Asterstudy Freeze a lot

Anirudh · 2017-11-17 15:25:20

Hi,
I am trying to use asterstudy in salome meca, but strange things are happening.
The window freezes occasionally
I cannot modify an already created mesh used in study
Deleting case studies, and for that matter almost anything shoots weird "fatal errors" in some coded language
Its still far from being user friendly
Can I get a "dos and donts" document somewhere regarding asterstudy?

thanks

Thomas DE SOZA · 2017-11-26 19:42:14

Hello,

Thanks you for this feedback.

Could you please tell us which version of Salome-Meca you're using? The latest version (2017.0.2) provides several fixes for AsterStudy. There are still known issues that are listed here: https://www.code-aster.org/V2/IMG/pdf/k … udy-en.pdf
FAQ are also listed here: https://www.code-aster.org/V2/IMG/pdf/f … udy-en.pdf

Best regards,
TdS

Anirudh · 2017-12-09 14:20:55

I am using the latest version 2017.0.2
>>>The whole window of Asterstudy freezes for a few seconds if we try to save output files or study.hdf file.
>>>I get stability issues....it seems if something goes wrong(especially if results are deleted), the entire session gets corrupted and needed to be start over.
>>>It starts to get slow down when we have say 200 line .comm file even on a good workstation...edition of commands and groups takes forever to open and change options inside.
>>>>Salome meca takes a lot of memory while meshing, and when creating or updating a mesh after mesh failure, it doesn't delete the already created mesh from RAM and keeps on consuming additional RAM, causing a bloating of OS ,sometimes getting 99.9%RAM. The only option then left is killing salome session server.
There should be a mechanism to purge old data so that the RAM requirement remains within limits.

>>>>The management of mesh data in asterstudy/salome is old. Typically, we should be able to see a mesh assembly that should be similar in structure to a CAD assembly BOM inside a CAD program say CATIA/Creo. Engineers need to "see" all the CAD models together to better analyse assembly.
Say if we have to import 50 components of assembly, WE need to import it 50 times in LIRE MAILLAGE, then use ASSE_MAILLAGE again a lot of times , and still need to run the solver once just to get the final Meshed Assembly back in window, thus takes a lot of time just to prepare the geometry for analysis which is tiring--------These all steps should be simplified in ONE operation. (just like Ansys)
>>>>There should be more information as to what went wrong(.mess is somewhat insufficient)

I hope to see some of the above implemented in the next version.

Thanks and Regards
Anirudh Nehra

Last edited by Anirudh (2017-12-14 08:41:14)

Thomas DE SOZA · 2017-12-17 15:53:53

Hello,

Anirudh wrote:

I am using the latest version 2017.0.2

Thank you for this additional feedback. Here are a few comments.

Anirudh wrote:

>>>The whole window of Asterstudy freezes for a few seconds if we try to save output files or study.hdf file.

Anirudh wrote:

>>>It starts to get slow down when we have say 200 line .comm file even on a good workstation...edition of commands and groups takes forever to open and change options inside.

Performance issues are important to us and we're working on improving the general performance of AsterStudy. We'll pay a particular attention to the saving of output files. The loading of command files has already been improved but we're still working on it also.

Anirudh wrote:

>>>I get stability issues....it seems if something goes wrong(especially if results are deleted), the entire session gets corrupted and needed to be start over.

Sorry for these stability issues: do not hesitate to provide us with a scenario to reproduce the error.
Please note that there is a known issue regarding the deleting of results or multiple results at once when "variables" are used. It has been fixed in the upstream branch.
If you still happen to have stability issues, be advised that $HOME/.asterstudy save the case files so that you can start over if the HDF file becomes corrupted.

Anirudh wrote:

>>>>Salome meca takes a lot of memory while meshing, and when creating or updating a mesh after mesh failure, it doesn't delete the already created mesh from RAM and keeps on consuming additional RAM, causing a bloating of OS ,sometimes getting 99.9%RAM. The only option then left is killing salome session server.
There should be a mechanism to purge old data so that the RAM requirement remains within limits.

A known issue currently prevents mesh exported to the "Mesh" module by AsterStudy to be changed/deleted. We're working on fixing that.
The memory footprint of Salome-Meca should therefore improve.

Anirudh wrote:

>>>>The management of mesh data in asterstudy/salome is old. Typically, we should be able to see a mesh assembly that should be similar in structure to a CAD assembly BOM inside a CAD program say CATIA/Creo. Engineers need to "see" all the CAD models together to better analyse assembly.
Say if we have to import 50 components of assembly, WE need to import it 50 times in LIRE MAILLAGE, then use ASSE_MAILLAGE again a lot of times , and still need to run the solver once just to get the final Meshed Assembly back in window, thus takes a lot of time just to prepare the geometry for analysis which is tiring--------These all steps should be simplified in ONE operation. (just like Ansys)

Thank you for this interesting feedback. We've indeed decided to work on the mesh in AsterStudy instead of the CAD. This reflects the main usage that is being done of code_aster at EDF. This is indeed of matter of discussion.
Please not however that the assembly of components should be done in the Geometry or Mesh modules of Salome-Meca depending on what are your inputs. Using ASSE_MAILLAGE in code_aster is strongly discouraged. Assembling components in the SALOME modules in indeed quite straight forward and as you point out does not require running the solver.

Anirudh wrote:

>>>>There should be more information as to what went wrong(.mess is somewhat insufficient)

Better linking the errors that happen during the calculation and the data settings built by the user is one of the major improvements of the future version of AsterStudy.
This includes contextualization of errors: location in the data settings, information on the mesh if possible (for missing BCs for example), etc.

Best regards,
TdS

Anirudh · 2017-12-18 18:55:50

Thanks for detailed responses. However,still there are certain crippling issues with regards to performance of this software.
>>>saving results in .med file without getting the window to freeze is still not possible.
>>> After 2-3 runs of a study from Case view in Aster study, (we may cancel some runs in between(to say modify the study) then launch again a new run), the speed of computation and iteration refreshing decreases considerably.
>>>I could see 4 to 5 aster processes(with the name "aster") in the System monitor eating up entire CPU while there was no run being performed.(all were taking a chunk of CPU(~ 25% each)
Whats more, even after exiting the Salome Meca software, the aster processes did not stop automatically and continued to use entire CPU.
>>>I had to individually kill each aster process in order to free the processor. This is very strange behaviour and must be fixed.

Others
>>>The Asterstudy window should display loads/moments/contact definitions on the mesh as 3d Glyphs.
>>>python support for asterstudy graphical view
>>>The appearance of command file text while using the inbuilt text editor mode, is very faded and difficult to read on Ubuntu 16.04. There should be a setting to change font size and colours. Also in Salome Meca preferences, unit changes don't take effect and its always in meters(we need mms). Another enhancement might be to add support for 3d mouse.
>>> Partial results from asterstudy should be available in paraview alongside an ongoing run( results till the last step of convergence), and should be available to view even if the solution fails to converge.
>>>Salome meca meshing should support multi threading to mesh faster.

Regards
Anirudh

Last edited by Anirudh (2017-12-20 09:46:55)

Thomas DE SOZA · 2017-12-21 18:40:47

Thank you again for this extended feedback.

Anirudh wrote:

Thanks for detailed responses. However,still there are certain crippling issues with regards to performance of this software.
>>>saving results in .med file without getting the window to freeze is still not possible.

We'll try to reproduce and fix this.

Anirudh wrote:

>>> After 2-3 runs of a study from Case view in Aster study, (we may cancel some runs in between(to say modify the study) then launch again a new run), the speed of computation and iteration refreshing decreases considerably.

We're aware about this behaviour and are working on fixing it. In the meantime, you may deactivate the undo/redo feature in the Preferences to regain some performance even after extensive usage.

Anirudh wrote:

>>>I could see 4 to 5 aster processes(with the name "aster") in the System monitor eating up entire CPU while there was no run being performed.(all were taking a chunk of CPU(~ 25% each)
Whats more, even after exiting the Salome Meca software, the aster processes did not stop automatically and continued to use entire CPU.
>>>I had to individually kill each aster process in order to free the processor. This is very strange behaviour and must be fixed.

code_aster and Salome-Meca are indeed completely decoupled, that's why quitting Salome-Meca won't have any impact on code_aster runs. We'll build a similar usecase and also fix this behaviour.

Anirudh wrote:

Others
>>>The Asterstudy window should display loads/moments/contact definitions on the mesh as 3d Glyphs.

This is planned in subsequent versions. Let me highlight that AsterStudy deployment is a three-stage release, the first being in 2017, the latest in 2019.

Anirudh wrote:

>>>python support for asterstudy graphical view

We're working on finding a way to achieve this also. Even though no GUI will ever be able to completely display Python instructions as graphical widgets.

Anirudh wrote:

>>>The appearance of command file text while using the inbuilt text editor mode, is very faded and difficult to read on Ubuntu 16.04. There should be a setting to change font size and colours.

Further customization of the embedded text editor is planned.

Anirudh wrote:

Also in Salome Meca preferences, unit changes don't take effect and its always in meters(we need mms).

This is a choice that was at the heart of code_aster as it has been built with experienced users in mind. We're looking into changing this. No plan yet though.

Anirudh wrote:

Another enhancement might be to add support for 3d mouse.

Duly noted.

Anirudh wrote:

>>> Partial results from asterstudy should be available in paraview alongside an ongoing run( results till the last step of convergence), and should be available to view even if the solution fails to converge.

This is indeed planned.

Anirudh wrote:

>>>Salome meca meshing should support multi threading to mesh faster.

This is one question that our colleagues from the SALOME team would be better suited to answer.

TdS

Anirudh · 2017-12-24 04:41:51

Hi,
Thanks again for those responses.
By python support, I implied being able to automate some of the repetitive tasks inside Asterstudy, say for example to define material in multiple models. Is there a way to record macro currently in Asterstudy that I'm not aware of?

Also we need the ability to reorder/reorganise categorised commands in the graphics view.

Thanks
Anirudh

Last edited by Anirudh (2018-01-04 09:32:36)

benico · 2017-12-27 11:14:38

================="freezing issue"=================
I have experienced "Freezing" (slow reaction) when using asterstudy results command to choose the file for results.med
This is the output from the command line:
(SALOME_Session_Server:3248): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_file_chooser_default_set_current_name: assertion 'impl->action == GTK_FILE_CHOOSER_ACTION_SAVE || impl->action == GTK_FILE_CHOOSER_ACTION_CREATE_FOLDER' failed.

I'm using ubuntu 16.04 with xfce4.

mecour · 2018-01-04 12:12:55

Hello,

What does it mean "real world case" for you? Every Code_Aster release contains hundreds (may be thousands) test cases and in my opinion most of them are applicable to real world.

mecour

Anirudh · 2018-01-06 04:19:10

Hi,

I have discovered the reason aster keeps running in the background even though no studies are being executed.This happens mostly when the run is canceled by the user using "Stop". If the run ends due to fatal error, the CPU is discharged.
One other problem is that Salome does not get launched once the computer is put to sleep and reopened.
A few more points:
>>>We get DZ displacements (and DZ stresses) even in planar formulations. Although, I saw a workaround but this error should be fixed anyway.
>>>Entering variables in the 1st column of DEFI_FUNCTION is not possible[as shown in SSNP 153 where time is a variable], It will not accept any input except numeric.
>>>There has to be better correlation between "RED" text highlighting in Aster study and actual error. Even after fixing the error, the "broken dependencies" alarm shows a red on hovering.
>>>Results of STAGE 1 are not picked up by the subsequent stages (to say post processing), unless the actual run is executed.
>>>Reordering commands is not possible even with text mode or graphical mode. The command files return to original state.

Thanks
Anirudh

Last edited by Anirudh (2018-01-17 09:16:48)

stefano89 · 2023-01-07 13:42:22

Dears,

I'm using Salome Meca 2021 edition, but I have the same problem related to performance decreasing with large number of stages (4).
I've already deactivate undo feature, but I don't give great advantages....

There's another workaround about that? When this point will be fixed?

Best,
Stefano

#1 2017-11-17 15:25:20

Asterstudy Freeze a lot

#2 2017-11-26 19:42:14

Re: Asterstudy Freeze a lot

#3 2017-12-09 14:20:55

Re: Asterstudy Freeze a lot

#4 2017-12-17 15:53:53

Re: Asterstudy Freeze a lot

#5 2017-12-18 18:55:50

Re: Asterstudy Freeze a lot

#6 2017-12-21 18:40:47

Re: Asterstudy Freeze a lot

#7 2017-12-24 04:41:51

Re: Asterstudy Freeze a lot

#8 2017-12-27 11:14:38

Re: Asterstudy Freeze a lot

#9 2018-01-04 12:12:55

Re: Asterstudy Freeze a lot

#10 2018-01-06 04:19:10

Re: Asterstudy Freeze a lot

#11 2023-01-07 13:42:22

Re: Asterstudy Freeze a lot

Board footer