Run Options

The Radioss solution process can be launched from the HyperWorks Solver Run Manager, the command line using a submission script, or from HyperMesh.

From HyperWorks Solver Run Manager

The HyperWorks Solver Run Manager is the easiest way to launch a Radioss computation.

It includes an interactive GUI for selecting input files, run options, and has all the environment variables needed to run Radioss predefined.

On Windows, the Solver Run Manager can be launched using Start > Programs > HyperWorks > 2020.1 > Radioss.

The HyperWorks Solver Run Manager help describes how to manage multiple solver runs using a queue, schedule a delay when launching a run, stop a job, and select run options from a graphical menu.

On all platforms, this utility can be started from a command line

Linux: <install_dir>/altair/scripts/radioss -gui
Windows: <install_dir>/hwsolvers/scripts/radioss.bat -gui

Input Filename

Based on the input filename, the HyperWorks Solver Run Manager automatically detects if it should run the Starter or Engine.

By default, all the Starter and Engine files in the directory of the input file will be ran. Multiple Engine files can easily be ran by placing them in the same directory as the Starter file.
If an Engine file is selected, then the Engine file will be ran followed by any other Engine files in the directory.
If the -onestep option is used, only the selected input file will be ran. Only the Starter is ran if the input file is a Starter file and only the Engine file is ran if the input file is an Engine file.

Commonly Used Run Options

Option	Argument	Description
`-onestep`	N/A	Disable auto continuation to next Engine, run only Starter for single file format.
`-nt`	Number of threads	Number of SMP threads per SPMD MPI domain. (Example: radioss ROOTname_0000.rad `–nt 2`)
`-np`	Number of SPMD MPI domains	Number of Radioss SPMD MPI domains. (Example: radioss ROOTname_0000.rad `–np 12`)

All Available Run Options

Any arguments containing spaces or special characters must be quoted in {}, for example:

-mpipath {C:/Program Files/MPI}

File paths on Windows may use backward "\" or forward slash "/", but must be within quotes when using a backslash "\".

Option	Argument	Description	Available Platforms
`-altver`		Suffix for alternate solver version.	All Platforms
`-appfile`	N/A	Spec file with some MPI for SPMD run.	All Platforms
`-args`		Extra arguments that are passed to the solver. Example: `\"\{-x\} \{-f=C:/file name/path\}\"`	All Platforms
`-checkpoint`	N/A	Run Radioss Engine starting from checkpoint savefile.	All Platforms
`-debug`	`1, 2`	Output scripting debugging information.	All Platforms
`-delay`	Number of seconds	Delays the start of a Radioss run for the specified number of seconds. This functionality does not use licenses, computer memory or CPU before the start of the run (the delay expires). This option may be used to wait for any computing resources which are currently usable but are not yet freed by the previous run. If the previous run crashed, then the license may still be locked by the license server depending on the timeout value, or the memory may still be reserved by the Operating System. Note: The `–delay` option applies to the current job. If the job is submitted to the Run Manager queue, then the delay will start after the Run Manager releases this job to run. If the run is started using the HWSolver Run Manager (GUI), the Schedule delay option should be used to delay starting the queue.	All Platforms
`-dylib`	`FILE`	Set name to the dynamic library for Radioss User Subroutines	All Platforms
`-hostfile`	`TEXT FILE`	Text file that list the hosts and number of cores for a multi-computer (node) run. Refer to MPI document for exact format.	All Platforms
`-mpi`	`i` , `pl`, `ms`	Specify which MPI software is used for multiprocessor (SPMD) run. `i` Intel MPI `pl` IBM Platform-MPI (formerly HP-MPI) `ms` Microsoft MPI Note: An argument for `-mpi` is optional. If an argument is not specified, Intel MPI is used by default.	Not all platforms support all MPI software.
`-mpipath`	`DIRECTORY`	Specify the path where `mpirun` is located. (HyperWorks includes the MPI software so this typically is not needed).	All Platforms
`-noh3d`	N/A	Do not generate h3d file from Radioss animation files when the simulation has ended.	All Platforms
`-norst`	N/A	Remove all restart (*.rst) files after the simulation has ended.	All Platforms
`-np` or `-nspmd`	Number of SPMD MPI domains	Number of Radioss SPMD MPI domains. Example:`radioss -np 4 ROOTname_0000.rad`	All Platforms
`-nt` or `-nthread`	Number of thread	Number of SMP threads per SPMD MPI domain. Example: `radioss -i ROOTname_0000.rad -np 4 -nt 2`	All Platforms
`-nt_r2r`		Number of cpu threads for multi-domain process.	All Platforms
`-onestep`	N/A	Disable auto continuation to next Engine or mod file, run only Starter for single file format.	All Platforms
`-radfiles`	N/A	List all files in the current folder with detected types (Starter/Engine/mod).	All Platforms
`-radopt`	.radopt File	Option to run Radioss optimization with OptiStruct. It specifies to request an optimization run for an Radioss input deck. Note: The Radioss Starter and input files supporting the optimization input should be available in the same directory as the <name>.radopt file. Refer to Design Optimization for more information.	All Platforms
`-sp`	N/A	Specify to run a single precision version of Radioss.	All Platforms
`-v`		Required version of solver if multiple are installed. If not specified, newest version installed is used. Example: `radioss -v 14.0.220 ROOTname_0000.rad`	All Platforms

Solver Control

When the Use solver control option is checked in the initial Run Manager input screen, a solver view window will appear when the analysis starts running. This will allow the user to select one of the options (INFO, STOP, KILL, H3D, ANIM, RFILE, and CHKP) and click Send Command. For more details on all of these options, refer to Control File (C-File).

Note: The ANIM or H3D option can be used to create an extra animation file at the current or specified time or cycle. This is very useful when wanting to see the status of a simulation. The STOP option can stop the analysis and create a restart file that can later be used to continue the solution.

From a HyperWorks Script

Launch Radioss from a command line using the script included in HyperWorks.

This script should be used when running Radioss on high-performance computing cluster via a job scheduler because many environment variables are already defined so it simplifies the setup. All the options available in the HyperWorks Solver Run Manager can be used from the command line.

To run on Linux from the command line, type the following:

<install_dir>/altair/scripts/radioss  "filename" -option argument

To run from a Windows DOS prompt, type the following:

<install_dir>\hwsolvers\scripts\radioss.bat "filename" -option argument

The script options are described in All Available Run Options.

From HyperMesh

When creating a Radioss finite element model in HyperMesh, the simulation can be ran directly in HyperMesh by going to the Radioss panel.

The panels can be accessed through the Analysis page, through the Utility menu, or through the Applications menu. The panel will ask for the input filename. After clicking the Solver button, the model is exported using the given export options. Then the Solver runs the script that is provided locally on the machine. After Solver execution, the results can be viewed in HyperView by clicking HyperView.

Note: On Linux, when running Radioss from HyperMesh, a shell is spawned with the DISPLAY setting <hostname>:0.0. If this is different from the DISPLAY setting for HyperMesh, 25/38 HyperWorks units (in addition to the 21 HyperWorks units being used for HyperMesh) will be checked out. To avoid the checking out of additional units, be sure that the DISPLAY is set to <hostname>:0.0 before starting HyperMesh.

Run Executables Directly

The Radioss executables can be executed directly, but various environment variables need to be defined.

It is therefore recommended and easier to utilize the Radioss script included in HyperWorks when launching jobs on a computer server. If it is still necessary to run the executables directly, the following environment variables must be set.

RADFLEX_PATH=<install_dir>/hwsolvers/common/bin/<platform>/

RAD_H3D_PATH = <install_dir>/hwsolvers/radioss/lib/<platform>/

HWSOLVERS_TEMPLEX =<install_dir>/hwsolvers/common/bin/<platform>/

ABF_PATH =<install_dir>/hwsolvers/radioss/bin/<platform>/

The per thread stacksize environment variable should also be defined when using the SMP version.

Linux: KMP_STACKSIZE=400m
Windows: KMP_STACKSIZE=400m

Windows Only: Update environment variable, PATH=%PATH%;\<install_dir>\hwsolvers\common\bin\win64;\ <install_dir>\hwsolvers\radioss\lib\win64

Linux Only

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<install_dir>/hwsolvers/common/bin/linux64/:<install_dir>/hwsolvers/radioss/lib/linux64

The stacksize memory should be set to unlimited using these commands depending on login shell.

Using csh shell: limit stacksize unlimited
Using sh shell: unlim -s unlimited

The Radioss executables can be found in <install_dir>\hwsolvers\radioss\bin\<platform>\.

Now to run the Radioss Starter and Engine:

./s_<version>_<platform> –i <arguments> <prefix>_0000.rad
./e_<version>_<platform> –i <arguments> <prefix>_0001.rad

Refer to the Advanced Installation Guide for information on using Radioss with MPI software.

Starter and Engine Exit Codes

The Starter and Engine provide exit codes that can be used by scripts.

The values are:

0: Normal termination.
2: Model or computation error.
3 or 128 + Signal number: Process failure (core dump, segmentation fault).

In Linux the error code is set by the operating system: 136 (floating point exception) or 139 (segmentation fault). The exit code can be obtain using the ‘$?’ command in a Linux shell script.

#!/bin/bash
s_2019.1_linux64 –input [Starter_input]_0000.rad –np 96
Exit_code=$?
echo $Exit_code

In Windows, use the "errorlevel" variable in a script.

s_2019.1_win64.exe –input [Starter_input]_0000.rad –np 96
echo %errorlevel%

Starter Command Line Arguments

The Radioss Starter supports the following command line arguments.

Argument	Short Form	Description
`-help`	`-h`	Print help message
`-version`	`-v`	Print Radioss release information
`-input [FILE]`	`-i`	Set Radioss Starter input file
`-nspmd [INTEGER]`	`-np`	Set number of SPMD domains
`-nthread [INTEGER]`	`-nt`	Set number of threads per SPMD domains
`-notrap`		Disable error trapping
`-check`		Option to check the model. Disable domain decomposition and restart file writing.
`-outfile=[output path]`		Defines the output file directory for all files created.

-help Argument

Prints help information on the command line arguments.

Radioss Starter exits after the printout.

-version Argument

Prints Radioss release information.

Information printed includes:

Radioss title
Radflex name
Version to use
Build information (date, time of build and build tag)

Radioss Starter exits after the printout.

-input [FILE] Argument

Sets the Radioss Starter input file.

The FILE argument must be a Radioss Starter input file with the following format: [ROOTNAME]_[RUN NUMBER].rad

where:

ROOTNAME is the dataset rootname

RUN NUMBER is the run number expressed in four numbers.

e.g. CRA2V51_0000.rad
ROOTNAME: CRA2V51
RUN NUMBER: 0000

Note:

ROOTNAME and RUN NUMBER are extracted from the input file.
The dataset ROOTNAME and RUN NUMBER settings in /BEGIN are ignored when the -input command option is used.
If the file name doesn't have the correct format, the file is rejected.
The file is open. Standard input is no longer used.
If -input is not set, Radioss Starter opens standard input to read input.

Example


[user@machine]$  ./s_2019_linux64 -input CRA2V51_0000.rad
************************************************************************
**                                                                    **
**                                                                    **
**                       RADIOSS STARTER 2019                         **
**                                                                    **
**            Non-linear Finite Element Analysis Software             **
**                   from Altair Engineering, Inc.                    **
**                                                                    **
**                                                                    **
**              Linux 64 bits, Intel compiler, Intel MPI              **
**                                                                    **
**                                                                    **
**                                                                    **
** Build tag: 0479348_2413000                                         **
************************************************************************
**  COPYRIGHT (C) 1986-2019                 Altair Engineering, Inc.  **
** All Rights Reserved.  Copyright notice does not imply publication. **
** Contains trade secrets of Altair Engineering Inc.                  **
** Decompilation or disassembly of this software strictly prohibited. **
************************************************************************
 
.. BLOCK FREE FORMAT
CRA2V51
.. CONTROL VARIABLES
.. UNITS SYSTEM
.. MATERIALS
.. NODES
.. PROPERTIES
.. 3D SHELL ELEMENTS
.. SUBSETS
.. ELEMENT GROUPS
.. NODE GROUP
.. BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
.. INITIAL VELOCITIES
.. ELEMENT GROUPS
.. ADDED MASSES
.. ELEMENT BUFFER INITIALIZATION
.. GEOMETRY PLOT FILE
.. RESTART FILE
 
    NORMAL TERMINATION
    ------------------------
         0 ERROR(S)
         0 WARNING(S)
 
 
PLEASE CHECK OUTPUT FILE FOR FURTHER DETAILS
 
[user@machine]$

-nthread [SMP THREAD NUMBER] Argument

Sets the number of SMP threads per SPMD domain. Each SPMD domain will be computed using a multi-threaded process composed of SMP THREAD NUMBER.

Where, SMP THREAD NUMBER: INTEGER is the number of SMP threads per SPMD domain.

Example:

[user@machine]$ ./s_2019_linux64 -nthread 2

Note:

If the SMP THREAD NUMBER value is not properly set, Radioss Starter stops with error message.
If -nthread is set, the number of threads set in /SPMD input card is ignored. /SPMD card can be omitted if other parameters are kept as default settings.
The total number of processes used for the Radioss Engine computation will be equal to SPMD DOMAIN NUMBER * SMP THREAD NUMBER.

-notrap Argument

Disables the trapping error of Radioss Starter.

By default, in case of error, Radioss Starter will display an error message that corresponds to the error occurred and stop properly. If -notrap is used, Radioss Starter will continue and potentially core dumps where the error occurs. This behavior is sometimes helpful to trace the error with external tools.

General Behavior, Error Handling

-version
-help
-nspmd, -input, -nthread, -notrap

Note: Arguments 1, 2 and 3 cannot be used together.

-nspmd, -nthread, -notrap and -input can be used together; and the order does not matter.

If an error is encountered like:

Missing argument to -input or -nspmd or -nthread
-input argument is not a Radioss file format
-nspmd or -nthread argument are not an integer value
unknown command line argument used

An error message is printed out with the -help printouts.

-check Argument

Option to stop the Starter after model check.

The domain decomposition calculation and writing of the restart files (.rst) is not done. This reduces the time to run for the Starter model to run when doing a model check.

-outfile=[output path] Argument

The Starter writes all output and restart files in the defined output path.

The output path can be absolute or relative. If there is a space in the output path then, quotes must be used in the path. On Windows, either “/” or “\” can be used between directories.

Example

Linux:

s_2020.1_linux64 -i TENSI36_0000.rad -outfile=/storage/files/run1
s_2020.1_linux64 -i TENSI36_0000.rad -outfile="../my directory"
s_2020.1_linux64 -i TENSI36_0000.rad -outfile="/storage/files/my directory"

Windows:

s_2020.1_win64.exe -i TENSI36_0000.rad -outfile=c:\storage\files\run1
s_2020.1_win64.exe -i TENSI36_0000.rad -outfile="../my directory"
s_2020.1_win64.exe -i TENSI36_0000.rad -outfile="c:/storage/files/my directory"

Engine Command Line Argument

Radioss Engine HMPP executables are available (as of version 11.0) with MPI and are fully Hybrid capable mixing SPMD and SMP parallelization.

Simplified executables also exist, which are only SMP capable but do not require MPI.

To distinguish easily between these two types of executables, MPI executables have a _mpp suffix.

For binaries compiled with MPI, they need to be run through the mpirun command. The general form is as follows:
```
mpirun [list of mpirun option] engine_executable_mpp [list of engine option]
```
Note: The list of mpirun options depends on the MPI vendor. Refer to the MPI documentation.
For binaries compiled without MPI:
```
engine_executable [list of engine option]
```
Note: The list of Radioss Engine options is the same for both types of executables.

Radioss Engine supports the following command line arguments. Each argument has a long and a short form. These are executable arguments.

Argument	Short Form	Description
`-help`	`-h`	Print help message
`-version`	`-v`	Print Radioss release information
`-input [FILE]`	`-i`	Set Radioss Engine input file
`-nthread [INTEGER]`	`-nt`	Set Number of SMP threads per SPMD domain
`-notrap`		Disable error trapping
`-norst`		Disable restart *.rst file writing during and at the end of the computation
`-outfile=[output path]`		Defines the output file directory for all files created.

-help Argument

Prints help information on the command line arguments.

Radioss Engine exits after the printout.

-version Argument

Prints Radioss release information.

Information includes:

Radioss title
Radflex name
Version to use
Build information (date, time of build and build tag)

Radioss Engine exits after the printout.

-input [FILE] Argument

Sets the Radioss Engine input file.

The FILE argument must be a Radioss Engine input file with the following format: [ROOTNAME]_[RUN NUMBER].rad

where:

ROOTNAME is the dataset rootname
RUN NUMBER is the run number expressed in four numbers.

Note:

ROOTNAME and RUN NUMBER are extracted from the input file.
The dataset ROOTNAME and RUN NUMBER settings in /RUN are ignored, when the -input command option is used.
If the file name doesn't have the correct format, the file is rejected.
The file is open. Standard input is no longer used.
If -input is not set, Radioss Engine opens standard input to read input.

Example

 
[user@machine]$  mpirun -np 4 ./e_2019_linux64 impi -nt 2 -input CRA2V51_0001.rad
************************************************************************
**                                                                    **
**                                                                    **
**                        RADIOSS ENGINE 2019                         **
**                                                                    **
**            Non-linear Finite Element Analysis Software             **
**                   from Altair Engineering, Inc.                    **
**                                                                    **
**                                                                    **
**             Linux 64 bits, Intel compiler, Intel MPI               **
**                                                                    **
**                                                                    **
**                                                                    **
** Build tag: 0479348_2413000                                         **
************************************************************************
**  COPYRIGHT (C) 1986-2019                 Altair Engineering, Inc.  **
** All Rights Reserved.  Copyright notice does not imply publication. **
** Contains trade secrets of Altair Engineering Inc.                  **
** Decompilation or disassembly of this software strictly prohibited. **
************************************************************************
 
ROOT: CRA2V51  RESTART: 0001
NUMBER OF HMPP PROCESSES    8
17/10/2008
NC=       0 T= 0.0000E+00 DT= 1.7916E-03 ERR=  0.0% DM/M= 0.0000E+00
    ANIMATION FILE: CRA2V51A001 WRITTEN
NC=     100 T= 1.7826E-01 DT= 1.7700E-03 ERR=  0.0% DM/M= 0.0000E+00
...
NC=   13700 T= 1.9871E+01 DT= 1.4032E-03 ERR= -1.2% DM/M= 0.0000E+00
 
                          ** CPU USER TIME **
 
#PROC	CONT.SORT	CONT.F	ELEMENT	MAT	KIN.COND	INTEGR.	I/O	TASK0	ASSEMB	RESOL
1	.0000E+00	.0000E+00	.1144E+02	.2910E+01	.7000E-01	.5600E+00	.3100E+00	.5000E+00	.3700E+00	.1364E+02
2	.0000E+00	.0000E+00	.1102E+02	.2870E+01	.7000E-01	.5600E+00	.0000E+00	.0000E+00	.3300E+00	.1364E+02
 
 
ELAPSED TIME :      7.79 s
 
    RESTART FILE: CRA2V51_0001_0000.rst WRITTEN
    NORMAL TERMINATION
    TOTAL NUMBER OF CYCLES:   13793
[user@machine]$

-nthread [SMP THREAD NUMBER] Argument

Sets the number of SMP threads per SPMD domain. Each SPMD domain will be computed using a multi-threaded process composed of SMP THREAD NUMBER.

Where, SMP THREAD NUMBER: INTEGER is the number of SMP threads per SPMD domain.

Example

[user@machine]$ mpirun -np 4 ./e_2019_linux64 impi -nthread 2 -input CRA2V51_0001.rad

Note:

If the INTEGER value is not properly set, the Radioss Starter stops with error message.
If -nthread is set, the number of threads defined in the Starter run (/SPMD input card, -nthread command line) or previous Engine run is ignored.
The environment variable OMP_NUM_THREADS can also be used to change the number of threads. -nthread remains prior to OMP_NUM_THREADS.
For performance reason, it is recommended to use OMP_NUM_THREADS instead of -nt. This informs the system of the true number of threads used.
The total number of processes used for the Radioss Engine computation will be equal to SPMD DOMAIN NUMBER * SMP THREAD NUMBER.

General Behavior, Error Handling

-version
-help
-input, -nthread, -notrap

The argument order in the command line does not matter.

If an error is encountered like:

Missing argument to -input or -nthread
-input argument is not a Radioss file format
-nthread argument is not an integer

An error message is printed with the -help printouts.

MPI and Radioss Options Coherency

The -nspmd value (or Nspmd field of /SPMD Starter input card) must match the mpirun -np value. If this is not the case, Radioss Engine will stop with an appropriate error message.

Example of incorrect commands:

[user@machine]$ ./s_2019_linux64 -nspmd 4 -input CRA2V51_0000.rad

[user@machine]$ mpirun -np 2 ./e_2019_linux64 impi -input CRA2V51_0001.rad

In this case, Radioss will display an error message in standard output and listing file:

THE REQUIRED NUMBER OF MPI PROCESSES DOES NOT MATCH MPIRUN
  PLEASE, RUN WITH THE PROPER NUMBER OF MPI PROCESSES
  REQUIRED  (NSPMD)       =           4
  AVAILABLE (mpirun -np)  =           2
  E R R O R     T E R M I N A T I O N
  TOTAL NUMBER OF CYCLES  :           0

Example of correct commands:

[user@machine]$ ./s_2019_linux64 -nspmd 4 -input CRA2V51_0000.rad
[user@machine]$ mpirun -np 4 ./e_2019_linux64 impi -input CRA2V51_0001.rad

-notrap Argument

Add this option to force core dump.

This is a useful option to get call stack traceback.

-norst Argument

Option to disable restart *.rst file writing during and at the end of the computation.

This makes the Engine run faster because of the reduction in files written.

-outfile=[output path] Argument

The Engine writes all output and restart files in the defined output path.

The output path can be absolute or relative. If there is a space in the output path then, quotes must be used in the path. On Windows, either “/” or “\” can be used between directories.

Example

Linux:

e_2020.1_linux64 -i TENSI36_0000.rad -outfile=/storage/files/run1
e_2020.1_linux64 -i TENSI36_0000.rad -outfile="../my directory"
e_2020.1_linux64 -i TENSI36_0000.rad -outfile="/storage/files/my directory"

Windows:

e_2020.1_win64.exe -i TENSI36_0000.rad -outfile=c:\storage\files\run1
e_2020.1_win64.exe -i TENSI36_0000.rad -outfile="../my directory"
e_2020.1_win64.exe -i TENSI36_0000.rad -outfile="c:/storage/files/my directory