FEM Preferences
The preferences screen of the FEM Workbench are found in the Preferences Editor, Edit → Preferences → FEM.
There are several tabs in the FEM workbench preferences, starting with the General configuration of the workbench. The rest of the tabs control how FEM interacts with supported external solvers.
The current supported external solvers are:
General
On the General tab you can specify the following:
Name | Description |
---|---|
Working directory | In what directory the mesh and solver files should be stored |
Create mesh groups | If there are several meshes they will be grouped |
Keep results on calculation re-run | Existing Result objects will be kept, otherwise overwritten by a new solver run |
Restore result dialog settings | If checked, the Show result dialog is opened with the last used dialog settings |
Hide constraints when open result dialog | The constraints will be hidden in the model view when the Show result dialog is opened |
Default solver | Default solver to be added when adding an Analysis container. (introduced in version 0.21) |
Gmsh
On the Gmsh tab you can specify the following:
Name | Description |
---|---|
Search in known binary directories | If checked, FreeCAD will look for the binary of Gmsh in known (usual) directories |
Gmsh binary path | The path to the the binary of Gmsh |
CalculiX
On the CalculiX tab you can specify the following:
Elmer
On the Elmer tab you can specify the following:
Name | Description |
---|---|
ElmerGrid: Search in known binary directories | If checked, FreeCAD will look for the binary of the grid writer utility of the Elmer in known (usual) directories |
ElmerGrid binary path | The path to the the binary of the grid writer utility of the Elmer |
ElmerSolver: Search in known binary directories | If checked, FreeCAD will look for the solver binary of Elmer in known (usual) directories |
ElmerSolver binary path | The path to the the solver binary of Elmer |
CPU cores to be used | The number of CPU cores that will be used to perform the solving.
Important: Elmer divides the mesh into portions. The number of portions is equal to the number of CPU cores used. This can result in side-effects:
So it is often necessary to adjust the number of cores, depending on the mesh. Known limitation: For some simulation types you first need to install Elmer modules to enable multi-threading. Check the Elmer report for info about this. A typical case is that for direct solving one has to install the MUMPS module. |
Filter results | The mesh volume regions processed by each CPU core will be merged to make the volume boundaries invisible. |
Mystran
On the Mystran tab you can specify the following:
Name | Description |
---|---|
Search in known binary directories | If checked, FreeCAD will look for the binary of the Mystran in known (usual) directories |
Mystran binary path | The path to the the binary of the Mystran |
Z88
On the Z88 tab you can specify the following:
Name | Description |
---|---|
Search in known binary directories | If checked, FreeCAD will look for the binary named z88r of the Z88 solver in known (usual) directories |
z88r binary path | The path to the the binary named z88r of the Z88 solver |
Solver method | The solver method used by the Z88 solver for new simulations. |
Max places in stiffness matrix | This is relevant when the solver method Simple Cholesky is used. After starting the solver, it might tell you that you need to increase the MAXGS value. In this case increase the max places and re-run the solver. |
Max places in coincidence vector | This is relevant when one of the iterative solver methods is used. After starting the solver, it might tell you that you need to increase the MAXKOI value. In this case increase the max places and re-run the solver. |
Material
On the Material tab you can specify the following:
Name | Description |
---|---|
Use built-in materials | The cards built-in to FreeCAD will be listed as available. |
Use materials from Materials directory in user's FreeCAD preference directory | The cards from FreeCAD's preferences directory will be listed as available. On Windows, that would for example be this folder:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\FreeCAD\Material |
Use materials from user defined directory | Also material cards also from the specified directory will be listed as available. |
Delete card duplicates | Duplicate cards will be deleted from the displayed material card list. |
Sort by resources | Material cards will appear sorted by their resources (locations). If unchecked, they will be sorted by their name. |
- Materials: Solid, Fluid, Nonlinear mechanical, Reinforced (concrete); Material editor
- Element geometry: Beam (1D), Beam rotation (1D), Shell (2D), Fluid flow (1D)
Constraints
- Electromagnetic: Electrostatic potential, Current density, Magnetization
- Geometrical: Plane rotation, Section print, Transform
- Mechanical: Fixed, Displacement, Contact, Tie, Spring, Force, Pressure, Centrif, Self weight
- Thermal: Initial temperature, Heat flux, Temperature, Body heat source
- Without solver: Fluid boundary, Bearing, Gear, Pulley
- Overwrite Constants: Constant vacuum permittivity
- Solve: CalculiX Standard, CalculiX (new framework), Elmer, Mystran, Z88; Equations: Deformation, Elasticity, Electrostatic, Electricforce, Magnetodynamic, Magnetodynamic 2D, Flow, Flux, Heat; Solver: Solver control, Solver run
- Results: Purge, Show; Postprocessing: Apply changes, Pipeline from result, Warp filter, Scalar clip filter, Function cut filter, Region clip filter, Contours filter, Line clip filter, Stress linearization plot, Data at point clip filter, Filter function plane, Filter function sphere, Filter function cylinder, Filter function box
- Additional: Preferences; FEM Install, FEM Mesh, FEM Solver, FEM CalculiX, FEM Concrete; FEM Element Types

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