Troubleshooting and FAQ

Installation and startup

"Elmer was not found" in Messages.

Install Elmer (Installation), then open File  Preferences…​, Browse…​ to the folder that contains bin/ElmerSolver, and click Detect. On Linux, which ElmerSolver shows where the package put it.

macOS says the app can’t be opened.

The build isn’t signed. Right-click Elmer Studio in Applications and choose Open once.

The Graphics window shows a notice instead of the model.

There is no usable OpenGL 3.2 driver (common in virtual machines and remote desktops). Use Mesa’s software renderer: see Graphics without a GPU. Everything except the 3D view keeps working.

The AppImage does nothing.

Make it executable (chmod +x ElmerStudio-*.AppImage). Some distributions also need libfuse2 to run AppImages.

Geometry

Build fails with "point(s) … do not exist" or "face … does not exist".

A fillet, chamfer or face-parallel work plane refers to an entity number that a change upstream removed or renumbered. Select the feature, turn on Show Labels, and pick again.

A boundary condition moved to the wrong face after I changed a parameter.

Entity numbers follow position, and the change reordered them. Use a Box Selection for that feature.

Imported CAD has gaps or tiny faces.

Keep Repair imported geometry on, and try a larger Repair tolerance on Form Union.

Mesh

Meshing fails or takes very long.

Look for very small features (sliver faces, tiny gaps) with Show Labels. Coarsen the size, raise Minimum element size, or simplify the geometry. Try another 3D algorithm on Mesh 1.

Results near an edge or electrode look wrong, but improve a lot with refinement.

Refine locally with a Size node and keep Maximum element growth rate around 1.1–1.3.

Solving

Elmer stops with an error.

Messages quotes Elmer’s ERROR:: line, and Log has the full output. Common causes:

  • a material property needed by the physics is empty (check Material Contents);

  • a domain has no material;

  • an expression uses a name that isn’t a parameter, variable, function or field.

A nonlinear or coupled problem doesn’t converge.

  • For a nonlinear interface, raise the iteration limit, or lower the damping factor in the study’s Solver Configurations.

  • For coupled physics, lower Coupling damping factor on the Stationary step (0.5, then 0.25).

  • For a parametric sweep, keep Reuse solution from previous step on Automatic and use finer steps.

  • For electrode kinetics, see Electrochemistry.

Large 3D models run out of memory.

Use an iterative linear solver (Solver Configurations › Solver › Linear solver: Iterative), a coarser mesh or linear elements, or run in parallel with MPI.

I want to see exactly what Elmer is asked to do.

Study  Show Elmer Input File, and Study  Open Case Folder for the mesh and log. See Elmer under the hood.

Results

A variable I expect isn’t in the expression list.

The list shows what the selected dataset’s solution contains. Check the plot’s Dataset, and that the study solved that physics.

Integrals on a 2D axisymmetric model are 2π·r times larger than I expect.

They are taken in the revolved geometry by default. Clear Compute integral in revolved geometry for r-z integrals.

Reporting a problem

Open an issue on GitHub with:

  • the Elmer Studio version (File  About Elmer Studio) and your operating system;

  • the Elmer version (shown in Messages at startup);

  • the .esm model, or a small one that shows the problem;

  • for solver errors, the case folder’s case.sif and solver.log.