Lesson 6 - What You Need to Get Started

This is a “hands-on” Course.  That is, while you are taking it, you are expected to simultaneously use the software. As a result, if possible, it is recommended that you use a large (or high resolution) screen with this Course on one side of the screen and GoldSim on the other, an extended desktop (e.g., using two monitors) or perhaps two computers (a computer for the software and a tablet for the Course).

Therefore, to take this Course, you need to have an activated version of GoldSim on your computer.  If you do not already have GoldSim, you can request a free, fully-functional Evaluation version of the software from the GoldSim website.  The Evaluation version will work for 30 days from the time that you activate it (and you can request for it to be extended if you run out of time). If you are a student or a teacher, you can request a free Academic license (that lasts for 6 months and can be renewed).    When you request an Evaluation or Academic version, you can specify that you are interested in the Contaminant Transport Module on the form. In particular, the forms have a checkbox for the Contaminant Transport Module and the Radionuclide Transport Module.  Make sure you select one of these.

You MUST be licensed to use either the CT Module or the RT Module in order to take this Course. You can easily see which (if any) module you have by opening GoldSim, selecting Model|Options… from the main menu and selecting the Modules tab. The dialog will indicate whether or not you have one of these modules:

In addition, during the Course we will refer to a number of Examples and Exercises. Prior to starting, you should download these (a zip file containing a folder with all of the GoldSim models) to your Windows Desktop.  You can download the zip file here. Download the zip file and unzip it to your Desktop (it will unzip to a folder named “Contaminant Transport Course” that contains several subfolders).

Note: The screen shots you will see in this Course, as well as all of the model files (referred to as Examples and Exercises) require the latest version of the GoldSim software (which can be found here). That is, you will not be able to open the Examples and Exercises in an older version of GoldSim.

As mentioned at the beginning of this Unit, this Course assumes that you are already familiar with the basic GoldSim framework.  As a result, no effort is spent at all in explaining how to interact with the user interface or the fundamentals of GoldSim. If you are not familiar with the basic GoldSim framework, you should first take the Basic GoldSim Course, and then return to this Course.

And as also mentioned at the beginning of this Unit, a basic understanding of fundamental contaminant transport concepts (e.g., advection, dispersion, diffusion, sorption) is also assumed. Although these concepts will be discussed to some degree as they are introduced, it is assumed that you already have a good understanding of these fundamental concepts. 

Note that GoldSim has a very extensive set of reference documentation that you can use to augment this Course (and refer to afterward as you continue to explore GoldSim’s many features).  PDF versions of the documentation are automatically installed on your computer when you install the software. If you are the type of person who likes to have printed copies of the documentation, you can simply print these PDFs.  However, printed, bound copies of the manuals are also available on Amazon. These are priced to simply cover the cost of printing, and you will likely find that it is less expensive to purchase these than print them yourself.

The integrated Help system (accessed within GoldSim by pressing F1, the Help button on any dialog or Help | Help Topics from the main menu) contains everything in the manuals (with the exception of the appendices). The Help system is context-sensitive and has an extensive Index.  In addition to being integrated into the GoldSim application, a web-based version of the Help system is also available (it is identical to the integrated system). In fact, within this Course, if we want to draw your attention to something in the documentation, we will provide a direct link to the appropriate section of the web-based version of the Help system.  It will look like this:

Although you don’t need to follow these links, doing so is an excellent way to dive deeper into learning the software.

OK, now let’s get started!