When attempting to run a DMP solution on Windows, the solution fails with an error like the following:
[-1:2740]ERROR:execvp error on file: c:\program, The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect. [-1:2740]ERROR:execvp error on file: files\siemens\simcenternastran\scnas\em64tntl\nastran.exe, The system cannot find the path specified. [-1:2740]ERROR:execvp error on file: c:\program, The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect. [-1:2740]ERROR:execvp error on file: files\siemens\simcenternastran\scnas\em64tntl\nastran.exe, The system cannot find the path specified.
What is causing this error?
Solution
By default, NX, Simcenter 3D, and Simcenter Nastran all install to the c:\program files\ directory. The back end processing of the DMP solution cannot deal with path's that have spaces in the Names. These solutions will all fail with errors similar to the errors listed above. This limitation is detailed in step 2, of section 8.3, of the Parallel Processing User's Guide.
There are two choices available to the user to resolve this issue. First, the user can elect to reinstall to a directory that does not contain a space in the name (e.g. c:\apps\scn2019.1\). This is probably the preferred method for resolving this issue, but will require a user with admin rights to complete this process.
The second option is to create a symbolic lean to the Nastran directory. This symbolic link is then use to when calling Nastran to launch the DMP solution. This done using the windows command line tool mklink. An example is provided below.
mklink /d c:\scratch\scn2019.1 "c:\Program Files\Siemens\SimcenterNastran" c:\scratch\scn2019.1\bin\nastran.exe dmp=4 dmp_test_model.dat
Note that here the link was created to the SimcenterNastran folder, effectively bypassing the "Program Files" folder. This link can be created in any directory the user has write access to. This command, depending on the system configuration, can be run by a user without admin rights. Further, creating a symbolic link is much faster than uninstalling and reinstall Nastran.
Notes
Section 8.3 of the Parallel Processing User's Guide.