AudiLab Software

Code_Aster

Introduction

Code_Aster has been developed under the leadership of EDF (Électricité de France) R&D since 1989. It runs under Unix and Microsoft Windows and is distributed under the GPL licence.

Use with Fad

Our Fad finite-element preprocessor can export .mail files and primitive .comm files for use with Code_Aster.

Documentation

Very extensive documentation is available on the Code_Aster Web site.

Installation

Linux

Download SALOME-MECA-2010.2-LGPL-x86_64.tgz (or an equivalent) from http://www.code-aster.org ▶ Download ▶ Salome-Meca to, say, ~/Downloads64/. Do

    tar xzf SALOME-MECA-2010.2-LGPL-x86_64.tgz
    cd SALOME-MECA-2010.2-LGPL-x86_64/postinstall
    python postinstall.py

You may receive warnings about DSCCODE GUI and PAL GUI resources; I don't know what they mean, and so far they don't seem to have caused problems. Run Salome-Meca with the runSalomeMeca script in the installation directory. If you want to add it to the GNOME launch panel, specify the as . The file icon_default.png in SALOME/SALOME5/V5_1_4/GUI_V5_1_4/share/salome/resources/gui/ makes a good icon.

The above procedure worked fine for me under Debian Lenny. Under Ubuntu Lucid, Salome-Meca runs but actual simulations die quietly without doing anything, apparently due to missing libraries.

Brief recipe

There are multiple ways of performing the following steps. I've shown the ‘long’ ways, using the menus, but often a judicious right-click or icon click can also be used.

Export .mail and .comm files from Fad.
If necessary, removed end-of-the-line characters.
Revise .comm file as required.
To produce .med file: run ASTK.
- Specify a base path by browsing.
- Specify a .mail file.
- Tools ▶ Mesh converter. You should see aster specified as Input format and med as Result format. Click on OK.
Run Salome-Meca.
Activate Mesh module with drop-down list. Click on New. Do File ▶ Import ▶ MED file. If necessary, right-click on Mesh in the Object Browser and select Show.
Activate Aster module with drop-down list. Do Aster ▶ Add study case.
- Under Study case definition: Specify a name for the study case. For Command file, select from disk from drop-down list and browse to select a .comm file. For Mesh, select from object browser from drop-down list; in the Object Browser, select the mesh object at the second level of the hierarchy; click on the bent-arrow button.
- Under ASTK services: uncheck the box Interactive follow up. I seem to need to do this under Ubuntu but not under Debian.
- Under Solver p[a]rameters: Specify the Total memory, CPU number (number of CPU's) and Time (s) (maximum run time in seconds) as desired.
Click on OK.
Do Aster ▶ Current study case ▶ Run.

AudiLab home page

R. Funnell

Last modified: 2011-01-26 19:02:08