I'm new and lost

[vhicks78]

Will someone give me a summary of Newton Game Dynamic Please.......I'm a mechanical engineering student and I've been searching for a physics engine to help me learn and understand mechanical systems. I came across a program called mekanimo and one called newton. They both have user interfaces. I'm interested in Newton Game Dynamics and one other called Siconos. I'm not a computer programmer. I have only had one C++ class. So, from reading through the forums I'm gathering that I need a compiler to use Newton GD. Is that right? I only know of visual studio and I read in a forum post that is was not good.
Will someone give me information on how to get started, what I need and what are the initial steps. Don't leave anything out because I'm very lost. Do I just down load the files and then open them in a compiler? What compiler should I use? Is there any interface at all? I watched the demo on creating the elevator and it looked like there was an interface with icons, etch. Any help will be really appreciated.

[carli2]

Newton is a API (Application Program Interface), so a set of functions you can use for programming to create a world, fill it with objects and iterate over the simulation. You need programming skills to make use of newton and you may need graphics programming skills to visualize your simulation.
You don't "open" the source code with a compiler, you edit the source code in a normal text editor (like notepad) and let the compiler create a .exe (that is a program) from it.