Revision as of 12:29, 2 November 2013

1 Introduction

This page is an entry point to the several instructions made available for installing OpenFOAM on Windows.

2 External building/installation instructions

2.1 List of known building instructions

This is a list of links of build instructions of cross-compiled and natively compiled versions of OpenFOAM, using mingw and/or mingw-w64:

• Symscape's cross-compilations:
  • OpenFOAM 1.4.1 mingw32 version [1]
  • OpenFOAM 1.5.x mingw32 version [2]
  • OpenFOAM 1.6.x mingw32 (no MPI) version [3] and OpenFOAM 1.6.x mingw-64 (with MS-MPI) version [4]
  • OpenFOAM 1.7.x mingw-64 (with MS-MPI) version [5]
  • OpenFOAM 2.0.x mingw-64 (with MS-MPI) version [6]
  • OpenFOAM 2.1.x mingw-64 (with MS-MPI) version [7]
• Julian's OpenFOAM 1.5 files for native build in Windows [8] with mingw32 and CodeBlocks (instructions included inside files)
• blueCAPE's cross-compilations:
  • OpenFOAM 1.5.x mingw32 version with MPICH1 [9] and MPICH2 [10]
  • OpenFOAM 1.6 and 1.7.0 mingw32, mingw-w32 and mingw-w64 (all with MPICH2)... is this tutorial you are reading...
  • OpenFOAM 2.0.x and 2.1.x mingw32, mingw-w32 and mingw-w64 with Open-MPI, MPICH2 and MS-MPI: [11]
• Yuu Kasuga's blog (in Japanese). It use to have a few entries about cross-compiling and using OpenFOAM in Windows. Only recover link so far is for OpenFOAM 1.7.x using Symscape's patches: [12]
• Kojani's blog (available in English, Japanese and Korean). Provides instructions and source code for compiling OpenFOAM 1.7.1 directly on Windows while using MSys: [13]

2.2 List of known binaries for Windows

Distributable binaries:

• Free: Julian's OpenFOAM for MS windows binary release - OpenFOAM 1.5 built natively in Windows [14] using mingw32 and CodeBlocks (note: development seems to have been dropped)
• Free: On Yuu Kasuga's blog (in Japanese) is a short tutorial on how to install and use the unofficial openfoam16wi32 project at SourceForge, which provides OpenFOAM 1.6 32bit binaries for Windows.
• Free: Nishit Joseph's builds:
  • OpenFOAM 1.7.0 for Windows 32 bit, based on this wiki page. Support thread for this build available here: OpenFOAM-1.7.0 for Win32
  • OpenFOAM-2.1.x for Win64, based on Symscape's instructions but built with Open-MPI. Support thread for this build available here: Windows (x64) Binaries for OpenFOAM-2.1.x using OpenMPI
• Free: blueCAPE's blueCFD-SingleCore: OpenFOAM 2.0.x and 2.1.x for Windows XP, Vista and 7, both 32 and 64bit [15]
• Free: Tian Building Engineering provides 64bit Single Precision binaries at their download section [16]
• Free: ODS Engineering also provides 64bit binaries, but it's unknown which precision [17] - Note: it requires registration.
• Paid: Symscape's OpenFOAM for Windows is part of their Caedium packages.
• Paid: blueCAPE's blueCFD: (unofficial) OpenFOAM port for Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8, both 32 and 64bit [18]
• Unknown status: Fraunhofer SCAI project - Porting Open Source HPC Software to Microsoft Windows Platforms [19] - availability is unknown, but a contact page exists [20]

3 List of benchmarks on Windows

Benchmarks and run-times running OpenFOAM cross-compiled with mingw:

• icoDyMFoam (movingCone) OpenFOAM tutorial [21]
• Xoodles pitzDaily3D OpenFOAM tutorial [22]
• simpleFoam motorBike OpenFOAM tutorial from 1.6.x, running with OpenFOAM 1.6 [23]
• simpleFoam motorBike OpenFOAM tutorial from 1.6.x, running with OpenFOAM 1.6 in Linux and 1.7.0 in Windows [24]
• simpleFoam motorBike OpenFOAM tutorial from 2.0.x, running with OpenFOAM 2.0.x and 2.1.x in Linux and in Windows [25]

4 Tutorials known to work on Windows

Tutorials known to work with cross-compiled versions of OpenFOAM:

• blueCAPE's list [26]
• blueCAPE's list [27]

5 Forums for more information

Threads at CFD-Online Forum for OpenFOAM, for discussing and questions about these pages:

• Announcement of this page [28]
• Announcement of the patches for the 1.7 version [29]
• Support for this page is available here.

6 Miscellaneous information

6.1 Differences between mingw32 and mingw-w32 versions

MinGW is the true name of mingw32. As for mingw-w32 (32bit version of mingw-w64), as cited from here (dead link):

Mingw-w64 began as a spin-off from the mingw.org project, with the original intent of building for 64-bit targets.

Nonetheless, mingw-w64 has retro-compatibility with the 32bit MinGW version, thus enabling a 2-in-1 build package for 32 and 64bit Windows systems.

The main difference between mingw32 and mingw-w32, is that MinGW is a stable and proven build tool and run-time for Windows, while the mingw-w64 project is still under fierce development and only in October 29th of 2010 they released their first stable version. Therefore, it is only estimated that the mingw32 version could provide less headaches than mingw-w32.

7 How to add new pages

Check the source code of one or more of the children pages listed in the Introduction to get a better idea of the structure, but the common structure is as follows:

1. All children pages must start with Installation/Windows
2. Next indicate the kind of instructions and the OpenFOAM version/variant/fork it refers to and so on. Some examples:
   • Cross-Compiling OpenFOAM 2.1.1 on Linux for Windows using MinGW
   • Compiling OpenFOAM 2.2.x on Windows using MinGW
   • Compiling OpenFOAM x.y.z on Windows using MSVC
3. And in those pages, must refer have at the bottom of the page this code:

   [[Category:Installing OpenFOAM on Windows]]