Elmer module for Salomé

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mzenker
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Re: Elmer module for Salomé

Post by mzenker »

OK, so we would have to find out if a merge with a Python module would be possible at all...
RaJa
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Re: Elmer module for Salomé

Post by RaJa »

The mesh calculation is still an open issue in our approach. The current idea is indeed based on the ElmerGrid functionality that will be called. But it still requires the unv-export of Salome.

Timo, could you explain, whether your code is conserving the naming of the mesh parts? So if I have a volume named "Box", is this name also accessible in Elmer? The current approach of Matthias and me still lacks a sophisticated way to get the surface and boundary properties defined in Salome transfered into the sif-file. My opinion was to use explicite naming of faces and bodies, like described here: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4106
raback
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Re: Elmer module for Salomé

Post by raback »

Hi All,

I applaud all the developments in improving the preprocessing step for ElmerSolver. ElmerGUI can never be a complete tool in the way that Salome is already, and eliminating that, and later also perhaps ElmerGrid would a nice goal.

Regarding the naming I recently modified the sif reader so that no entities for the sif needs to be numbered. This could be useful, or not. The starting point was that I do not like so much the numbering since sometimes it makes the cut-pasting more laborious. However, the error detection is somewhat more problematic with automated numbering. You can see the example in:
https://github.com/ElmerCSC/elmerfem/bl ... 3/case.sif
The numbering is used when present otherwise next integer is used for the number.

There I also tested the idea to create contact pairs using dirty naming conventions. After discussing this with Timo I would maybe be hesitant to advance this idea. Currently it is annoying that when creating contact pairs the user has to give the number of contact pair. This makes automated scripting from Salome -> ElmerGrid -> ElmerSolver more difficult.

Perhaps you can comment the format of the sif file if it will be written by Salome some day.

-Peter
RaJa
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Re: Elmer module for Salomé

Post by RaJa »

The sif-file will be generated by Salome in the end. That is already planned but not really designed.

There is a new update in the git-rep. A finally found a solution to deal with the equations and materials in a nice way. And it works :D
mzenker
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Re: Elmer module for Salomé

Post by mzenker »

Hi Rainer,

how can I contribute to what you have started? For example, I would like to make it platform-independent since I have a Linux box at home, and some changes are needed to make the module work under Linux (e.g. replace all "\\" by os.sep, and adapt hard-coded path names).
When I have learned how the code works and what needs to be done, I would like to help e.g. with the sif file generation etc.
So how do I commit changes? I don't have any experience with git.

Thanks for some indications and/or a pointer to the relevant documentation.

Cheers,

Matthias
RaJa
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Re: Elmer module for Salomé

Post by RaJa »

Hi,
check you inbox :)

Cheers,
Rainer
Wil
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Re: Elmer module for Salomé

Post by Wil »

There is also some discussion going on regarding integrating Elmer as solver into FreeCAD. I am sure that much of Rainer's work can be reused there or be developed together.

There were already solvers like Calculix or Z88 interfaced/integrated into FreeCAD. FreeCAD uses netgen and Gmsh for meshing and aside own libraries also Paraview for postprocessing.

In comparison to Salome is Freecad the more versatile CAD program while Salome has much stronger aspects in Meshing. So both approaches of integrating Elmer do have their benefits.

For all of you who are interested please have a look at the:
http://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.p ... er#p132174
and a more recent discussion here...
http://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.p ... 10#p146228

BR,
HoWil
mzenker
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Re: Elmer module for Salomé

Post by mzenker »

Hi,

I had a look at FreeCAD this summer and found that the meshing module was not usable for multibody meshes for Elmer, see here. Has that changed in the meantime?

Matthias
Wil
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Re: Elmer module for Salomé

Post by Wil »

The development is going into the direction of multibody-meshing (please see http://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.p ... 1&start=60). First parts are also already in the master branch (and daily ppa).

Concerning your other question regarding .unv export please see http://elmerfem.org/forum/viewtopic.php ... 001#p15866

BR,
Wil
mzenker
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Re: Elmer module for Salomé

Post by mzenker »

Hi Wil,

I had a look at the thread in the FreeCAD forum. Seems like multibody meshing with gmsh is under heavy development. Looks promising!

My personal vision concerning the Elmer module would be to create a library which can be used

* in a module inside Salomé,
* in a module inside FreeCAD,
* in a standalone program without graphical mesh display, e.g. if one just wants to rerun the simulation with some parameter changes, so we don't have to fire up Salomé or FreeCAD every time.

It would be implemented in Python since this is easier to maintain and extend for both Windows and Linux (and probably also MacOS) users.

That said, I think the best approach at the moment is to push the Salomé module started by Rainer to a certain maturity before starting to derive the FreeCAD module and the standalone version. I will try to help him with the coding as soon as we find the time to discuss the details.

Matthias
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