GitHub

Installation

LCMsim v3 was developed for use with Windows 11.

Download

For running a LCMsim simulation with the GUI, download and extract the LCMsim v3 repository and the LCMsim v3 GUI repository. Relevant files and folders are shown in the following tree:

LCMsim_v3
|
|----LCMsim_GUI_v3-main
|    |----docs
|    |----gui_and_cases
|    |    |----cases
|    |    |    |----casefiles
|    |    |    |    |----input_lcmsim_0.csv
|    |    |    |    |----mesh_0.dat
|    |    |    |    |----part_description_0.csv
|    |    |    |    |----simulation_params_0.csv
|    |    |    |     
|    |    |    |----lcmsim_launch.bat
|    |    |    |----lcmsim_launch.jl
|    |    |    
|    |    |----gui
|    |         |----lcmsim_v3_gui_gtk4.jl
|    |    
|    |----install
|    |    |----lcmsim_install.jl
|    |    |----lcmsim_install_juliawithpackages.bat
|    |    |----lcmsim_install_onlypackages.bat
|    |    
|    |----LICENSE
|    |----README.md
|    
|----LCMsim_v3.jl-main
|    |----src
|    |----test
|    |----LICENSE
|    |----README.md
|

Install Julia

Open the LCMsim_v3.jl-main\install folder in an explorer and double-click on lcmsim_install_juliawithpackages.bat to install Julia programming language with all required packages for LCMsim v3 or double-click on lcmsim_install_onlypackages.bat if Julia programming language is already installed on the computer and only the required packages for LCMsim v3 are missing.

Launch the GUI - Method 1

Open the LCMsim_GUI_v3-main\gui_and_cases\cases folder. This is the working directory where LCMsim v3 creates all files. Edit file lcmsim_launch.jl: 

i_batch=2
i_model=2
i_mesh=1
mypath=joinpath(pwd())
repositorypath="..\\..\\..\\LCMsim_v3.jl-main"
guipath="..\\gui"

include(joinpath(guipath,"lcmsim_v3_gui_gtk4.jl"))

If the folder structure and names are as shown above in the tree, relative paths are defined. Double-click on lcmsim_launch.bat to launch teh GUI:

  • mypath is the path where this config file is
  • repositorypath is the path to the LCMsim v3 folder which includes the srcfolder with the Julia files
  • guipath is the path to the LCMsim GUI folder which includes the Julia file for the GUI
  • i_batch=2 opens a GUI which takes a mesh file (for example casefiles\mesh_0.dat) and an input file (for example casefiles\input_lcmsim_0.csv) with all process and preform paramters as input. With i_batch=1 one can run the LCMsim test cases with a mesh file (for example casefiles\mesh_0.dat), a part description file (for example casefiles\part_description_0.csv) which specifies the preform patches and a simulation parameter file (for example casefiles\simulation_params_0.csv) which specifies the process parameters.
  • i_model=2 is used for RTM and i_model=3 for VARI filling simulations.
  • i_mesh=1 is used for NASTRAN mesh format with extension *.dat, i_mesh=2 is used for ABAQUS mesh format (for example created with the freely available PREPOMAX) with extension *.inp.

The following code snippets show how the mesh format has look. Only first order triangular elements are supported at the moment. 

SET 1 = 1,2,3,4,5,6,
        7,8,9,10,11,12,
        13,14,15,16

GRID           1             0.0     0.0     0.0
GRID           3             0.3     0.3     0.0

CTRIA3         1       0      15       9      16
CTRIA3         2       0      16      10      19
*Node
1, 3.00000000E-001, -3.00000000E-001, 0.00000000E+000
2, 3.00000000E-001, 3.00000000E-001, 0.00000000E+000

*Element, Type=S3, Elset=Shell_part-1
1, 274, 419, 312
2, 141, 302, 142

*Elset, Elset=Element_Set-1
1013, 1014, 1015, 1016, 1017, 1018, 1019, 1020, 1021, 1022, 1023, 1024, 1025, 1026, 1027, 1028,
1141, 1142, 1143, 1144, 1145, 1146, 1147, 1148, 1149, 1150, 1151, 1152, 1153, 1154, 1155, 1156

Launch the GUI - Method 2

Alternatively, a case folder can be created outside the installation files. Copy the cases folder somewhere on your data drive and optionally rename it to LCMsimv3cases. The you have to give absolute paths in the lcmsim_launch.jl file, for example:

i_batch=2
i_model=2
i_mesh=1
mypath=joinpath(pwd())
repositorypath="D:\\work\\LCMsim_v3\\LCMsim_v3.jl-main"
guipath="D:\\work\\LCMsim_v3\\LCMsim_GUI_v3-main\\gui_and_cases\\gui"

include(joinpath(guipath,"lcmsim_v3_gui_gtk4.jl"))

The double backslash \\ is used here for Windows paths in Julia.

Launch the GUI - Method 3

If one wants a working directory which only includes the input files, the paths in the lcmsim_launch.jl file in the LCMsim_GUI_v3-main\gui_and_cases\cases folder must be changed for example: 

i_batch=2
i_model=2
i_mesh=1
mypath="D:\\work\\myworkingdirectory"
repositorypath="D:\\work\\LCMsim_v3\\LCMsim_v3.jl-main"
guipath="D:\\work\\LCMsim_v3\\LCMsim_GUI_v3-main\\gui_and_cases\\gui"

include(joinpath(guipath,"lcmsim_v3_gui_gtk4.jl"))

The double backslash \\ is used here for Windows paths in Julia. Copy relevant input files from LCMsim_GUI_v3-main\gui_and_cases\cases\casefiles to this folder, for example lcmsim_input_0.csv and mesh_0.dat. One can create a shortcut to LCMsim_GUI_v3-main\gui_and_cases\cases\lauch_lcmsim.bat on the desktop and then launch LCMsim v3 by double-clicking on the desktop shortcut. To change the shortcut's icon, right-click the shortcut, select properties, go to the shortcut tab, click change icon, then browse to LCMsim_GUI_v3-main\gui_and_cases\figuress and select LCMsim_logo.ico.