Help on installing CalculiX 2.19 on Windows

1

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!

Thanks in advance,
Lucas.

2

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

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3

I never install CalculiX to use it on Windows. I just:

  1. download the solver files from here: http://www.dhondt.de/calculix_2.19_4win.zip and unzip them
  2. copy the files to the folder with input file defining my analysis
  3. open command line in this folder (select address bar in file explorer, type cmd and press Enter) - PowerShell won’t work
  4. type: ccx_static input_file_name
  5. 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.

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4

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.

Best regards,
Lucas.

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5

Quick question regarding parallelization: how do I specify the number of CPUs to be used for the analysis if ccx is called from the cmd ?

Thanks!

6

with bconverged in cmdStartup.bat

image
image1173×613 30.2 KB

Using up to 3 cpu(s) for the stress calculation.

Job finished

Total CalculiX Time: 13.081227

Exit code: 0

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7

On Windows you can use this command:

setx OMP_NUM_THREADS=n

where: n - number of available CPUs.

It will work for all subsequent CalculiX analyses.

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8

Thanks. Just for other Users: it should read „set“ and not „setx“

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9

Maybe it depends on the system. I used setx and it also worked.

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10

I personally recommend installing Calculix in Windows like this:

  1. download the installer for windows from the bconverged website (http://www.bconverged.com/data/content/CalculiX_2_10_win_002.zip);
  2. 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

:startup
cd /d %HOME% …
cls
advise usage
goto end

:end:

Good work!!!

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