Running Distributed Solver Files with ifx:Solve

Tutorial 13 - Figure 6 - ifx:Solve window

 

ifx:Solve is a software product by Insight Numerics which has only one purpose - to calculate .ifx or .ifxs files.

 

The user-interface for ifx:Solve, shown above, is significantly reduced to free up as much of the system resources as possible for solving in:Flux projects. There is no 3D window, nor the ability to view/edit the project. Only a Scheduler is shown, which can edit the priority of simulations to be solved, as with in:Flux. At the upper right corner of the window, information about the current memory and CPU usage is listed. If simulations are running and CPU usage averages below 70%, you may want to create an additional solver file to optimize CPU usage.

 

 

Upon opening the software, a license key needs to be entered. Note that an in:Flux license will not work with ifx:Solve, a separate license is needed. Once a valid license is entered, the software will be available to open .ifx or .ifxs project files or distributed solver files.

 

Note - *.ifxs files can still be opened in the main in:Flux software, however, as the *.ifxs file type is a distributed solver file, the geometry and other objects in the 3D window are hidden to free up memory to use for the calculation. It is advised to use ifx:Solve to open the .ifxs file type.

 

In this example, the "Tutorial 13 -01.ifxs" file will be used. This is the second of six files created from the original Tutorial13.ifx MASTER file. Once the simulations have loaded and are listed in the Scheduled tab, click the "Run" button at the top of the window, shown by the red arrow below.

 

Tutorial 13 - Figure 7 - ifx:Solve window with loaded solver file

 

As simulations are solved, they will populate under the 'Complete' tab.

 

Tutorial 13 - Figure 8 - Display of Completed tab of the ifx:Solve window

 

If ifx:Solve is running on the same machine as the MASTER file and the directory for the distributed file did not change, then as simulations complete in ifx:Solve they will populate in the MASTER file.

 

However, the goal for ifx:Solve is to allow you to move the distributed solver file to a second machine such as a high-performance virtual machine to expedite solving simulations.

 

As with in:Flux, saving within ifx:Solve will pause the currently calculated simulation and save the file. After saving, the paused simulation will automatically restart.