You can get the release version of OOFEM from its download page. After downloading, unpack the distribution.

* In case of tar .tar.gz files you can use, for example, following command

gunzip -c oofem-x.y.tar.gz | tar xof -

* In case of .zip files use

unzip oofem-x.y.zip

Alternatively, you can get the bleeding edge version of OOFEM from the OOFEM Git repository. This step requires Git to be installed on your system (see our Git tutorial for more info). To grab a copy of the latest version of OOFEM using public git access, use following command:

# When a repository is cloned, git automatically creates a master branch that tracks origin/master
git clone https://github.com/oofem/oofem.git
# If you would like to track develop branch
git checkout -b develop origin/develop

The oofem.git directory has been created with OOFEM source tree.

cd oofem.git 

Once you've checked out a copy of the source tree, you can update your source tree at any time so it is in sync with the latest and greatest by entering your oofem directory and running the command:

git fetch origin

Be aware, however, that develop branch of the code is not guaranteed to be stable. This option is intended mainly for active oofem developers, giving access to the most up-to-date version.

Pre-build packages are available in the PPA for Václav Šmilauer.

• First add the folowing lines to your sources.list:

  deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/eudoxos/ppa/ubuntu karmic main 
  deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/eudoxos/ppa/ubuntu karmic main 

• Second: tell ubuntu to trust this PPA (Obvious: you must make sure you trust the PPA owner before installing their software…)

  sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 92DE8183

• Third: update and install:

  sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install oofem oofem-mpi oofem-oofeg oofem-doc

• You will need the build-essential (to build) and the xorg-dev (for use of oofeg) packages. On a Ubuntu/Debian system run:

  sudo apt-get install build-essential xorg-dev

• Create a build directory

  mkdir -p ~/build/debug/

• Configure oofem target

  cd ~/build/debug
  cmake ~/oofem.git/

• Run make to compile the required targets as

  cd ~/build/debug; make 

• The oofem executable will be created in ~/build/debug directory

• Important notice: Use the debug build while you get everything to work, but make sure to compile an optimized version for running serious simulations (CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release). The optimized version will be orders of magnitudes faster than the Debug build.

  mkdir -p ~/build/release/
  cd ~/build/release/
  cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ~/oofem.git/
  make
  

To make configuration options, either use the ncurses interface ccmake or the graphical interface cmake-gui or supply additional commands directly

cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-Werror" ~/oofem.git

Some common build options

• CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE specifies between Debug, Release
• CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="flags" allows to specify compiler flags
• USE_DSS="ON" will include sparse direct solver.
• USE_IML="ON" IML_DIR=dir use this option to compile with IML++ (template library for iterative methods). This requires to download and install IML library. The iml sources are supposed to be located in directory dir.
• USE_OOFEG="ON" configures and later builds built-in graphical post-processor called oofeg. Requires X-Windows, Ckit, and Elixir libraries to be installed.
  • Use CKIT_DIR=dir and ELIXIR_DIR=dir allow to specify location of Ckit and Elixir installation directories, needed by oofeg.
  • More about oofeg installation can be found here
• USE_PARALLEL="ON" configures parallel support in oofem.
  • If you want to use ParMETIS, use USE_PARMETIS="ON".
  • Follow this link for pre-requisities and installation instructions.
  • If you want to use PETSc library use USE_PETSC="ON" together with MY_PETSC_DIR=dir and MY_PETSC_ARCH=arch options to configure PETSC support (dir is the path to PETSC installation directory, arch is PETSC architecture. See PETSC installation manual for details.)

Full list of configure options can be obtained running 'ccmake' or any other CMake GUI. See the CMake page for more details.

Run make to compile the required targets as:

cd ~/build/target; make

Supply valid target directory (as set up in configuration)“.

The target executable will be created in ~/build/target directory.

To test solver compiled under “target_name” target, change working directory to target directory:

cd ~/build/target_name

Run ctest to run the internal tests (takes a while)

ctest

You can run specific tests by using the -R flag for ctest

ctest -R spring

or for example, only the parallel tests (only availble when parallel support is compiled)

ctest -R partest

There are also two custom targets added, “tests” and “benchmarks” which can be accessed

make tests
make benchmarks

which only runs the mandatory tests and the optional benchmark examples respectively. These custom targets are also accessible from KDevelop, Visual Studio and other IDEs.

• Cygwin/X is a Linux-like environment for Windows including a port of X Window System
• Dev-C++ is is a full-featured Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the C/C++ programming language. It uses Mingw port of GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) as its compiler. It creates native Win32 executables. Dev-C++ is Free Software.
• CMake is the cross-platform build tool OOFEM uses, and is able to generate build files for Visual Studio. See further instructions on the CMake wiki page.
• TortoiseGit is the most intuitive Git client for Windows.
• ParaView is a good and free replacement for oofeg under Windows.

• MinGW uses standard GNU g++ compiler. In a standard MinGW instalation, a few libraries included in oofem are missing (sys/resource.h, execinfo.h). These are not included during cmakeing and compilation for MinGW compilation.
• Under Windows, install mingw including C, C++ and MSys as a terminal.
• You may want installing windows version of Git. Getting the development version of oofem is through a command

  $git.exe clone http://www.oofem.org/git/oofem.git oofem.git

• Install the latest version of cmake.
• Run a batch at C:\Program Files\mingw-w64\i686-6.3.0-posix-dwarf-rt_v5-rev1\mingw-w64.bat, it sets up a PATH to mingw32-make.exe and opens a new terminal. Do not close it.
• In that terminal run graphical CMake: “C:\Program Files\CMake\bin\cmake-gui”.
  • In CMake set up a path to your oofem.git folder (Browse Source button).
  • Create a new project folder (e.g. build) and set up a path to it (Browse Build button). Put a tick in “Advanced” checkbox and then click Configure. A new window appears. Specify the generator “MinGW Makefiles” and “Use default native compilers”, click Finish.
  • Select packages and modules you want to use (or just keep the default settings). Write string “RELASE” (with capitals) or “DEBUG” in CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE. Uncheck “USE_SHARED_LIB”. Hit Configure again and then click Generate.
  • TinyXML2 is required to read input files for CEMHYD3D module. TinyXML2 can be installed. For windows it needs to be compiled into a shared library libtinyxml2.dll. Proceed in a standard way for cmake files. Create a new subdirectory , e.g. target. Under target run

    $cmake.exe -G "MinGW Makefiles" ..

    a few times. Cmake starts to complain about a missing RC compiler. Edit CMakeCache.txt and edit line specifying RC compiler, to make e.g. CMAKE_RC_COMPILER:FILEPATH=c:/MinGW/bin/windres.exe. Run $mingw32-make.exe. A shared library is created. To compile oofem with CEMHYD and TinyXML2 support, run

    $cmake.exe -G"MinGW Makefiles" -DUSE_CEMHYD="ON" -DTINYXML2_DIR="/c/oofem/tinyxml/" ..

    and than

    $mingw32-make.exe

  • If oofem.exe complains about missing libtinyxml2.dll, add the location to the system path or copy libtinyxml2.dll in the same directory as oofem.exe.
  • Close CMake, but do not close the terminal. Open your project folder, e.g. cd C:\OOFEM\build
• Type mingw32-make -j3 to compile oofem using 3 cores. (Building release took approx. 15 minutes.)
• In case of error caused by multiple definition of 'vsnprintf' add -D__USE_MINGW_ANSI_STDIO=0 in CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS and regenerate makefiles.
• Run oofem tests: “mingw32-make tests -j3” and benchmarks “mingw32-make benchmarks -j3”
• The size of oofem with debug options is approx 740 MB, release 10.2 MB
• In order to use oofem on a different computer it is essential to transfer all *.dll's from MinGW/bin alonside oofem. Copy them in the same folder as oofem.exe (8 files, 3.5 MB)

• Visual Studio 2013 is advised, since it fully supports C++11 specifications, see here. You can use the Express for Windows Desktop edition, freely available here.
• Get oofem code from Git repository as explained previously or, if you're using TortoiseGit, simply create a new folder (e.g. C:\oofem), right-click on it and select Git clone… from the contextual menu. In the window that appears, use the address:

  http://www.oofem.org/git/oofem.git

• Install cmake.
• Start the VS2013 command prompt (choose x86 if you want a 32-bit compilation), and type cmake-gui and press enter to load the graphic interface for CMake. The bin folder in CMake installation directory must in system path; if the command does not work, add it and restart the prompt.
• In the CMake window, insert the path the previously downloaded oofem.git copy (e.g. C:\oofem) in the fieds Where is the source code: and Where to build the binaries: and click Configure twice. Select in the data line now displayed in the main panel all the packages you want to include in your built (USE_… flags). You can also leave the default checks. Finally press Generate and choose in the window that would appear Visual Studio 12 2013 and Use native compiler.
• Now in the oofem folder (e.g. C:\oofem) double-click on oofem.sln to start VS; right-click on the oofem project and click on Set as StartUp Project. Compile the solution. You can find the resulting oofem.exe inside the Debug, Release, MinSizeRel or RelWithDebInfo folder.
• If you want to smoothless transfer oofem.exe to another windows computer, you may have to install VC++ 2013 redistributable package.
• For the best debugging experience in VS, please deselect USE_SHARED_LIB in CMake to generate a monolithic executable.
• There are different configurations for Debug and Release versions under VS→Configuration manager→Active solution configuration. Debug version is generally slower and contains debugging symbols. Users usually choose Release version which is optimized for speed.

If you plan to redistribute the OOFEM executable to Windows XP machines, you must set the property Visual Studio 2013 - Windows XP (v120_xp) in Configuration Properties\General\Platform Toolset from the oofem project settings.

If you're interested in parallel version for Windows, go here.