The tool McLuster is an open source code that can be used to either set up initial conditions for N-body computations or, alternatively, to generate artificial star clusters for direct investigation. There are two different versions of the code, one basic version for generating all kinds of unevolved clusters (in the following called mcluster) and one for setting up evolved stellar populations at a given age. The former is completely contained in the C file main.c. The latter (dubbed mcluster_sse) is more complex and requires additional FORTRAN routines, namely the Single-Star Evolution (SSE) routines by Hurley, Pols & Tout (ascl:1303.015) that are provided with the McLuster code.

SUPERBOX is a particle-mesh code that uses moving sub-grids to track and resolve high-density peaks in the particle distribution and a nearest grid point force-calculation scheme based on the second derivatives of the potential. The code implements a fast low-storage FFT-algorithm and allows a highly resolved treatment of interactions in clusters of galaxies, such as high-velocity encounters between elliptical galaxies and the tidal disruption of dwarf galaxies, as sub-grids follow the trajectories of individual galaxies. SUPERBOX is efficient in that the computational overhead is kept as slim as possible and is also memory efficient since it uses only one set of grids to treat galaxies in succession.

GalIMF (Galaxy-wide Initial Mass Function) computes the galaxy-wide initial stellar mass function by integrating over a whole galaxy, parameterized by star formation rate and metallicity. The generated stellar mass distribution depends on the galaxy-wide star formation rate (SFR, which is related to the total mass of a galalxy) and the galaxy-wide metallicity. The code can generate a galaxy-wide IMF (IGIMF) and can also generate all the stellar masses within a galaxy with optimal sampling (OSGIMF). To compute the IGIMF or the OSGIMF, the GalIMF module contains all local IMF properties (e.g. the dependence of the stellar IMF on the metallicity, on the density of the star-cluster forming molecular cloud cores), and this software module can, therefore, be also used to obtain only the stellar IMF with various prescriptions, or to investigate other features of the stellar population such as what is the most massive star that can be formed in a star cluster.

BiPoS1 (Binary Population Synthesizer) efficiently calculates binary distribution functions after the dynamical processing of a realistic population of binary stars during the first few Myr in the hosting embedded star cluster. It is particularly useful for generating a realistic birth binary population as an input for N-body simulations of globular clusters. Instead of time-consuming N-body simulations, BiPoS1 uses the stellar dynamical operator, which determines the fraction of surviving binaries depending on the binding energy of the binaries. The stellar dynamical operator depends on the initial star cluster density, as well as the time until the residual gas of the star cluster is expelled. At the time of gas expulsion, the dynamical processing of the binary population is assumed to effectively end due to the expansion of the star cluster related to that event. BiPoS1 has also a galactic-field mode, in order to synthesize the stellar population of a whole galaxy.