Getting started

If you are new to Finesse, here is a good place to start. You can first learn how to design your first Finesse model. You can examine a first notebook example and run it on your system. Finally, you can familiarize yourself with some key concepts of Finesse and the interactive help system.

If you have general or technical questions on Finesse, you can ask them on our Finesse Matrix channel. This public channel is the easiest way to get help from us or the community. You can also use the mailing list at finesse-users AT nikhef.nl.

For users within the gravitational wave community we have a Mattermost channel on Ligo servers. This will require you to log in with your Albert.Einstein credentials.

If you encounter any issue using Finesse, please file a bug report.

Table of contents

• Your first Finesse model
  • 1. Mapping the Optical System
  • 2. Describing Components and Connections
  • 3. Defining the Simulation Task
• A first Finesse example
  • Building a Finesse model with KatScript
  • Adding detectors in Finesse
  • Actions, Analyses, & Solutions
• Key concepts
  • Detectors and probes
  • The model graph
  • The simulation matrix
• Interactive help