MFIX-Exa GUI now available

MFIX-Exa
1

The 26.04 release of MFIX-Exa includes the first public release of a graphical user interface (GUI). Here’s a screenshot (showing the optional dark mode):

shot-2026-04-02_10-36-18
shot-2026-04-02_10-36-181916×1087 237 KB

The code is in the gui subdirectory of the mfix-exa distribution. To run it:

$ tar xfz mfix-exa.26.04.tgz
$ cd mfix-exa/gui
$ ./setup_and_run.sh

setup_and_run.sh will install the needed libraries. After you have done this once,
run.sh is sufficient.

This is a new project, still under active development, and there may be some bugs or misbehaviors. It will always back up your files before saving (currently using a numbered backup system, we may move to a version control scheme like Git), so it is safe to use.

User feedback is welcome, including problem reports, new feature suggestions, etc.

– Charles

2 Likes
2

There is a bug in the MFIX-Exa GUI that is triggered when creating plane regions.
This will be fixed for 26.05 version, but for now, if you are using the GUI,
apply the following patch:

diff --git a/gui/specs/checks/check_region.py b/gui/specs/checks/check_region.py
index b5a70cea1..30f1d707c 100644
--- a/gui/specs/checks/check_region.py
+++ b/gui/specs/checks/check_region.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ def check_region(key, ignored_val):
     # We cannot flag for dimension too low, because user may
     # still be setting it up.  How to check after all bounds are set?
 
-    if shape == "plane":
+    if False:
         lo = get_key("regions.[region_name].plane.lo", [])
         hi = get_key("regions.[region_name].plane.hi", [])