HowTo: Scientific Ubuntu - Installing OpenFOAM CFD software

[derjames]

I am trying this on my amd64, but it end up with the error message

"make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop."

any ideas?

but the same command runs well on 32bit

I think you are running the 32 bit version on linux 64 bits... Did you download the 64 bit version of OpenFoam??

cheers

[kjetilbmoe]

I get the exact same result. It just stops. And I have 32 bit for sure.

[kjetilbmoe]

cd $FOAM_INST_DIR/ThirdParty
rm -rf ParaView3.3-cvs/platforms
buildParaView3.3-cvs

I don't really know where the error might be. I see from the terminal that it is not totally satisfied with my version of Qt. See attached screenshot.

And ends like this:

-- Plugin: Prism enabled
-- Found Qt-Version 4.4.3
-- Configuring done
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found.  Stop.
done

Suggestions on how to rebuild the reader now? Guess openfoam is pretty useless in its current condition ...

[waspbr]

your qt is a little too new.

one option would be to get the old 4.3.* packages, but I reckon it is a hastle.

One odd thing is that in my intrepid 64 machine, everything works, no compilation, no nothing, just untarred the 5 packages .gtgz at my ~/OpenFOAM directory then did the bash editing found on page 1.

then the

source ~/.bashrc

command.

I am not sure if compiling is really necessary, compiling paraview can be very painful.

have you tried running a case?

try making a run directory and try one of the test cases,eg cavity using the following commands (blockMesh > icoFoam > paraFoam).

if paraFoam gives you the "open with" bug then instead of parafoam do

foamToVTK

then try running

paraview

@ your case directory

go to open file and you should notice that there is a VTK folder at your case directory, open it and view your results using by opening the last file.

this is the procedure that I follow in my fedora 9 machine, it is always best to avoid compiling paraview

[kjetilbmoe]

Thanks for your comprehensive reply!
I "reinstalled" the OpenFoam, executed the .bashrc, and the installation test script.
I then copied the cavity to a new dir, did blockmesh and icofoam, and finally parafoam. But it still asks for the correct reader.
I then did the foamToVTK, it outputted whatever it did. The funny thing is that when I open the last file - cavity_6.vtk, nothing outputs !? (I'm running from remote and my resulution is quite low). But the only thing outputting is the three colored axis in the middle. Was something wrong with the calculations you think?

[waspbr]

hmm, everytime you re-run a case file, remember to erase the old files, keep your 0 folder (also your constant and system) and remove the rest (I would remove the vtk folder).

also it may help to use the edit color map menu (icon with a colour degrade and a green circle on top) and use the "rescale to data ..." button, this may help.

anyway good luck

[basilwatson]

Hi can someone explain to me how to use the foamToVTK utillity ..I am not sure of the structure of the comands is it

$foamToVTK ( name of folder where the output is going) ( path to file to be converted )


Kind regards Stephen

[waspbr]

sorry for the late reply, I haven't checked this in a bit, a PM is going to reach me faster.

there' s no need to add any further parameters to the foamToVTK command. Once you have run your case file (whether it is building a mesh or using a solver), all you have to do it run foamToVTK inside the case directory, for instance in the cavity example, it would be inside the $FOAM_RUN/tutorials/icoFoam/cavity directory.

This will automatically a vtk folder inside the case directory directory.

then you can use the command

paraview

to load paraview and open the files inside the vtk folder, you should see a bunch of folders, the complete vtk files are going to be a the bottom.

[jeannot]

I am more than ready to install Qt4.3.2 on Ubuntu, but I don't find the right package. Any chance that someone did find it?

[kjetilbmoe]

Thanks! This actually works quite well!

One thing with paraview though: the display output is quite bad - it is not displaying the geometry at all at first, or displaying it partly in a "blinds" fashion. Is there a setting I can adjust to fix this?