I am running ubuntu 10.04 LTS and I've downloaded elmer from ubuntu's software site.
The ElmerGui that I am running has no version number, as far as I can tell.
It does say that it was written in 2008, although I'm not certain about that.
The various tutorials I can find on the web appear to presume an understanding of the appropriate Elmer commands that the GUI is suppose to create, or has GUI capabilities that my GUI does not appear to have.
For example, how does one know what equation types are available?
How does one define new material properties?
Under "Heat Equation" I am asked for the heat capacity ratio (I presume this is it's gamma). This appears an odd thing to require. You would think that a heat conductivity would be required, but it doesn't appear to ask for it.
I guess this is just another way of asking how one gets started. Even the ubuntu documentation that comes with Elmer does not appear very helpful, nor perhaps even up to date.
Any help would be appreciated.
bill powers
White, SD
Elmer Gui documentation
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Re: Elmer Gui documentation
Hi
Elmer hans't had any major revisions lately so the version is recognized best by the svn revision number that you get when you start ElmerSolver. For example: "Library version 5.5.0 (Rev:4411)". The GUI is in the same svn system as the Solver so the version stamp is the same.
Now the menu structure of ElmerGUI is dynamic i.e. you can add new solvers by defining their menus using an xml file. The default ones are located in directory xml and some optional ones in xml-extra. In addition there are many solvers that have no xml interface at all but may still be used in ElmerSolver by manually editing the .sif file. Given this dynamic nature the documentation of GUI will never try to be exhaustive. The Models manual describes the keywords for each solver and the GUI with the proper xml definitions is just a more user friendly way of creating the sif. However, the user is assumed to know which values to fill in based on the physics. The solver may complain if some data is missing but the GUI does not limit the options based on the chosen physics.
All the documentation should be available through www.csc.fi/elmer and the links therein. Unfortunately its never not quite complete. Coding is so much more fun than documentation
-Peter
Elmer hans't had any major revisions lately so the version is recognized best by the svn revision number that you get when you start ElmerSolver. For example: "Library version 5.5.0 (Rev:4411)". The GUI is in the same svn system as the Solver so the version stamp is the same.
Now the menu structure of ElmerGUI is dynamic i.e. you can add new solvers by defining their menus using an xml file. The default ones are located in directory xml and some optional ones in xml-extra. In addition there are many solvers that have no xml interface at all but may still be used in ElmerSolver by manually editing the .sif file. Given this dynamic nature the documentation of GUI will never try to be exhaustive. The Models manual describes the keywords for each solver and the GUI with the proper xml definitions is just a more user friendly way of creating the sif. However, the user is assumed to know which values to fill in based on the physics. The solver may complain if some data is missing but the GUI does not limit the options based on the chosen physics.
All the documentation should be available through www.csc.fi/elmer and the links therein. Unfortunately its never not quite complete. Coding is so much more fun than documentation
-Peter
Re: Elmer Gui documentation
Hello Bill,
As Peter pointed out, there are several equation types available for the GUI, and the best way to select which ones appear is to use Synaptic as described in the Wiki: http://www.elmerfem.org/wiki/index.php/ ... u_Packages
In my experience, the best way to learn to use the Elmer GUI is to look at a .sif file in an example related to your problem in a text editor or viewer, and then look through the GUI trying to implement every parameter you see in the .sif file. Examples are in the /usr/share/doc/elmer-doc/ElmerTutorialsFiles.tar.gz file in the elmer-doc package.
-Adam
As Peter pointed out, there are several equation types available for the GUI, and the best way to select which ones appear is to use Synaptic as described in the Wiki: http://www.elmerfem.org/wiki/index.php/ ... u_Packages
In my experience, the best way to learn to use the Elmer GUI is to look at a .sif file in an example related to your problem in a text editor or viewer, and then look through the GUI trying to implement every parameter you see in the .sif file. Examples are in the /usr/share/doc/elmer-doc/ElmerTutorialsFiles.tar.gz file in the elmer-doc package.
-Adam