Easy Upgrade Tips

JohnM

Some tips on how to make upgrading Mecway / CCX / Gmsh and other things a bit easier.
These notes are well suited for someone administering to a group of users, but also useful for individuals.


1. Get latest CCX from dhondt.de site, from a hyperlink simply called "files"

It will look something like this: http://www.dhondt.de/calculix_2.20.1_4win.zip

Have a bat file to update related softwares. Copy to Public directory, IT/Windows Security won't complain.
The example below copies CCX, Gmsh into Public directory from a network drive.

rem ***** BEGIN sample_update_software.bat 
  
@echo off

 
@echo *****   Updating Calculix Solver                                                          
@echo *****   PASTIX is Default, switch using Library  CCX_custom_commands  PARDISO SOLVER      
c:
cd c:\Users\Public
echo The current directory is %CD% 

mkdir calculix_2.20_4win
cd    calculix_2.20_4win
 
xcopy /E /Y Z:\SOFTWARE\SOFTWARE\calculix_2.20_4win  .
cd ..

@echo *****   Update Gmsh Solver     *****
 
mkdir gmsh-4.10.5-Windows64
cd    gmsh-4.10.5-Windows64
 
xcopy /E /Y Z:\SOFTWARE\SOFTWARE\gmsh-4.10.5-Windows64  .
cd ..
 
pause

rem ***** END sample_update_software.bat 

2. Install latest Mecway, do a "Launch Mecway" and quit

3. Have a bat file to modify the user.config file

This file is located under the AppData directories, find it with this path:

   cd C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Mecway_Limited\mec*\20.*  

Make a master.top file from the latest user.config, keeping all lines up the the last

 </setting> 

command

Make a master.bot file of that has the last few lines, it will look like this:

          </Mecway.My.MySettings>
        </userSettings>
    </configuration>

Make a "user.config sandwich" from the new user.config, with your updates and the user key in the middle:

   type master_user_config.top  your_user_config_updates.mid  master_user_config.bot > user.config

Replace the user.config in the same location C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Mecway_Limited\mec*\20.*


Below is an example of customized user.config inputs
They point to a Mecway_Library, the GMsh and CCX software, a Python Script library, and some DefaultMeshingParameters.
These will overwrite existing settings above in the master_user_config.top, but everything else will stay the same.

            <setting name="LibraryPath" serializeAs="String">
                <value>Z:\SOFTWARE\Mecway_Library</value>
            </setting>
            <setting name="GmshPath" serializeAs="String">
                <value>C:\Users\Public\gmsh-4.10.5-Windows64\gmsh.exe</value>
            </setting>                       
            <setting name="CCXSolverPath" serializeAs="String">
                <value>C:\Users\Public\calculix_2.20_4win\ccx_dynamic.exe</value>
            </setting>            
            <setting name="Scripts" serializeAs="Xml">
                <value>
                    <ArrayOfString xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
                        <string>Z:\SOFTWARE\Mecway_Library\PythonScripts\AA_Python_QUICKREF.py</string>
                        <string>Z:\SOFTWARE\Mecway_Library\PythonScripts\center_of_circle_3pts.py</string>
                        <string>Z:\SOFTWARE\Mecway_Library\PythonScripts\solve_then_save.py</string>
                    </ArrayOfString>
                </value>
            </setting>        
            <setting name="DefaultMeshingParameters" serializeAs="String">
                <value>&lt;mesher elementspercurve="1" elementsperedge="2" grading="0.3" volume="true" quaddominated="true" quadratic="true" straightedges="true" /&gt;</value>
            </setting>  

4. User the Mecway_Library to easily switch solvers (see fig)