Using build_mfixsolver with installation from source code

Hello,

I am attempting to compile mfix-19.3.1 from source on my system. I attempted to install using a conda package, but I am working on a fairly old server. I used the conda command found on the downloads page, but got some errors that my glibc was too old. I figured if the conda package was downloading binaries it may help if I compiled from scratch. So I deleted my anaconda installation reinstalled anaconda using the install script provided, and then installed mfix as follows.
Here are the commands I used:
tar xf mfix-19.3.1.tar.gz
mkdir release-build
cd release-build
cmake … -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo -DENABLE_MPI=1 -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/exports/apps/mfix/19.3.1 -DCMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER=gfortran
make

I am using gcc version 4.9.3, cmake version 3.5, and openmpi version 1.4.2. Everything appeared to compile fine, however, when I attempted to run the tutorial example, conveyor_3d using the command ‘mfixsolver -f conveyor.mfx’ I got the following error:

#################################################################
ERROR deprecated.f:235
From: UNKNOWN_KEYWORD
Error 2000: Unable to process line 434 of the project file.
READ_KF(3) = .TRUE.
Possible causes are

  • Incorrect or illegal keyword format
  • Unknown or mistyped name
  • The dimensioned item is too small (array overflow).
    Please see the user documentation for this keyword. file.
    #################################################################

Program Terminated.

After doing some googling I found this:

Which suggests I need to make a custom solver for this simulation. Looking around some more and I found this:
https://mfix.netl.doe.gov/doc/mfix/19.3.1/solver/build-custom.html

However, if I tired a ‘which build_mfixsolver’ revealed no build_mfixsolver in my path, and the command ‘locate build_mfixsolver’ showed this:
~/src//mfix-19.3.1/mfixgui/build_mfixsolver.py
~/src/mfix-19.3.1/mfixgui/tests/test_build_mfixsolver.py

There were some build_mfixsolver python scripts in the path, but no build_mfixsolver. Looking around some more I found this:

Which suggests that build_mfixsolver comes with the conda package. I assumed that meant it came with the version you get when you install using the conda command provied on the downloads page, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to build the conda package. I attempted to build the conda package using anaconda 4.4.0 and python 3.6 using the following commands.

cd ~/src/mfix-19.3.1/conda/mfix
conda install conda-build

Again, everything seemed to compile just fine, but there is still no build_mfixsolver in my path. I am unsure of what I am doing wrong (either in building mfix or in utilizing it, perhaps I can build and run the tutorials without build_mfixsolver). Additionally, the server only allows jobs to run via submitting jobs to pbs, so I would like to be able to run the program using a command line only interface if possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

To build the batch solver without Anaconda, involves running cmake and make directly. Take a look at:
https://mfix.netl.doe.gov/doc/mfix/19.3.1/solver/build-source.html

When running cmake, be sure that your current directory is the directory containing conveyor.mfx in order to build with UDFs and avoid the UNKNOWN_KEYWORD error.

(This will build a solver without interactive support, but if you aren’t running from the GUI interactive support is not supported anyway.)

Mark,

Thank you so much for the quick reply. Sorry I did not reply sooner.

I think this may be the issue. I was looking for the executable build_mfixsolver, but if I understand you correctly I can just compile my custom solver from my simulation folder identically to how I compiled my original solver. Let me test this out and get back to you. Thanks for your help!

Shane

Mark,

After some testing I think I have it all figured out. Thanks for your help.

Shane