Coreform Cubit Version: 2024.3
Coreform Cubit Version: 2023.11
Platform: Debian 5.1
Activating the Svalinn plugin from nographics mode
Good morning all,
I am working on building a docker image containing cubit to use for software testing, and I need to have the Svalinn plugin enabled, and since it is in a docker image I believe I will need to activate it in -nographics mode. In the GUI this was easily done, but unfortunately I didn’t see any commands journaled while doing so. I’m sure there is some config file I can edit somewhere hoping one of the Cubit wizards here can help me out :).
The main clue I have right now is that if I activate the plugin via the GUI, and then launch with -nographics it displays some text about loading plugins.
>> ./coreform_cubit -nographics
Python version 0 selected
Supervisor::Impl::load_plugins: Loaded component: libcubitcomp.ccl from directory: /groupspace/cnerg/users/epflug/Coreform-Cubit-2023.11/bin
Supervisor::Impl::load_plugins: Loaded component: libcubitcomp.ccl from directory: /groupspace/cnerg/users/epflug/Coreform-Cubit-2023.11/bin
Loading command plugins from /groupspace/cnerg/users/epflug/Coreform-Cubit-2023.11/bin:/groupspace/cnerg/users/epflug/Coreform-Cubit-2023.11/bin/plugins
Loaded Svalinn plugin.
Any help would be appreciated!
Regards,
Edgar
Hi Edgar,
After loading the svalinn plugin do you get a %> prompt from Cubit? The default is to place you in python mode. With 2023.11, I can type cubit.cmd("brick x 1") and get a correct response back.
Sandia reworked python/Cubit scripting behavior in 2023.4. I get the %> prompt but then I seem to get a hang. This is a bug. I will consult with the Sandia folks on this one.
If you want to get a standard Cubit prompt use --nographics --prompt Cubit. The case on Cubit is required.
Karl
BTW, the hang was with Windows 11 using coreform_cubit.exe. If I switched to the com version, coreform_cubit.com, it appears to work correctly.
It works correctly for me in Ubuntu as well.
Note, I did not try loading the svalinn plugin.
Karl
Thank you for the quick response, but my issue is how to enable the svalinn plugin in -nographics mode.
Perhaps my first post is a bit unclear. I am building a docker image, so it will be as if I have a fresh install of cubit, except with no GUI available. I have cubit working in the docker image, but I need some manner of activating the svalinn plugin in -nographics mode, or editing some config file or the like to achieve the same goal. Cubit doesn’t appear to journal the interactions with the plugin menu so I am unsure what commands (if any exist) are used to enable plugins.
The example in the first post was on my local machine so I was able to use the GUI to enable the plugin, hoping to get some idea of what I will need to change in the docker image. The plugin works in -nographics mode as expected, the issue is enabling it with no GUI.
Link to how to activate via the GUI in case it is helpful https://github.com/svalinn/Cubit-plugin?tab=readme-ov-file#installation-with-coreform-cubit-as-of-version-20238
What kinds of commands are needed to “activate” the plugin? Do you just need to execute commands? You can give a journal file at the end of the cubit string. There is also .cubit.ini file that gets read on startup. You could put commands there. The cubit.ini file can exist in the current working directory or the user home directory.
From the link above:
The DAGMC plugin is now shipped with Coreform Cubit starting at version 2023.8, but it is not activated by default. Following the instructions corresponding to your operating system to enable the plugin.
On Windows and Linux, use the dropdown menu “Tools”, then select “Plugins…”. Add the bin/plugins directory via the diaglog box. Restart Cubit to activate the plugin.
As you can see this is for the GUI, and nothing gets journaled
I was testing in 2024.3 but happened to notice that the svalinn plugin was not included in the plugins folder has it has been in recent versions of Cubit. Switching to 2023.11 which has the plugin allows me to initialize cubit in python with the plugin enabled.
Here’s the cubit init to get the plugin working in python, with some other extraneous parameters
import os
import inspect
from pathlib import Path
cubit_dir = os.path.dirname(inspect.getfile(cubit))
cubit_dir = Path(cubit_dir) / Path('plugins')
cubit.init([
'cubit',
'-nojournal',
'-nographics',
'-information', 'off',
'-warning', 'off',
'-commandplugindir',
str(cubit_dir)
])
Note that in 2024.3, the DAGMC plugin was merged into Cubit. There is no need to import any plugin at this point. See Patrick Shriwise’s webinar from March 29, OpenMC neutronics simulations of CAD-based geometry using DAGMC and Coreform Cubit (youtube.com)
Yes, though the meshing/faceting methods are somewhat different and at least in the previous version I have had issues with models not being watertight with the native meshing methodology
Though that may have been user error I did not spend much time diagnosing
