Elmer installers and packages for Windows

If you want the best possible user experience with as little effort, consider also using the virtual machine available at:
https://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/sci/physics/elmer/bin/VirtualMachines/

This directory includes the precompiled Elmer packages for Windows. There are several options in the installation packages that are based on the "devel" branch of Elmer hosted at GitHub, https://github.com/ElmerCSC/elmerfem. A virtual machine makes a new compilation every nigtht.

The packages are created under msys2 environment using cmake. Currently all versions are 64 bit. The differences between installers are in whether they include ElmerGUI and MPI. All four combinations are available.

Current installers:

• ElmerFEM-gui-mpi-Windows-AMD64.exe
• ElmerFEM-gui-nompi-Windows-AMD64.exe
• ElmerFEM-nogui-mpi-Windows-AMD64.exe
• ElmerFEM-nogui-nompi-Windows-AMD64.exe

The MPI version is to be recommended if you intend to run ElmerSolver in parallel. If you are just starting to use Elmer you probably don't need the MPI version. However, you most likely would like to have the GUI. Hence, for most users the ElmerFEM-gui-nompi-Windows-AMD64.exe package is recommended.

There are also corresponding zip packages that are intended for users that cannot install software on their computer in the normal way, or don't want to give the installers the access to do so.

Current zip packages:

• ElmerFEM-gui-mpi-Windows-AMD64.zip
• ElmerFEM-gui-nompi-Windows-AMD64.zip
• ElmerFEM-nogui-mpi-Windows-AMD64.zip
• ElmerFEM-nogui-nompi-Windows-AMD64.zip

Note that the AMD64 refers to generally to 64 bit architecture that was initially created by AMD but has been also adopted by Intel. Therefore these installers can be used both on AMD and Intel processors.

There may be also some certain releases available (i.e. ver9.0). These may be preferable if you want to have a certain version of the code. However, for most use cases the nightly build is stable enough and also always includes the latest bells and whisles.

When you install the .exe installers Windows will probably say that "Windows protected your PC" and not run the installer. This is because the current installers have not been signed (if somebody can give pointers how to sign installers underm msys2 that would be great). Therefore click "More info" and "Run anyway".

When you install the .zip files choose some installation directory to unpack the files, for example using 7-zip program. Then you need to add the environment variables manually to your system. Search for "path" in your Windows system and choose "Edit environment variables for your own account". Assuming that you have installed Elmer in the root of C:\ set the "Variable" to "Value" as follows:

ELMER_HOME = C:\ElmerFEM-gui-nompi-Windows-AMD64
ELMERGUI_HOME = %ELMER_HOME%\share\ElmerGUI
ELMER_LIB = %ELMER_HOME%\share\elmersolver\lib
PATH = %PATH%;%ELMER_HOME%\bin;%ELMER_HOME%\lib

To uninstall Elmer just run the uninstaller under the install directory. If you have installed from the zip files, just remove the directory.

Note that the nightly builds first appear on the following fileserver at http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/sci/physics/elmer/bin/ Hence if you're looking for the fresh installers that is your safest bet.