  Amplitude analyses of four body $D$ decays are of significant interest for
multiple reasons, including their potential contribution to CP violation
studies in both $B$ and $D$ decays. The resonant substructure of a four body
decay has many possible components and combinations. Here, a genetic algorithm
for the optimisation of such amplitude models is described. The application to
an amplitude analysis of the decay mode $D^0 \to \pi^- \pi^+ \pi^+ \pi^-$ using
CLEO-c data is discussed and the performance of the algorithm is verified on
simulated data, showing convergence to the original model.
