Spring 2022 – Topology optimization of engineering systems

Some help for installing FreeFEM on your machine

For developing and running some topology optimization test cases, you will need to be able to run FreeFEM on your machine. The installation is a bit delicate depending on your configuration. You can either:

• use binary packages (the easiest way), in that case follow the instructions on https://doc.freefem.org/introduction/installation.html

• compile FreeFEM directly (harder but more flexible, especially on linux). I made an installation script, you can try to use it: here.

  • Install necessary packages. For instance on Fedora:

  sudo dnf install g++ gfortran bison flex gdb cmake autoconf automake m4 freeglut freeglut-devel scotch patch

  On Ubuntu:

  sudo apt-get install cpp freeglut3-dev g++ gcc gfortran m4 make patch pkg-config wget python unzip libgsl-dev autoconf automake autotools-dev bison flex gdb git cmake

  • Clone the repository:

  git clone https://gitlab.com/florian.feppon/software-recipes.git

  • Go in the repository and run the recipe:

  cd software-recipes
  sh install_freefem_linux.sh

  If you encounter some bugs, I encourage you to try to run the steps of the recipe sequentially to find the problem (maybe some missing dependencies).

  • Everything will be installed in ~/software. Add the following lines to your ~/.bashrc:

  export SOFTWARE="$HOME/software"
  export PATH="$SOFTWARE/bin:$PATH"

  You will then need to open a new terminal to be able to run FreeFEM.

Once you have a working FreeFEM installation, you can check it by running

$ FreeFem++
FreeFem++ - version 4.1 (Tue 22 Feb 2022 10:08:09 AM CET - git v4.10) 64bits
License: LGPL 3+ (https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.en.html)
Usage: FreeFem++ [FreeFEM arguments] filename [script arguments]
FreeFEM arguments:
    -f:     [filename]  script file name
    -v:     [verbosity] level of FreeFEM output (0 - 1000000)
    -nw:                no graphics
    -wg:                with graphics
    -ne:                no edp script output
    -cd:                change directory to script directory
    -cdtmp:             change directory to /tmp
    -jc:                just compile
    -ns:                same as -ne
    -nowait:            do not wait graphics at the end
    -nc:                without console (MS Windows only)
    -log:               with console (MS Windows only)
    -wait:              wait graphics at the end
    -fglut: [filename]  redirect graphics in file
    -glut:  [command]   use custom glut
    -gff:   [command]   use custom glut (with space quoting)
    -check_plugin [filename]        just try if the plugin is correct
    -?:                 show help

with default ffglut: ffglut

FreeFEM website: https://freefem.org/
FreeFEM documentation: https://doc.freefem.org/
FreeFEM forum: https://community.freefem.org/
FreeFEM modules: https://modules.freefem.org/

Please cite us in your research papers and add a link to FreeFEM on your personal website
@article{FreeFEM,
    AUTHOR = {Hecht, F.},
    TITLE = {New development in FreeFem++},
    JOURNAL = {J. Numer. Math.},
    FJOURNAL = {Journal of Numerical Mathematics},
    VOLUME = {20}, YEAR = {2012},
    NUMBER = {3-4}, PAGES = {251--265},
    ISSN = {1570-2820},
    MRCLASS = {65Y15},
    MRNUMBER = {3043640},
    URL = {https://freefem.org/}
}

I then recommand the installation of a syntax coloring for your preferred editor, check the pages

• https://doc.freefem.org/introduction/installation.html#coloring-syntax-freefem
• https://doc.freefem.org/introduction/download.html#syntax-highlighters

Useful links

• Official FreeFEM website: https://freefem.org/
• Official FreeFEM documentation: https://doc.freefem.org/
• Source code examples on various mathematical problems: https://modules.freefem.org/
• FreeFEM tutorial from Pierre Jolivet.