PreVABS

PreVABS is a preprocessing tool for VABS and SwiftComp. It helps users to create cross-sections and write input files.

Online documentation: https://wenbinyugroup.github.io/prevabs/

Installation

Prebuilt release packages are intended to run without a full source build toolchain. The sections below describe what is already bundled and what users still need to install manually.

Windows

Runtime package (prevabs-<ver>-windows-x64.zip)

Bundled in the package:

• prevabs.exe
• gmsh-<major>.<minor>.dll
• MaterialDB.xml
• README.md
• LICENSE
• LICENSE-gmsh.txt
• CREDITS-gmsh.txt

Manual installation still required:

• Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2022 (x64), if not already installed on the target machine
• VABS and/or SwiftComp, if you want PreVABS to execute those solvers with --execute

Usage:

• Unzip the package
• Run prevabs.exe from the package root, or add that directory to PATH

Full package (prevabs-<ver>-windows-x64-full.zip)

Includes everything in the runtime package, plus:

• gmsh/gmsh.exe
• gmsh/onelab.py when present in the SDK

This package is useful when users want the standalone Gmsh application in addition to the PreVABS runtime.

Linux

Ubuntu package (prevabs-<ver>-linux-ubuntu-x64.tar.gz)

Bundled in the package:

• prevabs
• libgmsh.so*
• MaterialDB.xml
• README.md
• LICENSE
• LICENSE-gmsh.txt
• CREDITS-gmsh.txt

Manual installation still required:

• System runtime libraries required by Gmsh/OpenGL/X11 if they are not already present on the machine. On Ubuntu/Debian, these typically include libglu1-mesa, libgl1, libx11-6, libxrender1, libxft2, libxcursor1, libxfixes3, libxinerama1, and libfontconfig1.
• VABS and/or SwiftComp, if you want PreVABS to execute those solvers with --execute

RHEL package (prevabs-<ver>-linux-rhel9-x64.tar.gz)

Bundled in the package:

• prevabs
• libgmsh.so*
• MaterialDB.xml
• README.md
• LICENSE
• LICENSE-gmsh.txt
• CREDITS-gmsh.txt

Manual installation still required:

• System runtime libraries required by Gmsh/OpenGL/X11 if they are not already present on the machine. On RHEL/Rocky 9, these typically include mesa-libGLU, libglvnd-glx, libX11, libXrender, libXft, libXcursor, libXfixes, libXinerama, and fontconfig.
• VABS and/or SwiftComp, if you want PreVABS to execute those solvers with --execute

Examples package

prevabs-<ver>-examples.zip contains only example input files. It does not contain the executable or runtime libraries.

Usage

prevabs -i <main_input.xml> [options]

Options

Required arguments
------------------

-i, --input <file>       Input XML file (required)

Analysis mode (exactly one required)
------------------------------------

--hm, --homogenization   Homogenization (build cross section and generate input)
--dh, --dehomogenization Dehomogenization (recovery - read 1D beam analysis results)
--fs, --failure-strength Initial failure strength analysis (SwiftComp only)
--fe, --failure-envelope Initial failure envelope (SwiftComp only)
--fi, --failure-index    Initial failure indices and strength ratios

Analysis tool (optional)
-------------------------

--vabs                  Use VABS format (default)
--sc                    Use SwiftComp format

Additional options
------------------

--ver <version>         Tool version (e.g. 3.0)
--integrated            Use integrated solver (implies --execute)
-e, --execute           Execute VABS/SwiftComp after generating input
-v, --visualize         Visualize meshed cross section or contour plots
--gmsh-verbosity <n>    Gmsh log verbosity (0=silent, 1=errors, 2=warnings, 3=info, 5=debug)
-d, --debug             Debug mode

Build from source

Requirements

• Compiler: C and C++ (C++11)
• CMake 3.14 or higher
• Libraries
  • Gmsh SDK

Windows (MSVC)

1. Setup Gmsh

   • Download the Gmsh SDK from https://gmsh.info/
   • Unzip to a directory
   • No SDK header renaming is needed; PreVABS selects gmsh.h_cwrap automatically on Windows builds
   • Set environment variable Gmsh_ROOT to the Gmsh SDK root directory

2. Build PreVABS

   # Full clean build
   powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File tools\build-msvc.ps1 full
   
   # Incremental rebuild
   powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File tools\build-msvc.ps1 fast

The executable will be at build_msvc\Release\prevabs.exe.

WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

Build the Windows MSVC executable from within WSL without switching to a Windows terminal. Requires powershell.exe to be accessible from WSL (standard on Windows 10/11).

1. Follow the Windows (MSVC) Gmsh setup step above.

2. Run the WSL build script from the repo root:

   # Full clean build
   bash tools/build-wsl.sh full
   
   # Incremental rebuild (default)
   bash tools/build-wsl.sh fast
   
   # Remove build directory
   bash tools/build-wsl.sh clean

The executable will be at build_msvc\Release\prevabs.exe (Windows path).

Linux

1. Unpack the source and change to the package root.

2. The default compiler is GCC. To use a different compiler, edit the -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER / -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER options in tools/build_linux_64.sh.

3. Run the build script:

   ./tools/build_linux_64.sh

4. Add the output directories to your environment:

   export PATH=<PREVABS_DIR>/bin:$PATH
   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<PREVABS_DIR>/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

License

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Release packages also include:

• this project's LICENSE
• the bundled Gmsh license and credits files when Gmsh binaries are included