First steps with OpenFoam..
 

Hello everybody,
I am a new user of OpenFoam. I was looking the tutorials and more or less I would say I understand the examples. But my Problem is that when I have to start with a new Simulation or case, I have no idea how to start. I was reading in different Forums and I find them very useful but I can find only answers for more advanced questions.
Until now what I did is the next:
I had the geometry in Autodesk Inventor, I exported it as STEP to Salome and I did the meshing there. I exported that mesh to OpenFoam as unv file and I used ideasUnvToFoam to convert it to OpenFoam Format. Until here I think I did it well. But I have no idea how to continue...
I supose I have to choose the most similar case in the tutorials and modify it right? But do I Need to modify all the files? And for example, how can I introduce the new geometry I want to simulate to the case I am basing on?
Apart of the Problem of OpenFoam I am not a user of Linux so I don't know it very well...
I am really lost as you can see :confused: Could somebody help me? I just Need the very first and Basic steps, or if you know some tutorial, web page, example... to build new simulations... I would be really happy :)
Thank you in advance,

Ainhoa

I am new as well and do the following:
I import the fluent mesh to openfoam by going to the folder (in the terminal) where my .msh file is and using "fluent3DtoFoam". This command will crash until all necessary files are in the current folder (such as the /system/controlDict file...).
Now once it works it will produce a /constant/polyMesh/... folder with some files.

The "/constant/polyMesh/boundary" file will tell you which boundary conditions you will need (the names of the walls, inlets, ...). Create a "/0" folder with all the boundary files you need (have a look at the tutorials). You will need "p" and "U" and then dependent on your turbulence model you will need "k" and "omega" for example.
You can have a look at the tutorials for the syntax.

In the "/constant" directory you also have to give information about the turbulence model (see tutorials). Then, all numerics is specified in the "/system" folder.

What you can do is just starting the solver you want to use (such as simpleFoam) in the folder of your case. It will ask you for all missing files. And also missing commands in the files!

use "ideasUnvToFoam" to convert mesh file from Salome to OpenFOAM. This should write you the polyMesh directory inside ./constant. You can always use "paraFoam" to make sure your geometry/mesh is properly imported.

As for the rest, check the post above =)