INSTALL_MSVC.md

Building NEXT on Windows (MSVC)

This guide covers building NEXT on Windows using Microsoft Visual Studio (MSVC) and CMake.

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Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2022 (with Desktop development with C++ workload)
• CMake (>= 3.16)
• Git
• Python 3 (for initial condition generation)
• HDF5 (installed via MSYS2, vcpkg, or official installer)

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Build Steps

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/TimGoTheCreator/NEXT.git
cd NEXT

2. Configure & Build with CMake

Open Developer PowerShell for VS 2022 or standard PowerShell:

# Configure CMake
cmake -B build -S . -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64

# Build Release binary
cmake --build build --config Release

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Running an Example Simulation

cd examples/TwoBodies
python two_body.py
../../next.exe two_body.txt 8 0.001 0.1 vtu 50

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Viewing Simulation Results

Open the resulting dump_*.vtu files in ParaView or VisIt to visualize particle dynamics.