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blueCFD 1.6-1 is now available. Please visit the product page for more information on how to acquire this product/service.
blueCFD is a service package of a high quality cross-compiled build version of OpenFOAM(R) for Windows XP and Vista (32 and 64bit), with some additional tweaks, executables and scripts, in order to maintain usability under a Windows environment. It also provides a near Linux experience through MSys. It also includes Paraview compiled natively on Windows, also in 32 and 64bit versions. The vtkPOpenFOAMReader is the plug-in used in Paraview, for reading OpenFOAM simulation files, because it offers better support for large files and multi-platform. MPICH2 is used for running OpenFOAM and Paraview with a multi-core and multi-machine environment.
RELEASE NOTES FOR blueCFD 1.6-1
This document has the following chapters:
1 - Introduction
2 - Features
3 - Known limitations
4 - System data
Please visit the product page for more information on how to acquire this product/service and legal information.
1 - Introduction
blueCFD is a service package of a high quality cross-compiled build version of OpenFOAM(R) for Windows XP and Vista (32 and 64bit), with some additional tweaks, executables and scripts, in order to maintain usability under a Windows environment. It also provides a near Linux experience through MSys. It also includes Paraview compiled natively on Windows, also in 32 and 64bit versions. The vtkPOpenFOAMReader is the plug-in used in Paraview, for reading OpenFOAM simulation files, because it offers better support for large files and multi-platform. MPICH2 is used for running OpenFOAM and Paraview with a multi-core and multi-machine environment.
2 - Features
Features of blueCFD 1.6-1:
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OpenFOAM 1.6 is running on Windows XP and Windows Vista, both 32 and 64bit versions. Almost all of the features listed on the release notes of OpenFOAM 1.6 are available ( http://www.opencfd.co.uk/openfoam/features.html or see on you installed blueCFD Start->Programs->blueCFD->Documentation->OpenFOAM 1.6 Release Notes ). The mesh converter "ccm26ToFoam" is also included, but not tested.
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The only features currently unavailable are: fully case-sensitive file names; compiling OpenFOAM libraries on Windows; directly handling compressed files with the Scotch library; the solver chtMultiRegionFoam won't work properly, due to a file name clash of "k" and "K".
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There are 4 flavors of OpenFOAM in this package:
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mingw32 Double Precision;
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mingw-w32 Single Precision;
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mingw-w32 Double Precision;
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mingw-w64 Double Precision;
This should enable the usage of at least one of these flavors of OpenFOAM on any Windows.
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The code documentation was rebuilt, to provide a Compiled HTML file dubbed "index.chm", thus providing over 400MB of HTML files and images, in one single 74MB easy to use file, with integrated indexing and search functions on a side bar.
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Although the code documentation is available, the code itself is packaged independently, and should only be used in compatible platforms, such as Linux. More specifically, this is a limitation only due to Windows not having a fully case sensitive file system by default. The code packages include the modifications that allow building OpenFOAM 1.6 with gcc-4.4.2 and mingw32 and mingw-w64.
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Paraview 3.6.1 was built for 32 and 64bit Windows versions, to include the plugin vtkPOpenFOAMReader (r173 20090920), a native FOAM file reader, which has proven so far to be more reliable than the original plug-in that comes with OpenFOAM.
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MPICH2 1.1.1p1 is used for parallel processing with OpenFOAM and Paraview, on 32 and 64bit Windows versions. It should be easily updated to more recent versions. Installation is optional.
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Python 2.6.3, on 32 and 64bit Windows versions, for usage with Paraview. Installation is optional.
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MSys is also included and configured to provide a near Linux experience, thus enabling the original scripts of OpenFOAM to work, with some minor tweaks to improve the functionality. For example, the scripts "foamJob", "foamExec" and parallel job handling will work properly on Windows.
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Batch files are also included, to provide a "Windows Command Line" environment to run OpenFOAM.
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Tutorials included are the ones that already have some bug fixes, up to 2009/10/22.
3 - Known limitations
Limitations:
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currently the 64bit version of OpenFOAM available with blueCFD has a minor glitch when starting the programs. More specifically, some solvers and utilities will take about 12 seconds to "boot" the program and associated libraries, while the 32bit version takes less than 3 seconds to do the same. This issue has been investigated, but the current analysis indicates that this is due to mingw-w64 still being in a beta stage.
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due to Windows not being fully case sensitive (at least by default), all of the applications and functionalities that require files names that only differ in letter case and are on the same folder, will not work. So, when setting up your cases, be aware of this restriction.
Non working functionalities:
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tutorial cases inside "heatTransfer\chtMultiRegionFoam" do not work, due to file name collisions of "0\k" and "0\K". Therefore, the solver "chtMultiRegionFoam" won't work properly.
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libscotch is unable to use compression, due to a cross-compile limitation; more specifically, the Windows does not have native functions that are fully analogous to Un*x and Linux functions "fork" and "pipe". This can be taken care of if so requested, since implementations of these functions already exist in MSys and Cygwin.
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compiling source code under Windows is currently off limits. Therefore, tutorials that require compiling, will not be able to work properly. These are:
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basic\potentialFoam\cylinder
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compressible\rhoCentralFoam\biconic25-55Run35
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heatTransfer\buoyantPisoFoam\hotRoom
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incompressible\MRFSimpleFoam
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incompressible\simpleSRFFoam
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lagrangian\rhoPisoTwinParcelFoam
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multiphase\interDyMFoam\ras\sloshingTank3D6DoF
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multiphase\interFoam\MRFInterFoam
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when using "foamToVTK", you should always use the option "-ascii", due to a bug in the creation of binary VTK legacy files under Windows.
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if you wish to use "foamToVTK" with the tutorial case "motorBike", then please run the script "fixForWindows" before running the case, on MSys. This is due to some characters that don't work in the Windows file systems.
OpenFOAM® functionalities (scripts and executables) other than these mentioned above, should all be available, at least through the MSys terminal.
Most of the original functionalities of OpenFOAM were not fully tested, so there might be some solvers, utilities and scripts that may not work at all. Please contact blueCAPE in case you find any bugs related to blueCFD's packaged binaries and scripts.
It should run under Windows XP, Vista and 7, both 32 and 64bit versions. There might still be some issues with OpenFOAM 1.6 version mingw-w64, supplied with blueCFD, to run on Windows Vista x64 and Window 7 x64, since it was only tested on Windows XP x64 so far.
4 - System data
The versions of the software used to create this package:
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