Quick start guide

First-time initialization instructions

  1. Contact support (antti (at) smeklab.com) to obtain your licence and download instruction.

  2. Download and unzip the toolbox

  3. Add EMDtool (with all subfolders) to your Matlab path
    • e.g. addpath(genpath('C:/path_to_folder/EMDtool'))
    • or add permanently via startup.m
  4. Activate your license
    • emdtool.load_license('license_file_name.lic')
    • This, and the next step, can also be done with the example_init_and_readme.m in the EMDtool/Examples folder
    • For those with single-user licenses / November 2025 onwards: You will have received an organization-wide interim license valid for two weeks. To activate your full personal license, run the command emdtool.license_id() in the Matlab command prompt, and email the output to Smeklab Ltd. You will receive your full license in a few days.
    • Yes, this is cumbersome and home-brewy; however it is the view of Smeklab that our clients are best served by focusing on direct client-facing work and developing EMDtool itself, not dedicating personnel-hours to setting up an automatic licensing system.
  5. (OPTIONAL:)(But preferred) Download and unzip the free gmsh mesh generator for your operating system
    • Downloads page
    • Please do recognize that gmsh is a separate software, governed by its own license agreement, only interfaced by EMDtool via a limited-functionality file interfaced
    • If you require other mesh generators, or wish to use EMDtool’s own development-version mesh generator, please enquire via email
  6. (OPTIONAL:) Setup gmsh path, e.g. emdtool.set_gmsh_path('C:/Programs/gmsh/')
    • see help emdtool.set_gmsh_path

Usage instructions

  1. Add EMDtool to your Matlab path (see 3. above)
  2. Do check out the EMDtool familiarization exercises.
  3. Also check out the example scripts provided.
  4. Analyze away!
    • see Examples/readme.m + example scripts for more detailed examples

Where to find information?

Wondering how to do something? Please see if one of the following bullets helps:

  • See the documentation for a specific EMDtool class or functionality by either typing help classname or help classname.method_name in the Matlab command prompt, or by checking up the corresponding documentation here online.
    • The search bar on the top of the page is super-helpful.
  • See EMDtool briefly for a brief overview
  • Again, do check out the EMDtool familiarization exercises.
  • See the frequently asked questions page
  • Read the quick notes

Downloading a new version?

  1. Download

  2. Unzip

  3. Add the new version to the path.

Indeed, you can easily switch between versions by simply adding and removing versions from the Matlab path. It’s a good idea to call restoredefaultpath and clear classes inbetween, though.

Occasionally, Matlab can be very obstinate about using old implementations of some classes, even if they have been nominally removed from the path. This can be verified by typing open <ClassName> in the command window, to open the class file (or its docfile, in case of .p-files) in the editor, and then checking if its path is old_version/EMDtool/ClassName.m instead of new_version/EMDtool/ClassName.m. Fear not - this is nothing that a good o’ restart (of Matlab) won’t fix.

NOTE: Loading objects made with different EMDtool versions may lead to unexpected behaviour.