FDS Compilation

This page describes how to compile FDS, a computational fluid dynamics program written in Fortran (2008 standard). We use the latest version of the Intel Fortran compiler, but other compilers should work, such as the Gnu Fortran compiler. If you find an up-to-date Fortran compiler that does not work, let us know.

To get started, we recommend that you get an account on GitHub and fork the FDS-SMV Repository. See the Git User Workflow wiki for more details. We also recommend that you use a computer with a linux operating system. We compile under linux, Windows, and Mac OS X, but you will find the instructions below are aimed at linux.

Preliminaries

• Install the Fortran compiler on your computer.
• Fork the FDS-SMV Repository and clone it on your computer.
• For the Intel compiler, define the IFORT_COMPILER environment variable to point to where your compiler resides. For example, if you use the bash shell place the following line:
  export IFORT_COMPILER=/opt/intel/composerxe
  in your .bashrc (Linux) or .bash_profile (Mac OS X) start up file. For the tcsh shell, place the following line:
  setenv IFORT_COMPILER /opt/intel/composerxe
  in your .tcsh start up file. (Of course put in your own compiler location)
• If you are working on a Windows PC, install the Gnu make utility. If the make command doesn't work, add the location of the make application to your PATH.
• If you are working under Linux, OSX, or some other form of Unix, install OpenMPI.
• If you are working under Windows, you must purchase and install the Intel MPI libraries.

Building FDS

There is a general purpose makefile for FDS compilation in the FDS Repository directory called Build. To compile FDS for your particular OS, do the following:

• Open a command shell and cd to the appropriate folder within Build, such as mpi_intel_linux_64 for the Intel compiler or mpi_gnu_linux and for the GNU compiler.
• Type make_fds.bat or make_fds.sh, depending on your OS.

Alternatively on a Windows PC you may

• Open the directory Build\mpi_intel_win_64 directory within using the Windows Explorer interface
• Double-click on the make_fds.bat batch file

If you get stuck, take a look at the make_fds script to better understand what is actually happening. Chances are that there a different path name or compiler version number installed on your machine.

Profiling FDS

Steps to determine where FDS spends its time executing.

• Build FDS: cd into Build/intel_linux_64_profile and type ./make_fds.sh
• Run FDS:
  fds_intel_64_profile casename.fds
• Generate profiling results:
  gprof fds_intel_64_profile > profile.out

The profiling results may now be viewed in the file profile.out