Welcome to FEMhub

FEMhub is an open source distribution of finite element codes with a unified Python interface. Use the link on the left to see the current list of codes included. It is available for download as desktop application, but all codes are also automatically available in the Online Numerical Methods Laboratory which is powered by high performance computers of the hp-FEM group at the University of Nevada, Reno. FEMhub is available under the GPL license (Version 2, 1991).

Download and Installation

Below you will find basic instructions for Ubuntu Linux, Mac OS X, and MS Windows refering to the last stable version. For more details see the Sphinx docs. If you encounter problems, be sure to let us know through the mailing list.

Ubuntu Linux

Prerequisites:

$ sudo apt-get install gcc g++ gfortran make m4 perl tar

Then download, unpack, and build FEMhub:

$ wget http://femhub.org/pub/femhub-0.9.9.tar
$ tar -xf femhub-0.9.9.tar
$ cd femhub-0.9.9
$ make

Mac OS X

Download and install Xcode. You have to register as Apple Developer but this is quick. Do not pay any fees, they may offer you access to their newest updates for $99 per year and things like this. Xcode contains make and other things that are required to build FEMhub. Then download, unpack, and build FEMhub:

$ curl -O http://femhub.org/pub/femhub-0.9.9.tar
$ tar -xf femhub-0.9.9.tar
$ cd femhub-0.9.9
$ make

MS Windows

Download and install the Linux emulator Cygwin from here (the small icon in the top-right corner). While running setup.exe, you need to install

cmake, gcc4, gfortran, git, gitk, libX11-devel, libXext-devel,
libXt-devel, libXt, libXext, make, m4, openssl-devel, perl, 
python, wget, xextproto.

This is a bit tedious but you have to survive it. We would like to create one package containing all of those, to facilitate the download - any help is welcome. For some packages, there will be more choices - follow the magical word GNU. Then download, unpack, and build FEMhub as in Linux:

$ wget http://femhub.org/pub/femhub-0.9.9.tar
$ tar -xf femhub-0.9.9.tar
$ cd femhub-0.9.9
$ make

Downloading the git repository

If the above doesn't work for you, compile from source using the FEMhub git repository, that should always work.

Remarks

On some platforms you can take advantage of several cores on your computer by executing

$ export MAKE="make -j9"

before typing make to compile in parallel on 8 cores.

Depending on the speed of your computer, wait between 14 minutes to 1.5 hour. Again, if you encounter problems, let us know through the FEMhub mailing list.

Running FEMhub

FEMhub is run using:

$ ./femhub
------------------------------------------------------------
| FEMhub Version 0.9.9, Release Date: 2010-05-05           |
| Type lab() for the GUI.                                  |
------------------------------------------------------------
In [1]:

You can continue in the command line, but then you will not be able to see any graphical output (images will be stored on the harddisk though). To see them live, first launch the web browser using:

In [1]: lab()

After that, an off-line version of the Online Numerical Methods Laboratory will appear. Create a new worksheet there and continue to the next step.

Either in the command-line or in the web browser worksheet, type:

import hermes2d
hermes2d.demo_layer()

If you are using the web browser, press Shift+Enter (or click the "evaluate" button).

You should see a series of adaptive hp-FEM approximations followed by a convergence graph: