[wyldckat]

This forum is dedicated to help people that use OpenFOAM technology to find information that may or may not yet be documented anywhere else, regarding OpenFOAM and related technologies.

If you're not yet familiar with how forums work in general and how to ask questions on the forums here at CFD-Online, then please read the following pages first:

• Guide: Getting Started with the CFD Online Discussion Forums
• How to give enough info to get help

The following is the map of the existing (sub-)forums here on the forum for OpenFOAM related discussions, along with descriptions on the topics meant to be addressed on each (sub-)forum:

• OpenFOAM

  This is the main forum. Please only ask questions here on the main forum if your questions and/or information you want to provide, at not applicable to any of the following sub-forums.
  

  • OpenFOAM News & Announcements

    This forum gathers the sub-forums dedicated to news and announcements. Notice that there is a distinction between the official and non-official announcements.
    

    • OpenFOAM Announcements from ESI-OpenCFD

      This forum contains only official OpenFOAM announcements from ESI-OpenCFD.

    • OpenFOAM Announcements from OpenFOAM Foundation

      This forum contains only official OpenFOAM announcements from the OpenFOAM Foundation.

    • OpenFOAM Announcements from Other Sources

      This is the right forum to post any news related to courses, new software/source code and any other news-worthy threads/posts that are related to OpenFOAM technology.

  • OpenFOAM Installation

    This is where you should ask about problems with installing OpenFOAM on any Operating System. For more details: Frequently Asked Questions about Installing OpenFOAM

  • OpenFOAM Meshing & Mesh Conversion

    This forum is dedicated to creating, converting and manipulating surface and volume meshes to and from OpenFOAM's mesh format. The forum has prefixes dedicated to specific topics, for which a map is given there as well: Map of this Meshing (sub-)Forum
    
    There are a few sticky threads that aim to guide you on what can be done with meshers:

    • About blockMesh
    • About snappyHexMesh
    • About the Open Source Meshers discussed here
    • About the Commercial and Closed Source Meshers discussed here

  • OpenFOAM Pre-Processing

    This forum is dedicated to discussing details related to the following topics:

    • Defining boundary conditions (walls, patches, inlets, outlets, cyclic patches, wedges, wall treatments, etc...) before simulating.
    • Setting up turbulence models.
    • Setting up cases in general (file and folder structure).
    • Preparing cases for running in parallel.

  • OpenFOAM Running, Solving & CFD

    This forum is dedicated to discussing details related to the following topics:

    • How to use solvers in serial and/or in parallel.
    • Properly configuring the settings for the solvers to properly simulate the case.
    • Handling problems with converging a simulation.
    • Interpreting strange results.
    • Discussing issues related to CFD, fluid and heat flow and how the solvers simulate it.
    • Notes:
      • Discussions on how solvers implement CFD methods should be discussed in the forum OpenFOAM Programming & Development.
      • Discussions about function objects should be discussed in the forum OpenFOAM Post-Processing.

  • OpenFOAM Post-Processing

    This forum is dedicated to discussing details related to the following topics:

    • Reconstruction of parallel cases.
    • Sampling results produced by the solvers.
    • Plotting residuals and monitors.
    • Using function objects (related to co-processing).
    • Processing results from the solver to create additional passive fields, such as calculating the y+ values and so on.
    • Exporting results to other formats for visualizing and processing with other software.

    • OpenFOAM Paraview & paraFoam

      This forum is dedicated to discussing how to use ParaView for post-processing results that were generated with OpenFOAM. For general questions on using ParaView, check the dedicated thread: ParaView

  • OpenFOAM Programming & Development

    This forum is dedicated to discussing anything and everything related to OpenFOAM's source code and on how to compile and modify source code that compiles/links to OpenFOAM.
    

  • OpenFOAM Verification & Validation

    This forum is special and is dedicated to discussing verification and validation cases for confirming that OpenFOAM's solvers and models work as intended. It is not meant to be used for asking for help, unless its specific to having problems with the validation or verification of the results. For more details: Purpose of this forum

  • OpenFOAM Community Contributions

    This forum is dedicated to topics associated to contributions made by the community on various categories, such as code, tutorials, training material and documentation. Therefore, contributions and questions about those contributions should be discussed in this forum and several prefixes have already been created to assist the authors of the contributors to find those questions. More details are provided on this thread: https://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/op...ose-forum.html
    

  • OpenFOAM Bugs

    This forum was originally used for keeping track of OpenFOAM bugs. But it currently is used for forum members to pitch in in pre-emptive checking of possible bugs, before reporting them in the respective bug trackers for each project. For more details on the bug trackers of each project:

    • Reporting OpenFOAM bugs
    • Reporting bugs for FOAM-Extend and 1.6-ext

If you're still confused, then please post a question on this thread you're reading now, regarding where you should ask a specific type of question.

[vineet_bhola]

Hi Bruno,
Thanks a lot for making these sub-topics. It looks much more organised and easier to find related posts. But I have a concern. Whenever I have to post a question, I follow this path from drop-down menu. Forums->Software User Forums->OPENFOAM->Meshing. Is it possible for you to add these subtopics in the path itself? Otherwise there would be a confusion as some people would still keep posting in the main Meshing folder and some in these new subfolders. Or atleast remove the option of New Thread in Meshing.
Thanks
Vineet

[wyldckat]

Hi Vineet,

Sorry for taking a while to get back to your request. I've talked with the forum administrators and the conclusion so far is to keep the menus the way they are right now, i.e. small and somewhat simple to navigate.

Therefore, I need to ask you about what you saw when using the forum. Retracing your steps:

1. When you clicked on the menu item Forums->Software User Forums->OPENFOAM->Meshing, it showed you the page for the "OpenFOAM Meshing & Mesh Conversion" forum.
2. On that page, it shows a list of sub-forums, followed by the "New Thread" button and by this text below it:
   

   Threads in Forum : OpenFOAM Meshing & Mesh Conversion

Is this what you saw?



I ask this because I suspect that the problem is that it isn't clear enough what are the sub-forums and what is the main thread. Therefore, we need to understand what needs to be changed on the page itself to make this clearer.


Best regards,
Bruno

[vineet_bhola]

yes, that is exactly what I see. And I understand that main thread is "OpenFOAM Meshing & Mesh Conversion" and what you created recently are sub-Forums. I thought it would be confusing if some people post problems in Sub-Forums and some in main thread. But I just noticed that it is not limited to your new sub-Forums and It is a common template across other Forums too.
Thanks
Vineet

[wyldckat]

Hi Vineet,

Many thanks for the feedback!
Actually, these sub-forums exist for quite some years already. This thread with the map was created more recently, in an attempt to guide people better on the forum.

Either way, if in the future you or anyone else start a thread in the wrong forum or sub-forum, please let me know or use the report button to ask that the thread be moved to the right place

Best regards,
Bruno

[nghiabinh]

Hi Bruno,
I think that the the sub-forum "OpenFOAM Running, Solving & CFD" and "OpenFOAM Programming & Development" should be categorized into sub-sub-forum by OpenFoam solver groups like combustion, DNS, compressible... and others. It will be more easy for finding as well as tracking the related topics.
Best regards,
Binh.

[wyldckat]

Originally Posted by nghiabinh

I think that the the sub-forum "OpenFOAM Running, Solving & CFD" and "OpenFOAM Programming & Development" should be categorized into sub-sub-forum by OpenFoam solver groups like combustion, DNS, compressible... and others. It will be more easy for finding as well as tracking the related topics.

Quick answer: Sorry for the late reply. We haven't created multiple sub-forums for each category, because we don't have enough people doing moderation (namely to move threads and see if people are asking in the correct place).

Nonetheless, if people use the tags feature, it would make it easier for others to find questions on a tagged topic. The best part is that anyone can add tags (if I'm not mistaken), not just moderators.

[Samwise]

Hei Foamers,

First of all I had barely enough OF experience so far, but I would like to dedicate most of my time to learn and simulate few things via OF in the next few months/years. At the beginning I want to ask general questions about the optimal way to start, and for that I ask your help now, where should I post it.

So the topic would be something like asking suggestions (how to prepare raw field data, recommended softwares, methods etc) from raw data to mesh, how would be wise to prepare the data for simulation. (simulation would be about a river section at the upstream side of a dam, where the original river flow and an intake channel (with a submerged concrete block) at the side of the river. Initially under steady flow conditions, perhaps using interfoam solver).

Thank you for your reply in advance!

[kera]

Hello Marcell,

As you may already figured it out, that this forum exist about over a decade. So most of the doubts/problems what you would be encountering (as you are a new user) may it be a silly one to the serious ones, most of them are already discussed here and probably SOLVED as well.

One thing what people generally do (I might have done that as well) is, the moment they get an error or problem, the just post the question without digging into the forum.

Originally Posted by Samwise

At the beginning I want to ask general questions about the optimal way to start, and for that I ask your help now, where should I post it.

Say for example Getting Started with OpenFOAM an excellent walk through by Bruno.

Originally Posted by Samwise

So the topic would be something like asking suggestions (how to prepare raw field data, recommended softwares, methods etc) from raw data to mesh, how would be wise to prepare the data for simulation. (simulation would be about a river section at the upstream side of a dam, where the original river flow and an intake channel (with a submerged concrete block) at the side of the river. Initially under steady flow conditions, perhaps using interfoam solver).

or some more questions regarding river and channel flows you can find here --> Setting BCs for Riverine Flows using Interfoam, this is just an example thread, there might be many more related to this topic, if you don't find what you are looking for you could state your problem where you seem is relevant.

How to ask questions be able to solve your query faster can be found here --> How to give enough info to get help

One more website, that helped me out is this website --> http://www.holzmann-cfd.de/index.php/en/teaching. It had answered most of my questions and I just like the way Tobi explains about certain concepts in OpenFOAM, he breaks the complicated concepts into simple steps and makes them look easy.

I am no expert in OpenFOAM (kind of a beginner as well), but yeah, these things sure did help me out.

Hope this helps!

Regards,
Ricky

[Samwise]

Hei Kera,

Thank you for your prompt and comprehensive answer! It is indeed a well detailed forum, with a lot of suggestions.

Originally Posted by kera

One more website, that helped me out is this website --> http://www.holzmann-cfd.de/index.php/en/teaching. It had answered most of my questions and I just like the way Tobi explains about certain concepts in OpenFOAM, he breaks the complicated concepts into simple steps and makes them look easy.

His tutorial are more than helpful, indeed, thank you to mention it! When I'll get a special question then what I couldn't find out by the forum, will pop up again J

Best wishes!

[hakosaj]

Hi there! I'm a new user of OF, and also new to this forum in general.

I am actually trying to find someone, who could sit down with me (over a zoom call or something), and go through a simple case I'm trying to make work. I have read the guides for a while, but I just feel like having a "teacher" and/or "consultant" to help me out with this would be very useful. I've been stuck as of late, and would like to go over the whole thing with someone who would be able to tell me what to do, and if what I've already done makes any sense at all or not.


Basically, my question is this: where to post the question "I'm looking to hire someone to be my OF coach/consultant/tutor for a bit"?

Thanks!