README.txt

                        ESP: The Engineering Sketch Pad
                            Rev 1.17 -- January 2020


0. Warnings!

    This is the last ESP release that will support Windows 7 & 8. From this
    point onward only Windows 10 will be tested. This also means that older
    versions of MS Visual Studio will no longer be tested either. Only MSVS
    versions 2015 and above will be fully supported.

    This may be the last ESP release that supports Python 2.7.

    This is also the last ESP release that will fully support OpenCASCADE
    6.8.1. From Rev 1.18 and on only 7.3.1 and possibly 7.4.1 will be the
    OpenCASCADE releases that we test against. And again, these are the 
    versions that should be taken from the ESP website (and not from 
    elsewhere).

    Apple's OSX Catalina (10.15) is a REAL problem. You cannot download the
    distributions using a browser. For instructions on how to get ESP see 
    OSXcatalina.txt on the web site.


1. Prerequisites

    The most significant prerequisite for this software is OpenCASCADE.
    This ESP release only supports the prebuilt versions marked 7.3.1 
    (and optionally 6.8.1), which are available at http://acdl.mit.edu/ESP. 
    Please DO NOT report any problems with any other versions of OpenCASCADE,
    much effort has been spent in "hardening" the OpenCASCADE code. It is 
    advised that all ESP users update to 7.3.1 because of better robustness, 
    performance and this is the last ESP release to support 6.8.1. If you are
    still on a LINUX box with a version of gcc less than 4.8, you may want to
    consider an upgrade, so that 7.3.1 can be used.

    Another prerequisite is a WebGL/Websocket capable Browser. In general 
    these include Mozilla's FireFox, Google Chrome and Apple's Safari. 
    Internet Explorer/Edge is NOT supported because of a problem in their
    Websockets implementation.  Also, note that there are some  problems with 
    Intel Graphics and some WebGL Browsers. For LINUX, "zlib" development is 
    required.

    CAPS has a dependency on UDUNITS2, and potentially on Python and other 
    applications. See Section 2.3.

1.1 Source Distribution Layout

    In the discussions that follow, $DISROOT will be used as the name of the 
    directory that contains:

    README.txt        - this file
    bin               - a directory that will contain executables
    CAPSexamples      - a directory with CAPS examples
    config            - files that allow for automatic configuration
    data              - test and example scripts
    doc               - documentation
    ESP               - web client code for the Engineering Sketch Pad
    externApps        - the ESP connections to 3rd party Apps (outside of CAPS)
    include           - location for all ESP header files
    lib               - a directory that will contain libraries, shared objects
                        and DLLs
    SLUGS             - the browser code for Slugs (web Slugs client)
    src               - source files (contains EGADS, CAPS, wvServer & OpenCSM)
    training          - training slides and examples
    udc               - a collection of User Defined Components
    wvClient          - simple examples of Web viewing used by EGADS

1.2 Release Notes

1.2.1 EGADS

   The inverse evaluations and the in Face predicate have been reworked and they
   should now be robust and reliable.

   The base tessellation code has been rewritten. Very small Faces would, at 
   times not be triangulated -- this has been fixed. An Edge/Edge proximity test 
   has been added to the Edge discretization, which should provide more robust 
   functioning when trimming curves come close together. Very small interior 
   triangles are no longer generated. Overall you will notice much finer Edge
   tessellations in the case of trimming surfaces with high normal curvature.


1.2.2 ESP

    There have been many improvements and bug fixes in this version of ESP.  
    The most significant of these are:
    * SELECT:   allow 0 to be wildcard
    * CFGPMTR:  new statement
    * EXTRACT:  several Faces or Edg4es can be extracted at once
    * DUMP:     can write .plot files
    * SELECT:   select an Edge by its midpoint
    * COMBINE:  can be applied to a single SheetBody or WireBody
    * -plugs:   new command line option for executing PLUGS

    A complete list of updates and bug fixes can be found in sections 8.1 and 
    8.2 of ESP-help.html


1.2.3 Known issues in v1.17:

    None.


2. Building the Software

    The config subdirectory contains scripts that need to be used to generate 
    the environment both to build and run the software here. There are two 
    different build procedures based on the OS:

    If using Windows, skip to section 2.2.

2.1 Linux and MAC OSX

    The configuration is built using the path where the OpenCASCADE runtime 
    distribution can be found.  This path can be located in an OpenCASCADE 
    distribution by looking for a subdirectory that includes an "inc" or 
    "include" directory and either a "lib" or "$ARCH/lib" (where $ARCH is 
    the name of your architecture) directory.  Once that is found, execute 
    the commands:

        % cd $DISROOT/config
        % ./makeEnv **name_of_OpenCASCADE_directory_containing_inc_and_lib**

    An optional second argument to makeEnv is required if the distribution 
    of OpenCASCADE has multiple architectures. In this case it is the 
    subdirectory name that contains the libraries for the build of interest 
    (CASARCH).

    This procedure produces 2 files at the top level: ESPenv.sh and
    ESPenv.csh.  These are the environments for both sh (bash) and csh 
    (tcsh) respectively.  The appropriate file can be "source"d or 
    included in the user's startup scripts. This must be done before either 
    building and/or running the software. For example, if using the csh or 
    tcsh:

        % cd $DISROOT
        % source ESPenv.csh

    or if using bash:

        $ cd $DISROOT
        $ source ESPenv.sh

    Skip to section 2.3.

2.2 Windows Configuration

    IMPORTANT: The ESP distribution and OpenCASCADE MUST be unpackaged 
               into a location ($DISROOT) that has NO spaces in the path!

    The configuration is built from the path where the OpenCASCADE runtime 
    distribution can be found. MS Visual Studio is required and a command 
    shell where the 64bit C/C++ compiler should be opened and the following 
    executed in that window (note that MS VS 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019
    are all supported). The Windows environment is built simply by going to 
    the config subdirectory and executing the script "winEnv" in a bash 
    shell (run from the command window):

        C:\> cd $DISROOT\config
        C:\> bash winEnv D:\OpenCASCADE7.3.1

    winEnv (like makeEnv) has an optional second argument that is only 
    required if the distribution of OpenCASCADE has multiple architectures. 
    In this case it is the subdirectory name that contains the libraries 
    for the build of interest (CASARCH).

    This procedure produces a single file at the top level: ESPenv.bat.  
    This file needs to be executed before either building and/or running 
    the software. This is done with:

        C:\> cd $DISROOT
        C:\> ESPenv

    Check that the method that you used to unzip the distribution created 
    directories named $DISTROOT\bin and $DISTROOT\lib. If it did not, create 
    them using the commands:

        C:\> cd $DISTROOT
        C:\> mkdir bin
        C:\> mkdir lib

2.3 CAPS Options

    CAPS requires the use of the Open Source Project UDUNITS2 for all unit 
    conversions. Since there are no prebuilt package distributions for the 
    MAC and Windows, the CAPS build procedure copies prebuilt DLL/DyLibs 
    to the lib directory of ESP. Because most Linux distributions contain 
    a UDUNITS2 package, another procedure is used. If the UDUNITS2 
    development package is loaded in the OS then nothing is done. If not 
    loaded, then a static library is moved to the ESP lib directory. The 
    use of a static library is to avoid having two differing versions of 
    a shared object on the same system if installed later (which would 
    only cause problems).

2.3.1 Python with CAPS (pyCAPS)

    Python may be used with CAPS to provide testing, general scripting and
    demonstration capabilities. The Python development package is required
    under Linux. The building of pyCAPS is turned on by 2 environment 
    variables:

    PYTHONINC  is the include path to find the Python includes for building
    PYTHONLIB  is a description of the location of the Python libraries and
               the library to use

    The execution of pyCAPS requires a single environment variable:

    PYTHONPATH is a Python environment variable that needs to have the path
               $DISROOT/lib included.

    For MACs and LINUX the configuration procedure inserts these environment 
    variables with the locations it finds by executing the version of Python 
    available in the shell performing the build. If makeEnv emits any errors
    related to Python, the resultant environment file(s) will need to be 
    updated in order to use Python (the automatic procedure has failed).

    For Windows ESPenv.bat must be edited, the "rem" removed and the 
    appropriate information set (if Python exists on the machine). Also note 
    that the bit size (32 or 64) of Python that gets used on Windows must be 
    consistent with the build of ESP, which is now only 64bit.

    For Example on Windows (after downloading and installing Python on D:):
      set PYTHONINC=D:\Python27\include
      set PYTHONLIB=D:\Python27\Libs\python27.lib

2.3.2 3rd Party Environment Variables

    CAPS is driven by a plugin technology using AIMs (Analysis Interface  
    Modules). These AIMs allow direct coupling between CAPS and the external 
    meshers and solvers. Many are built by default (where there are no 
    licensing problems or other dependencies). The CAPS build subsystem will 
    respond to the following (if these are not set, then the AIMs for these 
    systems will not be built):

    AFLR (See Section 4.1):
      AFLR      is the path where the AFLR distribution has been deposited
      AFLR_ARCH is the architecture flag to use (MacOSX-x86-64, Linux-x86-64,
                WIN64) -- note that this is set by the config procedure

    AWAVE
      AWAVE is the location to find the FORTRAN source for AWAVE

    TETGEN
      TETGEN is the path where the TetGen distribution has been unpacked

2.3.3 The Cart3D Design Framework

    The application ESPxddm is the ESP connection to the Cart3D Design
    Framework. On LINUX this requires that the libxml2 development package
    be installed. If it is, then ESPxddm is built, otherwise it is not.

2.3.4 CAPS AIM Documentation

    The CAPS documentation can be seen in PDF form from within the directory
    $DISROOT/doc/CAPSdoc. Or in html by $DISROOT/doc/CAPSdoc/html/index.html.

2.4 The Build

    For any of the operating systems, after properly setting the environment 
    in the command window (or shell), follow this simple procedure:

        % cd $DISROOT/src
        % make

    or

        C:\> cd $DISROOT\src
        C:\> make

    You can use "make clean" which will clean up all object modules or 
    "make cleanall" to remove all objects, executables, libraries, shared 
    objects and dynamic libraries.


3.0 Running

3.1 serveCSM and ESP

    To start ESP there are two steps: (1) start the "server" and (2) start 
    the "browser". This can be done in a variety of ways, but the two most 
    common follow.

3.1.1 Procedure 1: have ESP automatically started from serveCSM

    If it exists, the ESP_START environment variable contains the command 
    that should be executed to start the browser once the server has 
    created its scene graph.  On a MAC, you can set this variable with 
    commands such as

        % setenv ESP_START "open -a /Applications/Firefox.app $ESP_ROOT/ESP/ESP.html"

    or

        % export ESP_START="open -a /Applications/Firefox.app $ESP_ROOT/ESP/ESP.html"

    depending on the shell in use.  The commands in other operating systems 
    will differ slightly, depending on how the browser can be started from 
    the command line, for example for Windows it may be:

        % set ESP_START=""C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" %ESP_ROOT%\ESP\ESP.html"

    To run the program, use:

         % cd $DISROOT/bin
         % ./serveCSM ../data/tutorial1

3.1.2 Procedure 2: start the browser manually

    If the ESP_START environment variable does not exist, issuing the
    commands:

        % cd $DISROOT/bin
        % ./serveCSM ../data/tutorial1

    will start the server.  The last lines of output from serveCSM tells 
    the user that the server is waiting for a browser to attach to it. 
    This can be done by starting a browser (FireFox and GoogleChrome have 
    been tested) and loading the file:

        $DISROOT/ESP/ESP.html

    Whether you used procedure 1 or 2, as long as the browser stays connected 
    to serveCSM, serveCSM will stay alive and handle requests sent to it from 
    the browser. Once the last browser that is connected to serveCSM exits, 
    serveCSM will shut down.

    Note that the default "port" used by serveCSM is 7681. One can change 
    the port in the call to serveCSM with a command such as:

        % cd $DISROOT/bin
        % ./serveCSM ../data/tutorial1 -port 7788

    Once the browser starts, you will be prompted for a "hostname:port".  
    Make the appropriate response depending on the network situation. Once 
    the ESP GUI is functional, press the "help" button in the upper left 
    if you want to execute the tutorial.

3.2 egads2cart

    This example takes an input geometry file and generates a Cart3D "tri" 
    file. The acceptable input is STEP, EGADS or OpenCASCADE BRep files 
    (which can all be generated from an OpenCSM "dump" command).

        % cd $DISROOT/bin
        % ./egads2cart geomFilePath [angle relSide relSag]

3.3 vTess and wvClient

    vTess allows for the examination of geometry through its discrete
    representation. Like egads2cart, the acceptable geometric input is STEP, 
    EGADS or OpenCASCADE BRep files. vTess acts like serveCSM and wvClient 
    should be used like ESP in the discussion in Section 3.1 above.

        % cd $DISROOT/bin
        % ./vTess geomFilePath [angle maxlen sag]

3.4 Executing CAPS through Python

    % python pyCAPSscript.py  (Note: many example Python scripts can be 
                                     found in $DISROOT/CAPSexamples/pyCAPS)

3.5 CAPS Training

    The examples and exercises in the $DISROOT/training rely on 3rd party 
    software. The PreBuilt distributions contain all executables needed to
    run the CAPS part of the training except for ParaView (which is freely
    available on the web) and Pointwise. 


4.0 Notes on 3rd Party Analyses

4.1 The AFLR suite

    Building the AFLR AIMs (AFLR2, AFLR3 and AFLR4) requires AFLR_LIB at
    16.30.1 or higher. Note that built versions of the so/DLLs can be 
    found in the PreBuilt distributions and should be able to be used with 
    ESP that you build by placing them in the $DISROOT/lib directory.

4.2 Athena Vortex Lattice

    The interface to AVL is designed for V3.36, and the avl executable
    is provided in $DISROOT/bin.
    
4.3 Astros and mAstros

    Both Astros and a limited version (microAstros or more simply) mAstros
    can be run with the Astros AIM. A mAstros executable is part of this
    distribution and is used with the CAPS training material. The pyCAPS 
    Astros examples use the environment variable ASTROS_ROOT (set to the 
    path where Astros can be found) to locate Astros and it's runtime files.
    If not set it defaults to mAstros execution. 

4.4 Cart3D

    The interfaces to Cart3D will only work with V1.5.5.

4.5 Fun3D

    The Fun3D AIM supports Fun3D V12.4 or higher.

4.6 Mystran

    On Windows, follow the install instructions MYSTRAN-Install-Manual.pdf
    carefully. The CAPS examples function only if MYSTRAN.ini in the
    Mystran bin directory is an empty file and the MYSTRAN_directory 
    environment variable points to the Mystran bin directory.

    Mystran currently only functions on Windows if CAPS is compiled with 
    MSVC 2015 or higher. This may be addressed in future releases. 

4.7 NASTRAN

    Nastran bdf files are only correct on Windows if CAPS is compiled with 
    MSVC 2015 or higher. This may be addressed in future releases. 

4.8 Pointwise

    The CAPS connection to Pointwise is now handled internally but requires 
    Pointwise V18.2 R2. This performs automatic unstructured meshing. Note
    that the environment variable CAPS_GLYPH is set by the ESP configure
    script and points to the Glyph scripts that should be used with CAPS and
    the current release of Pointwise.

4.9 SU2

    Supported versions are: 4.1.1 (Cardinal), 5.0.0 (Raven), 6.1.0, and 6.2.0
    (Falcon). SU2 version 6.0 will work except for the use of displacements 
    in a Fluid/Structure Interaction setting.
    
4.10 xfoil

    The interface to xfoil is designed for V6.99, and the xfoil executable
    is provided in $DISROOT/bin. Note that multiple 'versions' of xfoil
    6.99 have been released with differing output file formats.