This is an FAQ for the SLIC simulator package and related content. See also the org.lcsim Frequently Asked Questions

SLIC FAQ

General

• What is SLIC
• Who is the primary maintainer of SLIC
• Is there a forum for issues related to SLIC
• Is there a wiki about SLIC
• Is there a mailing list for announcements about SLIC
• Are there any papers or writeups about SLIC
• Where can I find analysis results that were based on SLIC
• Where can I report bugs in SLIC

Obtaining and Building

• How do I build SLIC

• What operating systems and compilers are supported by SLIC
• Where can I download SLIC binaries
• How do I checkout SLIC from CVS
• Is there an online CVS for SLIC
• What are SLIC's external dependencies
• What tools will I need to build SLIC
• How do I build SLIC from scratch
• How do I build CLHEP
• How do I build Geant4
• How do I rebuild the Geant4 visualization libraries
• How do I build LCIO
• How do I build GDML
• How do I build LCPhys
• How do I build LCDD
• How do I build Xerces
• At what sites is SLIC installed
• How can I run SLIC at SLAC
• How can I run SLIC at FNAL
• How can I run SLIC at NICADD
• How do I run a SLIC Linux binary on SL5

Commands

• How do I run SLIC from the command line
• What command line options does SLIC support
• How can I get help on the command line interface
• How do I run in batch mode
• How do I run in interactive mode
• How do I run a file with Geant4 macro commands
• Where can I get example macro files
• How can I get help on the macro commands
• How do I find out what version of SLIC I am running
• How do I find out what version of Geant4 I am running
• How do I submit a batch job using LSF
• How do I set the number of events to run
• How do I turn off the event messages in SLIC
• How do I print some information about various Geant4 and SLIC data objects at runtime
• How do I print the table of defined materials

LCIO

• What is LCIO
• How do I set the output path for LCIO files
• How do I set the name of the LCIO file
• How do I automatically name an LCIO file
• How do I automatically delete an existing LCIO file
• How do I append to an existing LCIO file
• How do I cause slic to fail if it finds an existing LCIO file
• How do I set the CHBIT_LONG flag to store explicit hit positions
• How do I set the CHBIT_PDG flag to store each individual MCParticle contribution in a hit
• How do I set the run number
• How can I dump information about my LCIO file from the command line

Physics

• What is the default physics list
• What is LCPhys
• What other simulators use LCPhys
• How can I change the physics list
• What other Geant4 physics lists does SLIC support
• What should I do when I get an error message about missing Geant4 data files
• How do I set the minimum tracking distance using Geant4 commands
• How do I activate or deactivate certain Geant4 processes

Magnetic Field

• How do I create a simple solenoid using the compact description
• How do I create a solenoidal field map using the compact description
• How do I create a dipole using the compact description
• How do I change the magnetic field stepper used by Geant4
• How do I change the delta of one step for the field stepper
• How do I change the delta of intersection with the chord for the field stepper

Geometry

• What is GDML
• What is LCDD
• Where can I get some example LCDD files
• What is GeomConverter
• What is the compact description
• What is LCDetectors
• Where can I find full detector geometry files in the compact description
• How do I create full detector geometry files from the compact description
• How do I dump a GDML file of the current geometry using SLIC
• How can I make SLIC look for XML schemas in a local directory
• How do I install the XML schemas to a local directory
• How do I check the LCDD geometry for errors

Visualization

• How do I visualize with OpenGL
• How do I visualize with DAWN
• How do I visualize with OpenInventor
• How do I visualize with VRML
• How do I visualize with HepRep and WIRED
• How do I visualize with ROOT

Event Generation

• What event generators are available from within SLIC
• How do I use a StdHep file as my event source
• How do I use an LCIO file as my event source
• How do I use the General Particle Source (GPS) as my event source
• How do I create an event with two or more different particles using the GPS
• How do I create events sampled from multiple sources using the GPS
• How do I use the particle gun as my event source
• How can I print information about the current event generator
• How do I skip events in a StdHep file
• How do I reset an event source to the first record

Random Engine

• How do I set the random seed
• How do I dump the state of the CLHEP random engine
• How can I set the directory for the random dumps
• How do I load back the state of the random engine that I dumped previously

Grid

• How do I setup the public and private keys from a Grid certificate
• How do I use the OSG Grid
• How do I use the LCG grid