed, you will need to download and
install it.  On Mac OS X, this means downloading the Xcode Tools from the App
Store. (With Xcode 4.3, you must then launch Xcode, open the Preferences window,
go to the Downloads tab, and tell it to install the command line tools.  With
Xcode 4.2 and earlier, the command line tools are automatically installed when
you install Xcode.)

Windows: Visual Studio
----------------------

On Windows systems, use the C++ compiler in Visual Studio version 10 (2010) or
later.  You can download a free version of Visual C++ Express Edition from
http://www.microsoft.com/express/vc/.  If you plan to use use OpenMM from
Python, it is critical that both OpenMM and Python be compiled with the same
version of Visual Studio.

Install CMake
=============

CMake is the build system used for OpenMM.  You must install CMake version 2.8
or higher before attempting to build OpenMM from source.  You can get CMake from
http://www.cmake.org/.  If you choose to build CMake from source on Linux, make
sure you have the curses library installed beforehand, so that you will be able
to build the CCMake visual CMake tool.

Get the OpenMM source code
==========================

You will also need the OpenMM source code before building OpenMM from source.
To download and unpack OpenMM source code:

#. Browse to https://simtk.org/home/openmm.
#. Click the "Downloads" link in the navigation bar on the left side.
#. Download OpenMM<Version>-Source.zip, choosing the latest version.
#. Unpack the zip file.  Note the location where you unpacked the OpenMM source
   code.

Alternatively, if you want the most recent development version of the code rather
than the version corresponding to a particular release, you can get it from
https://github.com/pandegroup/openmm.  Be aware that the development code is constantly
changing, may contain bugs, and should never be used for production work.  If
you want a stable, well tested version of OpenMM, you should download the source
code for the latest release as described above.

Other Required Software
=======================

There are several other pieces of software you must install to compile certain
parts of OpenMM.  Which of these you need depends on the options you select in
CMake.

* For compiling the CUDA Platform, you need:

   * CUDA (See Chapter :ref:`installing-openmm` for installation instructions.)

* For compiling the OpenCL Platform, you need:

   * OpenCL (See Chapter :ref:`installing-openmm` for installation instructions.)

* For compiling C and Fortran API wrappers, you need:

   * Python 2.6 or later (http://www.python.org)
   * Doxygen (http://www.doxygen.org)
   * A Fortran compiler

* For compiling the Python API wrappers, you need:

   * Python 2.6 or later (http://www.python.org)
   * SWIG (http://www.swig.org)
   * Doxygen (http://www.doxygen.org)

* For compiling the CPU platform, you need:

   * FFTW, single precision multithreaded version (http://www.fftw.org)

* To generate API documentation, you need:

   * Doxygen (http://www.doxygen.org)



Step 1: Configure with CMake
****************************


Build and source directories
============================

First, create a directory in which to build OpenMM.  A good name for this
directory is build_openmm.  We will refer to this as the “build_openmm
directory” in the instructions below.  This directory will contain the temporary
files used by the OpenMM CMake build system.  Do not create this build directory
within the OpenMM source code directory.  This is what is called an “out of
source” build, because the build files will not be mixed with the source files.

Also note the location of the OpenMM source directory (i.e., where you unpacked
the source code zip file).  It should contain a file called CMakeLists.txt.
This directory is what we will call the “OpenMM source directory” in the
following instructions.

Starting CMake
==============

Configuration is the first step of the CMake build process.  In the
configuration step, the values of important build variables will be established.

Mac and Linux
-------------

On Mac and Linux machines, type the following two lines:
::

    cd build_openmm
    ccmake -i <path to OpenMM src directory>

That is not a typo.  :code:`ccmake` has two c’s.  CCMake is the visual CMake
configuration tool.         Press “\ :code:`c`\ ” within the CCMake interface to
configure CMake.  Follow the instructions in the “All Platforms” section below.

Windows
-------

On Windows, perform the following steps:

#. Click Start->All Programs->CMake 2.8->CMake
#. In the box labeled "Where is the source code:" browse to OpenMM src directory
   (containing top CMakeLists.txt)
#. In the box labeled "Where to build the binaries" browse to your build_openmm
   directory.
#. Click the "Configure" button at the bottom of the CMake screen.
#. Select "Visual Studio 10 2010" from the  list of Generators (or whichever
   version you have installed)
#. Follow the instructions in the “All Platforms” section below.


All platforms
-------------

There are several variables that can be adjusted in the CMake interface:

* If you intend to use CUDA (NVIDIA) or OpenCL acceleration, set the variable
  OPENMM_BUILD_CUDA_LIB or OPENMM_BUILD_OPENCL_LIB, respectively, to ON.  Before
  doing so, be certain that you have installed and tested the drivers for the
  platform you have selected (see Chapter :ref:`installing-openmm` for information on
  installing GPU software).
* There are lots of other options starting with OPENMM_BUILD that control
  whether to build particular features of OpenMM, such as plugins, API wrappers,
  and documentation.
* Set the variable CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to the location where you want to
  install OpenMM.


Configure (press “c”) again.  Adjust any variables that cause an
error.

Continue to configure (press “c”) until no starred/red CMake
variables are displayed.  Congratulations, you have completed the configuration
step.

Step 2: Generate Build Files with CMake
***************************************

Once the configuration is done, the next step is generation.  The generate
“g” or “OK” or “Generate” option will not be available until
configuration has completely converged.

Windows
=======

* Press the "OK" or “Generate” button to generate Visual Studio project files.

* If CMake does not exit automatically, press the close button in the upper-
  right corner of the CMake title bar to exit.


Mac and Linux
=============

* Press “g” to generate the Makefile.
* If CMake does not exit automatically, press “q” to exit.


That’s it!  Generation is the easy part.  Now it’s time to build.

Step 3: Build OpenMM
********************


Windows
=======

#. Open the file OpenMM.sln in your openmm_build directory in Visual Studio.
#. Set the configuration type to "Release" (not "Debug") in the toolbar.
#. From the Build menu, click Build->Build Solution
#. The OpenMM libraries and test programs will be created.  This takes some
   time.
#. The test program TestCudaRandom might not build on Windows.  This is OK.


Mac and Linux
=============

* Type :code:`make` in the openmm_build directory.

The OpenMM libraries and test programs will be created.  This takes some time.


Step 4: Install OpenMM
**********************


Windows
=======

In the Solution Explorer Panel, far-click/right-click INSTALL->build.

Mac and Linux
=============

Type:
::

    make install

If you are installing to a system area, such as /usr/local/openmm/, you will
need to type:
::

    sudo make install

Step 5: Install the Python API
******************************


Windows
=======

In the Solution Explorer Panel, right-click PythonInstall->build.

Mac and Linux
=============

Type:
::

    make PythonInstall

If you are installing into the system Python, such as /usr/bin/python, you will
need to type:
::

    sudo make PythonInstall

.. _test-your-build:

Step 6: Test your build
***********************

After OpenMM has been built, you should run the unit tests to make sure it
works.

Windows
=======

In Visual Studio, far-click/right-click RUN_TESTS in the Solution Explorer
Panel.  Select RUN_TESTS->build to begin testing.  Ignore any failures for
TestCudaRandom.

Mac and Linux
=============

Type:
::

    make test

You should see a series of test results like this:
::

            Start   1: TestReferenceAndersenThermostat
      1/317 Test   #1: TestReferenceAndersenThermostat .............. Passed  0.26 sec
            Start   2: TestReferenceBrownianIntegrator
      2/317 Test   #2: TestReferenceBrownianIntegrator .............. Passed  0.13 sec
            Start   3: TestReferenceCheckpoints
      3/317 Test   #3: TestReferenceCheckpoints ..................... Passed  0.02 sec
      ... <many other tests> ...

:code:`Passed` is good.  :code:`FAILED` is bad.  If any tests fail, you
can run them individually to get more detailed error information.  Note that
some tests are stochastic, and therefore are expected to fail a small fraction
of the time.  These tests will say so in the error message:
::

    ./TestReferenceLangevinIntegrator

    exception: Assertion failure at TestReferenceLangevinIntegrator.cpp:129.  Expected 9.97741,
        found 10.7884 (This test is stochastic and may occasionally fail)

Congratulations! You successfully have built and installed OpenMM from source.

Building the Documentation (Optional)
*************************************

The documentation that you're currently reading, as well as the developer guide and API
documentation can be built through CMake by setting the OpenMM option :code:`OPENMM_GENERATE_API_DOCS=ON`.

User Guide and Developer Guide
==============================

Generating the user guide and developer guide requires the following dependencies

* Sphinx (http://sphinx-doc.org/)

* sphinxcontrib-bibtex (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/sphinxcontrib-bibtex)

These dependencies may not be available in your system package manager, but should
be installable through Python's ``pip`` package manager. ::

   pip install sphinx sphinxcontrib-bibtex

The developer and user guides can be built either as HTML or a PDFs. Building the
PDF version will also require a functional LaTeX installation.

To build the HTML version of the documentation, type: ::

  make sphinxhtml

To build the PDF version of the documentation, type: ::

  make sphinxpdf


Python and C++ API Documentation
================================

The following dependencies are required to build the Python and C++ API documentation.

* Sphinx (http://sphinx-doc.org/)

* sphinxcontrib-lunrsearch (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/sphinxcontrib-lunrsearch)

* sphinxcontrib-autodoc_doxygen (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/sphinxcontrib-autodoc_doxygen)


These dependencies may not be available in your system package manager, but should
be installable through Python's ``pip`` package manager. ::

   pip install sphinx sphinxcontrib-lunrsearch sphinxcontrib-autodoc_doxygen

To build the C++ API documentation, type: ::

  make C++ApiDocs

To build the Python API documentation, type: ::

  make PythonApiDocs


.. _openmm-tutorials:

OpenMM Tutorials
#################


Example Files Overview
**********************

Four example files are provided in the examples folder, each designed with
a specific objective.

* **HelloArgon:**  A very simple example intended for verifying that you
  have installed OpenMM correctly.  It also introduces you to the basic classes
  within OpenMM.
* **HelloSodiumChloride:**  This example shows you our recommended strategy
  for integrating OpenMM into an existing molecular dynamics code.
* **HelloEthane:** The main purpose of this example is to demonstrate how
  to tell OpenMM about bonded forces (bond stretch, bond angle bend, dihedral
  torsion).
* **HelloWaterBox:**  This example shows you how to use OpenMM to model
  explicit solvation, including setting up periodic boundary conditions.  It runs
  extremely fast on a GPU but very, very slowly on a CPU, so it is an excellent
  example to use to compare performance on the GPU versus the CPU.  The other
  examples provided use systems where the performance difference would be too
  small to notice.


The two fundamental examples—HelloArgon and HelloSodiumChloride—are provided in
C++, C, and Fortran, as indicated in the table below.  The other two
examples—HelloEthane and HelloWaterBox—follow the same structure as
HelloSodiumChloride but demonstrate more calls within the OpenMM API.  They are
only provided in C++ but can be adapted to run in C and Fortran by following the
mappings described in Chapter :ref:`using-openmm-with-software-written-in-languages-other-than-c++`\ .
HelloArgon and HelloSodiumChloride also serve as examples of how to do these mappings.  The
sections below describe the HelloArgon, HelloSodiumChloride, and HelloEthane programs in more detail.

===============  ==============  ==========  ========  ========================================  ===============
Example          Solvent         Thermostat  Boundary  Forces & Constraints                      API
===============  ==============  ==========  ========  ========================================  ===============
Argon            Vacuum          None        None      Non-bonded\*                              C++, C, Fortran
Sodium Chloride  Implicit water  Langevin    None      Non-bonded\*                              C++, C, Fortran
Ethane           Vacuum          None        None      Non-bonded\*, stretch, bend, torsion      C++
Water Box        Explicit water  Andersen    Periodic  Non-bonded\*, stretch, bend, constraints  C++
===============  ==============  ==========  ========  ========================================  ===============

\*van der Waals and Coulomb forces

.. _running-example-files:

Running Example Files
**********************

The instructions below are for running the HelloArgon program.  A similar
process would be used to run the other examples.

Visual Studio
=============

Navigate to wherever you saved the example files.  Descend into the directory
folder VisualStudio. Double-click the file HelloArgon.sln (a Microsoft Visual
Studio Solution file).  Visual Studio will launch.

Note: These files were created using Visual Studio 8.  If you are using a more
recent version, it will ask if you want to convert the files to the new version.
Agree and continue through the conversion process.

In Visual Studio, make sure the "Solution Configuration" is set to "Release" and
not "Debug".  The “Solution Configuration” can be set using the drop-down menu
in the top toolbar, next to the green arrow (see :autonumref:`Figure,Visual Studio configuration`
below).  Due to incompatibilities among Visual Studio versions, we do not provide pre-compiled
debug binaries.



.. figure:: ../images/VisualStudioSetConfiguration.jpg
   :align: center
   :width: 100%

   :autonumber:`Figure,Visual Studio configuration`:  Setting "Solution Configuration" to "Release" mode in Visual Studio




From the command options select Debug -> Start Without Debugging (or CTRL-F5).
See :autonumref:`Figure,run in Visual Studio`.  This will also compile the program, if it has not
previously been compiled.



.. figure:: ../images/VisualStudioLaunch.jpg
   :align: center
   :width: 100%

   :autonumber:`Figure,run in Visual Studio`:  Run a program in Visual Studio

You should see a series of lines like the following output on your screen:
::

    REMARK  Using OpenMM platform Reference
    MODEL     1
    ATOM      1  AR   AR     1       0.000   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ATOM      2  AR   AR     1       5.000   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ATOM      3  AR   AR     1       10.000  0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ENDMDL

    …

    MODEL     250
    ATOM      1  AR   AR     1       0.233   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ATOM      2  AR   AR     1       5.068   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ATOM      3  AR   AR     1       9.678   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ENDMDL
    MODEL     251
    ATOM      1  AR   AR     1       0.198   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ATOM      2  AR   AR     1       5.082   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ATOM      3  AR   AR     1       9.698   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ENDMDL
    MODEL     252
    ATOM      1  AR   AR     1       0.165   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ATOM      2  AR   AR     1       5.097   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ATOM      3  AR   AR     1       9.717   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ENDMDL


Determining the platform being used
-----------------------------------

The very first line of the output will indicate whether you are running on the
CPU (Reference platform) or a GPU (CUDA or OpenCL platform).  It will say one of
the following:
::

    REMARK  Using OpenMM platform Reference
    REMARK  Using OpenMM platform Cuda
    REMARK  Using OpenMM platform OpenCL

If you have a supported GPU, the program should, by default, run on the GPU.

Visualizing the results
------------------------

You can output the results to a PDB file that could be visualized using programs
like VMD (http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/) or PyMol
(http://pymol.sourceforge.net/).  To do this within Visual Studios:

#. Right-click on the project name HelloArgon (not one of the files) and select
   the “Properties” option.
#. On the “Property Pages” form, select “Debugging” under the “Configuration
   Properties” node.
#. In the “Command Arguments” field, type:

   ::

       > argon.pdb

   This will save the output to a file called argon.pdb in the current working
   directory (default is the VisualStudio directory).  If you want to save it to
   another directory, you will need to specify the full path.

#. Select “OK”


Now, when you run the program in Visual Studio, no text will appear.  After a
short time, you should see the message “\ :code:`Press any key to continue…`\ ,”
indicating that the program is complete and that the PDB file has been
completely written.

Mac OS X/Linux
==============

Navigate to wherever you saved the example files.

Verify your makefile by consulting the MakefileNotes file in this directory, if
necessary.

Type:::

    make


Then run the program by typing:
::

    ./HelloArgon

You should see a series of lines like the following output on your screen:
::

    REMARK  Using OpenMM platform Reference
    MODEL     1
    ATOM      1  AR   AR     1       0.000   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ATOM      2  AR   AR     1       5.000   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ATOM      3  AR   AR     1       10.000  0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ENDMDL

    ...

    MODEL     250
    ATOM      1  AR   AR     1       0.233   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ATOM      2  AR   AR     1       5.068   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ATOM      3  AR   AR     1       9.678   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ENDMDL
    MODEL     251
    ATOM      1  AR   AR     1       0.198   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ATOM      2  AR   AR     1       5.082   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ATOM      3  AR   AR     1       9.698   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ENDMDL
    MODEL     252
    ATOM      1  AR   AR     1       0.165   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ATOM      2  AR   AR     1       5.097   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ATOM      3  AR   AR     1       9.717   0.000   0.000  1.00  0.00
    ENDMDL


Determining the platform being used
-----------------------------------

The very first line of the output will indicate whether you are running on the
CPU (Reference platform) or a GPU (CUDA or OpenCL platform).  It will say one of
the following:
::

    REMARK  Using OpenMM platform Reference
    REMARK  Using OpenMM platform Cuda
    REMARK  Using OpenMM platform OpenCL

If you have a supported GPU, the program should, by default, run on the GPU.

Visualizing the results
------------------------

You can output the results to a PDB file that could be visualized using programs
like VMD (http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/) or PyMol
(http://pymol.sourceforge.net/) by typing:
::

    ./HelloArgon > argon.pdb

Compiling Fortran and C examples
--------------------------------

The Makefile provided with the examples can also be used to compile the Fortran
and C examples.

The Fortran compiler needs to load a version of the libstdc++.dylib library that
is compatible with the version of gcc used to build OpenMM;   OpenMM for Mac is
compiled using gcc 4.2.  If you are compiling with a different version, edit the
Makefile and add the following flag to FCPPLIBS: :code:`–L/usr/lib/gcc/i686
-apple-darwin10/4.2.1`\ .

When the Makefile has been updated, type:
::

    make all

HelloArgon Program
******************

The HelloArgon program simulates three argon atoms in a vacuum.  It is a simple
program primarily intended for you to verify that you are able to compile, link,
and run with OpenMM.  It also demonstrates the basic calls needed to run a
simulation using OpenMM.

Including OpenMM-defined functions
==================================

The OpenMM header file *OpenMM.h* instructs the program to include
everything defined by the OpenMM libraries.  Include the header file by adding
the following line at the top of your program:  ::


    #include "OpenMM.h"

Running a program on GPU platforms
==================================

By default, a program will run on the Reference platform.  In order to run a
program on another platform (e.g., an NVIDIA or AMD GPU), you need to load the
required shared libraries for that other platform (e.g., Cuda, OpenCL).  The
easy way to do this is to call:

.. code-block:: c

    OpenMM::Platform::loadPluginsFromDirectory(OpenMM::Platform::getDefaultPluginsDirectory());

This will load all the shared libraries (plug-ins) that can be found, so you do
not need to explicitly know which libraries are available on a given machine.
In this way, the program will be able to run on another platform, if it is
available.

Running a simulation using the OpenMM public API
================================================

The OpenMM public API was described in Section :ref:`the-openmm-public-api`\ .  Here you will
see how to use those classes to create a simple system of three argon atoms and run a short
simulation.  The main components of the simulation are within the function
:code:`simulateArgon()`\ :

#. **System** – We first establish a system and add a non-bonded force to
   it.  At this point, there are no particles in the system.

   .. code-block:: c

        // Create a system with nonbonded forces.
        OpenMM::System system;
        OpenMM::NonbondedForce* nonbond = new OpenMM::NonbondedForce();
        system.addForce(nonbond);

   We then add the three argon atoms to the system.  For this system, all the data
   for the particles are hard-coded into the program.  While not a realistic
   scenario, it makes the example simpler and clearer.  The
   :code:`std::vector<OpenMM::Vec3>` is an array of vectors of 3.

   .. code-block:: c

        // Create three atoms.
        std::vector<OpenMM::Vec3> initPosInNm(3);
        for (int a = 0; a < 3; ++a)
        {
            initPosInNm[a] = OpenMM::Vec3(0.5*a,0,0); // location, nm

            system.addParticle(39.95); // mass of Ar, grams per mole

            // charge, L-J sigma (nm), well depth (kJ)
            nonbond->addParticle(0.0, 0.3350, 0.996); // vdWRad(Ar)=.188 nm
        }

   **Units:** Be very careful with the units in your program.  It is very easy
   to make mistakes with the units, so we recommend including them in your variable
   names, as we have done here :code:`initPosInNm` (position in nanometers).
   OpenMM provides conversion constants that should be used whenever there are
   conversions to be done; for simplicity, we did not do that in HelloArgon, but
   all the other examples show the use of these constants.

   It is hard to overemphasize the importance of careful units handling—it is very
   easy to make a mistake despite, or perhaps because of, the trivial nature of
   units conversion.  For more information about the units used in OpenMM, see
   Section :ref:`units`.

   **Adding Particle Information:** Both the system and the non-bonded
   force require information about the particles.  The system just needs to know
   the mass of the particle.  The non-bonded force requires information about the
   charge (in this case, argon is uncharged), and the Lennard-Jones parameters
   sigma (zero-energy separation distance) and well depth (see Section :ref:`lennard-jones-interaction`
   for more details).

   Note that the van der Waals radius for argon is 0.188 nm and that it has already
   been converted to sigma (0.335 nm) in the example above where it is added to the
   non-bonded force;  in your code, you should make use of the appropriate
   conversion factor supplied with OpenMM as discussed in Section :ref:`units`\ .

#. **Integrator** – We next specify the integrator to use to perform the
   calculations.  In this case, we choose a Verlet integrator to run a constant
   energy simulation.  The only argument required is the step size in picoseconds.

   .. code-block:: c

        OpenMM::VerletIntegrator integrator(0.004); // step size in ps

   We have chosen to use 0.004 picoseconds, or 4 femtoseconds, which is larger than
   that used in a typical molecular dynamics simulation.  However, since this
   example does not have any bonds with higher frequency components, like most
   molecular dynamics simulations do, this is an acceptable value.

#. **Context** – The context is an object that consists of an integrator and
   a system.  It manages the state of the simulation.  The code below initializes
   the context.  We then let the context select the best platform available to run
   on, since this is not specifically specified, and print out the chosen platform.
   This is useful information, especially when debugging.

   .. code-block:: c

        // Let OpenMM Context choose best platform.
        OpenMM::Context context(system, integrator);
        printf("REMARK  Using OpenMM platform %s\n", context.getPlatform().getName().c_str());

   We then initialize the system, setting the initial time, as well as the initial
   positions and velocities of the atoms.  In this example, we leave time and
   velocity at their default values of zero.

   .. code-block:: c

        // Set starting positions of the atoms. Leave time and velocity zero.
        context.setPositions(initPosInNm);

#. **Initialize and run the simulation** – The next block of code runs the
   simulation and saves its output.  For each frame of the simulation (in this
   example, a frame is defined by the advancement interval of the integrator; see
   below), the current state of the simulation is obtained and written out to a
   PDB-formatted file.

   .. code-block:: c

        // Simulate.
        for (int frameNum=1; ;++frameNum) {
            // Output current state information.
            OpenMM::State state = context.getState(OpenMM::State::Positions);
            const double  timeInPs = state.getTime();
            writePdbFrame(frameNum, state); // output coordinates

   *Getting state information has to be done in bulk, asking for information for
   all the particles at once.*  This is computationally expensive since this
   information can reside on the GPUs and requires communication overhead to
   retrieve, so you do not want to do it very often.  In the above code, we only
   request the positions, since that is all that is needed, and time from the
   state.

   The simulation stops after 10 ps; otherwise we ask the integrator to take 10
   steps (so one frame is equivalent to 10 time steps).   Normally, we would want
   to take more than 10 steps at a time, but to get a reasonable-looking animation,
   we use 10.

   .. code-block:: c

         if (timeInPs >= 10.)
             break;

         // Advance state many steps at a time, for efficient use of OpenMM.
         integrator.step(10); // (use a lot more than this normally)

Error handling for OpenMM
=========================

Error handling for OpenMM is explicitly designed so you do not have to check the
status after every call.  If anything goes wrong, OpenMM throws an exception.
It uses standard exceptions, so on many platforms, you will get the exception
message automatically.  However, we recommend using :code:`try-catch` blocks
to ensure you do catch the exception.

.. code-block:: c

    int main()
    {
        try {
            simulateArgon();
            return 0; // success!
        }
        // Catch and report usage and runtime errors detected by OpenMM and fail.
        catch(const std::exception& e) {
            printf("EXCEPTION: %s\n", e.what());
            return 1; // failure!
        }
    }

Writing out PDB files
=====================

For the HelloArgon program, we provide a simple PDB file writing function
:code:`writePdbFrame` that *only* writes out argon atoms.  The function
has nothing to do with OpenMM except for using the OpenMM State.  The function
extracts the positions from the State in nanometers (10\ :sup:`-9` m) and
converts them to Angstroms (10\ :sup:`-10` m) to be compatible with the PDB
format.   Again, we emphasize how important it is to track the units being used!

.. code-block:: c

    void writePdbFrame(int frameNum, const OpenMM::State& state)
    {
        // Reference atomic positions in the OpenMM State.
        const std::vector<OpenMM::Vec3>& posInNm = state.getPositions();

        // Use PDB MODEL cards to number trajectory frames
        printf("MODEL     %d\n", frameNum); // start of frame
        for (int a = 0; a < (int)posInNm.size(); ++a)
        {
            printf("ATOM  %5d  AR   AR     1    ", a+1); // atom number
            printf("%8.3f%8.3f%8.3f  1.00  0.00\n",      // coordinates
            // "*10" converts nanometers to Angstroms
            posInNm[a][0]*10, posInNm[a][1]*10, posInNm[a][2]*10);
        }
        printf("ENDMDL\n"); // end of frame
    }

:code:`MODEL` and :code:`ENDMDL` are used to mark the beginning and end
of a frame, respectively.  By including multiple frames in a PDB file, you can
visualize the simulation trajectory.

HelloArgon output
=================

The output of the HelloArgon program can be saved to a *.pdb* file and
visualized using programs like VMD or PyMol (see Section :ref:`running-example-files`).
You should see three atoms moving linearly away and towards one another:


.. figure:: ../images/Argon.png
   :align: center


You may need to adjust the van der Waals radius in your visualization program to
see the atoms colliding.

HelloSodiumChloride Program
***************************

The HelloSodiumChloride models several sodium (Na\ :sup:`+`\ ) and chloride
(Cl\ :sup:`-`\ ) ions in implicit solvent (using a Generalized Born/Surface Area, or
GBSA, OBC model).  As with the HelloArgon program, only non-bonded forces are
simulated.

The main purpose of this example is to illustrate our recommended strategy for
integrating OpenMM into an existing molecular dynamics (MD) code:

#. **Write a few, high-level interface routines containing all your OpenMM
   calls**\ :  Rather than make OpenMM calls throughout your program, we
   recommend writing a handful of interface routines that understand both your MD
   code’s data structures and OpenMM.  Organize these routines into a separate
   compilation unit so you do not have to make huge changes to your existing MD
   code.  These routines could be written in any language that is callable from the
   existing MD code.  We recommend writing them in C++ since that is what OpenMM is
   written in, but you can also write them in C or Fortran; see Chapter
   :ref:`using-openmm-with-software-written-in-languages-other-than-c++`\ .


#. **Call only these high-level interface routines from your existing MD
   code:**  This provides a clean separation between the existing MD code and
   OpenMM, so that changes to OpenMM will not directly impact the existing MD code.
   One way to implement this is to use opaque handles, a standard trick used (for
   example) for opening files in Linux.  An existing MD code can communicate with
   OpenMM via the handle, but knows none of the details of the handle.  It only has
   to hold on to the handle and give it back to OpenMM.


In the example described below, you will see how this strategy can be
implemented for a very simple MD code.  Chapter :ref:`examples-of-openmm-integration`
describes the strategies used in integrating OpenMM into real MD codes.

.. _simple-molecular-dynamics-system:

Simple molecular dynamics system
================================

The initial sections of HelloSodiumChloride.cpp represent a very simple
molecular dynamics system.  The system includes modeling and simulation
parameters and the atom and force field data.  It also provides a data structure
\ :code:`posInAng[3]` for storing the current state.  These sections represent
(in highly simplified form) information that would be available from an existing
MD code, and will be used to demonstrate how to integrate OpenMM with an
existing MD program.

.. code-block:: c

    // -----------------------------------------------------------------
    //                   MODELING AND SIMULATION PARAMETERS
    // -----------------------------------------------------------------
    static const double Temperature         = 300;     // Kelvins
    static const double FrictionInPerPs     = 91.;     // collisions per picosecond
    static const double SolventDielectric   = 80.;     // typical for water
    static const double SoluteDielectric    = 2.;      // typical for protein

    static const double StepSizeInFs        = 2;       // integration step size (fs)
    static const double ReportIntervalInFs  = 50;      // how often to issue PDB frame (fs)
    static const double SimulationTimeInPs  = 100;     // total simulation time (ps)

    // Decide whether to request energy calculations.
    static const bool   WantEnergy          = true;


    // -----------------------------------------------------------------
    //                          ATOM AND FORCE FIELD DATA
    // -----------------------------------------------------------------
    // This is not part of OpenMM; just a struct we can use to collect atom
    // parameters for this example. Normally atom parameters would come from the
    // force field's parameterization file. We're going to use data in Angstrom and
    // Kilocalorie units and show how to safely convert to OpenMM's internal unit
    // system which uses nanometers and kilojoules.
    static struct MyAtomInfo {
        const char* pdb;
        double      mass, charge, vdwRadiusInAng, vdwEnergyInKcal,
                    gbsaRadiusInAng, gbsaScaleFactor;
        double      initPosInAng[3];
        double      posInAng[3]; // leave room for runtime state info
    } atoms[] = {
    // pdb   mass  charge  vdwRad vdwEnergy   gbsaRad gbsaScale  initPos
    {" NA ", 22.99,  1,    1.8680, 0.00277,    1.992,   0.8,     8, 0,  0},
    {" CL ", 35.45, -1,    2.4700, 0.1000,     1.735,   0.8,    -8, 0,  0},
    {" NA ", 22.99,  1,    1.8680, 0.00277,    1.992,   0.8,     0, 9,  0},
    {" CL ", 35.45, -1,    2.4700, 0.1000,     1.735,   0.8,     0,-9,  0},
    {" NA ", 22.99,  1,    1.8680, 0.00277,    1.992,   0.8,     0, 0,-10},
    {" CL ", 35.45, -1,    2.4700, 0.1000,     1.735,   0.8,     0, 0, 10},
    {""} // end of list
    };


Interface routines
==================

The key to our recommended integration strategy is the interface routines.  You
will need to decide what interface routines are required for effective
communication between your existing MD program and OpenMM, but typically there
will only be six or seven.  In our example, the following four routines suffice:

* **Initialize:** Data structures that already exist in your MD program
  (i.e., force fields, constraints, atoms in the system) are passed to the
  :code:`Initialize` routine, which makes appropriate calls to OpenMM and then
  returns a handle to the OpenMM object that can be used by the existing MD
  program.
* **Terminate:** Clean up the heap space allocated by :code:`Initialize`
  by passing the handle to the :code:`Terminate` routine.
* **Advance State:** The :code:`AdvanceState` routine advances the
  simulation.  It requires that the calling function, the existing MD code, gives
  it a handle.
* **Retrieve State:** When you want to do an analysis or generate some kind
  of report, you call the :code:`RetrieveState` routine.  You have to give it
  a handle.  It then fills in a data structure that is defined in the existing MD
  code, allowing the MD program to use it in its existing routines without further
  modification.

Note that these are just descriptions of the routines’ functions—you can call
them anything you like and implement them in whatever way makes sense for your
MD code.

In the example code, the four routines performing these functions, plus an
opaque data structure (the handle), would be declared, as shown below.  Then,
the main program, which sets up, runs, and reports on the simulation, accesses
these routines and the opaque data structure (in this case, the variable
:code:`omm`\ ).  As you can see, it does not have access to any OpenMM
declarations, only to the interface routines that you write so there is no need
to change the build environment.

.. code-block:: c

    struct MyOpenMMData;
    static MyOpenMMData* myInitializeOpenMM(const MyAtomInfo atoms[],
                                            double temperature,
                                            double frictionInPs,
                                            double solventDielectric,
                                            double soluteDielectric,
                                            double stepSizeInFs,
                                            std::string& platformName);
    static void          myStepWithOpenMM(MyOpenMMData*, int numSteps);
    static void          myGetOpenMMState(MyOpenMMData*,
                                          bool wantEnergy,
                                          double& time,
                                          double& energy,
                                          MyAtomInfo atoms[]);
    static void          myTerminateOpenMM(MyOpenMMData*);


    // -----------------------------------------------------------------
    //                                MAIN PROGRAM
    // -----------------------------------------------------------------
    int main() {
        const int NumReports     = (int)(SimulationTimeInPs*1000 / ReportIntervalInFs + 0.5);
        const int NumSilentSteps = (int)(ReportIntervalInFs / StepSizeInFs + 0.5);

        // ALWAYS enclose all OpenMM calls with a try/catch block to make sure that
        // usage and runtime errors are caught and reported.
        try {
            double        time, energy;
            std::string   platformName;

            // Set up OpenMM data structures; returns OpenMM Platform name.
            MyOpenMMData* omm = myInitializeOpenMM(atoms, Temperature, FrictionInPerPs,
                 SolventDielectric, SoluteDielectric, StepSizeInFs, platformName);

            // Run the simulation:
            //  (1) Write the first line of the PDB file and the initial configuration.
            //  (2) Run silently entirely within OpenMM between reporting intervals.
            //  (3) Write a PDB frame when the time comes.
            printf("REMARK  Using OpenMM platform %s\n", platformName.c_str());
            myGetOpenMMState(omm, WantEnergy, time, energy, atoms);
            myWritePDBFrame(1, time, energy, atoms);

            for (int frame=2; frame <= NumReports; ++frame) {
                myStepWithOpenMM(omm, NumSilentSteps);
                myGetOpenMMState(omm, WantEnergy, time, energy, atoms);
                myWritePDBFrame(frame, time, energy, atoms);
            }

            // Clean up OpenMM data structures.
            myTerminateOpenMM(omm);

            return 0; // Normal return from main.
        }

        // Catch and report usage and runtime errors detected by OpenMM and fail.
        catch(const std::exception& e) {
            printf("EXCEPTION: %s\n", e.what());
            return 1;
        }
    }

We will examine the implementation of each of the four interface routines and
the opaque data structure (handle) in the sections below.

Units
-----

The simple molecular dynamics system described in Section :ref:`simple-molecular-dynamics-system`
employs the commonly used units of angstroms and kcals.  These differ from the units and
parameters used within OpenMM (see Section :ref:`units`\ ): nanometers and kilojoules.
These differences may be small but they are critical and must be carefully
accounted for in the interface routines.

Lennard-Jones potential
-----------------------

The Lennard-Jones potential describes the energy between two identical atoms as
the distance between them varies.

The van der Waals “size” parameter is used to identify the distance at which the
energy between these two atoms is at a minimum (that is, where the van der Waals
force is most attractive).  There are several ways to specify this parameter,
typically, either as the van der Waals radius r\ :sub:`vdw` or as the actual
distance between the two atoms d\ :sub:`min` (also called r\ :sub:`min`\ ),
which is twice the van der Waals radius r\ :sub:`vdw`\ .  A third way to
describe the potential is through sigma :math:`\sigma`, which identifies the distance at
which the energy function crosses zero as the atoms move closer together than
d\ :sub:`min`\ .  (See Section :ref:`lennard-jones-interaction` for more details about the
relationship between these).

:math:`\sigma` turns out to be about 0.89*d\ :sub:`min`\ , which is close enough to
d\ :sub:`min` that it makes it hard to distinguish the two.  Be very careful that
you use the correct value.  In the example below, we will show you how to use
the built-in OpenMM conversion constants to avoid errors.

Lennard-Jones parameters are defined for pairs of identical atoms, but must also
be applied to pairs of dissimilar atoms. That is done by “combining rules” that
differ among popular MD codes. Two of the most common are:

* Lorentz-Berthelot (used by AMBER, CHARMM):

.. math::
    r=\frac{r_i+r_j}{2}, \epsilon=\sqrt{\epsilon_i \epsilon_j}

* Jorgensen (used by OPLS):

.. math::
    r=\sqrt{r_i r_j}, \epsilon=\sqrt{\epsilon_i \epsilon_j}


where *r* = the effective van der Waals “size” parameter (minimum radius,
minimum distance, or zero crossing (sigma)), and :math:`\epsilon` = the effective van
der Waals energy well depth parameter, for the dissimilar pair of atoms *i*
and *j*\ .

OpenMM only implements Lorentz-Berthelot directly, but others can be implemented
using the CustomNonbondedForce class.  (See Section :ref:`customnonbondedforce` for details.)

Opaque handle MyOpenMMData
--------------------------

In this example, the handle used by the interface to OpenMM is a pointer to a
struct called :code:`MyOpenMMData.`  The pointer itself is opaque, meaning
the calling program has no knowledge of what the layout of the object it points
to is, or how to use it to directly interface with OpenMM.  The calling program
will simply pass this opaque handle from one interface routine to another.

There are many different ways to implement the handle.  The code below shows
just one example.  A simulation requires three OpenMM objects (a System, a
Context, and an Integrator) and so these must exist within the handle.  If other
objects were required for a simulation, you would just add them to your handle;
there would be no change in the main program using the handle.

.. code-block:: c

    struct MyOpenMMData {
        MyOpenMMData() : system(0), context(0), integrator(0) {}
        ~MyOpenMMData() {delete system; delete context; delete integrator;}
        OpenMM::System*         system;
        OpenMM::Context*        context;
        OpenMM::Integrator*     integrator;
    };

In addition to establishing pointers to the required three OpenMM objects,
:code:`MyOpenMMData` has a constructor :code:`MyOpenMMData()` that sets
the pointers for the three OpenMM objects to zero and a destructor
:code:`~MyOpenMMData()` that (in C++) gives the heap space back.  This was
done in-line in the HelloArgon program, but we recommend you use something like
the method here instead.

myInitializeOpenMM
-------------------

The :code:`myInitializeOpenMM` function takes the data structures and
simulation parameters from the existing MD code and returns a new handle that
can be used to do efficient computations with OpenMM.  It also returns the
:code:`platformName` so the calling program knows what platform (e.g., CUDA,
OpenCL, Reference) was used.

.. code-block:: c

    static MyOpenMMData*
    myInitializeOpenMM( const MyAtomInfo    atoms[],
                        double              temperature,
                        double              frictionInPs,
                        double              solventDielectric,
                        double              soluteDielectric,
                        double              stepSizeInFs,
                        std::string&        platformName)


This initialization routine is very similar to the HelloArgon example program,
except that objects are created and put in the handle.  For instance, just as in
the HelloArgon program, the first step is to load the OpenMM plug-ins, so that
the program will run on the best performing platform that is available.   Then,
a System is created **and** assigned to the handle :code:`omm`\ .
Similarly, forces are added to the System which is already in the handle.

.. code-block:: c

    // Load all available OpenMM plugins from their default location.
    OpenMM::Platform::loadPluginsFromDirectory
           (OpenMM::Platform::getDefaultPluginsDirectory());

    // Allocate space to hold OpenMM objects while we're using them.
    MyOpenMMData* omm = new MyOpenMMData();

    // Create a System and Force objects within the System. Retain a reference
    // to each force object so we can fill in the forces. Note: the OpenMM
    // System takes ownership of the force objects;don't delete them yourself.
    omm->system = new OpenMM::System();
    OpenMM::NonbondedForce* nonbond = new OpenMM::NonbondedForce();
    OpenMM::GBSAOBCForce*   gbsa    = new OpenMM::GBSAOBCForce();
    omm->system->addForce(nonbond);
    omm->system->addForce(gbsa);

    // Specify dielectrics for GBSA implicit solvation.
    gbsa->setSolventDielectric(solventDielectric);
    gbsa->setSoluteDielectric(soluteDielectric);


In the next step, atoms are added to the System within the handle, with
information about each atom coming from the data structure that was passed into
the initialization function from the existing MD code.  As shown in the
HelloArgon program, both the System and the forces need information about the
atoms.  For those unfamiliar with the C++ Standard Template Library, the
:code:`push_back` function called at the end of this code snippet just adds
the given argument to the end of a C++ “vector” container.

.. code-block:: c

    // Specify the atoms and their properties:
    //  (1) System needs to know the masses.
    //  (2) NonbondedForce needs charges,van der Waals properties(in MD units!).
    //  (3) GBSA needs charge, radius, and scale factor.
    //  (4) Collect default positions for initializing the simulation later.
    std::vector<Vec3> initialPosInNm;
    for (int n=0; *atoms[n].pdb; ++n) {
         const MyAtomInfo& atom = atoms[n];

         omm->system->addParticle(atom.mass);

         nonbond->addParticle(atom.charge,
                             atom.vdwRadiusInAng * OpenMM::NmPerAngstrom
                                                 * OpenMM::SigmaPerVdwRadius,
                             atom.vdwEnergyInKcal * OpenMM::KJPerKcal);

         gbsa->addParticle(atom.charge,
                           atom.gbsaRadiusInAng * OpenMM::NmPerAngstrom,
                           atom.gbsaScaleFactor);

         // Convert the initial position to nm and append to the array.
         const Vec3 posInNm(atom.initPosInAng[0] * OpenMM::NmPerAngstrom,
                      atom.initPosInAng[1] * OpenMM::NmPerAngstrom,
                      atom.initPosInAng[2] * OpenMM::NmPerAngstrom);
         initialPosInNm.push_back(posInNm);


**Units:**  Here we emphasize the need to pay special attention to the
units.   As mentioned earlier, the existing MD code in this example uses units
of angstroms and kcals, but OpenMM uses nanometers and kilojoules.  So the
initialization routine will need to convert the values from the existing MD code
into the OpenMM units before assigning them to the OpenMM objects.

In the code above, we have used the unit conversion constants that come with
OpenMM (e.g., :code:`OpenMM::NmPerAngstrom`\ ) to perform these conversions.
Combined with the naming convention of including the units in the variable name
(e.g., :code:`initPosInAng`\ ), the unit conversion constants are useful
reminders to pay attention to units and minimize errors.

Finally, the initialization routine creates the Integrator and Context for the
simulation.  Again, note the change in units for the arguments!   The routine
then gets the platform that will be used to run the simulation and returns that,
along with the handle :code:`omm`\ , back to the calling function.

.. code-block:: c

    // Choose an Integrator for advancing time, and a Context connecting the
    // System with the Integrator for simulation. Let the Context choose the
    // best available Platform. Initialize the configuration from the default
    // positions we collected above. Initial velocities will be zero but could
    // have been set here.
    omm->integrator = new OpenMM::LangevinIntegrator(temperature,
    frictionInPs,
    stepSizeInFs * OpenMM::PsPerFs);
    omm->context    = new OpenMM::Context(*omm->system, *omm->integrator);
    omm->context->setPositions(initialPosInNm);

    platformName = omm->context->getPlatform().getName();
    return omm;


myGetOpenMMState
----------------

The :code:`myGetOpenMMState` function takes the handle and returns the time,
energy, and data structure for the atoms in a way that the existing MD code can
use them without modification.

.. code-block:: c

    static void
    myGetOpenMMState(MyOpenMMData* omm, bool wantEnergy,
                     double& timeInPs, double& energyInKcal, MyAtomInfo atoms[])

Again, this is another interface routine in which you need to be very careful of
your units!  Note the conversion from the OpenMM units back to the units used in
the existing MD code.

.. code-block:: c

    int infoMask = 0;
    infoMask = OpenMM::State::Positions;
    if (wantEnergy) {
       infoMask += OpenMM::State::Velocities; // for kinetic energy (cheap)
       infoMask += OpenMM::State::Energy;     // for pot. energy (more expensive)
    }
    // Forces are also available (and cheap).

    const OpenMM::State state = omm->context->getState(infoMask);
    timeInPs = state.getTime(); // OpenMM time is in ps already

    // Copy OpenMM positions into atoms array and change units from nm to Angstroms.
    const std::vector<Vec3>& positionsInNm = state.getPositions();
    for (int i=0; i < (int)positionsInNm.size(); ++i)
        for (int j=0; j < 3; ++j)
             atoms[i].posInAng[j] = positionsInNm[i][j] * OpenMM::AngstromsPerNm;

    // If energy has been requested, obtain it and convert from kJ to kcal.
    energyInKcal = 0;
    if (wantEnergy)
       energyInKcal = (state.getPotentialEnergy() + state.getKineticEnergy())
                      * OpenMM::KcalPerKJ;

myStepWithOpenMM
----------------

The :code:`myStepWithOpenMM` routine takes the handle, uses it to find the
Integrator, and then sets the number of steps for the Integrator to take.  It
does not return any values.

.. code-block:: c

    static void
    myStepWithOpenMM(MyOpenMMData* omm, int numSteps) {
        omm->integrator->step(numSteps);
    }

myTerminateOpenMM
-----------------

The :code:`myTerminateOpenMM` routine takes the handle and deletes all the
components, e.g., the Context and System, cleaning up the heap space.

.. code-block:: c

    static void
    myTerminateOpenMM(MyOpenMMData* omm) {
        delete omm;
    }


HelloEthane Program
*******************

The HelloEthane program simulates ethane (H3-C-C-H3) in a vacuum.  It is
structured similarly to the HelloSodiumChloride example, but includes bonded
forces (bond stretch, bond angle bend, dihedral torsion).  In setting up these
bonded forces, the program illustrates some of the other inconsistencies in
definitions and units that you should watch out for.

The bonded forces are added to the system within the initialization interface
routine, similar to how the non-bonded forces were added in the
HelloSodiumChloride example:

.. code-block:: c

    // Create a System and Force objects within the System. Retain a reference
    // to each force object so we can fill in the forces. Note: the System owns
    // the force objects and will take care of deleting them; don't do it yourself!
    OpenMM::System&                 system      = *(omm->system = new OpenMM::System());
    OpenMM::NonbondedForce&         nonbond     = *new OpenMM::NonbondedForce();
    OpenMM::HarmonicBondForce&      bondStretch = *new OpenMM::HarmonicBondForce();
    OpenMM::HarmonicAngleForce&     bondBend    = *new OpenMM::HarmonicAngleForce();
    OpenMM::PeriodicTorsionForce&   bondTorsion = *new OpenMM::PeriodicTorsionForce();
    system.addForce(&nonbond);
    system.addForce(&bondStretch);
    system.addForce(&bondBend);
    system.addForce(&bondTorsion);

\ **Constrainable and non-constrainable bonds:**  In the initialization
routine, we also set up the bonds.  If constraints are being used, then we tell
the System about the constrainable bonds:

.. code-block:: c

    std::vector< std::pair<int,int> > bondPairs;
    for (int i=0; bonds[i].type != EndOfList; ++i) {
        const int*      atom = bonds[i].atoms;
        const BondType& bond = bondType[bonds[i].type];

        if (UseConstraints && bond.canConstrain) {
            system.addConstraint(atom[0], atom[1],
                    bond.nominalLengthInAngstroms * OpenMM::NmPerAngstrom);
        }

Otherwise, we need to give the HarmonicBondForce the bond stretch parameters.

\ **Warning**\ *:* The constant used to specify the stiffness may be defined
differently between the existing MD code and OpenMM.  For instance, AMBER uses
the constant, as given in the harmonic *energy* term kx\ :sup:`2`\ , where
the force is 2kx (k = constant and x = distance).  OpenMM wants the constant, as
used in the *force* term kx (with energy 0.5 * kx\ :sup:`2`\ ).  So a factor
of 2 must be introduced when setting the bond stretch parameters in an OpenMM
system using data from an AMBER system.

.. code-block:: c

    bondStretch.addBond(atom[0], atom[1], bond.nominalLengthInAngstroms * OpenMM::NmPerAngstrom,
                        bond.stiffnessInKcalPerAngstrom2 * 2 * OpenMM::KJPerKcal *
                        OpenMM::AngstromsPerNm * OpenMM::AngstromsPerNm);


**Non-bond exclusions:** Next, we deal with non-bond exclusions. These are
used for pairs of atoms that appear close to one another in the network of bonds
in a molecule. For atoms that close, normal non-bonded forces do not apply or
are reduced in magnitude.  First, we create a list of bonds to generate the non-
bond exclusions:

.. code-block:: c

    bondPairs.push_back(std::make_pair(atom[0], atom[1]));

OpenMM’s non-bonded force provides a convenient routine for creating the common
exceptions. These are: (1) for atoms connected by one bond (1-2) or connected by
just one additional bond (1-3), Coulomb and van der Waals terms do not apply;
and (2) for atoms connected by three bonds (1-4), Coulomb and van der Waals
terms apply but are reduced by a force-field dependent scale factor.  In
general, you may introduce additional exceptions, but the standard ones suffice
here and in many other circumstances.

.. code-block:: c

    // Exclude 1-2, 1-3 bonded atoms from nonbonded forces, and scale down 1-4 bonded atoms.
    nonbond.createExceptionsFromBonds(bondPairs, Coulomb14Scale, LennardJones14Scale);

    // Create the 1-2-3 bond angle harmonic terms.
    for (int i=0; angles[i].type != EndOfList; ++i) {
         const int*       atom  = angles[i].atoms;
         const AngleType& angle = angleType[angles[i].type];

    // See note under bond stretch above regarding the factor of 2 here.
    bondBend.addAngle(atom[0],atom[1],atom[2],
    angle.nominalAngleInDegrees     * OpenMM::RadiansPerDegree,
    angle.stiffnessInKcalPerRadian2 * 2 *
    OpenMM::KJPerKcal);
    }

    // Create the 1-2-3-4 bond torsion (dihedral) terms.
    for (int i=0; torsions[i].type != EndOfList; ++i) {
         const int*         atom = torsions[i].atoms;
        const TorsionType& torsion = torsionType[torsions[i].type];
        bondTorsion.addTorsion(atom[0],atom[1],atom[2],atom[3],
                torsion.periodicity,
                torsion.phaseInDegrees  * OpenMM::RadiansPerDegree,
                torsion.amplitudeInKcal * OpenMM::KJPerKcal);
    }

The rest of the code is similar to the HelloSodiumChloride example and will not
be covered in detail here.  Please refer to the program HelloEthane.cpp itself,
which is well-commented, for additional details.

.. _platform-specific-properties:

Platform-Specific Properties
############################

When creating a Context, you can specify values for properties specific to a
particular Platform.  This is used to control how calculations are done in ways
that are outside the scope of the generic OpenMM API.

To do this, pass both the Platform object and a map of property values to the
Context constructor:

.. code-block:: c

    Platform& platform = Platform::getPlatformByName("OpenCL");
    map<string, string> properties;
    properties["OpenCLDeviceIndex"] = "1";
    Context context(system, integrator, platform, properties);

After a Context is created, you can use the Platform’s \
:code:`getPropertyValue()` method to query the values of properties.

OpenCL Platform
***************

The OpenCL Platform recognizes the following Platform-specific properties:

* OpenCLPrecision: This selects what numeric precision to use for calculations.
  The allowed values are “single”, “mixed”, and “double”.  If it is set to
  “single”, nearly all calculations are done in single precision.  This is the
  fastest option but also the least accurate.  If it is set to “mixed”, forces are
  computed in single precision but integration is done in double precision.  This
  gives much better energy conservation with only a slight decrease in speed.
  If it is set to “double”, all calculations are done in double precision.  This
  is the most accurate option, but is usually much slower than the others.
* OpenCLUseCpuPme: This selects whether to use the CPU-based PME
  implementation.  The allowed values are “true” or “false”.  Depending on your
  hardware, this might (or might not) improve performance.  To use this option,
  you must have FFTW (single precision, multithreaded) installed, and your CPU
  must support SSE 4.1.
* OpenCLPlatformIndex: When multiple OpenCL implementations are installed on
  your computer, this is used to select which one to use.  The value is the
  zero-based index of the platform (in the OpenCL sense, not the OpenMM sense) to use,
  in the order they are returned by the OpenCL platform API.  This is useful, for
  example, in selecting whether to use a GPU or CPU based OpenCL implementation.
* OpenCLDeviceIndex: When multiple OpenCL devices are available on your
  computer, this is used to select which one to use.  The value is the zero-based
  index of the device to use, in the order they are returned by the OpenCL device
  API.


The OpenCL Platform also supports parallelizing a simulation across multiple
GPUs.  To do that, set the OpenCLDeviceIndex property to a comma separated list
of values.  For example,

.. code-block:: c

    properties["OpenCLDeviceIndex"] = "0,1";

This tells it to use both devices 0 and 1, splitting the work between them.

CUDA Platform
*************

The CUDA Platform recognizes the following Platform-specific properties:

* CudaPrecision: This selects what numeric precision to use for calculations.
  The allowed values are “single”, “mixed”, and “double”.  If it is set to
  “single”, nearly all calculations are done in single precision.  This is the
  fastest option but also the least accurate.  If it is set to “mixed”, forces are
  computed in single precision but integration is done in double precision.  This
  gives much better energy conservation with only a slight decrease in speed.
  If it is set to “double”, all calculations are done in double precision.  This
  is the most accurate option, but is usually much slower than the others.
* CudaUseCpuPme: This selects whether to use the CPU-based PME implementation.
  The allowed values are “true” or “false”.  Depending on your hardware, this
  might (or might not) improve performance.  To use this option, you must have
  FFTW (single precision, multithreaded) installed, and your CPU must support SSE
  4.1.
* CudaCompiler: This specifies the path to the CUDA kernel compiler.  Versions
  of CUDA before 7.0 require a separate compiler executable.  If you do
  not specify this, OpenMM will try to locate the compiler itself.  Specify this
  only when you want to override the default location.  The logic used to pick the
  default location depends on the operating system:

  * Mac/Linux: It first looks for an environment variable called
    OPENMM_CUDA_COMPILER.  If that is set, its value is used.  Otherwise, the
    default location is set to /usr/local/cuda/bin/nvcc.
  * Windows: It looks for an environment variable called CUDA_BIN_PATH, then
    appends \nvcc.exe to it.  That environment variable is set by the CUDA
    installer, so it usually is present.

* CudaTempDirectory: This specifies a directory where temporary files can be
  written while compiling kernels.  OpenMM usually can locate your operating
  system’s temp directory automatically (for example, by looking for the TEMP
  environment variable), so you rarely need to specify this.
* CudaDeviceIndex: When multiple CUDA devices are available on your computer,
  this is used to select which one to use.  The value is the zero-based index of
  the device to use, in the order they are returned by the CUDA API.
* CudaUseBlockingSync: This is used to control how the CUDA runtime
  synchronizes between the CPU and GPU.  If this is set to “true” (the default),
  CUDA will allow the calling thread to sleep while the GPU is performing a
  computation, allowing the CPU to do other work.  If it is set to “false”, CUDA
  will spin-lock while the GPU is working.  Setting it to "false" can improve performance slightly,
  but also prevents the CPU from doing anything else while the GPU is working.


The CUDA Platform also supports parallelizing a simulation across multiple GPUs.
To do that, set the CudaDeviceIndex property to a comma separated list of
values.  For example,

.. code-block:: c

    properties["CudaDeviceIndex"] = "0,1";

This tells it to use both devices 0 and 1, splitting the work between them.

CPU Platform
************

The CPU Platform recognizes the following Platform-specific properties:

* CpuThreads: This specifies the number of CPU threads to use.  If you do not
  specify this, OpenMM will select a default number of threads as follows:

  * If an environment variable called OPENMM_CPU_THREADS is set, its value is
    used as the number of threads.
  * Otherwise, the number of threads is set to the number of logical CPU cores
    in the computer it is running on.

  Usually the default value works well.  This is mainly useful when you are
  running something else on the computer at the same time, and you want to
  prevent OpenMM from monopolizing all available cores.


.. _using-openmm-with-software-written-in-languages-other-than-c++:

Using OpenMM with Software Written in Languages Other than C++
##############################################################

Although the native OpenMM API is object-oriented C++ code, it is possible to
directly translate the interface so that it is callable from C, Fortran 95, and
Python with no substantial conceptual changes. We have developed a
straightforward mapping for these languages that, while perhaps not the most
elegant possible, has several advantages:

* Almost all documentation, training, forum discussions, and so on are equally
  useful to users of all these languages. There are syntactic differences of
  course, but all the important concepts remain unchanged.
* We are able to generate the C, Fortran, and Python APIs from the C++ API.
  Obviously, this reduces development effort, but more importantly it means that
  the APIs are likely to be error-free and are always available immediately when
  the native API is updated.
* Because OpenMM performs expensive operations “in bulk” there is no noticeable
  overhead in accessing these operations through the C, Fortran, or Python APIs.
* All symbols introduced to a C or Fortran program begin with the prefix
  “\ :code:`OpenMM_`\ ” so will not interfere with symbols already in use.


*Availability of APIs in other languages:*  All necessary C and Fortran
bindings are built in to the main OpenMM library; no separate library is
required.  The Python wrappers are contained in a module that is distributed
with OpenMM and that can be installed by executing its setup.py script in the
standard way.

(This doesn’t apply to most users: if you are building your own OpenMM from
source using CMake and want the API bindings generated, be sure to enable the
:code:`OPENMM_BUILD_C_AND_FORTRAN_WRAPPERS` option for C and Fortran, or
:code:`OPENMM_BUILD_PYTHON_WRAPPERS` option for Python.  The Python module
will be placed in a subdirectory of your main build directory called “python”)

*Documentation for APIs in other languages:*  While there is extensive
Doxygen documentation available for the C++ and Python APIs, there is no
separate on-line documentation for the C and Fortran API. Instead, you should
use the C++ documentation, employing the mappings described here to figure out
the equivalent syntax in C or Fortran.

C API
*****

Before you start writing your own C program that calls OpenMM, be sure you can
build and run the two C examples that are supplied with OpenMM (see Chapter :ref:`openmm-tutorials`\ ).
These can be built from the supplied :code:`Makefile` on Linux and Mac, or
supplied :code:`NMakefile` and Visual Studio solution files on Windows.

The example programs are :code:`HelloArgonInC` and
:code:`HelloSodiumChlorideInC`\ . The argon example serves as a quick check that
your installation is set up properly and you know how to build a C program that
is linked with OpenMM. It will also tell you whether OpenMM is executing on the
GPU or is running (slowly) on the Reference platform. However, the argon example
is not a good template to follow for your own programs. The sodium chloride
example, though necessarily simplified, is structured roughly in the way we
recommended you set up your own programs to call OpenMM. Please be sure you have
both of these programs executing successfully on your machine before continuing.

Mechanics of using the C API
============================

The C API is generated automatically from the C++ API when OpenMM is built.
There are two resulting components: C bindings (functions to call), and C
declarations (in a header file). The C bindings are small :code:`extern`
(global) interface functions, one for every method of every OpenMM class, whose
signatures (name and arguments) are predictable from the class name and method
signatures. There are also “helper” types and functions provided for the few
cases in which the C++ behavior cannot be directly mapped into C. These
interface and helper functions are compiled in to the main OpenMM library so
there is nothing special you have to do to get access to them.

In the :code:`include` subdirectory of your OpenMM installation directory,
there is a machine-generated header file :code:`OpenMMCWrapper.h` that
should be #included in any C program that is to make calls to OpenMM functions.
That header contains declarations for all the OpenMM C interface functions and
related types. Note that if you follow our suggested structure, you will not
need to include this file in your :code:`main()` compilation unit but can
instead use it only in a local file that you write to provide a simple interface
to your existing code (see Chapter :ref:`openmm-tutorials`).

Mapping from the C++ API to the C API
=====================================

The automated generator of the C “wrappers” follows the translation strategy
shown in :autonumref:`Table,C API`\ . The idea is that if you see the construct on the left in
the C++ API documentation, you should interpret it as the corresponding
construct on the right in C. Please look at the supplied example programs to see
how this is done in practice.

==========================  =========================================  ===================================================
Construct                   C++ API declaration                        Equivalent in C API
==========================  =========================================  ===================================================
namespace                   OpenMM\::                                  OpenMM\_ (prefix)
class                       class OpenMM::ClassName                    typedef OpenMM_ClassName
constant                    OpenMM::RadiansPerDeg                      OpenMM_RadiansPerDeg (static constant)
class enum                  OpenMM::State::Positions                   OpenMM_State_Positions
constructor                 new OpenMM::ClassName()                    | OpenMM_ClassName* OpenMM_ClassName_create()
                                                                       | (additional constructors are _create_2(), etc.)
destructor                  | OpenMM::ClassName* thing;                | OpenMM_ClassName* thing;
                            | delete thing;                            | OpenMM_ClassName_destroy(thing);
class method                | OpenMM::ClassName* thing;                | OpenMM_ClassName* thing;
                            | thing->method(args);                     | OpenMM_ClassName_method(thing, args)
Boolean (type & constants)  | bool                                     | OpenMM_Boolean
                            | true, false                              | OpenMM_True(1), OpenMM_False(0)
string                      std::string                                char*
3-vector                    OpenMM::Vec3                               typedef OpenMM_Vec3
arrays                      | std::vector<std::string>                 | typedef OpenMM_StringArray
                            | std::vector<double>                      | typedef OpenMM_DoubleArray
                            | std::vector<Vec3>                        | typedef OpenMM_Vec3Array
                            | std::vector<std::pair<int,int>>          | typedef OpenMM_BondArray
                            | std::map<std::string,double>             | typedef OpenMM_ParameterArray
==========================  =========================================  ===================================================

:autonumber:`Table,C API`\ : Default mapping of objects from the C++ API to the C API
There are some exceptions to the generic translation rules shown in the table;
they are enumerated in the next section. And because there are no C++ API
equivalents to the array types, they are described in detail below.

Exceptions
==========

These two methods are handled somewhat differently in the C API than in the C++ API:

* **OpenMM::Context::getState()** The C version,
  :code:`OpenMM_Context_getState()`\ , returns a pointer to a heap allocated
  :code:`OpenMM_State` object. You must then explicitly destroy this
  :code:`State` object when you are done with it, by calling
  :code:`OpenMM_State_destroy()`\ .
* **OpenMM::Platform::loadPluginsFromDirectory()** The C version
  :code:`OpenMM_Platform_loadPluginsFromDirectory()` returns a heap-allocated
  :code:`OpenMM_StringArray` object containing a list of all the file names
  that were successfully loaded. You must then explicitly destroy this
  :code:`StringArray` object when you are done with it. Do not ignore the return
  value; if you do you’ll have a memory leak since the :code:`StringArray`
  will still be allocated.


(In the C++ API, the equivalent methods return references into existing memory
rather than new heap-allocated memory, so the returned objects do not need to be
destroyed.)

OpenMM_Vec3 helper type
=======================

Unlike the other OpenMM objects which are opaque and manipulated via pointers,
the C API provides an explicit definition for the C :code:`OpenMM_Vec3` type
that is compatible with the :code:`OpenMM::Vec3` type. The definition of
:code:`OpenMM_Vec3` is:

.. code-block:: c

    typedef struct {double x, y, z;} OpenMM_Vec3;

You can work directly with the individual fields of this type from your C
program if you want. For convenience, a scale() function is provided that
creates a new OpenMM_Vec3 from an old one and a scale factor:

.. code-block:: c

    OpenMM_Vec3 OpenMM_Vec3_scale(const OpenMM_Vec3 vec, double scale);

Array helper types
==================

C++ has built-in container types :code:`std::vector` and :code:`std::map`
which OpenMM uses to manipulate arrays of objects. These don’t have direct
equivalents in C, so we supply special array types for each kind of object for
which OpenMM creates containers. These are: string, double, Vec3, bond, and
parameter map. See :autonumref:`Table,C arrays` for the names of the C types for each of these
object arrays. Each of the array types provides these functions (prefixed by
:code:`OpenMM_` and the actual *Thing* name), with the syntax shown
conceptually since it differs slightly for each kind of object.

.. tabularcolumns:: |l|L|

=======================================================  =========================================================================================================================================================================================================
Function                                                 Operation
=======================================================  =========================================================================================================================================================================================================
*Thing*\ Array\* create(int size)                        Create a heap-allocated array of *Things*\ , with space pre-allocated to hold :code:`size` of them. You can start at :code:`size==0` if you want since these arrays are dynamically resizeable.
void destroy(\ *Thing*\ Array\*)                         Free the heap space that is currently in use for the passed-in array of *Things*\ .
int getSize(\ *Thing*\ Array\*)                          Return the current number of *Things* in this array. This means you can :code:`get()` and :code:`set()` elements up to :code:`getSize()-1`\ .
void resize(\ *Thing*\ Array\*, int size)                Change the size of this array to the indicated value which may be smaller or larger than the current size. Existing elements remain in their same locations as long as they still fit.
void append(\ *Thing*\ Array\*, *Thing*\ )               Add a *Thing* to the end of the array, increasing the array size by one. The precise syntax depends on the actual type of *Thing*\ ; see below.
void set(\ *Thing*\ Array\*, int index, *Thing*\ )       Store a copy of *Thing* in the indicated element of the array (indexed from 0). The array must be of length at least :code:`index+1`\ ; you can’t grow the array with this function.
*Thing* get(\ *Thing*\ Array\*, int index)               Retrieve a particular element from the array (indexed from 0). (For some Things the value is returned in arguments rather than as the function return.)
=======================================================  =========================================================================================================================================================================================================

:autonumber:`Table,C arrays`\ : Generic description of array helper types

Here are the exact declarations with deviations from the generic description
noted, for each of the array types.

OpenMM_DoubleArray
------------------

.. code-block:: c

    OpenMM_DoubleArray*
                OpenMM_DoubleArray_create(int size);
    void        OpenMM_DoubleArray_destroy(OpenMM_DoubleArray*);
    int         OpenMM_DoubleArray_getSize(const OpenMM_DoubleArray*);
    void        OpenMM_DoubleArray_resize(OpenMM_DoubleArray*, int size);
    void        OpenMM_DoubleArray_append(OpenMM_DoubleArray*, double value);
    void        OpenMM_DoubleArray_set(OpenMM_DoubleArray*, int index, double value);
    double      OpenMM_DoubleArray_get(const OpenMM_DoubleArray*, int index);

OpenMM_StringArray
------------------

.. code-block:: c

    OpenMM_StringArray*
                OpenMM_StringArray_create(int size);
    void        OpenMM_StringArray_destroy(OpenMM_StringArray*);
    int         OpenMM_StringArray_getSize(const OpenMM_StringArray*);
    void        OpenMM_StringArray_resize(OpenMM_StringArray*, int size);
    void        OpenMM_StringArray_append(OpenMM_StringArray*, const char* string);
    void        OpenMM_StringArray_set(OpenMM_StringArray*, int index, const char* string);
    const char* OpenMM_StringArray_get(const OpenMM_StringArray*, int index);

OpenMM_Vec3Array
----------------

.. code-block:: c

    OpenMM_Vec3Array*
                OpenMM_Vec3Array_create(int size);
    void        OpenMM_Vec3Array_destroy(OpenMM_Vec3Array*);
    int         OpenMM_Vec3Array_getSize(const OpenMM_Vec3Array*);
    void        OpenMM_Vec3Array_resize(OpenMM_Vec3Array*, int size);
    void        OpenMM_Vec3Array_append(OpenMM_Vec3Array*, const OpenMM_Vec3 vec);
    void        OpenMM_Vec3Array_set(OpenMM_Vec3Array*, int index, const OpenMM_Vec3 vec);
    const OpenMM_Vec3*
                OpenMM_Vec3Array_get(const OpenMM_Vec3Array*, int index);

OpenMM_BondArray
----------------

Note that bonds are specified by pairs of integers (the atom indices). The
:code:`get()` method returns those in a pair of final arguments rather than as
its functional return.

.. code-block:: c

    OpenMM_BondArray*
                OpenMM_BondArray_create(int size);
    void        OpenMM_BondArray_destroy(OpenMM_BondArray*);
    int         OpenMM_BondArray_getSize(const OpenMM_BondArray*);
    void        OpenMM_BondArray_resize(OpenMM_BondArray*, int size);
    void        OpenMM_BondArray_append(OpenMM_BondArray*, int particle1, int particle2);
    void        OpenMM_BondArray_set(OpenMM_BondArray*, int index, int particle1, int particle2);
    void        OpenMM_BondArray_get(const OpenMM_BondArray*, int index,
                                     int* particle1, int* particle2);

OpenMM_ParameterArray
---------------------

OpenMM returns references to internal :code:`ParameterArrays` but does not
support user-created :code:`ParameterArrays`\ , so only the :code:`get()`
and :code:`getSize()` functions are available. Also, note that since this is
actually a map rather than an array, the “index” is the *name* of the
parameter rather than its ordinal.

.. code-block:: c

    int         OpenMM_ParameterArray_getSize(const OpenMM_ParameterArray*);
    double      OpenMM_ParameterArray_get(const OpenMM_ParameterArray*, const char* name);


Fortran 95 API
*****************

Before you start writing your own Fortran program that calls OpenMM, be sure you
can build and run the two Fortran examples that are supplied with OpenMM (see
Chapter :ref:`openmm-tutorials`). These can be built from the supplied :code:`Makefile` on Linux
and Mac, or supplied :code:`NMakefile` and Visual Studio solution files on
Windows.

The example programs are :code:`HelloArgonInFortran` and
:code:`HelloSodiumChlorideInFortran`\ . The argon example serves as a quick
check that your installation is set up properly and you know how to build a
Fortran program that is linked with OpenMM. It will also tell you whether OpenMM
is executing on the GPU or is running (slowly) on the Reference platform.
However, the argon example is not a good template to follow for your own
programs. The sodium chloride example, though necessarily simplified, is
structured roughly in the way we recommended you set up your own programs to
call OpenMM. Please be sure you have both of these programs executing
successfully on your machine before continuing.

Mechanics of using the Fortran API
==================================

The Fortran API is generated automatically from the C++ API when OpenMM is
built. There are two resulting components: Fortran bindings (subroutines to
call), and Fortran declarations of types and subroutines (in the form of a
Fortran 95 module file). The Fortran bindings are small interface subroutines,
one for every method of every OpenMM class, whose signatures (name and
arguments) are predictable from the class name and method signatures. There are
also “helper” types and subroutines provided for the few cases in which the C++
behavior cannot be directly mapped into Fortran. These interface and helper
subroutines are compiled in to the main OpenMM library so there is nothing
special you have to do to get access to them.

Because Fortran is case-insensitive, calls to Fortran subroutines (however
capitalized) are mapped by the compiler into all-lowercase or all-uppercase
names, and different compilers use different conventions. The automatically-generated
OpenMM Fortran “wrapper” subroutines, which are generated in C and
thus case-sensitive, are provided in two forms for compatibility with the
majority of Fortran compilers, including Intel Fortran and gfortran. The two
forms are: (1) all-lowercase with a trailing underscore, and (2) all-uppercase
without a trailing underscore. So regardless of the Fortran compiler you are
using, it should find a suitable subroutine to call in the main OpenMM library.

In the :code:`include` subdirectory of your OpenMM installation directory,
there is a machine-generated module file :code:`OpenMMFortranModule.f90`
that must be compiled along with any Fortran program that is to make calls to
OpenMM functions. (You can look at the :code:`Makefile` or Visual Studio
solution file provided with the OpenMM examples to see how to build a program
that uses this module file.) This module file contains definitions for two
modules: :code:`MODULE OpenMM_Types` and :code:`MODULE OpenMM`\ ; however,
only the :code:`OpenMM` module will appear in user programs (it references
the other module internally). The modules contain declarations for all the
OpenMM Fortran interface subroutines, related types, and parameters (constants).
Note that if you follow our suggested structure, you will not need to
:code:`use` the :code:`OpenMM` module in your :code:`main()`
compilation unit but can instead use it only in a local file that you write to
provide a simple interface to your existing code (see Chapter :ref:`openmm-tutorials`).

Mapping from the C++ API to the Fortran API
===========================================

The automated generator of the Fortran “wrappers” follows the translation
strategy shown in :autonumref:`Table,Fortran API`\ . The idea is that if you see the construct on the
left in the C++ API documentation, you should interpret it as the corresponding
construct on the right in Fortran. Please look at the supplied example programs
to see how this is done in practice. Note that all subroutines and modules are
declared with “\ :code:`implicit none`\ ”, meaning that the type of every symbol
is declared explicitly and should not be inferred from the first letter of the
symbol name.

==========================  ===================================  ========================================================
Construct                   C++ API declaration                  Equivalent in Fortran API
==========================  ===================================  ========================================================
namespace                   OpenMM\::                            OpenMM\_ (prefix)
class                       class OpenMM::ClassName              type (OpenMM_ClassName)
constant                    OpenMM::RadiansPerDeg                parameter (OpenMM_RadiansPerDeg)
class enum                  OpenMM::State::Positions             parameter (OpenMM_State_Positions)
constructor                 new OpenMM::ClassName()              | type (OpenMM_ClassName) thing
                                                                 | call OpenMM_ClassName_create(thing)
                                                                 | (additional constructors are \_create_2(), etc.)
destructor                  | OpenMM::ClassName* thing;          | type (OpenMM_ClassName) thing
                            | delete thing;                      | call OpenMM_ClassName_destroy(thing)
class method                | OpenMM::ClassName* thing;          | type (OpenMM_ClassName) thing
                            | thing->method(args*)               | call OpenMM_ClassName_method(thing, args)
Boolean (type & constants)  | bool                               | integer*4
                            | true                               | parameter (OpenMM_True=1)
                            | false                              | parameter (OpenMM_False=0)
string                      std::string                          character(*)
3-vector                    OpenMM::Vec3                         real*8 vec(3)
arrays                      std::vector<std::string>             | type (OpenMM_StringArray)
                            std::vector<double>                  | type (OpenMM_DoubleArray)
                            std::vector<Vec3>                    | type (OpenMM_Vec3Array)
                            std::vector<std::pair<int,int>>      | type (OpenMM_BondArray)
                            std::map<std::string, double>        | type (OpenMM_ParameterArray)
==========================  ===================================  ========================================================

:autonumber:`Table,Fortran API`\ : Default mapping of objects from the C++ API to the Fortran API

Because there are no C++ API equivalents to the array types, they are described
in detail below.

OpenMM_Vec3 helper type
=======================

Unlike the other OpenMM objects which are opaque and manipulated via pointers,
the Fortran API uses an ordinary :code:`real*8(3)` array in
place of the :code:`OpenMM::Vec3` type.
You can work directly with the individual elements of this type from your
Fortran program if you want. For convenience, a :code:`scale()` function is
provided that creates a new Vec3 from an old one and a scale factor:

.. code-block:: fortran

    subroutine OpenMM_Vec3_scale(vec, scale, result)
    real*8 vec(3), scale, result(3)

No explicit :code:`type`\ :code:`(OpenMM_Vec3)` is provided in the Fortran
API since it is not needed.

Array helper types
==================

C++ has built-in container types :code:`std::vector` and :code:`std::map`
which OpenMM uses to manipulate arrays of objects. These don’t have direct
equivalents in Fortran, so we supply special array types for each kind of object
for which OpenMM creates containers. These are: string, double, Vec3, bond, and
parameter map. See :autonumref:`Table,Fortran arrays` for the names of the Fortran types for each of
these object arrays. Each of the array types provides these functions (prefixed
by :code:`OpenMM_` and the actual *Thing* name), with the syntax shown
conceptually since it differs slightly for each kind of object.

+-------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Function                                  | Operation                                                                                              |
+===========================================+========================================================================================================+
| | subroutine create(array,size)           | Create a heap-allocated array of *Things*\ , with space pre-allocated to hold :code:`size` of them.    |
| | type (OpenMM\_\ *Thing*\ Array) array   | You can start at :code:`size`\ ==0 if you want since these arrays are dynamically resizeable.          |
| | integer*4 size                          |                                                                                                        |
+-------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | subroutine destroy(array)               | Free the heap space that is currently in use for the passed-in array of *Things*\ .                    |
| | type (OpenMM\_\ *Thing*\ Array) array   |                                                                                                        |
+-------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | function getSize(array)                 | Return the current number of *Things* in this array. This means you can :code:`get()` and              |
| | type (OpenMM\_\ *Thing*\ Array) array   | :code:`set()` elements up to :code:`getSize()`\ .                                                      |
| | integer*4 size                          |                                                                                                        |
+-------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | subroutine resize(array,size)           | Change the size of this array to the indicated value which may be smaller or larger than the           |
| | type (OpenMM\_\ *Thing*\ Array) array   | current size. Existing elements remain in their same locations as long as they still fit.              |
| | integer*4 size                          |                                                                                                        |
+-------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | subroutine append(array,elt)            | Add a *Thing* to the end of the array, increasing the array size by one. The precise syntax depends    |
| | type (OpenMM\_\ *Thing*\ Array) array   | on the actual type of *Thing*\ ; see below.                                                            |
| | *Thing* elt                             |                                                                                                        |
+-------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | subroutine set(array,index,elt)         | Store a copy of :code:`elt` in the indicated element of the array (indexed from 1). The array must     |
| | type (OpenMM\_\ *Thing*\ Array) array   | be of length at least :code:`index`\ ; you can’t grow the array with this function.                    |
| | integer*4 size                          |                                                                                                        |
| | *Thing* elt                             |                                                                                                        |
+-------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | subroutine get(array,index,elt)         | Retrieve a particular element from the array (indexed from 1).  Some *Things* require more than one    |
| | type (OpenMM\_\ *Thing*\ Array) array   | argument to return.                                                                                    |
| | integer*4 size                          |                                                                                                        |
| | *Thing* elt                             |                                                                                                        |
+-------------------------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

:autonumber:`Table,Fortran arrays`\ : Generic description of array helper types

Here are the exact declarations with deviations from the generic description
noted, for each of the array types.

OpenMM_DoubleArray
------------------

.. code-block:: fortran

    subroutine OpenMM_DoubleArray_create(array, size)
        integer*4 size
        type (OpenMM_DoubleArray) array
    subroutine OpenMM_DoubleArray_destroy(array)
        type (OpenMM_DoubleArray) array
    function OpenMM_DoubleArray_getSize(array)
        type (OpenMM_DoubleArray) array
        integer*4 OpenMM_DoubleArray_getSize
    subroutine OpenMM_DoubleArray_resize(array, size)
        type (OpenMM_DoubleArray) array
        integer*4 size
    subroutine OpenMM_DoubleArray_append(array, value)
        type (OpenMM_DoubleArray) array
        real*8 value
    subroutine OpenMM_DoubleArray_set(array, index, value)
        type (OpenMM_DoubleArray) array
        integer*4 index
        real*8 value
    subroutine OpenMM_DoubleArray_get(array, index, value)
        type (OpenMM_DoubleArray) array
        integer*4 index
        real*8 value

OpenMM_StringArray
------------------

.. code-block:: fortran

    subroutine OpenMM_StringArray_create(array, size)
        integer*4 size
        type (OpenMM_StringArray) array
    subroutine OpenMM_StringArray_destroy(array)
        type (OpenMM_StringArray) array
    function OpenMM_StringArray_getSize(array)
        type (OpenMM_StringArray) array
        integer*4 OpenMM_StringArray_getSize
    subroutine OpenMM_StringArray_resize(array, size)
        type (OpenMM_StringArray) array
        integer*4 size
    subroutine OpenMM_StringArray_append(array, str)
        type (OpenMM_StringArray) array
        character(*) str
    subroutine OpenMM_StringArray_set(array, index, str)
        type (OpenMM_StringArray) array
        integer*4 index
        character(*) str
    subroutine OpenMM_StringArray_get(array, index, str)
        type (OpenMM_StringArray) array
        integer*4 index
        character(*)str

OpenMM_Vec3Array
----------------

.. code-block:: fortran

    subroutine OpenMM_Vec3Array_create(array, size)
        integer*4 size
        type (OpenMM_Vec3Array) array
    subroutine OpenMM_Vec3Array_destroy(array)
        type (OpenMM_Vec3Array) array
    function OpenMM_Vec3Array_getSize(array)
        type (OpenMM_Vec3Array) array
        integer*4 OpenMM_Vec3Array_getSize
    subroutine OpenMM_Vec3Array_resize(array, size)
        type (OpenMM_Vec3Array) array
        integer*4 size
    subroutine OpenMM_Vec3Array_append(array, vec)
        type (OpenMM_Vec3Array) array
        real*8 vec(3)
    subroutine OpenMM_Vec3Array_set(array, index, vec)
        type (OpenMM_Vec3Array) array
        integer*4 index
        real*8 vec(3)
    subroutine OpenMM_Vec3Array_get(array, index, vec)
        type (OpenMM_Vec3Array) array
        integer*4 index
        real*8 vec (3)

OpenMM_BondArray
----------------

Note that bonds are specified by pairs of integers (the atom indices). The
:code:`get()` method returns those in a pair of final arguments rather than as
its functional return.

.. code-block:: fortran

    subroutine OpenMM_BondArray_create(array, size)
        integer*4 size
        type (OpenMM_BondArray) array
    subroutine OpenMM_BondArray_destroy(array)
        type (OpenMM_BondArray) array
    function OpenMM_BondArray_getSize(array)
        type (OpenMM_BondArray) array
        integer*4 OpenMM_BondArray_getSize
    subroutine OpenMM_BondArray_resize(array, size)
        type (OpenMM_BondArray) array
        integer*4 size
    subroutine OpenMM_BondArray_append(array, particle1, particle2)
        type (OpenMM_BondArray) array
        integer*4 particle1, particle2
    subroutine OpenMM_BondArray_set(array, index, particle1, particle2)
        type (OpenMM_BondArray) array
        integer*4 index, particle1, particle2
    subroutine OpenMM_BondArray_get(array, index, particle1, particle2)
        type (OpenMM_BondArray) array
        integer*4 index, particle1, particle2

OpenMM_ParameterArray
---------------------

OpenMM returns references to internal :code:`ParameterArrays` but does not
support user-created :code:`ParameterArrays`\ , so only the :code:`get()`
and :code:`getSize()` functions are available. Also, note that since this is
actually a map rather than an array, the “index” is the *name* of the
parameter rather than its ordinal.

.. code-block:: fortran

    function OpenMM_ParameterArray_getSize(array)
        type (OpenMM_ParameterArray) array
        integer*4 OpenMM_ParameterArray_getSize
    subroutine OpenMM_ParameterArray_get(array, name, param)
        type (OpenMM_ParameterArray) array
        character(*) name
        character(*) param


Python API
**********


Installing the Python API
=========================

There are currently two types of packages for installing the Python API.  One
contains wrapper source code for Unix-type machines (including Linux and Mac
operating systems).  You will need a C++ compiler to install it using this type
of package.  The other type of installation package is a binary package which
contains compiled wrapper code for Windows machines (no compilers are needed to
install binary packages).

Installing on Windows
---------------------

OpenMM on Windows only works with Python 3.3, so make sure that version is
installed before you try installing. For Python installation packages and
instructions, go to http://python.org.  Note that if you have a 64-bit machine,
you should still install the 32-bit version of Python since the OpenMM Python
API binary is 32-bit.  We suggest that you install Python using the default
options.

Double click on the Python API Installer icon, located in the top level
directory for the OpenMM installation (by default, this is C:\Program
Files\OpenMM).  This will install the OpenMM package into the Python
installation area.  If you have more than one Python installation, you will be
asked which Python to use—make sure to select Python 3.3.

Installing on Linux and Mac
---------------------------

Make sure you have Python 2.6 or later installed.  For Python installation
packages and instructions, go to http://python.org.  If you do not have the
correct Python version, install a valid version using the default options.  Most
versions of Linux and Mac OS X have a suitable Python preinstalled.  You can
check by typing “\ :code:`python` |--|\ :code:`version`\ ” in a terminal window.

You must have a C++ compiler to install the OpenMM Python API.  If you are using
a Mac, install Apple's Xcode development tools
(http://developer.apple.com/TOOLS/Xcode) to get the needed compiler.  On other
Unix-type systems, install gcc or clang.

The install.sh script installs the Python API automatically as part of the
installation process, so you probably already have it installed.  If for some
reason you need to install it manually, you can do that with the
:code:`setup.py` script included with OpenMM.  Before executing this script,
you must set two environment variables: :code:`OPENMM_INCLUDE_PATH` must
point to the directory containing OpenMM header files, and
:code:`OPENMM_LIB_PATH` must point to the directory containing OpenMM library
files.  Assuming OpenMM is installed in the default location
(\ :code:`/usr/local/openmm`\ ), you would type the following commands.
Note that if you are using the system Python (as opposed to a locally installed
version), you may need to use the :code:`sudo` command when running
:code:`python setup.py install`\ .
::

    export OPENMM_INCLUDE_PATH=/usr/local/openmm/include
    export OPENMM_LIB_PATH=/usr/local/openmm/lib
    python setup.py build
    python setup.py install

If you are compiling OpenMM from source, you can also install by building the
“PythonInstall” target:

:code:`make PythonInstall` OR :code:`sudo make PythonInstall`

Mapping from the C++ API to the Python API
==========================================

The Python API follows the C++ API as closely as possible. There are three
notable differences:

#. The :code:`getState()` method in the :code:`Context` class takes
   Pythonic-type arguments to indicate which state variables should be made
   available.  For example:
   ::

    myContext.getState(getEnergy=True, getForce=False, …)

#. Wherever the C++ API uses references to return multiple values from a method,
   the Python API returns a tuple.  For example, in C++ you would query a
   HarmonicBondForce for a bond’s parameters as follows:
   ::

    int particle1, particle2;
    double length, k;
    f.getBondParameters(i, particle1, particle2, length, k);

   In Python, the equivalent code is:
   ::

    [particle1, particle2, length, k] = f.getBondParameters(i)

#. Unlike C++, the Python API accepts and returns quantities with units attached
   to most values (see Section :ref:`units-and-dimensional-analysis` below for
   details).  In short, this means that while values in C++ have *implicit*
   units, the Python API returns objects that have values and *explicit* units.


Mechanics of using the Python API
=================================

When using the Python API, be sure to include the GPU support
libraries in your library path, just as you would for a C++ application.  This
is set with the :code:`LD_LIBRARY_PATH` environment variable on Linux,
:code:`DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH` on Mac, or :code:`PATH` on Windows.  See
Chapter :ref:`installing-openmm` for details.

The Python API is contained in the simtk.openmm package, while the units code is
contained in the simtk.units package.  (The application layer, described in the
Application Guide, is contained in the simtk.openmm.app package.)  A program
using it will therefore typically begin
::

    import simtk.openmm as mm
    import simtk.unit as unit

Creating and using OpenMM objects is then done exactly as in C++:
::

    system = mm.System()
    nb = mm.NonbondedForce()
    nb.setNonbondedMethod(mm.NonbondedForce.CutoffNonPeriodic)
    nb.setCutoffDistance(1.2*unit.nanometer)
    system.addForce(nb)

Note that when setting the cutoff distance, we explicitly specify that it is in
nanometers.  We could just as easily specify it in different units:
::

    nb.setCutoffDistance(12*unit.angstrom)

The use of units in OpenMM is discussed in the next section.


.. _units-and-dimensional-analysis:

Units and dimensional analysis
==============================


Why does the Python API include units?
--------------------------------------

The C++ API for OpenMM uses an *implicit* set of units for physical
quantities such as lengths, masses, energies, etc.  These units are based on
daltons, nanometers, and picoseconds for the mass, length, and time dimensions,
respectively.  When using the C++ API, it is very important to ensure that
quantities being manipulated are always expressed in terms of these units.  For
example, if you read in a distance in Angstroms, you must multiply that distance
by a conversion factor to turn it into nanometers before using it in the C++
API.  Such conversions can be a source of tedium and errors.  This is true in
many areas of scientific programming.  Units confusion was blamed for the loss
of the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft in 1999, at a cost of more than $100
million.  Units were introduced in the Python API to minimize the chance of such
errors.

The Python API addresses the potential problem of conversion errors by using
quantities with explicit units.  If a particular distance is expressed in
Angstroms, the Python API will know that it is in Angstroms.  When the time
comes to call the C++ API, it will understand that the quantity must be
converted to nanometers.  You, the programmer, must declare upfront that the
quantity is in Angstrom units, and the API will take care of the details from
then on.  Using explicit units is a bit like brushing your teeth: it requires
some effort upfront, but it probably saves you trouble in the long run.

Quantities, units, and dimensions
---------------------------------

The explicit unit system is based on three concepts: Dimensions, Units, and
Quantities.

Dimensions are measurable physical concepts such as mass, length, time, and
energy.  Energy is actually a composite dimension based on mass, length, and
time.

A Unit defines a linear scale used to measure amounts of a particular physical
Dimension.  Examples of units include meters, seconds, joules, inches, and
grams.

A Quantity is a specific amount of a physical Dimension.  An example of a
quantity is “0.63 kilograms”.  A Quantity is expressed as a combination of a
value (e.g., 0.63), and a Unit (e.g., kilogram).  The same Quantity can be
expressed in different Units.

The set of BaseDimensions defined in the simtk.unit module includes:

* mass
* length
* time
* temperature
* amount
* charge
* luminous intensity


These are not precisely the same list of base dimensions used in the SI unit
system.  SI defines “current” (charge per time) as a base unit, while simtk.unit
uses “charge”.  And simtk.unit treats angle as a dimension, even though angle
quantities are often considered dimensionless.  In this case, we choose to err
on the side of explicitness, particularly because interconversion of degrees and
radians is a frequent source of unit headaches.

Units examples
--------------

Many common units are defined in the simtk.unit module.
::

    from simtk.unit import nanometer, angstrom, dalton

Sometimes you don’t want to type the full unit name every time, so you can
assign it a shorter name using the :code:`as` functionality:
::

    from simtk.unit import nanometer as nm

New quantities can be created from a value and a unit.  You can use either the
multiply operator (‘*’) or the explicit Quantity constructor:
::

    from simk.unit import nanometer, Quantity
    # construct a Quantity using the multiply operator
    bond_length = 1.53 * nanometer
    # equivalently using the explicit Quantity constructor
    bond_length = Quantity(1.53, nanometer)
    # or more verbosely
    bond_length = Quantity(value=1.53, unit=nanometer)

Arithmetic with units
---------------------

Addition and subtraction of quantities is only permitted between quantities that
share the same dimension.  It makes no sense to add a mass to a distance.  If
you attempt to add or subtract two quantities with different dimensions, an
exception will be raised.  This is a good thing; it helps you avoid errors.
::

    x = 5.0*dalton + 4.3*nanometer; # error

Addition or subtraction of quantities with the same dimension, but different
units, is fine, and results in a new quantity created using the correct
conversion factor between the units used.
::

    x = 1.3*nanometer + 5.6*angstrom; # OK, result in nanometers

Quantities can be added and subtracted.  Naked Units cannot.

Multiplying or dividing two quantities creates a new quantity with a composite
dimension.  For example, dividing a distance by a time results in a velocity.
::

    from simtk.unit import kilogram, meter, second
    a = 9.8 * meter / second**2; # acceleration
    m = 0.36 * kilogram; # mass
    F = m * a; # force in kg*m/s**2::


Multiplication or division of two Units results in a composite Unit.
::

    mps = meter / second

Unlike amount (moles), angle (radians) is arguably dimensionless.  But simtk.unit
treats angle as another dimension.   Use the trigonometric functions from the
simtk.unit module (not those from the Python math module!) when dealing with
Units and Quantities.
::

    from simtk.unit import sin, cos, acos
    x = sin(90.0*degrees)
    angle = acos(0.68); # returns an angle quantity (in radians)

The method :code:`pow()` is a built-in Python method that works with
Quantities and Units.
::

    area = pow(3.0*meter, 2)
    # or, equivalently
    area = (3.0*meter)**2
    # or
    area = 9.0*(meter**2)

The method :code:`sqrt()` is not as built-in as :code:`pow()`\ .  Do not
use the Python :code:`math.sqrt()` method with Units and Quantities.  Use
the :code:`simtk.unit.sqrt()` method instead:
::

    from simtk.unit import sqrt
    side_length = sqrt(4.0*meter**2)


Atomic scale mass and energy units are “per amount”
---------------------------------------------------

Mass and energy units at the atomic scale are specified “per amount” in the
simtk.unit module.  Amount (mole) is one of the seven fundamental dimensions in
the SI unit system.   The atomic scale mass unit, dalton, is defined as grams
per mole.  The dimension of dalton is therefore mass/amount, instead of simply
mass.  Similarly, the atomic scale energy unit, kilojoule_per_mole (and
kilocalorie_per_mole) has “per amount” in its dimension.  Be careful to always
use “per amount” mass and energy types at the atomic scale, and your dimensional
analysis should work out properly.

The energy unit kilocalories_per_mole does not have the same Dimension as the
macroscopic energy unit kilocalories.  Molecular scientists sometimes use the
word "kilocalories" when they mean "kilocalories per mole".  Use "kilocalories
per mole" or"kilojoules per mole" for molecular energies.  Use "kilocalories"
for the metabolic energy content of your lunch.  The energy unit
kilojoule_per_mole happens to go naturally with the units nanometer,
picoseconds, and dalton.  This is because 1 kilojoule/mole happens to be equal
to 1 gram-nanometer\ :sup:`2`\ /mole-picosecond\ :sup:`2`\ , and is therefore
consistent with the molecular dynamics unit system used in the C++ OpenMM API.

These "per mole" units are what you should be using for molecular calculations,
as long as you are using SI / cgs / calorie sorts of units.

SI prefixes
-----------

Many units with SI prefixes such as “milligram” (milli) and “kilometer” (kilo)
are provided in the simtk.unit module.  Others can be created by multiplying a
prefix symbol by a non-prefixed unit:
::

    from simtk.unit import mega, kelvin
    megakelvin = mega * kelvin
    t = 8.3 * megakelvin

Only grams and meters get all of the SI prefixes (from yotto-(10\ :sup:`-24`\ )
to yotta-(10\ :sup:`24`\ )) automatically.


Converting to different units
-----------------------------

Use the :code:`Quantity.in_units_of()` method to create a new Quantity with
different units.
::

    from simtk.unit import nanosecond, fortnight
    x = (175000*nanosecond).in_units_of(fortnight)

When you want a plain number out of a Quantity, use the :code:`value_in_unit()` method:
::

    from simtk.unit import femtosecond, picosecond
    t = 5.0*femtosecond
    t_just_a_number = t.value_in_unit(picoseconds)

Using :code:`value_in_unit()` puts the responsibility for unit analysis back
into your hands, and it should be avoided.  It is sometimes necessary, however,
when you are called upon to use a non-units-aware Python API.


Lists, tuples, vectors, numpy arrays, and Units
-----------------------------------------------

Units can be attached to containers of numbers to create a vector quantity.  The
simtk.unit module overloads the :code:`__setitem__` and
:code:`__getitem__` methods for these containers to ensure that Quantities go
in and out.
::

    >>> a = Vec3(1,2,3) * nanometers
    >>> print(a)
    (1, 2, 3) nm
    >>> print(a.in_units_of(angstroms))
    (10.0, 20.0, 30.0) A

    >>> s2 = [[1,2,3],[4,5,6]] * centimeter
    >>> print(s2)
    [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]] cm
    >>> print(s2/millimeter)
    [[10.0, 20.0, 30.0], [40.0, 50.0, 60.0]]

    >>> import numpy
    >>> a = numpy.array([1,2,3]) * centimeter
    >>> print(a)
    [1 2 3] cm
    >>> print(a/millimeter)
    [ 10.  20.  30.]

Converting a whole list to different units at once is much faster than
converting each element individually.  For example, consider the following code
that prints out the position of every particle in a State, as measured in
Angstroms:
::

    for v in state.getPositions():
        print(v.value_in_unit(angstrom))

This can be rewritten as follows:
::

    for v in state.getPositions().value_in_unit(angstrom):
        print(v)

The two versions produce identical results, but the second one will run faster,
and therefore is preferred.

.. _examples-of-openmm-integration:

Examples of OpenMM Integration
###############################


GROMACS
*******

GROMACS is a large, complex application written primarily in C.  The
considerations involved in adapting it to use OpenMM are likely to be similar to
those faced by developers of other existing applications.

The first principle we followed in adapting GROMACS was to keep all OpenMM-related
code isolated to just a few files, while modifying as little of the
existing GROMACS code as possible.  This minimized the risk of breaking existing
parts of the code, while making the OpenMM-related parts as easy to work with as
possible.  It also minimized the need for C code to invoke the C++ API.  (This
would not be an issue if we used the OpenMM C API wrapper, but that is less
convenient than the C++ API, and placing all of the OpenMM calls into separate
C++ files solves the problem equally well.)  Nearly all of the OpenMM-specific
code is contained in a single file, openmm_wrapper.cpp.  It defines four
functions which encapsulate all of the interaction between OpenMM and the rest
of GROMACS:

\ :code:`openmm_init()`\ : As arguments, this function takes pointers to lots of
internal GROMACS data structures that describe the simulation to be run.  It
creates a System, Integrator, and Context based on them, then returns an opaque
reference to an object containing them.  That reference is an input argument to
all of the other functions defined in openmm_wrapper.cpp.  This allows
information to be passed between those functions without exposing it to the rest
of GROMACS.

\ :code:`openmm_take_one_step()`\ : This calls :code:`step(1)` on the
Integrator that was created by :code:`openmm_init()`\ .

\ :code:`openmm_copy_state()`\ : This calls :code:`getState()` on the
Context that was created by :code:`openmm_init()`\ , and then copies
information from the resulting State into various GROMACS data structures.  This
function is how state data generated by OpenMM is passed back to GROMACS for
output, analysis, etc.

\ :code:`openmm_cleanup()`\ : This is called at the end of the simulation.  It
deletes all the objects that were created by :code:`openmm_init()`\ .

This set of functions defines the interactions between GROMACS and OpenMM:
copying information from the application to OpenMM, performing integration,
copying information from OpenMM back to the application, and freeing resources
at the end of the simulation.  While the details of their implementations are
specific to GROMACS, this overall pattern is fairly generic.  A similar set of
functions can be used for many other applications as well.

TINKER-OpenMM
*************

TINKER is written primarily in Fortran, and uses common blocks extensively to
store application-wide parameters.  Rather than modify the TINKER build scripts
to allow C++ code, it was decided to use the OpenMM C API instead.  Despite
these differences, the overall approach used to add OpenMM support was very
similar to that used for GROMACS.

TINKER-OpenMM allows OpenMM to be used to calculate forces and energies and to
perform the integration in the main molecular dynamics loop. The only changes to
the TINKER source code are in the file :code:`dynamic.f` for the setup and
running of a simulation.  An added file, :code:`dynamic_openmm.c`\ , contains
the interface C code between TINKER and OpenMM.

The flow of the molecular dynamics simulation using OpenMM is as follows:

#. The TINKER code is used to read the AMOEBA parameter file,  the
   :code:`*.xyz` and :code:`*.key` files.  It then parses the command-line
   options.

#. The routine :code:`map_common_blocks_to_c_data_structs()` is
   called to map the FORTRAN common blocks to C data structures used in setting the
   parameters used by OpenMM.

#. The routine :code:`openmm_validate()` is called from
   :code:`dynamic.f` before the main loop.  This routine checks that all required
   options and settings obtained from the input in step (1) and common blocks in
   step (2) are available.  If an option or setting is unsupported, the program
   exits with an appropriate message.  The routine :code:`openmm_validate()`
   and the other OpenMM interface methods are in the file
   :code:`dynamic_openmm.c`\ .

#. :code:`openmm_init()` is called to create the OpenMM System,
   Integrator and Context objects..

#. :code:`openmm_take_steps()` is called to take a specified number
   of time steps.

#. :code:`openmm_update()` is then called to retrieve the state
   (energies/positions/velocities) and populate the appropriate TINKER data
   structures.  These values are converted from the OpenMM units of kJ/nm to kcal/Å
   when populating the TINKER arrays.

#. Once the main loop has completed, the routine
   :code:`openmm_cleanup()` is called to delete the OpenMM objects and release
   resources being used on the GPU.



Testing and Validation of OpenMM
################################

The goal of testing and validation is to make sure that OpenMM works correctly.
That means that it runs without crashing or otherwise failing, and that it
produces correct results.  Furthermore, it must work correctly on a variety of
hardware platforms (e.g. different models of GPU), software platforms (e.g.
operating systems and OpenCL implementations), and types of simulations.

Three types of tests are used to validate OpenMM:

* **Unit tests:** These are small tests designed to test specific features
  or pieces of code in isolation.  For example, a test of HarmonicBondForce might
  create a System with just a few particles and bonds, compute the forces and
  energy, and compare them to the analytically expected values.  There are
  thousands of unit tests that collectively cover all of OpenMM.

* **System tests:** Whereas unit tests validate small features in
  isolation, system tests are designed to validate the entire library as a whole.
  They simulate realistic models of biomolecules and perform tests that are likely
  to fail if any problem exists anywhere in the library.

* **Direct comparison between OpenMM and other programs:**  The third type
  of validation performed is a direct comparison of the individual forces computed
  by OpenMM to those computed by other programs for a collection of biomolecules.


Each type of test is outlined in greater detail below; a discussion of the
current status of the tests is then given.


Description of Tests
********************


Unit tests
===========

The unit tests are with the source code, so if you build from source you can run
them yourself.  See Section :ref:`test-your-build` for details.  When you run the tests
(for example, by typing “make test” on Linux or Mac), it should produce output
something like this:
::

            Start   1: TestReferenceAndersenThermostat
      1/317 Test   #1: TestReferenceAndersenThermostat .............. Passed  0.26 sec
            Start   2: TestReferenceBrownianIntegrator
      2/317 Test   #2: TestReferenceBrownianIntegrator .............. Passed  0.13 sec
            Start   3: TestReferenceCheckpoints
      3/317 Test   #3: TestReferenceCheckpoints ..................... Passed  0.02 sec
      ... <many other tests> ...

Each line represents a test suite, which may contain multiple unit tests.  If
all tests within a suite passed, it prints the word “Passed” and how long the
suite took to execute.  Otherwise it prints an error message.  If any tests
failed, you can then run them individually (each one is a separate executable)
to get more details on what went wrong.

System tests
============

Several different types of system tests are performed.  Each type is run for a
variety of systems, including both proteins and nucleic acids, and involving
both implicit and explicit solvent.  The full suite of tests is repeated for
both the CUDA and OpenCL platforms, using both single and double precision (and
for the integration tests, mixed precision as well), on a variety of operating
systems and hardware.  There are four types of tests:

* **Consistency between platforms:** The forces and energy are computed
  using the platform being tested, then compared to ones computed with the
  Reference platform.  The results are required to agree to within a small
  tolerance.
* **Energy-force consistency:** This verifies that the force really is the
  gradient of the energy.   It first computes the vector of forces for a given
  conformation.  It then generates four other conformations by displacing the
  particle positions by small amounts along the force direction.  It computes the
  energy of each one, uses those to calculate a fourth order finite difference
  approximation to the derivative along that direction, and compares it to the
  actual forces.  They are required to agree to within a small tolerance.
* **Energy conservation:** The system is simulated at constant energy using
  a Verlet integrator, and the total energy is periodically recorded.  A linear
  regression is used to estimate the rate of energy drift.  In addition, all
  constrained distances are monitored during the simulation to make sure they
  never differ from the expected values by more than the constraint tolerance.
* **Thermostability:** The system is simulated at constant temperature
  using a Langevin integrator.  The mean kinetic energy over the course of the
  simulation is computed and compared to the expected value based on the
  temperature.  In addition, all constrained distances are monitored during the
  simulation to make sure they never differ from the expected values by more than
  the constraint tolerance.


If you want to run the system tests yourself, they can be found in the
Subversion repository at https://simtk.org/svn/pyopenmm/trunk/test/system-tests.
Check out that directory, then execute the runAllTests.sh shell script.  It will
create a series of files with detailed information about the results of the
tests.  Be aware that running the full test suite may take a long time (possibly
several days) depending on the speed of your GPU.

Direct comparisons between OpenMM and other programs
====================================================

As a final check, identical systems are set up in OpenMM and in another program
(Gromacs 4.5 or Tinker 6.1), each one is used to compute the forces on atoms,
and the results are directly compared to each other.

Test Results
************

In this section, we highlight the major results obtained from the tests
described above.  They are not exhaustive, but should give a reasonable idea of
the level of accuracy you can expect from OpenMM.

Comparison to Reference Platform
================================

The differences between forces computed with the Reference platform and those
computed with the OpenCL or CUDA platform are shown in
:autonumref:`Table,force comparison between platforms`\ .  For every
atom, the relative difference between platforms was computed as
2·\|F\ :sub:`ref`\ –F\ :sub:`test`\ \|/(\|F\ :sub:`ref`\ \|+|F\ :sub:`test`\ \|), where
F\ :sub:`ref` is the force computed by the Reference platform and F\ :sub:`test`
is the force computed by the platform being tested (OpenCL or CUDA).  The median
over all atoms in a given system was computed to estimate the typical force
errors for that system.  Finally, the median of those values for all test
systems was computed to give the value shown in the table.

====================================  ========================  ====================  ===================  =====================
Force                                 OpenCL (single)           OpenCL (double)       CUDA (single)        CUDA (double)
====================================  ========================  ====================  ===================  =====================
Total Force                           2.53·10\ :sup:`-6`        1.44·10\ :sup:`-7`    2.56·10\ :sup:`-6`   8.78·10\ :sup:`-8`
HarmonicBondForce                     2.88·10\ :sup:`-6`        1.57·10\ :sup:`-13`   2.88·10\ :sup:`-6`   1.57·10\ :sup:`-13`
HarmonicAngleForce                    2.25·10\ :sup:`-5`        4.21·10\ :sup:`-7`    2.27·10\ :sup:`-5`   4.21·10\ :sup:`-7`
PeriodicTorsionForce                  8.23·10\ :sup:`-7`        2.44·10\ :sup:`-7`    9.27·10\ :sup:`-7`   2.56·10\ :sup:`-7`
RBTorsionForce                        4.86·10\ :sup:`-6`        1.46·10\ :sup:`-7`    4.72·10\ :sup:`-6`   1.4·10\ :sup:`-8`
NonbondedForce (no cutoff)            1.49·10\ :sup:`-6`        6.49·10\ :sup:`-8`    1.49·10\ :sup:`-6`   6.49·10\ :sup:`-8`
NonbondedForce (cutoff, nonperiodic)  9.74·10\ :sup:`-7`        4.88·10\ :sup:`-9`    9.73·10\ :sup:`-7`   4.88·10\ :sup:`-9`
NonbondedForce (cutoff, periodic)     9.82·10\ :sup:`-7`        4.88·10\ :sup:`-9`    9.8·10\ :sup:`-7`    4.88·10\ :sup:`-9`
NonbondedForce (Ewald)                1.33·10\ :sup:`-6`        5.22·10\ :sup:`-9`    1.33·10\ :sup:`-6`   5.22·10\ :sup:`-9`
NonbondedForce (PME)                  3.99·10\ :sup:`-5`        4.08·10\ :sup:`-6`    3.99·10\ :sup:`-5`   4.08·10\ :sup:`-6`
GBSAOBCForce (no cutoff)              3.0·10\ :sup:`-6`         1.76·10\ :sup:`-7`    3.09·10\ :sup:`-6`   9.4·10\ :sup:`-8`
GBSAOBCForce (cutoff, nonperiodic)    2.77·10\ :sup:`-6`        1.76·10\ :sup:`-7`    2.95·10\ :sup:`-6`   9.33·10\ :sup:`-8`
GBSAOBCForce (cutoff, periodic)       2.61·10\ :sup:`-6`        1.78·10\ :sup:`-7`    2.77·10\ :sup:`-6`   9.24·10\ :sup:`-8`
====================================  ========================  ====================  ===================  =====================

:autonumber:`Table,force comparison between platforms`\ :  Median relative difference in forces between Reference platform and
OpenCL/CUDA platform


Energy Conservation
===================

:autonumref:`Figure,energy drift` shows the total system energy versus time for three simulations of
ubiquitin in OBC implicit solvent.  All three simulations used the CUDA
platform, a Verlet integrator, a time step of 0.5 fs, no constraints, and no
cutoff on the nonbonded interactions.  They differ only in the level of numeric
precision that was used for calculations (see Chapter :ref:`platform-specific-properties`\ ).


.. figure:: ../images/EnergyDrift.png
   :align: center

   :autonumber:`Figure,energy drift`: Total energy versus time for simulations run in three different
   precision modes.

For the mixed and double precision simulations, the drift in energy is almost
entirely diffusive with negligible systematic drift.  The single precision
simulation has a more significant upward drift with time, though the rate of
drift is still small compared to the rate of short term fluctuations.  Fitting a
straight line to each curve gives a long term rate of energy drift of 3.98
kJ/mole/ns for single precision, 0.217 kJ/mole/ns for mixed precision, and
0.00100 kJ/mole/ns for double precision.  In the more commonly reported units of
kT/ns/dof, these correspond to 4.3·10\ :sup:`-4` for single precision,
2.3·10\ :sup:`-5` for mixed precision, and 1.1·10\ :sup:`-7` for double precision.

Be aware that different simulation parameters will give different results.
These simulations were designed to minimize all sources of error except those
inherent in OpenMM.  There are other sources of error that may be significant in
other situations.  In particular:

* Using a larger time step increases the integration error (roughly
  proportional to *dt*\ :sup:`2`\ ).
* If a system involves constraints, the level of error will depend strongly on
  the constraint tolerance specified by the Integrator.
* When using Ewald summation or Particle Mesh Ewald, the accuracy will depend
  strongly on the Ewald error tolerance.
* Applying a distance cutoff to implicit solvent calculations will increase the
  error, and the shorter the cutoff is, the greater the error will be.


As a result, the rate of energy drift may be much greater in some simulations
than in the ones shown above.

Comparison to Gromacs
=====================

OpenMM and Gromacs 4.5.5 were each used to compute the atomic forces for
dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) in implicit and explicit solvent.  The implicit
solvent calculations used the OBC solvent model and no cutoff on nonbonded
interactions.  The explicit solvent calculations used Particle Mesh Ewald and a
1 nm cutoff on direct space interactions.  For OpenMM, the Ewald error tolerance
was set to 10\ :sup:`-6`\ .  For Gromacs, :code:`fourierspacing` was set to
0.07 and :code:`ewald_rtol` to 10\ :sup:`-6`\ .  No constraints were applied
to any degrees of freedom.  Both programs used single precision.  The test was
repeated for OpenCL, CUDA, and CPU platforms.

For every atom, the relative difference between OpenMM and Gromacs was computed
as 2·\|F\ :sub:`MM`\ –F\ :sub:`Gro`\ \|/(\|F\ :sub:`MM`\ \|+\|F\ :sub:`Gro`\ \|),
where F\ :sub:`MM` is the force computed by OpenMM and F\ :sub:`Gro` is the
force computed by Gromacs.  The median over all atoms is shown in :autonumref:`Table,comparison to Gromacs`\ .

=============   ===================  ===================  ===================
Solvent Model   OpenCL               CUDA                 CPU
=============   ===================  ===================  ===================
Implicit        7.66·10\ :sup:`-6`   7.68·10\ :sup:`-6`   1.94·10\ :sup:`-5`
Explicit        6.77·10\ :sup:`-5`   6.78·10\ :sup:`-5`   9.89·10\ :sup:`-5`
=============   ===================  ===================  ===================

:autonumber:`Table,comparison to Gromacs`\ :  Median relative difference in forces between OpenMM and Gromacs



AMOEBA Plugin
#############

OpenMM |version| provides a plugin that implements the AMOEBA polarizable atomic
multipole force field from Jay Ponder’s lab. The AMOEBA force field may be used
through OpenMM’s Python application layer. We have also created a modified
version of TINKER (referred to as TINKER-OpenMM here) that uses OpenMM to
accelerate AMOEBA simulations. TINKER-OpenMM can be created from a TINKER
package using three files made available through the OpenMM home page. OpenMM
AMOEBA Force and System objects containing AMOEBA forces can be serialized.

At present, AMOEBA is only supported on the CUDA and Reference platforms, not on
the OpenCL platform.

In the following sections, the individual forces and options available in the
plugin are listed, and the steps required to build and use the plugin and
TINKER-OpenMM are outlined. Validation results are also reported.  Benchmarks
can be found on the OpenMM wiki at http://wiki.simtk.org/openmm/Benchmarks.

OpenMM AMOEBA Supported Forces and Options
*******************************************


.. _supported-forces-and-options:

Supported Forces and Options
============================

The AMOEBA force terms implemented in OpenMM are listed in :autonumref:`Table,mapping from TINKER` along
with the supported and unsupported options. TINKER options that are not
supported for any OpenMM force include the grouping of atoms (e.g. protein
chains), the infinite polymer check, and no exclusion of particles from
energy/force calculations (‘active’/’inactive’ particles).  The virial is not
calculated for any force.

All rotation axis types are supported: ‘Z-then-X’, ‘Bisector’, ‘Z-Bisect’,
‘3-Fold’, ‘Z-Only’.


=================================  ==================================  ======================================================================================================================================================================================
TINKER Force                       OpenMM Force                        Option/Note
=================================  ==================================  ======================================================================================================================================================================================
ebond1 (bondterm)                  AmoebaBondForce                     bndtyp='HARMONIC' supported, 'MORSE' not implemented
Eangle71 (angleterm)               AmoebaAngleForce                    angtyp='HARMONIC' and 'IN-PLANE' supported; 'LINEAR' and 'FOURIER' not implemented
etors1a (torsionterm)              PeriodicTorsionForce                All options implemented; smoothing version(etors1b) not supported
etortor1 (tortorterm)              AmoebaTorsionTorsionForce           All options implemented
eopbend1 (opbendterm)              AmoebaOutOfPlaneBendForce           opbtyp = 'ALLINGER' implemented; 'W-D-C' not implemented
epitors1 (pitorsterm)              AmoebaPiTorsionForce                All options implemented
estrbnd1 (strbndterm)              AmoebaStretchBendForce              All options implemented
ehal1a (vdwterm)                   AmoebaVdwForce                      ehal1b(LIGHTS) not supported
empole1a (mpoleterm)               AmoebaMultipoleForce                poltyp = 'MUTUAL', 'DIRECT'  supported
empole1c (mpoleterm) PME           AmoebaMultipoleForce                poltyp = 'MUTUAL', 'DIRECT' supported; boundary= 'VACUUM' unsupported
esolv1 (solvateterm)               | AmoebaWcaDispersionForce,         Only born-radius=’grycuk’ and solvate=’GK’ supported; unsupported solvate settings:
                                   | AmoebaGeneralizedKirkwoodForce    ‘ASP’, ‘SASA’, ‘ONION’, ‘pb’, 'GB-HPMF’, 'Gk-HPMF’; SASA computation is based on ACE approximation
eurey1 (ureyterm)                  HarmonicBondForce                   All options implemented
=================================  ==================================  ======================================================================================================================================================================================

:autonumber:`Table,mapping from TINKER`\ :  Mapping between TINKER and OpenMM AMOEBA forces


Some specific details to be aware of are the following:

* Forces available in TINKER but not implemented in the OpenMM AMOEBA plugin
  include the following: angle-angle, out-of-plane distance, improper dihedral,
  improper torsion, stretch-torsion, charge-charge, atomwise charge-dipole,
  dipole-dipole, reaction field, ligand field, restraint, scf molecular orbital
  calculation; strictly speaking, these are not part of the AMOEBA force field.

* Implicit solvent in TINKER-OpenMM is implemented with key file entry ‘solvate
  GK’.  The entry ‘born-radius grycuk’ should also be included; only the ‘grycuk’
  option for calculating the Born radii is available in the plugin.

* In TINKER, the nonpolar cavity contribution to the solvation term is
  calculated using an algorithm that does not map well to GPUs.  Instead the
  OpenMM plugin uses the TINKER version of the ACE approximation to estimate the
  cavity contribution to the SASA.

* Calculations using the CUDA platform may be done in either single or double
  precision; for the Reference platform, double precision is used.  TINKER uses
  double precision.

* The TINKER parameter files for the AMOEBA force-field parameters are based on
  units of kilocalorie/Å, whereas OpenMM uses units of kilojoules/nanometer; both
  TINKER and OpenMM use picoseconds time units. Hence, in mapping the force-field
  parameters from TINKER files to OpenMM, many of the parameter values must be
  converted to the OpenMM units. The setup methods in the TINKER-OpenMM
  application perform the required conversions.


Supported Integrators
=====================

In addition to the limitations to the forces outlined above, TINKER-OpenMM can
only use either the ‘Verlet’ or ‘Stochastic’ integrators when the OpenMM plugin
is used; an equivalent to the TINKER ‘Beeman’ integrator is unavailable in
OpenMM.

TINKER-OpenMM
**************


Building TINKER-OpenMM (Linux)
==============================

Below are instructions for building TINKER-OpenMM in Linux.

#. To build and install the OpenMM plugin libraries, follow the steps outlined
   in Chapter :ref:`compiling-openmm-from-source-code` (Compiling OpenMM from Source Code).
   You will need to set the following options to ‘ON’ when you run CMake:

   #. OPENMM_BUILD_AMOEBA_PLUGIN
   #. OPENMM_BUILD_AMOEBA_CUDA_LIB
   #. OPENMM_BUILD_CUDA_LIB
   #. OPENMM_BUILD_C_AND_FORTRAN_WRAPPERS

#. Download the complete TINKER distribution from http://dasher.wustl.edu/ffe/
   and unzip/untar the file.

#. Obtain the modified TINKER file :code:`dynamic.f`\ , the interface file
   :code:`dynamic_openmm.c` and the :code:`Makefile` from the “Downloads”
   section of OpenMM’s homepage (https://simtk.org/home/openmm) and place them in
   the TINKER source directory. These files are compatible with TINKER 6.0.4. If
   you are using later versions of TINKER, some minor edits may be required to get
   the program to compile.

#. In the :code:`Makefile`\ , edit the following fields, as needed:

   #. TINKERDIR – This should point to the head of the TINKER
      distribution directory, e.g., ‘/home/user/tinker-5.1.09’
   #. LINKDIR – directory in executable path containing linked
      copies of the TINKER executables; typical directory would be ‘/usr/local/bin’
   #. CC – This is an added field that should point to the C compiler
      (e.g., ‘/usr/bin/gcc’)
   #. OpenMM_INSTALL_DIR - This should identify the directory where the
      OpenMM files were installed, i.e., the OPENMM_INSTALL_PREFIX setting when CMake
      was run in step (1)

#. At the command line, type::

    make dynamic_openmm.x

   to create the executable.

#. Check that the environment variable ‘OPENMM_PLUGIN_DIR’ is set to the
   installed plugins directory and that the environment variable ‘LD_LIBRARY_PATH’
   includes both  the installed lib and plugins directory; for example:
   ::

    OPENMM_PLUGIN_DIR=/home/usr/install/openmm/lib/plugins
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/cuda/lib64:/home/usr/install/openmm/lib:
                    /home/usr/install/openmm/lib/plugins

Using TINKER-OpenMM
===================

Run :code:`dynamic_openmm.x` with the same command-line options as you would
\ :code:`dynamic.x`\ .  Consult the TINKER documentation and :autonumref:`Table,mapping from TINKER` for
more details.

Available outputs
-------------------

Only the total force and potential energy are returned by TINKER-OpenMM; a
breakdown of the energy and force into individual terms (bond, angle, …), as is
done in TINKER, is unavailable through the OpenMM plugin.  Also, the pressure
cannot be calculated since the virial is not calculated in the plugin.

Setting the frequency of output data updates
--------------------------------------------

Frequent retrieval of the state information from the GPU board can use up a
substantial portion of the total wall clock time.  This is due to the fact that
the forces and energies are recalculated for each retrieval.  Hence, if the
state information is obtained after every timestep, the wall clock time will
approximately double over runs where the state information in only gathered
infrequently (say every 50-100 timesteps).

Two options are provided for updating the TINKER data structures:

#. (DEFAULT)  If the logical value of ‘oneTimeStepPerUpdate’ in
   :code:`dynamic.f` is true, then a single step is taken and the TINKER data
   structures are populated at each step. This option is conceptually simpler and
   is consistent with the TINKER md loops; for example, the output from the TINKER
   subroutine mdstat() will be accurate for this choice. However, the performance
   will be degraded since the forces and energy are recalculated with each call,
   doubling the required time. This is the default option.
#. If ‘oneTimeStepPerUpdate’ is false, then depending on the values of iprint
   (TINKER keyword ‘PRINTOUT’) and iwrite (=dump time/dt), multiple time steps are
   taken on the GPU before data is transferred from the GPU to the CPU; here dump
   time is the value given to the TINKER command-line query ‘Enter Time between
   Dumps in Picoseconds’. Under this option, every  iprint and every iwrite
   timesteps, the state information will be retrieved. For example if ‘PRINTOUT’ is
   10 and iwrite is 15, then the information will be retrieved at time steps { 10,
   15, 20, 30, 40, 45, …}. This option will lead to better performance than option
   1. However, a downside to this approach is that the fluctuation values printed
   by the Tinker routine mdstat() will be incorrect.



Specify the GPU board to use
----------------------------

To specify a GPU board other than the default, set the environment variable
‘CUDA_DEVICE’ to the desired board id. A line like the following will be printed
to stderr for the setting CUDA_DEVICE=2:
::

    Platform Cuda: setting device id to 2 based on env variable CUDA_DEVICE.


Running comparison tests between TINKER and OpenMM routines
-----------------------------------------------------------

To turn on testing (comparison of forces and potential energy for the initial
conformation calculated using TINKER routines and OpenMM routines), set
‘applyOpenMMTest’ to a non-zero value in :code:`dynamic.f`\ . Note: the
program exits after the force/energy comparisons; it does not execute the main
molecular dynamics loop.

*Testing individual forces:*  An example key file for testing the harmonic
bond term is as follows:
::

    parameters /home/user/tinker/params/amoebabio09
    verbose
    solvate  GK
    born-radius  grycuk
    polar-eps  0.0001
    integrate  verlet
    bondterm only

For the other covalent and Van der Waals forces, replace the line :code:`bondterm only`
above with the following lines depending on the force to be tested:
::

    angle force:            angleterm onl
    out-of-plane bend:      opbendterm only
    stretch bend force      strbndterm only
    pi-torsion force:       pitorsterm only
    torsion force:          torsionterm only
    torsion-torsion force:  tortorterm only
    Urey-Bradley force:     ureyterm only
    Van der Waals force:    vdwterm only

A sample key file for the multipole force with no cutoffs is given below:
::

    parameters /home/user/tinker/params/amoebabio09
    verbose
    solvate  GK
    born-radius  grycuk
    polar-eps  0.0001
    integrate  verlet
    mpoleterm only
    polarizeterm

A sample key file for PME multipole tests
::

    parameters /home/user/tinker/params/amoebabio09
    verbose
    randomseed  123456789
    neighbor-list
    vdw-cutoff  12.0
    ewald
    ewald-cutoff  7.0
    pme-grid  64 64 64
    polar-eps  0.01
    fft-package  fftw
    integrate  verlet
    mpoleterm only
    polarizeterm

For the Generalized Kirkwood force, the following entries are needed:
::

    parameters /home/user/tinker/params/amoebabio09
    verbose
    solvate  GK
    born-radius  grycuk
    polar-eps  0.0001
    integrate  verlet
    solvateterm only
    polarizeterm
    mpoleterm

For the implicit solvent (‘solvate GK’ runs) test, the forces and energies will
differ due to the different treatments of the cavity term (see Section :ref:`supported-forces-and-options`
above).  With these options for the Generalized Kirkwood force, the test routine
will remove the cavity contribution from the TINKER and OpenMM forces/energy
when performing the comparisons between the two calculations.

To test the multipole force or the Generalized Kirkwood forces with direct
polarization, add the following line to the end of the above files:
::

    polarization DIRECT


Turning off OpenMM / Reverting to TINKER routines
-------------------------------------------------

To use the TINKER routines, as opposed to the OpenMM plugin, to run a
simulation, set ‘useOpenMM’ to .false. in :code:`dynamic.f`\ .

OpenMM AMOEBA Validation
************************

OpenMM and TINKER 6.1.01 were each used to compute the atomic forces for
dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) in implicit and explicit solvent.  Calculations
used the CUDA platform, and were repeated for both single and double precision.
For every atom, the relative difference between OpenMM and TINKER was computed
as 2·\|F\ :sub:`MM`\ –F\ :sub:`T`\ \|/(\|F\ :sub:`MM`\ \|+\|F\ :sub:`T`\ \|), where
F\ :sub:`MM` is the force computed by OpenMM and F\ :sub:`T` is the force
computed by TINKER.  The median over all atoms is shown in :autonumref:`Table,comparison to TINKER`\ .

Because OpenMM and TINKER use different approximations to compute the cavity
term, the differences in forces are much larger for implicit solvent than for
explicit solvent.  We therefore repeated the calculations, removing the cavity
term.  This yields much closer agreement between OpenMM and TINKER,
demonstrating that the difference comes entirely from that one term.

=========================  ==========================  ===================
Solvent Model              single                      double
=========================  ==========================  ===================
Implicit                   1.04·10\ :sup:`-2`          1.04·10\ :sup:`-2`
Implicit (no cavity term)  9.23·10\ :sup:`-6`          1.17·10\ :sup:`-6`
Explicit                   3.73·10\ :sup:`-5`          1.83·10\ :sup:`-7`
=========================  ==========================  ===================

:autonumber:`Table,comparison to TINKER`\ :  Median relative difference in forces between OpenMM and TINKER


Ring Polymer Molecular Dynamics (RPMD) Plugin
#############################################

Ring Polymer Molecular Dynamics (RPMD) provides an efficient approach to include
nuclear quantum effects in molecular simulations.\ :cite:`Craig2004`  When
used to calculate static equilibrium properties, RPMD reduces to path integral
molecular dynamics and gives an exact description of the effect of quantum
fluctuations for a given potential energy model.\ :cite:`Parrinello1984`  For
dynamical properties RPMD is no longer exact but has shown to be a good
approximation in many cases.

For a system with a classical potential energy *E*\ (\ *q*\ ), the RPMD
Hamiltonian is given by


.. math::
   H=\sum _{k=1}^{n}\left(\frac{{p}_{{k}^{2}}}{2m}+E({q}_{k})+\frac{m({k}_{B}Tn)^{2}}{2\hbar^{2}}({q}_{k}-{q}_{k-1})^{2}\right)


This Hamiltonian resembles that of a system of classical ring polymers where
different copies of the system are connected by harmonic springs.  Hence each
copy of the classical system is commonly referred to as a “bead”.  The spread of
the ring polymer representing each particle is directly related to its De
Broglie thermal wavelength (uncertainty in its position).

RPMD calculations must be converged with respect to the number *n* of beads
used.  Each bead is evolved at the effective temperature *nT*\ , where *T*
is the temperature for which properties are required.  The number of beads
needed to converge a calculation can be estimated using\ :cite:`Markland2008`


.. math::
   n>\frac{\hbar\omega_{max}}{{k}_{B}T}


where :math:`\omega_{max}` is the highest frequency in the problem.  For example, for
flexible liquid water the highest frequency is the OH stretch at around 3000
cm\ :sup:`-1`\ , so around 24 to 32 beads are needed depending on the accuracy
required.  For rigid water where the highest frequency is only around 1000
cm\ :sup:`-1`\ , only 6 beads are typically needed.  Due to the replication needed
of the classical system, the extra cost of the calculation compared to a
classical simulation increases linearly with the number of beads used.

This cost can be reduced by “contracting” the ring polymer to a smaller number
of beads.\ :cite:`Markland2008`  The rapidly changing forces are then computed
for the full number of beads, while slower changing forces are computed on a
smaller set.  In the case of flexible water, for example, a common arrangement
would be to compute the high frequency bonded forces on all 32 beads, the direct
space nonbonded forces on only 6 beads, and the reciprocal space nonbonded
forces on only a single bead.

Due to the stiff spring terms between the beads, NVE RPMD trajectories can
suffer from ergodicity problems and hence thermostatting is highly recommended,
especially when dynamical properties are not required.\ :cite:`Hall1984`  The
thermostat implemented here is the path integral Langevin equation (PILE)
approach.\ :cite:`Ceriotti2010`  This method couples an optimal white noise
Langevin thermostat to the normal modes of each polymer, leaving only one
parameter to be chosen by the user which controls the friction applied to the
center of mass of each ring polymer.  A good choice for this is to use a value
similar to that used in a classical calculation of the same system.


.. _drude-plugin:

Drude Plugin
############

Drude oscillators are a method for incorporating electronic polarizability into
a model.\ :cite:`Lamoureux2003`  For each polarizable particle, a second
particle (the “Drude particle”) is attached to it by an anisotropic harmonic
spring.  When both particles are at the same location, they are equivalent to an
ordinary point particle.  Applying an electric field causes the Drude particle
to move a short distance away from its parent particle, creating an induced
dipole moment.  The polarizability :math:`\alpha` is related to the charge *q* on
the Drude particle and the spring constant *k* by



.. math::
   \alpha =\frac{{q}^{2}}{k}


A damped interaction\ :cite:`Thole1981` is used between dipoles that are
bonded to each other.

The equations of motion can be integrated with two different methods:

#. In the Self Consistent Field (SCF) method, the ordinary particles are first
   updated as usual.  A local energy minimization is then performed to select new
   positions for the Drude particles.  This ensures that the induced dipole moments
   respond instantly to changes in their environments.  This method is accurate but
   computationally expensive.
#. In the extended Lagrangian method, the positions of the Drude particles are
   treated as dynamical variables, just like any other particles.  A small amount
   of mass is transferred from the parent particles to the Drude particles,
   allowing them to be integrated normally.  A dual Langevin integrator is used to
   maintain the center of mass of each Drude particle pair at the system
   temperature, while using a much lower temperature for their relative internal
   motion.  In practice, this produces dipole moments very close to those from the
   SCF solution while being much faster to compute.
