blueCFD-Core 2024-1 (64-bit) Installer now available

Today we release blueCFD-Core 2024-1, which provides OpenFOAM 12 as a native build for Windows, with OpenFOAM binaries acting as normal Windows applications. This was possible thanks to our various sponsors, benefactors and donators!

The installer for blueCFD-Core 2024-1 is installed separately from older blueCFD-Core versions, therefore these installations can coexist.

Released elements are:

• blueCFD-Core-2024-1-win64-setup.exe
  • blueCFD-Core 2024-1 provides MSYS2, OpenFOAM 12 and ParaView 5.11.2.
  • 1173 MiB installer, SHA1: 87a16cd49ba891c9a5ff24d6c24b832e44f6cee7
  • WARNING (2024-08-21): You must install in a path without spaces in the names for the folders, for example:
    • C:\blueCFD-Core\2024\
    • For more details, see Issue #257.

• The Release Notes for blueCFD-Core 2024-1 page has been created for this release.

• The Funding page has been updated, to reflect the funding the project has received so far, as well as the work done so far.

• The Project Management page is public, allowing people to know how things are coming along and what are the upcoming objectives for 2024 and 2025.

• A wiki is available for software developers and system installers: blueCFD-Core wiki

The source code provided for the port of OpenFOAM 12 has been released here, as well as of ThirdParty-12 here.

As mentioned above, the development infrastructure is based on MSYS2. As listed in the Funding page page, one of our objectives is to provide updates and builds of OpenFOAM via MSYS2 package manager, however this is not yet available with this release. That said, instructions are available on blueCFD-Core’s wiki on:

1. Preparing a new MSYS2 installation for blueCFD‐Core development
2. Quick notes on how to update build
3. Loose notes on building custom code

For a complete list of bug reports, issues and wishes that have been submitted to the blueCFD-Core project, see the Issue Tracker page. For example, a complete list of issues and tasks that were conducted for developing blueCFD-Core 2024-1, are available there: milestone blueCFD-Core 2024-1.

For future reference, the overall status of funding and work done so far is as follows:

November 2023 - Status Report for the blueCFD-Core project

We are very thankful for the funding we have received so far and we now have tangible evidence that the funding is being put into good use.

As you can see here: commit history page for blueCFD-Core-dev branch, we have implemented a continuous integration bot named blueCFD-bot which automatically synchronizes our development branch with the OpenFOAM Foundation’s development line: OpenFOAM-dev commit history page

The work done so far is part of the first 2 major tasks we are implementing, from our ongoing first goal for blueCFD-Core:

Once we have completed this first goal with 4 tasks, it will enable us to make future releases of blueCFD-Core with less than 50% of the effort needed for the release of blueCFD-Core 2020-1 and previous releases.

Looking at our overall goals for 2024 on our Funding page page, you can see the additional goals for the project, such as the Second Goal, with which we will be able to:

• Enable users to access builds of the blueCFD-Core development branch directly from the MSys2 command line, similarly to how it is available on Ubuntu.

• Auto-build bot will deliver up-to-date blueCFD-Core installers and upload them to the blueCFD-Core project page.

With these first two goals completed, the blueCFD-Core project will only require a quarter of the effort needed to deliver yearly releases, while also staying up to sync with the OpenFOAM Foundation’s developments.

Furthermore, with these two goals completed, these will only require a much smaller yearly maintenance effort.

Once these costs and efforts are brought down, it is possible to start focusing on the yearly stable releases, such as OpenFOAM 12 (Task #8).

Therefore, we emphasize: With your contributions, it is possible to bring the blueCFD-Core project to become a sustainable project, to streamline and automate most of the porting and building workflow, so we can stay in-sync with the developments by the OpenFOAM Foundation, as well as contribute to the whole community of OpenFOAM users and developers.

For more details on how you can contribute, please visit the dedicated page Funding for the blueCFD-Core project.

Support Drive 2022 for the blueCFD-Core project

Today we announce the first yearly community support drive to support the funding of the blueCFD-Core project.

With your contributions, we can maintain the blueCFD-Core project as a sustainable project, to streamline and automate most of the porting and building workflow, so we can stay in-sync with the developments by the OpenFOAM Foundation, as well as contribute to the whole community of OpenFOAM users and developers.

For more details on how you can contribute, please visit the dedicated page Funding for the blueCFD-Core project.

In line with our objectives for this project, this week we have sorted out several details on the documentation side of things, specifically:

1. Moved the pages at Frequently Asked Questions to the category Q&A at the Discussions section, to make it simpler for us to maintain, as well as for the community to find and contribute to them.

2. Created and/or moved over 40 reported issues to the various categories available at blueCFD-Core’s Discussions section:

   • Show and tell - to share common issues and how to work through them to solve them.
   • Q&A - namely Questions and Answers, for questions that are frequently asked.
   • Ideas - for people to share their ideas on what can be improved in blueCFD-Core.