FEM_FrontISTR Workbench
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FEM_FrontISTR Workbench
Hello FreeCAD community members,
I'm developing a FreeCAD addon that enables FrontISTR, an open-source large-scale parallel FEM program for nonlinear structural analysis.
It can be used in almost the same way as existing structural analysis solvers such as CaliculiX and Elmer to perform large-scale analyses in parallel.
addon-repogitory: https://github.com/FrontISTR/FEM_FrontISTR
In the example shown in the figure, a 644,415-node bike frame model is analyzed in 172 seconds using an 4cores/8threads intel CPU.
Post-processing is somewhat smooth because only the surface mesh is used. Currently, only Windows is supported. Additionally, the add-on does not cover all the features of FrontISTR. But I'll make it available soon.
About FrontISTR: https://www.frontistr.com/files/FISTRv4.5E.pdf
FrontISTR official(Japanese): https://www.frontistr.com/
I hope you find this add-on and FrontISTR of interest.
Regards,
I'm developing a FreeCAD addon that enables FrontISTR, an open-source large-scale parallel FEM program for nonlinear structural analysis.
It can be used in almost the same way as existing structural analysis solvers such as CaliculiX and Elmer to perform large-scale analyses in parallel.
addon-repogitory: https://github.com/FrontISTR/FEM_FrontISTR
In the example shown in the figure, a 644,415-node bike frame model is analyzed in 172 seconds using an 4cores/8threads intel CPU.
Post-processing is somewhat smooth because only the surface mesh is used. Currently, only Windows is supported. Additionally, the add-on does not cover all the features of FrontISTR. But I'll make it available soon.
About FrontISTR: https://www.frontistr.com/files/FISTRv4.5E.pdf
FrontISTR official(Japanese): https://www.frontistr.com/
I hope you find this add-on and FrontISTR of interest.
Regards,
Last edited by kinagaki on Wed Apr 28, 2021 9:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
FEM_FrontISTR: A parallel nonlinear finite element analysis workbench for FreeCAD
Re: FEM_FrontISTR Workbench
Hello and welcome to the FreeCAD community! Thanks for sharing. As @johnwang pointed out, we've discussed your work before.
Alone you go faster. Together we go farther
Please mark thread [Solved]
Want to contribute back to FC? Checkout:
'good first issues' | Open TODOs and FIXMEs | How to Help FreeCAD | How to report Bugs
Please mark thread [Solved]
Want to contribute back to FC? Checkout:
'good first issues' | Open TODOs and FIXMEs | How to Help FreeCAD | How to report Bugs
-
- Veteran
- Posts: 2896
- Joined: Sat May 20, 2017 12:06 pm
- Location: Germany
Re: FEM_FrontISTR Workbench
Test example with FrontISTR-wb:
intel i5 cpu, 4 cores, 16 GB RAM, Laptop HP ProBook 650 G2
mesher netgen, 52500 quadratic volumes
runtime FrontISTR-solver 16 sec, all cores loaded up to 100% (ccx needs 48 sec).
results equal to ccx
The stress plot with pipeline looks a little weird
How can I display stress with paraview?
@kinagaki:
The solver installation as described in git seems not working for me (or I have not enough patience...)
I did this:
Download FrontISTR-wb from
https://github.com/FrontISTR/FEM_FrontISTR
and solvers from
https://www.frontistr.com/download/
Extract all zips and put solver in bin directory.
After starting solver there is no install procedure
I am using
OS: Windows 10 (10.0)
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.24267 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: b2ca86d8d72b636011a73394bf9bcdedb3b109b7
Python version: 3.6.8
Qt version: 5.12.1
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: German/Germany (de_DE)
intel i5 cpu, 4 cores, 16 GB RAM, Laptop HP ProBook 650 G2
mesher netgen, 52500 quadratic volumes
runtime FrontISTR-solver 16 sec, all cores loaded up to 100% (ccx needs 48 sec).
results equal to ccx
The stress plot with pipeline looks a little weird

How can I display stress with paraview?
@kinagaki:
The solver installation as described in git seems not working for me (or I have not enough patience...)
I did this:
Download FrontISTR-wb from
https://github.com/FrontISTR/FEM_FrontISTR
and solvers from
https://www.frontistr.com/download/
Extract all zips and put solver in bin directory.
After starting solver there is no install procedure
I am using
OS: Windows 10 (10.0)
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.19.24267 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: b2ca86d8d72b636011a73394bf9bcdedb3b109b7
Python version: 3.6.8
Qt version: 5.12.1
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.3.0
Locale: German/Germany (de_DE)
Re: FEM_FrontISTR Workbench
@johnwang @Kunda1
Wow, I didn't expect FreeCAD community to have already found this repository! Thanks for letting me know.
FrontISTR does not have sufficient English documentation, so I'm afraid it has confused FC members a bit.
As announced, the significance of this workbench is to run large scale analysis using all computational resources.
FrontISTR can run both iterative solvers such as preconditioned conjugate gradient method, which has good memory usage and scalability, and a direct solver, MUMPS*.
This gives users the freedom to choose the appropriate solver for your problem.
*The MUMPS solver is currently not available for windows due to a problem between MS-MPI and MUMPS. We're working hard to fix this problem.
@thschrader
Thanks for trying it out so quickly!
To display stress with paraview, you will need to manually edit the input file and run the solver again, as shown below.
1. Write input
2. Go to working directory and open .cnt file to edit
3. Replace !output_type=COMPLETE_AVS to !output_type=VTK
4. Run FrontISTR ( loading results will be fail. )
5. Open .pvtu files with paraview.
This is done by python urllib.request module, so something wrong might occur with it or maybe it simply took too much time.
Wow, I didn't expect FreeCAD community to have already found this repository! Thanks for letting me know.
FrontISTR does not have sufficient English documentation, so I'm afraid it has confused FC members a bit.
As announced, the significance of this workbench is to run large scale analysis using all computational resources.
FrontISTR can run both iterative solvers such as preconditioned conjugate gradient method, which has good memory usage and scalability, and a direct solver, MUMPS*.
This gives users the freedom to choose the appropriate solver for your problem.
*The MUMPS solver is currently not available for windows due to a problem between MS-MPI and MUMPS. We're working hard to fix this problem.
@thschrader
Thanks for trying it out so quickly!
It seems so. Thank you for letting me know. I checked stress results only by double-clicking FISTR_Result, so I may have missed the problem with pipeline view. I'll check it.The stress plot with pipeline looks a little weird
How can I display stress with paraview?
To display stress with paraview, you will need to manually edit the input file and run the solver again, as shown below.
1. Write input
2. Go to working directory and open .cnt file to edit
3. Replace !output_type=COMPLETE_AVS to !output_type=VTK
4. Run FrontISTR ( loading results will be fail. )
5. Open .pvtu files with paraview.
When you first created solverFISTRtools, did you see the following screen? It appears if bin/fistr1.exe was not found. After you click OK, the download will start in the background.The solver installation as described in git seems not working for me (or I have not enough patience...)
This is done by python urllib.request module, so something wrong might occur with it or maybe it simply took too much time.
FEM_FrontISTR: A parallel nonlinear finite element analysis workbench for FreeCAD
-
- Veteran
- Posts: 2896
- Joined: Sat May 20, 2017 12:06 pm
- Location: Germany
Re: FEM_FrontISTR Workbench
Thanks for the hints with paraview. I will try it at the weekend.
Yes, I got the install-window after first use of FrontISTR. I pressed ok but after
over 1 hour freecad was still waiting (report window shows installation in progress).
Checking processor loading with process-explorer tool shows no activity.
Thats why I used my "method".
BTW:
Welcome to the FreeCAD forum !
Keep up the good work
Regards Thomas
Re: FEM_FrontISTR Workbench
@thschrader
It looks like the installation has stopped completely...
In case the download does not succeed, I have added the manual installation procedure to the README.
Thanks for the welcome and encouragement! I'll keep working on improving it.
It looks like the installation has stopped completely...
In case the download does not succeed, I have added the manual installation procedure to the README.
Thanks for the welcome and encouragement! I'll keep working on improving it.
FEM_FrontISTR: A parallel nonlinear finite element analysis workbench for FreeCAD
-
- Veteran
- Posts: 2896
- Joined: Sat May 20, 2017 12:06 pm
- Location: Germany
Re: FEM_FrontISTR Workbench
Here is another one (a "real-life" part):
190000 cells, Intel i5 cpu, mesher netgen
Runtime ccx=340 sec, FrontISTR=80 sec
Editing cnt input-file to vtu and import results to paraview works.
I will have a look at the other solver options (any documentary?)
@bernd: this is a really fast solver
190000 cells, Intel i5 cpu, mesher netgen
Runtime ccx=340 sec, FrontISTR=80 sec

Editing cnt input-file to vtu and import results to paraview works.
I will have a look at the other solver options (any documentary?)
@bernd: this is a really fast solver
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- Veteran
- Posts: 2896
- Joined: Sat May 20, 2017 12:06 pm
- Location: Germany
Re: FEM_FrontISTR Workbench
and the last one: anchor-plate antenna-mast,
495000 cells, mesher netgen, intel i5 cpu, runtime FrontISTR=245 sec. Not bad.
FrontISTR needs up to 10 GB RAM (4x2,5 GB, 2,5 GB each core)
Have a nice sunday.
495000 cells, mesher netgen, intel i5 cpu, runtime FrontISTR=245 sec. Not bad.
FrontISTR needs up to 10 GB RAM (4x2,5 GB, 2,5 GB each core)
Have a nice sunday.
Re: FEM_FrontISTR Workbench
@thschrader
Thanks for testing. I'm glad to see the good result.
I fixed the problem of the pipeline view displaying incorrectly.
I also added the new property of Output file format. Output file format can be selected from AVS and VTK now. Paraview is required to visualize VTK file.
Please check Tips in the README.md updated today as for the choice of linear equation solvers.
For now, I think the default settings are probably the best.
Thanks for testing. I'm glad to see the good result.
I fixed the problem of the pipeline view displaying incorrectly.
I also added the new property of Output file format. Output file format can be selected from AVS and VTK now. Paraview is required to visualize VTK file.
Please check Tips in the README.md updated today as for the choice of linear equation solvers.
For now, I think the default settings are probably the best.
FEM_FrontISTR: A parallel nonlinear finite element analysis workbench for FreeCAD