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#+TITLE: OpenFOAM README for version 1.6
#+AUTHOR: OpenCFD Ltd.
#+DATE: July 2009
#+LINK: http://www.opencfd.co.uk
* Copyright
OpenFOAM is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version. See the file COPYING in this directory, for a description of the GNU
General Public License terms under which you can copy the files.
* System requirements
OpenFOAM is developed and tested on Linux, but should work with other POSIX
systems. To check your system setup, execute the foamSystemCheck script in
the bin/ directory of the OpenFOAM installation. If no problems are reported,
proceed to "3. Installation"; otherwise contact your system administrator.
If the user wishes to run OpenFOAM in 32/64-bit mode they should consult the
section "Running OpenFOAM in 32-bit mode".
*** Qt (from http://trolltech.com/products/qt)
The ParaView 3.6.1 visualisation package requires Qt to be installed on the
system. ParaView's producers state that ParaView is only officially
supported on Qt version 4.3.x. However, we have found in limited tests that
ParaView works satisfactorily with newer versions of Qt than 4.3.x. To
check whether Qt4 is installed, and the version, type:
Both 32-bit and 64-bit version of ParaView were compiled with Qt-4.4.3 (with
openSUSE-11.1). If the user finds that a ParaView binary fails to run, then
it is almost certainly due to a conflict in compiled and installed Qt
versions and they will need to consult the section below on "Compiling
ParaView and the PV3FoamReader module."
The default versions of Qt used by some GNU/Linux releases are as follows.
+ ubuntu-7.10: Version 4.3.2
+ ubuntu-8.04: Version 4.3.4
+ openSUSE-10.2: Version 4.2.1 - too old
+ openSUSE-10.3: Version 4.3.1
+ openSUSE-11.0: Version 4.4.0
+ openSUSE-11.1: Version 4.4.3
Compilation and running of ParaView has been successful using the libraries
downloaded in the "libqt4-dev" package on ubuntu.
If you don't have an appropriate version of Qt installed you can download
the sources from TrollTech e.g.:
ftp://ftp.trolltech.com/qt/source/qt-x11-opensource-src-4.3.5.tar.bz2
and compile and install in /usr/local or some other location that does not
conflict with the pre-installed version.
* Installation
Download and unpack the files in the $HOME/OpenFOAM directory as described in:
http://www.OpenFOAM.org/download.html
The environment variable settings are contained in files in an etc/ directory
in the OpenFOAM release. e.g. in
+ $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.6/etc/
1) EITHER, if running bash or ksh (if in doubt type 'echo $SHELL'), source the
etc/bashrc file by adding the following line to the end of your
$HOME/.bashrc file:
+ . $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.6/etc/bashrc
Then update the environment variables by sourcing the $HOME/.bashrc file by
typing in the terminal:
2) OR, if running tcsh or csh, source the etc/cshrc file by adding the
following line to the end of your $HOME/.cshrc file:
+ source $HOME/OpenFOAM/OpenFOAM-1.6/etc/cshrc
Then update the environment variables by sourcing the $HOME/.cshrc file by
typing in the terminal:
*** Installation in alternative locations
OpenFOAM may also be installed in alternative locations. However, the
installation directory should be network available (e.g., NFS) if parallel
calculations are planned.
The environment variable 'FOAM_INST_DIR' can be used to find and source the
appropriate resource file. Here is a bash/ksh/sh example:
+ foamDotFile=$FOAM_INST_DIR/OpenFOAM-1.6/etc/bashrc
+ [ -f $foamDotFile ] && . $foamDotFile
+ foamDotFile=$FOAM_INST_DIR/OpenFOAM-1.6/etc/bashrc
+ if ( -f $foamDotFile ) source $foamDotFile
The value set in '$FOAM_INST_DIR' will be used to locate the remaining parts
of the OpenFOAM installation.
* Building from Sources (Optional)
If you cannot find an appropriate binary pack for your platform, you can build
the complete OpenFOAM from the source-pack. You will first need to compile or
obtain a recent version of gcc (we recomend gcc-4.3.?) for your platform,
which may be obtained from http://gcc.gnu.org/.
$WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR/gcc-<GCC_VERSION>/platforms/$WM_ARCH$WM_COMPILER_ARCH/
and change the gcc version number in $WM_PROJECT_DIR/etc/settings.sh and
$WM_PROJECT_DIR/etc/settings.csh appropriately and finally update the
environment variables as in section 3.
Now go to the top-level source directory $WM_PROJECT_DIR and execute the
top-level build script './Allwmake'. In principle this will build everything,
but if problems occur with the build order it may be necessary to update the
environment variables and re-execute './Allwmake'.
If you experience difficulties with building the source-pack, or your platform
is not currently supported, please contact <enquiries@OpenCFD.co.uk> to
negotiate a support contract and we will do the port and maintain it for
future releases.
* Testing the installation
To check your installation setup, execute the 'foamInstallationTest' script
(in the bin/ directory of the OpenFOAM installation). If no problems are
reported, proceed to getting started with OpenFOAM; otherwise, go back and
check you have installed the software correctly and/or contact your system
administrator.
* Getting Started
Create a project directory within the $HOME/OpenFOAM directory named
<USER>-1.6 (e.g. 'chris-1.6' for user chris and OpenFOAM version 1.6)
and create a directory named 'run' within it, e.g. by typing:
Copy the 'tutorial' examples directory in the OpenFOAM distribution to the
'run' directory. If the OpenFOAM environment variables are set correctly,
then the following command will be correct:
+ cp -r $WM_PROJECT_DIR/tutorials $FOAM_RUN
Run the first example case of incompressible laminar flow in a cavity:
+ cd $FOAM_RUN/tutorials/incompressible/icoFoam/cavity
+ blockMesh
+ icoFoam
Refer to the OpenFOAM User Guide at http://www.OpenFOAM.org/doc/user.html for
more information.
* Compiling Paraview 3.6.1 and the PV3FoamReader module
If there are problems encountered with ParaView, then it may be necessary to
compile ParaView from sources. The compilation
is a fairly simple process using the makeParaView script
(found in ThirdParty directory), which has worked in our tests with other
packages supplied in the ThirdParty directory, namely cmake-2.6.4 and
gcc-4.3.3. Execute the following:
+ cd $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR
+ rm -rf paraview-3.6.1/platforms
The PV3FoamReader module is an OpenFOAM utility that can be compiled in the
usual manner as follows:
+ cd $FOAM_UTILITIES/postProcessing/graphics/PV3FoamReader
+ ./Allwclean
+ ./Allwmake
*** Compiling Paraview with a local version of Qt
If the user still encounters problems with ParaView, it may relate to the
version of Qt, in which case, it is recommended that the user first
downloads a supported version of Qt /e.g./ 4.3.5 as described in the section
on "Qt". The user should unpack the source pack in the $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR.
Then the user can build Qt by executing from within $WM_THIRD_PARTY_DIR:
+ makeQt
The user should then compile ParaView using the local version of Qt by
executing makeParaView with the -qmake option, giving the full path of the
newly built qmake as an argument:
+ makeParaView -qmake <path_to_qmake>
The user must then recompile the PV3FoamReader module as normal (see above).
* Help
http://www.OpenFOAM.org http://www.OpenFOAM.org/discussion.html
* Reporting Bugs in OpenFOAM
* Running OpenFOAM in 32-bit mode on 64-bit machines
Linux users with a 64-bit machine may install either the OpenFOAM 32-bit
version (linux) or the OpenFOAM 64-bit version (linux64), or both. The 64-bit
is the default mode on a 64-bit machine. To use an installed 32-bit version,
the user must set the environment variable WM_ARCH_OPTION to 32 before
sourcing the etc/bashrc (or etc/cshrc) file.