CalculiX Version 2.17

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Dear CalculiX users,

you probably already noticed: a couple of days ago we posted version 2.17 of CalculiX. Two major changes are:

  1. The capability to use the PaStiX solver to solve the equation system. PaStiX is able to use the GPU, but also without GPU you may get accelerations up to a factor of 4. With GPU this may be 8. To use the GPU you need a nVidia graphical card and you must have installed CUDA. You must also install hwloc, parsec and scotch. A few minutes ago I uploaded an updated version of the README file explaining roughly what to do. However, be patient, getting PaStiX to run in combination with CalculiX is not that easy. Be aware that you need a specific branch of parsec and a specific version of PaStiX (the one which can be cloned from PaStiX4CalculiX on Github).
  2. In version 2.17 Mortar contact is running again with and without friction. So far it is only implemented for *STATIC problems. Although most problems we tested with Mortar contact run, few did not, and we are still analyzing these problems. In principal, Mortar contact should be more stable than surface-to-surface penalty contact, Furthermore, ideally hard contact is possible.

Best Greetings,

Guido

5 Likes
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Awesome, Guido!

In the CPU case, what is your expererience of PaStiX in CCX compared to the Intel MKL Pardiso?

Carlo M

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Hello Carlo,

the speed ups Guido was talking about were achieved compared to MKL Pardiso.

1 Like
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just for information. I found a bug in my pastix mortar code, which can leed to a wrong matrix if the matrix wasn’t symmetric before. In my tests this led to not converging in the linearization, but you should at least be aware of that.
I already fixed it in my sources and improved the mortar/electromagnetics part of my pastix implementation. I assume this fix will be part of the next update of Guido, if there won’t appear any major problems in testing.

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While compiling ccx_2.17, I met an error message as follows,
make: *** No rule to make target ‘…/…/…/ARPACK/libarpack_INTEL.a’, needed by ‘ccx_2.17’. Stop.
I already built the required library in the path. I do not know what causes this problem and how to solve it. Any hint?
Thank you.
KS Cho

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Did you find a workaround?

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@cho.kyungsang You can build CalculiX GUI binary using the steps in the guide below. I was unable to build the solver source. However, I could get only the GUI source to work.

It would be great if you someone can extend this guide for building CalculiX solvers.

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During the build process, libarpack_$(PLAT).a couldn’t be found. So, I rebuilt it from scratch. After this I was able to compile ccx_2.17.