Quick Start Guide

Follow this quick start guide to download and start QBlade-CE, no installation required! In this Quick Start Guide you’ll see how to load a prebuilt model, launch your first time-domain run, and inspect results in both 3D view and 2D plots.

this image shows a simulation of the OC3 sparbuoy offshore floating wind turbine

1. Download QBlade

Navigate to the Downloads page and select the build matching your operating system and architecture (Windows x64 or Linux x64). You’ll receive a ZIP archive containing the executable binary and required libraries. Place the contents anywhere on your machine.

 

2. Start QBlade

Windows

To launch QBlade on Windows, open the installation directory and double-click the QBladeCE executable. No installer or additional setup is required.

Linux (tested on a fresh ubuntu 20.4 64bit)

Before running QBlade, install the required system libraries by executing the following command in the console:

sudo apt-get update -y

sudo apt-get install -y libqt5opengl5 libqt5xml5 libquadmath libglu1-mesa libssl-dev

From the console navigate to the unzipped QBlade directory. Now you can start QBlade by executing the wrapper script run_qblade.sh with the following command

chmod +x run_qblade.sh

./run_qblade.sh

3. Load the Project File and Start the Simulation

Load a Project File

After QBlade launches, open the sample project by clicking Load Project in the GUI. In the file dialog, navigate to the /SampleProjects folder inside your QBlade install directory and select OC3_Simulation.qpr.

Start the Simulation

After loading OC3_Simulation.qpr, open the Simulation Module (1) by clicking the turbine icon. Click Start Simulation (2) to launch the run. The GL View will render the model in real time, and after the 20 s initialization ramp, QBlade will begin recording results.

Switch to the Graph View (3) to monitor live data streams – such as rotor power output, thrust, blade root bending moments, aerodynamic load coefficients, and platform motions – updating continuously throughout the simulation.

this image shows a simulation of a wind turbine

4. Check out the Documentation

To explore additional QBlade-CE capabilities or start designing your own turbine models, see the Documentation and Users Guide for detailed instructions, examples, and API references.

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