2015 - Best of OpenFOAM GUI or wrapper?

MtnRunBeachBum · April 23, 2015, 12:03

Good Morning Y'all,

I'm interested in anyone's experiences/ opinions on the various GUI's or wrappers for OpenFOAM? There seems to be no short supply of them. Thus far, these are what I have found (w/ vendor):

Helyx/Helyx-OS (Engys)
CAESES CFD (Friendship Systems)
Caedium (Symscape)
Visual CFD (ESI)
enGrid (EASA?)

Now, these do not include other programs that are strictly meshers or post-processors (or that appear to me as such).

Please let me know your experience, opinions, wild rumors, comparison notes, etc., along with any applications I have missed or miss-characterized.

Thanks!

wyldckat · April 23, 2015, 14:04

Greetings Jimmy,

Just two notes to add/comment:

enGrid is developed by enGits.
A full list of know GUIs for OpenFOAM are written here: http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/GUI

Best regards,
Bruno

MtnRunBeachBum · April 24, 2015, 17:16

Bruno

Thanks for the comments. I did come across that page a while ago, its what got me looking at GUI versions actually. I forgot about it recently though.

What I really want to know though is people's experience with any of the GUIs I listed, or others for that matter. For non-programmers like me, learning OpenFOAM has been fun, educational, and super-useful for learning OF, but a well thought out GUI is much more appealing.

Of particular interest are Helyx and Visual CFD. Helyx seems to be backed by a lot of OF experience and Engys seems to be very involved in the development and training community. Visual CFD (ESI Group), while a newer product, I would think benefits heavily by being released b the people who own the development rights to the OF code itself.

Jimmy

elvis · April 29, 2015, 08:39

Hi,

dice might be of interest http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ope...i-project.html
but Bruno already pointed to the OF-wiki that lists various GUI

And if you carefully read the forum you will notice that ESI pays some of the core developers (OpenCFD Ltd (ESI Group)) but
Henry Weller and Chris Greenshields do their own new business and founded CFD DIRECT http://cfd.direct/openfoam/

MtnRunBeachBum · April 29, 2015, 10:09

Yes indeed, it does seem that the OF community is a somewhat subtly interwoven bunch.

ESI, who also develops CFX and FASTRAN, owns the development rights to OF, though distribution is through the OF Foundation. And I think the primary developer behind sHM works here?

Engys, based on my own assessment and nothing official, seems to have quite the stable of OF developers and appears to lead the pack with "official" support packages.

And as you look at the other products, it appears as if quite a few other people spun off probably all these organizations and more to develop their own products or to work on product compatibility elsewhere.

Quite the microcosm.

carstenf · January 4, 2016, 11:56

Hi,

the free version of Helyx is for me often a way to start a new OpenFoam project. In many cases I use the created files and edit them afterwards manually.

When I am interested to see the effects on the flow behavior due to geometry changes, using CAESES is a nice way to go. With CAESES you can create all kinds of geometries and couple it to OpenFoam in one GUI.

With the other programs I don't have experience.

best regards

Carsten

vatavuk · November 8, 2016, 09:13

Hi,

It is interesting that Cham, the developer of the Phoenics code, released PH2OF. This software, apparently, converts a Phoenics simulation to an OpenFoam case.

Best regards,
Paulo

JR22 · April 13, 2020, 16:46

I know this is a pretty old. However, I just got back into CFD after about a year of being absent and looked this up again.

My two favorites are:

Helyx-OS: Hasn't been updated for a while. However, for me it is still the most powerful open source GUI for OpenFOAM. Under Linux.
FreeCAD's cfdOF addon:Works under Windows taking advantage of blueCFD's multicore Windows binaries for OpenFOAM.

Let me know if there is anything better (free/open source GUIs) you've found.

hohmeyer · September 11, 2023, 13:20

Please also take a look at Ennova CFD (www.ennova-cfd.com). It has CAD import, CAD cleanup, mesh generation, a GUI to set up OpenFOAM boundary conditions and other dictionary files, plus post-processing based on VTK (the same technology as Paraview). The mesh generation types include topology based as well as octtree based (like Snappyhex). Boundary layer generation. Polyhedral meshes as well as tet + prism. Full diagnostics on the mesh are available including quality, skewness, orthogonality and others. Ploting of bad elements and cut planes of the mesh are available.

April 23, 2015, 12:03	2015 - Best of OpenFOAM GUI or wrapper?	#1
MtnRunBeachBum New Member Jimmy Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 20 Rep Power: 11	Good Morning Y'all, I'm interested in anyone's experiences/ opinions on the various GUI's or wrappers for OpenFOAM? There seems to be no short supply of them. Thus far, these are what I have found (w/ vendor): Helyx/Helyx-OS (Engys) CAESES CFD (Friendship Systems) Caedium (Symscape) Visual CFD (ESI) enGrid (EASA?) Now, these do not include other programs that are strictly meshers or post-processors (or that appear to me as such). Please let me know your experience, opinions, wild rumors, comparison notes, etc., along with any applications I have missed or miss-characterized. Thanks!

April 23, 2015, 14:04		#2
wyldckat Retired Super Moderator Bruno Santos Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Lisbon, Portugal Posts: 10,975 Blog Entries: 45 Rep Power: 128	Greetings Jimmy, Just two notes to add/comment: enGrid is developed by enGits. A full list of know GUIs for OpenFOAM are written here: http://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/GUI Best regards, Bruno

April 13, 2020, 16:46	Helyx-OS and cfdOF on FreeCad	#8
JR22 Senior Member Jose Rey Join Date: Oct 2012 Posts: 134 Rep Power: 17	I know this is a pretty old. However, I just got back into CFD after about a year of being absent and looked this up again. My two favorites are: Helyx-OS: Hasn't been updated for a while. However, for me it is still the most powerful open source GUI for OpenFOAM. Under Linux. FreeCAD's cfdOF addon:Works under Windows taking advantage of blueCFD's multicore Windows binaries for OpenFOAM. Let me know if there is anything better (free/open source GUIs) you've found. chegdan likes this.

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April 24, 2015, 17:16		#3
MtnRunBeachBum New Member Jimmy Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 20 Rep Power: 11	Bruno Thanks for the comments. I did come across that page a while ago, its what got me looking at GUI versions actually. I forgot about it recently though. What I really want to know though is people's experience with any of the GUIs I listed, or others for that matter. For non-programmers like me, learning OpenFOAM has been fun, educational, and super-useful for learning OF, but a well thought out GUI is much more appealing. Of particular interest are Helyx and Visual CFD. Helyx seems to be backed by a lot of OF experience and Engys seems to be very involved in the development and training community. Visual CFD (ESI Group), while a newer product, I would think benefits heavily by being released b the people who own the development rights to the OF code itself. Jimmy

April 29, 2015, 08:39		#4
elvis Senior Member Elvis Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Sindelfingen, Germany Posts: 620 Blog Entries: 6 Rep Power: 24	Hi, dice might be of interest http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ope...i-project.html but Bruno already pointed to the OF-wiki that lists various GUI And if you carefully read the forum you will notice that ESI pays some of the core developers (OpenCFD Ltd (ESI Group)) but Henry Weller and Chris Greenshields do their own new business and founded CFD DIRECT http://cfd.direct/openfoam/

April 29, 2015, 10:09		#5
MtnRunBeachBum New Member Jimmy Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 20 Rep Power: 11	Yes indeed, it does seem that the OF community is a somewhat subtly interwoven bunch. ESI, who also develops CFX and FASTRAN, owns the development rights to OF, though distribution is through the OF Foundation. And I think the primary developer behind sHM works here? Engys, based on my own assessment and nothing official, seems to have quite the stable of OF developers and appears to lead the pack with "official" support packages. And as you look at the other products, it appears as if quite a few other people spun off probably all these organizations and more to develop their own products or to work on product compatibility elsewhere. Quite the microcosm.

January 4, 2016, 11:56		#6
carstenf New Member carsten fuetterer Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Potsdam/Berlin Posts: 15 Rep Power: 12	Hi, the free version of Helyx is for me often a way to start a new OpenFoam project. In many cases I use the created files and edit them afterwards manually. When I am interested to see the effects on the flow behavior due to geometry changes, using CAESES is a nice way to go. With CAESES you can create all kinds of geometries and couple it to OpenFoam in one GUI. With the other programs I don't have experience. best regards Carsten

November 8, 2016, 09:13		#7
vatavuk Senior Member Paulo Vatavuk Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Campinas, Brasil Posts: 196 Rep Power: 17	Hi, It is interesting that Cham, the developer of the Phoenics code, released PH2OF. This software, apparently, converts a Phoenics simulation to an OpenFoam case. Best regards, Paulo

September 11, 2023, 13:20		#9
hohmeyer New Member Michael E. Hohmeyer Join Date: Aug 2023 Posts: 11 Rep Power: 2	Please also take a look at Ennova CFD (www.ennova-cfd.com). It has CAD import, CAD cleanup, mesh generation, a GUI to set up OpenFOAM boundary conditions and other dictionary files, plus post-processing based on VTK (the same technology as Paraview). The mesh generation types include topology based as well as octtree based (like Snappyhex). Boundary layer generation. Polyhedral meshes as well as tet + prism. Full diagnostics on the mesh are available including quality, skewness, orthogonality and others. Ploting of bad elements and cut planes of the mesh are available.