Simcenter STAR-CCM+ What? Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Client for NX/SC 3D, both running on Linux?

The functionality of a Linux-based CAD client for NX/Simcenter 3D (supporting NX/SC 3D 12.02 versions onwards) was added in the 2021.1 version of Simcenter STAR-CCM+. The main advantages of this approach are:

• directly leverage NX/SC 3D models on Linux machines,
• no need for often challenging cross-platform (Windows-Linux) communication setup.

It is important to highlight that on the Linux platform, NX/SC 3D software is only supported in batch mode.

Installation procedure

Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Client for NX/SC 3D setup procedure is straightforward and very similar to when both are installed on Windows, the steps are:

1. Install the batch version of NX or SC 3D. It is worth checking which version of NX/SC 3D is supported by CAD client functionality, rule here is that the latest version of Simcenter STAR-CCM+ supports up to the latest version of NX/SC 3D (which is released a few months before), e.g. 2210 version of Simcenter STAR-CCM+ will support NX/SC 3D from version 12 up to 2206.
2. A dedicated NX/SC 3D Batch install for Linux needs to be used. It can be found together with installation instructions in the Support Center.
3. When installing Simcenter STAR-CCM+ an option for the user to provide the NX/SC 3D installation path is provided. On the following page options for installing Simcenter STAR-CCM+ with the Client for NX/SC 3D should be checked.

Then on the next page depending on which NX/SC 3D version is installed, it is possible to enter the related installation path.
This way, the installation path information will be written into a file, sitesettings.props, in the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ installation directory: STAR-CCM+XX.YY.ZZZ/star/config with this format:

InstallDirectoryNX1872Series=/opt/NX_batch/nx1872

When installing a new NX/SC 3D version when Simcenter STAR-CCM+ is already installed, the user can create or modify appsitesettings.props file in the following path within the user home directory:  ~/.star-XX.YY.ZZZ/config/apps. Assuming that the user installed NX version 2206, we can add the following line in the appsitesettings.props file:

InstallDirectoryNX2206Series=/opt/NX_batch/nx2206

The system will first check the appsitesettings.props file, if the path is not defined then it will continue with searching the sitesettings.props file that was created during the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ installation.

Additional requirements:

1. Running Simcenter STAR-CCM+ Client for NX/SC 3D on Linux requires the Motif libraries installed on the machine, to check the existence of the correct library the following command could be used:

locate libXm.so.4

If the library is not found then needs to be installed before NX/SC 3D Batch can be used on the Linux platform,

2. To run NX/SC 3D with batch mode an additional license is needed on the NX/SC 3D side (e.g. NX Batch - NX30182),
3. The NX/SC 3D Batch license allows performing design automation, exploration, and optimization using NX/SC 3D Batch on a Linux Operating System (both RedHat and SUSE),
4. Before attempting to run NX/SC 3D Batch, the bundle license containing by default Gateway license needs to be indicated by the system variable e.g., for product Id NX Mach 3 - NX93100:

UGS_LICENSE_BUNDLE = NX93100

More information can be found in the Simcenter STAR-CCM and NX/SC 3D installation and user guide available in the Support Center.