• With blueCFD 2.0-3 comes OpenFOAM 2.0.x (February 14th, 2012) and with blueCFD 2.1-2 comes OpenFOAM 2.1.x (February 8th, 2013), both running on Windows XP, Vista and 7, with both 32 and 64bit versions. Around 98% (estimated) of the features listed on the release notes of OpenFOAM 2.0 and release notes of OpenFOAM 2.1 are available. The optional data converter foamToTecplot360 is included. The optional mesh converter ccm26ToFoam is not included, but can be easily compiled by the user.

• There are 3 flavors of OpenFOAM available in this package: mingw-w32 Single and Double Precision; mingw-w64 Double Precision.

• The code documentation was rebuilt, to provide a compact Qt help file, thus providing over 950MB of HTML files and images, in one single 350MB easy to use file, using Qt Assistant for the help. The original documentation for OpenFOAM is provided by the official online documentation at www.openfoam.org/docs/cpp.

• As of blueCFD 2.1-2, it's possible to compile OpenFOAM directly on Windows through MSys.

• ParaView 3.12.0 in 32 and 64bit Windows versions, which already has the vtkPOpenFOAMReader plug-in built in. It also comes with it's own independent Open-MPI build.

• Open-MPI 1.5.3, MPICH2 1.4.1p1 or MS-MPI 2008 R2 SP4 to pick from for parallel processing with OpenFOAM, on 32 and 64bit Windows versions. Installation is optional for all of them.

• Batch files are included, to provide a "Windows Command Line" environment to run OpenFOAM.

• MSys is also included and configured to work with the original scripts of OpenFOAM, with some minor tweaks to improve the functionality. For example, the scripts foamJob and foamExec will work properly with parallel job handling on Windows.

• blueCFD provides a Portable functionality, that gives an easy way to copy the installed blueCFD into an USB drive and is then ready to be used in other Windows machines, without requiring installation nor other portability software.

• Additional Third Party applications are distributed with blueCFD in a separate installation package, namely in blueCFD ThirdParty 2.0-3 and 2.1-2.

Main features: Compiling OpenFOAM 2.1 directly on Windows. Updated source code releases on request.

The Frequently Asked Questions page should provide answers the more common questions about blueCFD (here).

Full release notes for all blueCFD versions are available here. A list of known working tutorials is available here. Note: all of the tutorials are expected to work on Windows as similar as possible to how they run on Linux.

As part of the blueCFD service, the blueCFD ThirdParty package has been created for easing the process of installing a select group of third-party aplications for working with OpenFOAM on Windows. These are integrated into the blueCFD installation and meant to be used independently of other installations one might already have.

With blueCFD ThirdParty 2.1-2, the following applications are easily installable:

Discretizer has been moved from the main blueCFD package onto the blueCFD ThirdParty, which provides a GUI meshing utility and can also work as a GUI for using OpenFOAM. Works under MSys and Windows command line. enGrid, an open-source mesh generation software with CFD applications in mind. enGrid uses the Netgen library for tetrahedral grid generation and an in-house development for prismatic boundary layer grids. Works under MSys and Windows command line. Blender, which can complement enGrid's capabilities, namely: designing, diagnosing and fixing geometries. Two versions of Blender are provided: 2.49b with integration and documentation for enGrid; 2.64a for users that want one of the latest Blender versions. Can work under MSys and Windows command line.

• For a smoother usage of the file structure that OpenFOAM simulation cases have, a dedicated installation of Notepad2, along with a quick right-click on any file in Windows Explorer, allows the user to quickly edit any file in each case.

• Gnuplot, to make life easier to plot residuals and sampled results.

• GNU Debugger (GDB) and CMake, to complement the development packages provided with blueCFD.

• Dedicated User Guide for helping the user get started with all of these third-party applications.

• The excellent swak4Foam has been added to the cross-compiled software list, which provides very powerful capabilities to users for manipulating fields and boundary conditions, without the need for coding in C++.

• A few select features, such as the viscoelasticFluid solver, utilities and tutorials, present in OpenFOAM 1.6-ext (part of the Extend Project) have been modified for working with OpenFOAM 2.0 and 2.1 in user mode. The binaries and tutorials are included for working with blueCFD 2.0-3 and 2.1-2. The modified code is accessible to blueCFD 2.0/2.1 users for download.

• A limited toolset from PyFoam has also been adapted and made available, to unleash the Python feature in swak4Foam, where Python code can be used for manipulating fields and boundaries.

• Python is also integrated into the blueCFD installation, which is required by PyFoam.

Full release notes for blueCFD ThirdParty releases are available here.

blueCFD is available via one of the following possible ways:

• You can build yourself the software packages that make up the contents of blueCFD, by following the detailed instructions found here, here and in wiki/forums;

• You can also install blueCFD-SingleCore for free, which provides only a few features that blueCFD provides, as described in the main project page here;

• For 50€ and with (free) registration on our website (as shown on the right of this page), you will have access to the blueCFD 2.0 and 2.1 areas on our Download Center. There you will be able to download the blueCFD and blueCFD ThirdParty installation packages, access updates, source codes, manuals and user guides. The Developer Guide that blueCFD provides contains instructions on how to compile and cross-compile custom code and the modified OpenFOAM code that blueCFD uses, as well as be entitled to support from us during the process.

• For 50€ + delivery, we will also send you a DVD with everything on it. Updates and patches to the DVD will also be made available on our website for the registered users of blueCFD 2.0+2.1.

In order to purchase blueCFD, you now have the following methods:

• Register on our site and gain access to our online shop. From there you can purchase immediately blueCFD. The DVD will be shipped as soon as possible and the download area will become accessible after we have allowed it.

• Or go to our contact page and send us a message from our form, with the subject "blueCFD" and state if you want the DVD version or just the downloadable version.

Further to the above, and as a small company, we will be glad to discuss your project if you see it can benefit from our expertise, as evidenced by the existence of blueCFD:

• If you want to provide a set of executables from blueCFD for a book, classes, workshops or software distributions that you might be preparing.

• If you need training in using blueCFD.

• If you need a customized GUI for using with blueCFD.

For more questions, please refer to our statement of service below and our Services page as well.

blueCFD is a service provided by blueCAPE to the public community, and includes complete builds of 32 and 64bit versions of OpenFOAM® for Windows. We have decided to do this out of our own need to have a good and reliable compilation of OpenFOAM on Windows 32 and 64bit versions.

You, the user, can get hold of blueCFD as described in the section "How to acquire blueCFD".

For those who purchase the blueCFD service, are also given rights to:

• Get support on issues related to the blueCFD package;

• Request updated builds of OpenFOAM 2.0.x and 2.1.x (current bug fix versions);

• Request fixes for issues related to cross-compiling - in other words, things that work in Linux, but fail in Windows. Note: some requests may currently be impossible to grant, since there are still some limitations to the cross-compilers.

• Get basic and limited support on issues related to the software installed with the blueCFD ThirdParty installer;

• Will receive updates to blueCFD and blueCFD ThirdParty as soon as available.

• Any other requests will be dealt with individually and met only if both parties reach an agreement. These include requests for operationality in cluster environments where blueCFD has not yet been tested.

This service does not provide: Support on questions about CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics); Support on specific OpenFOAM® questions.

For any of these, please refer to the following links:

• OpenCFD Ltd (ESI Group), the maker of OpenFOAM

• CFD Online, for information on all things CFD

• CFD Online Forums

• Official OpenFOAM Forum

• OpenFOAM Installation on Windows, Mac and other Unsupported Platforms

• Unofficial OpenFOAM Wiki

• CD-adapco Services for your large CFD projects

So, if you need more information, please consider the following:

• contact us if you have questions about building OpenFOAM for Windows;

• contact forums and/or read wikis for general questions about CFD and/or OpenFOAM;

• contact OpenCFD Ltd (ESI Group) regarding specific questions about or development needs for OpenFOAM, either through their site or the dedicated forum;

• contact us regarding training in CFD and in using blueCFD, as shown in our Services page.

• contact us regarding CFD consultancy work. However, depending on the problem size and since we are a small company, our best recommendation may be for you to contact the professional services of the CD-adapco group, for example.

blueCFD® is a registered trademark of blueCAPE Lda. blueCAPE Lda is responsible for blueCFD® and this version of cross-compiled OpenFOAM®. blueCAPE Lda is in no way associated with OpenCFD Ltd (ESI Group), nor holds any copyrights over OpenFOAM®. This offering is not approved or endorsed by OpenCFD Ltd (ESI Group), the producer of the OpenFOAM software and owner of the OPENFOAM® and OpenCFD® trade marks. Also, this offering is not approved or endorsed by Kitware, the producer of the ParaView software and owner of ParaView trade marks. Nor does blueCFD have endorsements from any other company, except for blueCFD's provider blueCAPE.

The blueCFD software package is provided under the GNU Public License (GPL version 3), as are most of the softwares included in it. This includes the NO WARRANTY issue as indicated in the GPL. blueCFD is provided for a small fee if you, the user, decide to receive it via post, since it also includes added value as a service and there are costs that we cannot cover at the moment.

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 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. See here, for a description of the GNU General Public License terms under which you can copy the files.

Trademarks:

• OPENFOAM is a registered trade mark of OpenCFD Ltd (ESI Group), the producer of the OpenFOAM software.

• ParaView is a registered trademark of Kitware.

• Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

• Cygwin is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc.

• Windows XP, Vista and 7 operating systems are registered trademarks of Microsoft.

• Creator of Discretizer is Björn Bergqvist.

• Other softwares included may have their own trademarks, but those references weren't found at the time of the creation of this document.

Building Information Models are usually stored with closed proprietary file formats. This leads to the necessity to export them to other formats or even having to redo the whole model in another application.

Additionally, the original files usually pack excessive information, when compared with the requirements for 3D Computational Fluid Dynamic simulations. However, there is already a common platform for all these softwares, devised to exchange information between different applications. It is called gbXML, which stands for Green Building XML Schema.

The Open Green Building XML Schema, Inc., is a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and maintaining this schema, in order to give the industry an open and simple file format, for exchanging information between building information models (BIM and CAD) with software for analyzing energy efficiency of buildings based on the 3D digital models.

Today this is a defacto industry standard, adopted by Autodesk, Graphisoft, Bentley, Carrier and many others.

gbXML is in a textual, human readable, organized XML format, providing rich model information for energy analysis, including:

• complete and simplified building geometry;

• indicates opening, wall characteristics, as well as shades;

• building geographic location and orientation;

• energy analysis information, before and after simulations.

The gbXML.org website has a list of applications that currently use gbXML (here), further evidence to the fact that this is now a widely accepted format among the BIM/CAD and energy efficiency building model analyzers.

Our approach to the problem has been via Computational Fluid Dynamics, where the current set of tools available in dedicated Building Analysis Environments has a somewhat limited feature set. Moreover, the absence of a reliable bridge between the BIM world and the CFD world meant the existence of an additional obstacle to the work of CFD students, professionals and enthusiasts with an interest in the exciting world of aiding the development of energy efficient buildings.

Also, the absence of a simple way to take BIM data into more established formats, is keeping other forms of 3D simulations on the side, e.g.: simulation and development of domotic robots for cleaning and managing houses, warehouses, malls and other big and small building constructions, adapted/optimized to specific buildings and areas.

gbXML2STL comes to fill in a gap between the world of building model designing and the world of simulation, by providing direct 3D geometric representations of the building models in STL files.

The main difference between this exporter and other STL exporters, is that the other ones are mostly used for rapid prototyping, and do not care about the discrimination of openings and rooms.

There are 3 export modes available through the command line:

full building geometry into a single object, with openings defined as individual objects, all into a single ASCII STL file: gbXML2STL building.xml building3D
full building geometry, but with rooms saved into separate STL files, with openings saved as individual solid objects along with their respective room; here export of room connections is optional: gbXML2STL -s -c building.xml building3D
export only one room with openings saved as individual solid objects along with it: gbXML2STL -r sp-1-room -c building.xml building3D

For all of these modes, one can choose to export internal, external or both types of openings (optionally including air openings), into individual STL files, for those CFD applications that are unable to:

• handle more than one solid object per file;

• create meshes inside connected, but closed, volumes.

Also, to provide easy script-ability for this process, the gbXML2STL Exporter is provided as a command line executable with console output. With that in mind, it has an option to output a list of room names, with respective openings names, the latter discriminated by type.

gbXML2STL 0.65 uses the following packages:

• MinGW gcc 3.4.2

• Qt 4.5.1 (under the GNU Lesser General Public License)

• VTK 5.4.0 (with a BSD license)

• OpenCV 1.0, October 18, 2006 (with the Intel License Agreement For Open Source Computer Vision Library)

Capabilities:

• Nearly full export capability of internal geometries of buildings defined in gbXML file format.

• Export external surfaces, ex/including shades as walls/openings.

• Curved walls are properly processed. There should be only minor bugs (see limitations).

• Wall thickness is taken into account when the gbXML model provides them geometrically.

• All measures defined in the XML Schema for gbXML, are converted to International System units.

• Export to ASCII STL.

Limitations:

• It's currently specialized for exporting internal geometries.

• External geometries are exported, but there are still some limitations.

• There is a limit of 50cm thick walls.

• When exporting, make sure there aren't curved walls (with openings), that have arcs with angles larger than 100 degrees. If so, split those walls, in order to avoid export errors when exporting from the BIM tool to gbXML. In the extreme situation, you might need to split the wall between every opening.