HelixTree is a powerful and flexible system for genetics analysis. HelixTree is also a premier recursive partitioning (RP) data analysis tool. It uses an enhanced version of RP that is based on Formal Inference-Based Recursive Modeling (FIRM) technology. As the name suggests, RP is used to build a model, specifically a decision tree, which can then be used to make predictions. HelixTree has many features and capabilities that have a positive impact on your effectiveness and productivity at work. This manual describes the features and capabilities and suggests strategies for best using them.

The goal of this chapter is to help "break the ice" to get you going in the right direction. We start by presenting an overview of RP technology. We then describe a basic workflow for using HelixTree. This is followed by two tutorials which demonstrate the basic workflow. Subsequent tutorials enhance the basic workflow in ways that show how HelixTree could be used to solve problems commonly encountered in your genetics research. It is in these later tutorials where some of the more sophisticated capabilities of HelixTree are demonstrated. We conclude with an executive summary of the remainder of the manual showing where ideas presented in this chapter are further developed.