MESHFREE-GUI

(experimental) Graphical User Interface designed for specific use cases

General Information

The development of the MESHFREE-GUI prototype is based on the Computational Model Builder (CMB) framework from the company Kitware. The CMB is closely related to the visualization software ParaView, which is also developed by the company Kitware. While ParaView is a pure visualization tool, the focus of CMB is on reading geometric data and processing it into suitable input data for specialized simulation software. For MESHFREE (see Figure below), this is implemented in the form of application-specific wizards for preparing and starting a simulation. At the same time, CMB allows direct use of almost the full range of functions provided by ParaView, making a separate visualization tool obsolete. Note: The first available wizard adresses the application of water management for a user-selected geometry. Further application-specific wizards are planned, see below. Here should be a picture

Figure: Start screen of the MESHFREE-GUI.

Installation Guide

Currently, only a Windows version is available that has been tested for Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022 (or later). A version of the MESHFREE-GUI for Linux will follow soon. For installation, please follow the steps below:

Download the MESHFREE-GUI zip file from https://owncloud.fraunhofer.de/MESHFREEGUI (please contact our Support team to request login credentials)
Extract the zip file to <yourNameOfTheGuiFolder>
Change to folder <yourNameOfTheGuiFolder>/meshfreegui<version>/
Start the MESHFREE-GUI by clicking on meshfreegui.bat (your file manager may not show the file extension .bat)
Set the license file under Edit -> Settings... -> MESHFREE -> MESHFREE License File (select the included test license: <yourPathToTheGUI>/<yourNameOfTheGuiFolder>/meshfreegui<version>/share/meshfreegui/lic/MESHFREElite_test_license_GUI_30_sep_2026.lic)

If you require help, please contact our Support team with the precise steps you have taken as well as complete output and error messages (both preferred as text files rather than screen shots).

Use Cases

In this section, we provide a brief overview of the available wizards. Detailed descriptions can be found on the corresponding pages.

Water Management

The WaterManagement wizard in the MESHFREE-GUI enables users to simulate rainfall on arbitrary geometries. The wizard automatically creates and runs a MESHFREE simulation by configuring all required entries in USER_common_variables, while exposing only the most relevant ones to the user. The underlying setup uses the DropletSource mechanism BasedOnVolumeFlux, where droplet size, chamber index, and material index (water) are predefined in the GUI, ensuring consistency and ease of use. A guided GUI workflow supports selecting the output directory, loading and preloading the geometry, defining all physical parameters (rainfall volume flux, the position and extent of the raining area, the wetting angle, and the durations of rain and drainage), as well as choosing the number of parallel processes before starting the simulation. This wizard provides an efficient and user-friendly way to set up and execute water management simulations without directly editing the MESHFREE configuration files.

Planned

The following application-specific wizards are currently in preparation.

Ship Maneuver
Mixing