Using the official pre-built ParaView 3.10.1 version with OpenFOAM

Posted April 30, 2011 at 07:16 by wyldckat
Updated May 4, 2013 at 06:46 by wyldckat (Updated to reflect changes in OpenFOAM 2.0)

<-- Related issues to ParaView with OpenFOAM - Fixes and solutions

NOTE: For building your own ParaView see Building ParaView 3.10.1 with custom Qt 4.6.4
_________________________________________________

After limited success with the old instructions "Using the official pre-built ParaView 3.8.0 version with OpenFOAM...", I've decided to write a new blog post, instead of editing the old one. Hopefully these instructions no longer will have the issues that occurred with those instructions.

NOTE: these instructions should also work with past and future versions of ParaView. You'll need to adapt version numbers for ParaView, such as 3.10.1 -> 3.10.2 or 3.8.1.

Keep in mind that versions before 3.8.0 are not acceptable with these instructions, since the internal reader can't read meshes from OpenFOAM versions above 1.2, if I'm not mistaken.

The instructions are as follows:

Start a new terminal and activate the OpenFOAM environment if not already active. For more information, see Setting Environment Variables
- For example, if you have installed OpenFOAM 1.7.1 using the Deb packages for Ubuntu, then this means that you need to switch to root mode and activate the respective environment. A quick way to do this is by running:
  Code:
```
sudo su -c "source /opt/openfoam171/etc/bashrc; bash"
```
  Don't forget to run the following command before step #10:
  Code:
```
exit
```
Check if you already have something installed in paraview's binary folder:
Code:
```
ls $ParaView_DIR
```
If it doesn't say something like "ls: cannot access /home/..../paraview-3.8.0: No such file or directory", then remove the folder:
Code:
```
rm -rf $ParaView_DIR
```

Now run:

Code:

cd $HOME/OpenFOAM
mkdir -p $ParaView_DIR

Now, depending on the architecture you are running on your Linux box (i?86 or x86_64), run one of these commands:

For i?86:

Code:

wget http://www.paraview.org/files/v3.10/ParaView-3.10.1-Linux-i686.tar.gz

For x86_64:

Code:

wget http://www.paraview.org/files/v3.10/ParaView-3.10.1-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz

Now do:
Code:
```
cd $ParaView_DIR
```

Again, depending on what architecture you are using, do:

For i?86:

Code:

tar -xzf $HOME/OpenFOAM/ParaView-3.10.1-Linux-i686.tar.gz
mv ParaView-3.10.1-Linux-i686/* .
rmdir ParaView-3.10.1-Linux-i686

For x86_64:

Code:

tar -xzf $HOME/OpenFOAM/ParaView-3.10.1-Linux-x86_64.tar.gz
mv ParaView-3.10.1-Linux-x86_64/* .
rmdir ParaView-3.10.1-Linux-x86_64

Now open the file "$WM_PROJECT_DIR/bin/paraFoam" in your favorite simple text editor and replace every entry ".OpenFOAM" with ".foam". Now save and close the file.
NOTE: if you're feeling too lazy to open a text editor, try this:
Code:
```
sed -i -e 's=\.OpenFOAM=\.foam=' $WM_PROJECT_DIR/bin/paraFoam
```
NOTE about OpenFOAM 2.0: If you want to keep this file unedited, you can use the new argument "builtin":
Code:
```
paraFoam -builtin
```

Edit the file "$WM_PROJECT_DIR/etc/bashrc" and find the line that says:

In OpenFOAM 1.7:

Code:

paraview3=`$WM_PROJECT_DIR/bin/foamEtcFile apps/paraview3/bashrc` \
    && _foamSource $paraview3
unset paraview3

Now comment it, like this:

Code:

#paraview3=`$WM_PROJECT_DIR/bin/foamEtcFile apps/paraview3/bashrc` \
#    && _foamSource $paraview3
#unset paraview3

Save and close the file.

In OpenFOAM 2.0:

Code:

# Source user setup files for optional packages
# ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
_foamSource `$WM_PROJECT_DIR/bin/foamEtcFile config/paraview.sh`
_foamSource `$WM_PROJECT_DIR/bin/foamEtcFile config/ensight.sh`

Now comment it, like this:

Code:

# Source user setup files for optional packages
# ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#_foamSource `$WM_PROJECT_DIR/bin/foamEtcFile config/paraview.sh`
_foamSource `$WM_PROJECT_DIR/bin/foamEtcFile config/ensight.sh`

Next, edit again the script "$WM_PROJECT_DIR/bin/paraFoam". Go to the line right after the first block of comments and add the lines that were commented in "$WM_PROJECT_DIR/etc/bashrc", although with a little tweak. With the tweak, it should look something like this (bold is the new addition):

OpenFOAM 1.7:

Code:

# Description
#     start paraview with the OpenFOAM libraries
#
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
paraview3=`$WM_PROJECT_DIR/bin/foamEtcFile apps/paraview3/bashrc` \
    && source $paraview3
unset paraview3

usage() {

Save and close. I'm sorry, but I don't know yet how to create the lazy edit version

OpenFOAM 2.0:

Code:

# Description
#     Run an OpenFOAM job in background.
#     Redirects the output to 'log' in the case directory.
#
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
paraview3=`$WM_PROJECT_DIR/bin/foamEtcFile config/paraview.sh` \
    && source $paraview3
unset paraview3
  
usage() {

Start a new terminal once again and activate the OpenFOAM environment if not already active.

And voilà, you now should have a fully working paraFoam script at your disposal! Along with ParaView 3.10.1, with no further building required

By the way, some additional tips:

If you are having problems with rescaling data (the colour labels) in ParaView, you might have tripped on a now known bug in ParaView 3.8.0, which I haven't checked yet if it was fixed in 3.10. To get past this, read this post (and its thread): paraview 3.8 auto rescale doesn't work #6
Usual problems with ParaView and some hints on how to fix them: Segmentation fault when visualizing in ParaView
ParaFoam error could not find a decent visual - solution in post #4

Good luck! Best regards,
Bruno

Posted in Links and tutorials for OpenFOAM and dependencies

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Comments

Page 2 of 2

Hi Tobias,

You're welcome!

Quote:

Originally Posted by tobias.joelsson

Is there somewhere else in paraFoam that I have forgot to change from .OpenFOAM to .foam?

Well, when in doubt, open the "paraFoam" script with your favourite text editor, then search and replace every occurrence of "OpenFOAM" for "foam"! That ought to fix it

Although I advise you to not close the editor until you've tested the script, so you can undo if necessary

Best regards,
Bruno

Posted July 26, 2012 at 15:35 by wyldckat wyldckat is offline

	Hi Bruno, I searched through "paraFoam" and found additional places whereas I had to change OpenFOAM to foam. So now the "paraFoam" script works very well. Thanks Bruno for solving the problem. Best Regards, Tobias
	Posted July 26, 2012 at 21:50 by tobias.joelsson

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