[wyldckat]

This thread aims to guide those who feel completely lost in where to find information on how to install OpenFOAM.

These are the known installation instructions for OpenFOAM and many of its variants:

1. The instructions for the official OpenFOAM versions are provided at the OpenFOAM Foundation website.
2. The instructions for the official OpenFOAM+ versions are provided at the OpenCFD (ESI group) website.
3. The instructions for the foam-extend (community fork) can be found here:
   1. foam-extend 4.0 Installation instructions @ openfoamwiki.net
   2. foam-extend 3.2 Installation instructions @ openfoamwiki.net
   3. foam-extend 3.1 Installation instructions @ openfoamwiki.net
   4. foam-extend 3.0 Installation instructions @ openfoamwiki.net
4. Installation instructions for installing Caelus-CML (fork) can be found at the Caelus-CML website.
5. The instructions for installing FreeFOAM are provided at their official website: FreeFOAM Installation Instructions
6. Instructions written by the community are mostly centralized at openfoamwiki.net, in the page Installation. There you'll find dedicated instructions for each version and Operating System.
7. Questions about installing any of these versions/variants can be asked at the (unofficial) forum here at CFD-Online: OpenFOAM Installation
   1. For issues with installing OpenFOAM+ from ESI-OpenCFD, please use the prefix [OpenFOAM.com].
   2. For issues with installing OpenFOAM from the OpenFOAM Foundation, please use the prefix [OpenFOAM.org].
   3. For issues with installing foam-extend (including the old 1.6-ext and 1.5-dev forks) from the foam-extend project, please use the prefix [foam-extend.org].
   4. For issues with any other fork/variant, please use the prefix [Other].

Other Frequently Asked Questions:

• About Installing OpenFOAM: FAQ/Installation and Running at openfoamwiki.net
• About OpenFOAM in general: http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/FAQ
• Installing in Windows: http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Installation/Windows
• Installing in Mac OS X: http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Installation/Mac_OS
• Using GPU with OpenFOAM: http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/GPGPU
• How to use the shell and how to have more than one version/variant of OpenFOAM installed: http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/In...with_the_Shell
• About uninstalling/removing OpenFOAM: How to uninstall/remove OpenFOAM?
• About Forks and Variants of OpenFOAM

Manuals and Guides:

• Official OpenFOAM online page for the manuals and guides: http://www.openfoam.org/docs/
• Official OpenFOAM User Guide:
  • Online HTML version: http://www.openfoam.org/docs/user/
  • Online PDF version: OpenFOAM User Guide at SF.net
  • The local copy in your OpenFOAM installation can be found by running this command:
    

    echo $WM_PROJECT_DIR/doc/Guides-a4/UserGuide.pdf

• Official (but not fully supported) OpenFOAM Programmer's Guide:
  • Online version: OpenFOAM Programmer's Guide at SF.net
  • The local version in your OpenFOAM installation can be found by running this command (although it's no present in OpenFOAM 4.0 and newer versions, but should still be in OpenFOAM+):
    

    echo $WM_PROJECT_DIR/doc/Guides-a4/ProgrammersGuide.pdf

• Community created wiki pages, aimed to complement the official guides: http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/OpenFOAM_guide

Notes:

• If you are still using OpenFOAM 1.6-ext from July 2012 to January 2013, please read the instructions from this post: http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ope...tml#post432005 post #51

[tkoz]

Paraview is as important as the meshing and solvers. It is the prime way to access results. More than half of the queries/problems posted on these boards and others regarding openfoam are related to paraview and parafoam and the special readers.


Couldn't a knowledgeable person go over the paraview related queries, the installation scripts (which fail in many cases) and the documentation concerned with paraview access using parafoam and the special reader. Many people don't have the perseverance I do in getting this running and likely give up and move onto other software.


I think these issues need to be resolved and are essential for the increase in the size of the openfoam community.


tom kosvic