Hello everyone, I am currently using PrePoMax interface with CalculiX processor to FEA purposes. However, I need to do a steady state dynamic analysis in my structure and PrePoMax does not support it at this time, even though CalculiX does. For this, I need to modify the input file and run it on CalculiX standalone.
I managed to install CalculiX 2.16 on Linux using this tutorial, but I want to install it on my Windows laptop so I don’t need to boot the Linux OS for this. I tried to install the bconverged distribution but I’m doing something wrong and cannot spot the mistake, what happens is that when I run an analysis the resulting “Data Sets” does not appear on CGX visualization, and I don’t know why. I know it is my mistake, but I have not enough experience to track it.
If you guys have some good tutorial to install it on my machine, I appreciate. It would help me a lot!
In prepomax installation folder look for /Solver subfolder and there you have the ccx exe file, just add that folder to your path or call it directly using an absolute path. Start a windows command prompt (cmd) and launch calculix: ccx -i myjob
ccx executable sometimes has extra characters in the name
copy the files to the folder with input file defining my analysis
open command line in this folder (select address bar in file explorer, type cmd and press Enter) - PowerShell won’t work
type: ccx_static input_file_name
after the analysis type: cgx_glut results_file_name.frd to postprocess the simulation in GraphiX
You could also convert the .frd tile to .vtk to do the postprocessing in ParaView but there’s no official converter and the existing ones may not always work.
Thank you very much @JuanP74 and @Calc_em , I’ve managed to conduct my desired analysis without any software instalation. It was easier than I expected, hopefully this thread can help somebody in the future.
Once the bconverged version is installed you just have to replace the executables ccx.exe and cgx.exe with the latest versions that Dhondt releases (http://www.dhondt.de).
ATTENTION: if you want to use ccx_dynamic.exe (Pardiso solver) you must install the Intel MKL (Math Kernel Library) and copy the files that ccx asks you at startup (because it cannot find them) in the C:\Program Files (x86)\ directory bConverged\CalculiX\bin.
IMPROVEMENTS: the “cmdStartup.bat” file found in C:\Program Files (x86)\bConverged\common\site can be improved; an example is this: @echo off
rem Modify this file to change your startup settings for the CalculiX command window.
set CYGWIN=nodosfilewarning
set PRINTF_EXPONENT_DIGITS=2
set VERSION=2.21
set HOME=G:\CalculiX work
set CALCULIX_ROOT=C:\PROGRA~2\bConverged
set PATH=%CALCULIX_ROOT%\CalculiX\bin;%CALCULIX_ROOT%\translation\bin;%CALCULIX_ROOT%\common\Python;%CALCULIX_ROOT%\gnuplot\bin;%PATH%
set CCX_NPROC_STIFFNESS=6
set OMP_NUM_THREADS=12
set CCX_NPROC_EQUATION_SOLVER=6
set NUMBER_OF_CPUS=6
set CCX_NPROC_RESULTS=6
set CCX_NPROC_VIEWFACTOR=6
set CCX_NPROC_CFD=6
set CCX_NPROC_BIOTSAVART=6
set PASTIX_MIXED_PRECISION=0
set CCXDOCS=ms-its:%CALCULIX_ROOT%\common\help\bConverged.chm::/ccx.pdf
set CGXDOCS=ms-its:%CALCULIX_ROOT%\common\help\bConverged.chm::/cgx.pdf
set CGXTERMVIEWER=start “”
set BROWSER=start “” hh.exe
set “arg=%~1”
if not defined arg goto startup
if /i %1==ccx goto ccx
if /i %1==cgx goto cgx
goto end
:ccx
:cgx
“%CALCULIX_ROOT%\CalculiX%~1%~1.exe” %2 %3 %4 %5 %6
goto end
