[Arnoldinho]

Hi all,

I'm still new in OpenFOAM and (again) starting to do my tests with this software. I have already seen some tools/software for setting up geometries and meshes, but only one or two for setting up the OpenFoam cases themselves (which means boundary conditions etc.).

So I'm interested in the work flow you are using when simulating with OpenFoam. Do you set up the cases in a text editor, or are there some gui based tools that are actually working well?

Currently, I'm using Salome for geometry an mesh generation, then editing the boundary text files manually, and after running the case, I'm using ParaView.

I have also heard and a bit tested netgen, gmesh, engrid, discretizer. The latter one seems to be quite nice, but only for 'standard' cases. For own boundary conditions and modifications of the solver (which I will have to do), this does not work...


Hoping to hearing from your suggestions on work flow with OpenFoam,

Arne

[nimasam]

hi friend
i hear about foamX , its a gui based program for file and folder manipulations
but there is no integrated gui program for the whole processes from preprocessing to post processing

[alberto]

FoamX was dropped some release ago, and it is not officially maintained.

I personally use external meshers, and then set the case up with a text editor (kate is nice and allows sessions to be stored, so you can easily manage many cases without opening files everytime by hand).

I do not feel the need of a graphical interface for my use case, because I use non-standard codes, and configuring an interface for them would simply add work (write configuration files and such), without any particular benefit to me.

However there are some commercial interfaces developed by companies offering consultancy services with OpenFOAM.

Best,

[Arnoldinho]

I have of course heard of FoamX and have also tried to integrate it into a newer OpenFoam version some time ago. But I also heard that configuring it for own boundary conditions seems to be quite time-consuming.

Have you already tried engrid? I'm trying to compile it for Ubuntu, but still without success... If so, do you know if there is a possibility for setting up the case files, also for own conditions?

Alberto, what mesher are you normally using, with which mesh type? I think commonly used (if not using snappyhexmesh) is a tet mesh, but I have read a bit that a poly mesh might be a lot more performant...

[alberto]

Originally Posted by Arnoldinho

I have of course heard of FoamX and have also tried to integrate it into a newer OpenFoam version some time ago. But I also heard that configuring it for own boundary conditions seems to be quite time-consuming.

Exactly

Have you already tried engrid? I'm trying to compile it for Ubuntu, but still without success... If so, do you know if there is a possibility for setting up the case files, also for own conditions?

Alberto, what mesher are you normally using, with which mesh type? I think commonly used (if not using snappyhexmesh) is a tet mesh, but I have read a bit that a poly mesh might be a lot more performant...

I tried engrid as mesher, but I generally use blockMesh/snappyHexMesh when possible, and switch to commercial meshers if I need something more sophisticated.

About polyhedral meshes, openFOAM has conversion capabilities from tet meshes to polyhedral meshes (check the mesh dualiser in the utilities).

Best,