MinLab Guide

A genus-zero minimal surface with four catenoid ends.

To open a MinLab surface specification file, choose "Files | Open MinLab File" from the MinLab menu.

The Open MinLab File panel (File | Open MinLab File)

The MinLab panel (Controls | MinLab) is where you specify the input for the minimal surface you want to compute. It has three pages:

The Surface panel is where the Weierstrass data and initial conditions are set. (Controls | MinLab | Surface)
The Parameters panel is for specifying the associate family parameter. (Controls | MinLab | Param)
The Settings panel is for specifying internal settings controlling the integrator. (Controls | MinLab | Settings)

The Surface page on the MinLab controls panel (Controls | Minlab | Surface)

The "surface" page on the MinLab controls panel is where you specify the Weierstrass or spinor representation for the minimal surface:

The Weierstrass representation takes as input two meromorphic functions g and f, and computes the minimal surface as
Alternately, the spinor representation takes as input two meromorphic functions a and b, and computes the minimal surface as

The syntax expressing the parametrizing functions g and f (or a and b) is Mathematica-like; see parser syntax for details.

Information about the parser syntax for the functions g and f.

The Param page on the MinLab controls panel (Controls | MinLab | Param)

From the "param" page on the MinLab controls panel you can interactively move through the associate family of minimal surfaces.

The Settings page on the MinLab controls panel (Controls | MinLab | Settings)

The "settings" page lets you fine-tune the integrator:

integrator count -- how many integration steps the integrator takes along the edge of each polygon making up the surface.
init integrator count -- how many integration steps the integrator takes along the initial line from the base point to the first point of the surface.

MinLab Guide

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