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In this article, we are going to list top open-source software in 2020.
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Let's get started.
List Of 21 Best Open Source Software in 2020
List of Contents
1. VLC Media Player
Yes, we've all heard of this one for sure! VLC Media Player is one of the best open source software used by a mass audience around the globe. Agree or not, but there's a sense of comfort in VLC's environment that nothing won't ever go wrong by using it. The VLC media player supports almost all video file formats, and is undoubtedly one of the most popular cross-platform (Windows, macOS, iOS and Android) media players one can rely upon. Every now and then, VLC Media player keeps on offering new updates and performance improvements, which makes this media player best from the rest.
2. Audacity
Next on our list comes Audacity, which is an open-source digital audio editor available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and other Unix based operators. Audacity is initially developed by a bunch of teen volunteers, and the software comes loaded with all advanced features and tools needed for multi-track audio editing. Audacity supports almost all major audio file formats, including MP3, WAV, FLAC, MP2, and more. So, whether you want to record live audio, make changes to an existing soundtrack, Audacity open-source editor can get the job done for you effortlessly.
3. Avidemux
Avidemux is a light-weighted video editing tool that is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. It is one of the best open-source tools for video editing supporting a variety of file formats, including AVI, DVD, MPEG, MP4, and many more. So, whether you're newly stepping into the image or video editing or if you're a professional editor, Avidemux can be your ideal companion.
4. GIMP
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is next to pop on our open source software list. GIMP is a popular image editing platform that comes loaded with a bunch of advanced editing toolset. If you're looking for a decent Adobe Photoshop alternative, GIMP can be your pick. Whether you are a graphic designer, photographer, illustrator, or scientist, GIMP is equally ideal for beginners as well as creative professionals from any background.
![Open Open](http://cdn.wpbeginner.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ultraedit.jpg)
5. Amarok
Rediscovering new music with Amarok is a whole new experience. Amarok is a powerful open-source audio editing tool where you can not just play or edit audio tracks but also explore new music of different genres. Amarok is more like an iTunes alternative available for Windows, Linux, and macOS platforms.
6. TOR Web Browser
Looking for an open-source web browser? Well, TOR is the first name that will strike your mind. TOR is an intuitive web browser that keeps your privacy intact and allows you to surf the Internet without being tracked. As more and more cybercriminal cases are occurring around us, using the TOR web browser can help you in keeping your identity concealed from hackers. TOR offers multi-layer encryption that strictly prevents you against any kind of surveillance and tracking, so you got nothing to worry about.
7. Apache OpenOffice
Apache OpenOffice is a free and open-source office productivity package that offers you various programs, including Writer like MS Word, Calc like MS Excel. Impress like MS PowerPoint and many other productivity tools. Apache OpenOffice can serve as an MS Office alternative and is used by a majority of users worldwide, not just because it comes free of cost but because it includes an advanced set of tools, features, and functions.
8. LibreOffice
Almost similar to MS Office and Apache OpenOffice, LibreOffice is another open-source office utility tool available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. LibreOffice has a huge user community who are continually working on it to make this product better with each new update. LibreOffice includes all basic and additional features and extensions that are a must in any office suite utility.
9. Inkscape
Inkscape is an open-source professional vector graphics editor available for Windows, macOS, and Linux OS. If you're looking for an Adobe Illustrator alternative, Inkscape can be your fresh change of choice. Inkscape offers you a bunch of flexible drawing tools, supports a majority of file formats, powerful and advanced image editing tools, and many other useful features that are suitable for both beginners and professionals.
10. Blender Graphics Tool
Blender is an amazing 3D creation tool that supports modeling, rendering, motion tracking, compositing, and all possible tasks that can be tagged under the 3D pipeline. If you've heard of Autodesk Maya, then Blender Graphics tool can compete as a strong contender alternative for 3D animation. On Blender, you can easily create full-length animation films to VFX effects, all for free.
11. KeePass
KeePass is a decent open-source password manager pick that is not just easy to use but keeps your security on utmost priority. KeePass comes free of cost, and you can easily rely on this tool for trusting with your passwords. KeePass carefully binds all your passwords in one safe place. So, now you just have to remember one password (master password) to access KeePass. Cool, isn't it?
12. 7-Zip
We've all used WinZip at some point in our lives or other, right? Well, if you're bored of WinZip or looking for a decent alternative, then 7-Zip can impress you with its sharp features and compression tools. 7-Zip is a cross-platform compression tool available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
13. Mozilla Thunderbird
![Open Open](https://classconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/568/files/1186568/preview/fff47be1183d6568b3376bcb6c666093/blur/preview13.jpg)
Mozilla Thunderbird is one of the best open source software which serves as an email client for users. Mozilla Thunderbird can act as an Outlook alternative and comes loaded with a bunch of useful features. On Mozilla Thunderbird, you can manage your entire inbox, chat with your clients, receive RSS feeds, and more. Thunderbird is highly secure and keeps all your emails preserved so that you can have peace of mind.
14. ClamWin
Looking for a free open-source antivirus security tool for Windows? Well, you'll be pleased to download ClamWin on your system. ClamWin is an open-source anti-virus utility tool for Windows that can keep your machine safe from viruses and malware of any kind. ClamWin regularly offers new updates that protect your system for any kind of spyware or viruses.
15. Clonezilla
Clonezilla is a free open-source disk cloning and data recovery utility tool available for Windows and Linux OS. Clonezilla can easily get you through with system backup and restore disk cloning, image restoring, and more. Also, to secure all your data backup and restore sessions, Clonezilla uses AES-256 encryption as a security measure.
38 Games Like Guitar Hero 3 for Mac. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is a music rhythm game. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock retains the basic gameplay from previous games in the Guitar Hero series, where the player uses a guitar-shaped controller to simulate the playing of lead, bass, and rhythm guitar parts in rock songs by playing in time to scrolling notes on-screen. Guitar Hero III drops you into the spotlight of the largest and most legendary. Fire up the fretboard, crank up the amp and get ready to rock like never before. Guitar Hero III Patch for Mac. 38 Games Like Guitar Hero for Mac. Guitar Hero is a music rhythm game. In Guitar Hero the player uses a guitar-shaped controller to simulate the playing of a lead, bass or rhythm guitar in rock songs by playing in time to scrolling notes on-screen.
![Mac Mac](https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/song-of-the-summer-5-seconds-of-summer-534af73d-fad3-4620-a02f-4415476d8a4e.jpg)
5. Amarok
Rediscovering new music with Amarok is a whole new experience. Amarok is a powerful open-source audio editing tool where you can not just play or edit audio tracks but also explore new music of different genres. Amarok is more like an iTunes alternative available for Windows, Linux, and macOS platforms.
6. TOR Web Browser
Looking for an open-source web browser? Well, TOR is the first name that will strike your mind. TOR is an intuitive web browser that keeps your privacy intact and allows you to surf the Internet without being tracked. As more and more cybercriminal cases are occurring around us, using the TOR web browser can help you in keeping your identity concealed from hackers. TOR offers multi-layer encryption that strictly prevents you against any kind of surveillance and tracking, so you got nothing to worry about.
7. Apache OpenOffice
Apache OpenOffice is a free and open-source office productivity package that offers you various programs, including Writer like MS Word, Calc like MS Excel. Impress like MS PowerPoint and many other productivity tools. Apache OpenOffice can serve as an MS Office alternative and is used by a majority of users worldwide, not just because it comes free of cost but because it includes an advanced set of tools, features, and functions.
8. LibreOffice
Almost similar to MS Office and Apache OpenOffice, LibreOffice is another open-source office utility tool available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. LibreOffice has a huge user community who are continually working on it to make this product better with each new update. LibreOffice includes all basic and additional features and extensions that are a must in any office suite utility.
9. Inkscape
Inkscape is an open-source professional vector graphics editor available for Windows, macOS, and Linux OS. If you're looking for an Adobe Illustrator alternative, Inkscape can be your fresh change of choice. Inkscape offers you a bunch of flexible drawing tools, supports a majority of file formats, powerful and advanced image editing tools, and many other useful features that are suitable for both beginners and professionals.
10. Blender Graphics Tool
Blender is an amazing 3D creation tool that supports modeling, rendering, motion tracking, compositing, and all possible tasks that can be tagged under the 3D pipeline. If you've heard of Autodesk Maya, then Blender Graphics tool can compete as a strong contender alternative for 3D animation. On Blender, you can easily create full-length animation films to VFX effects, all for free.
11. KeePass
KeePass is a decent open-source password manager pick that is not just easy to use but keeps your security on utmost priority. KeePass comes free of cost, and you can easily rely on this tool for trusting with your passwords. KeePass carefully binds all your passwords in one safe place. So, now you just have to remember one password (master password) to access KeePass. Cool, isn't it?
12. 7-Zip
We've all used WinZip at some point in our lives or other, right? Well, if you're bored of WinZip or looking for a decent alternative, then 7-Zip can impress you with its sharp features and compression tools. 7-Zip is a cross-platform compression tool available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
13. Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird is one of the best open source software which serves as an email client for users. Mozilla Thunderbird can act as an Outlook alternative and comes loaded with a bunch of useful features. On Mozilla Thunderbird, you can manage your entire inbox, chat with your clients, receive RSS feeds, and more. Thunderbird is highly secure and keeps all your emails preserved so that you can have peace of mind.
14. ClamWin
Looking for a free open-source antivirus security tool for Windows? Well, you'll be pleased to download ClamWin on your system. ClamWin is an open-source anti-virus utility tool for Windows that can keep your machine safe from viruses and malware of any kind. ClamWin regularly offers new updates that protect your system for any kind of spyware or viruses.
15. Clonezilla
Clonezilla is a free open-source disk cloning and data recovery utility tool available for Windows and Linux OS. Clonezilla can easily get you through with system backup and restore disk cloning, image restoring, and more. Also, to secure all your data backup and restore sessions, Clonezilla uses AES-256 encryption as a security measure.
38 Games Like Guitar Hero 3 for Mac. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is a music rhythm game. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock retains the basic gameplay from previous games in the Guitar Hero series, where the player uses a guitar-shaped controller to simulate the playing of lead, bass, and rhythm guitar parts in rock songs by playing in time to scrolling notes on-screen. Guitar Hero III drops you into the spotlight of the largest and most legendary. Fire up the fretboard, crank up the amp and get ready to rock like never before. Guitar Hero III Patch for Mac. 38 Games Like Guitar Hero for Mac. Guitar Hero is a music rhythm game. In Guitar Hero the player uses a guitar-shaped controller to simulate the playing of a lead, bass or rhythm guitar in rock songs by playing in time to scrolling notes on-screen.
16. BRL-CAD
Yes, you guessed that right. BRL-CAD is an AutoCAD alternative available for Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms. BRL-CAD is a powerful application development tool that supports high-performance ray tracing, rendering, geometry editing, and other interactive features that you find on AutoCAD.
17. Bluefish
Next on our open-source software list comes Bluefish that is an ultimate website creation tool for both beginners and professionals. Bluefish is used by a majority of web developers around the world for writing pieces of code and scripts. Bluefish is available for Linux, FreeBSD, macOS, Windows, OpenBSD, and Solaris.
18. NixNote
Taking notes is something that we love to do, whether it's about creating a grocery list, penning down an important phone number, or any piece of information. Well, NixNote is a light-weighted open-source note-taking tool for Windows and Linux, which you can use for creating and managing your day to day notes. On NixNote, you can not only create notes but also save pictures, documents, audio tracks in a well-organized space.
19. Bleach Bit
We're all aware what CCleaner does, right? Well, Bleach Bit is an open-source alternative almost similar to CC cleaner that quickly scans your system and frees up disk space by deleting junk files, temp files, cleaning browsing history, cached data and more to optimize your system's performance.
20. Octave
Octave is an open-source educational tool available for Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. It allows you to perform numeric computations in an easy to use, the interactive platform just like MATLAB.
21. PDF Creator
PDF creator is an ideal PDF creation and reader tool for Windows that comes loaded with exceptional features and tools. On PDF creator, you can compress and resize images, encrypt your PDF docs with AES security, customize and tighten security settings, and more.
What is Open source Software?
So, what is open-source software? And how is it different from 'closed source software' or any other software? You can think of open-source software as a collaborative initiative where anyone can make changes in the code to make it better.
Unlike a closed or proprietary software where only the owners are exclusively allowed to make changes in the source code, open-source can be easily altered by anyone. When an open source software is designed, the authors or developers make the code available to anyone where people can use it to enhance the existing software, study it, or use it; however, they like.
Whether you want to use a media player, create a document, edit a soundtrack or video, there's an open source software available for almost anything. Using an open-source tool has numerous benefits, which include better control over the code, collaboration, stability for initiating long-term projects, and more. Open source software can be of any type, including open source software for Windows, open-source web browser, open source software for Android, or for any platform or requirement.
So is open source Software Free of Cost?
Well, that entirely depends on the author or initial developers of the program whether they want to roll out the product on a free of cost basis or if they want to charge users for the usage. But yes, a majority of people have a false impression of thinking that all open-source tools are free of charge, and that's not true.
Some of the most common open source software include VLC Player, Libre Office, Audacity, and more. Nikon camera control pro 2 mac download. Open-source tools are available for various platforms, including Windows, Android, iOS, Linux, and more. So, in this post, we've compiled a list of some of the best open source software of 2020 that can make our lives simpler.
Also Read: Don't forget to check out the 8 best open-source apps for Android that are worth your attention.
Open Source Software For Microsoft
So, fellas, this wraps our open source software list of 2020. Here were some of the best open source software of various categories and genres. And yes, do let us know which one is your most favorite open-source tool from this list. We'd be more than happy to hear from you.
This is a list of software packages that implement the finite element method for solving partial differential equations.
Software | Features | Developer | Version | Released | License | Price | Platform |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Agros2D | Multiplatform open source application for the solution of physical problems based on the Hermes library | University of West Bohemia | 3.2 | 2014-03-03 | GNU GPL | Free | Linux, Windows |
CalculiX | It is an Open Source FEA project. The solver uses a partially compatible ABAQUS file format. The pre/post-processor generates input data for many FEA and CFD applications | Guido Dhondt, Klaus Wittig | 2.16 | 2019-11-24 | GNU GPL | Free | Linux, Windows |
DIANA FEA | General purpose finite element package utilised by civil, structural and geotechnical engineers. | DIANA FEA BV, The Netherlands | 10.1 | 2016-11-14 | Paid | Windows, Linux | |
deal.II | Comprehensive set of tools for finite element codes, scaling from laptops to clusters with 10,000+ cores. Written in C++. | Wolfgang Bangerth, Timo Heister, Guido Kanschat, Matthias Maier et al. | 9.0 | 2018-05-12 | LGPL | Free | Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, Windows |
DUNE | Distributed and Unified Numerics Environment, written in C++ | DUNE Developer team | 2.4.1 | 2016-02-29 | GPL Version 2 with Run-Time Exception | Free | Linux, Unix, Mac OS X |
Elmer | Open source multiphysical simulation software developed by Finnish Ministry of Education's CSC, written primarily in Fortran (written in Fortran90, C and C++) | CSC | 8.2 | 2016-03-15 | GPL | Free | Linux, Mac OS X, Windows |
FEBio | Finite Elements for Biomechanics | University of Utah (MRL), Columbia University (MBL) | 2.7 | April, 2018 | Custom | Free | Linux, Mac OS X, Windows |
FEniCS Project | Software package developed by American and European researchers with the goal to enable automated solution of differential equations | FEniCS Team | 1.6.0 | 2015-07-29 | LGPL (Core) & GPL/LGPL (Non-Core)[1] | Free | Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, Windows |
FEATool Multiphysics | MATLAB FEM and PDE multiphysics simulation toolbox | Precise Simulation | 1.10 | 2019-05-17 | Free for personal use[2] | Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Unix | |
FreeFEM[3] | FreeFEM is a free and open-source parallel FEA software for multiphysics simulations. The problems are defined in terms of their variational formulation and can be easily implemented using FreeFEM language. Written in C++. | Sorbonne University[4] and Jacques-Louis Lions Laboratory[5] | 4.2.1 | 2019-06-06 | LGPL | Free | Linux, MacOS, Windows, Solaris |
GOMA | GOMA is an open-source, parallel, and scalable multiphysics software package for modeling and simulation of real-life physical processes, with a basis in computational fluid dynamics for problems with evolving geometry. | Sandia National Laboratories, University of New Mexico | 6.1 | Aug 28, 2015 | GPL Version 2 | Free | Linux |
GetFEM++ | A generic finite element library written in C++ with interfaces for Python, Matlab and Scilab. It focuses on modeling of contact mechanics and discontinuities (e.g. cracks). | Yves Renard, Julien Pommier | 5.0 | 2015-07 | LGPL | Free | Unix, Mac OS X, Windows |
Hermes Project | Modular C/C++ library for rapid development of space- and space-time adaptive hp-FEM solvers | hp-FEM group | 3.0 | 2014-03-01 | LGPL | Free | Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, Windows |
Mathematica[6] | General purpose computation software. | Wolfram Research | 12.1.1 (June 17, 2020; 4 months ago) [±][7] | Regularly | Proprietary | Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Raspbian, Online service. | |
MATLAB Partial Differential Equation Toolbox | MATLAB Toolbox for solving structural, thermal, electromagnetics, and other general PDEs | MathWorks | 3.3 (R2019b) | 2019-09-11 | Linux, Mac OS X, Windows | ||
MFEM | MFEM is a free, lightweight, scalable C++ library for finite element methods that features arbitrary high-order finite element meshes and spaces, support for a wide variety of discretizations, and emphasis on usability, generality, and high-performance computing efficiency. | MFEM team | 4.1 | 2020-03-10 | BSD | Free | Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, Windows |
MoFEM JosePH | Mesh Oriented hp-FE code, written in C++ | University of Glasgow | 0.6.8 | 2017-11-16 | LGPL | Free | Unix, Mac OS X |
MOOSE | Object Oriented FE framework, written in C++ | Idaho National Laboratory | regularly | LGPL | Free | Unix, Mac OS X | |
OOFEM | Object Oriented Finite EleMent solver, written in C++ | Bořek Patzák | 2.4 | 2016-02-15 | GPL Version 2 | Free | Unix, Windows |
OpenSees | Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation | Non Commercial | Free | Unix, Linux, Windows | |||
SESAM (FEM) | Software suite for structural and hydrodynamic analysis of ships and offshore structures | DNV GL | regularly | Proprietary, SaaS | Windows, Web browser | ||
Range Software | Multiphysics Finite Element Analysis Software | Tomáš Šoltys | 3.0 | 2018-04-30 | GPL | Free | Linux, Windows |
Z88/Z88Aurora | Freeware finite element package; The present version Z88Aurora V4 offers, in addition to static strength analysis modules such as non-linear strength calculations (large displacements), simulations with non-linear materials, natural frequency, static thermal analysis and a contact module. | Frank Rieg | Z88 V15, Z88Aurora V5 | 2017-07-17, 2019-04-01 | GNU GPL, Custom | Free | Linux, Windows, Mac OS X |
Abaqus | Advanced Franco-USA software from SIMULIA, owned by Dassault Systemes | Abaqus Inc. | 2019 | 2019-12 | Linux, Windows | ||
CONSELF | CAE simulation from your browser | CONSELF SRL | 2.9 | 2015-10 | SaaS | Freemium | Web browser |
FreeCAD | Parametric 3D modeler with a FEM workbench allowing it to use external solvers like CalculiX, Z88, Elmer, and OpenFoam | FreeCAD Team | 0.18 | 12 March 2019 | LGPL 2 | Free | Linux, Windows, Mac OS X |
ADINA | Finite element software for structural, fluid, heat transfer, electromagnetic, and multiphysics problems, including fluid-structure interaction and thermo-mechanical coupling | Adina R&D | |||||
Advance Design | BIM software for FEM structural analysis, including international design eurocodes | GRAITEC | 2014 | 2013-09 | |||
Autodesk Simulation | Finite Element software of Autodesk | Autodesk | Windows | ||||
ANSYS | US-based and -developed full CAE software package | Ansys Inc. | 19.2 | 2018-09-18 | Free student version available, up to 32,000 nodes/elements[8] | Windows, Linux | |
COMSOL Multiphysics | COMSOL Multiphysics Finite Element Analysis Software (formerly FEMLAB) | COMSOL Inc. | 5.5 | 2019-11-14 | Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Web browser | ||
CosmosWorks | Part of SolidWorks | Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. | Windows | ||||
Quickfield | EM, Heat Transfer and Stress Analysis [9] | Tera Analysis Ltd | 6.4 [10] | 2020-04-17 | Free Student Edition available[11] | Windows | |
Pam Crash | Best used for explicit dynamics / crash analysis | ESI | 15.5.1 | 2020-03-05 | Linux, Windows | ||
LS-DYNA | Best known for explicit dynamics / crash analysis | LSTC - Livermore Software Technology Corporation | R8.0 | 2015-03 | Linux, Windows | ||
Midas Civil | Finite element software for bridge structural modeling, analysis and design | MIDAS IT - MIDAS Information Technology | 2020 v3.2 | 2001-11 | Windows, Linux | ||
Nastran | Originally developed for NASA, now available commercially from several software companies | MSC NASTRAN, Siemens PLM NX Nastran[12] | 2014 | 2014 | Linux, Mac OS X, Windows | ||
RFEM | 3D finite element analysis software | Dlubal Software | 5.06 | 2016-02 | Free student license available[13] | Windows | |
SimScale | German 100% web-based CAE platform | SimScale GmbH | 14 | 2013-07 | SaaS | Free community version available[14] | Web browser |
VisualFEA | Finite element software for structural, geotechnical, heat transfer and seepage analysis | Intuition Software | 5.11 | 2016-01 | Proprietary software | Free educational version available[15] | Mac OS X, Windows |
JCMsuite | Finite element software for the analysis of electromagnetic waves, elasticity and heat conduction | JCMwave GmbH | 3.6.1 | 2017-01-27 | Linux, Windows | ||
JMAG | 2D and 3D finite element analysis software for electromagnetic field, thermal, structural | JSOL | 18.1 | 2019-06 | Education pack available | Linux, Windows, Web browser | |
StressCheck | Finite element analysis software based on hp-FEM with a focus on solid mechanics applications | ESRD, Inc. | 10.5 | 2019-06-06 | Windows | ||
SDC Verifier | An extension for Ansys Mechanical, Femap and Simcenter with out of the box predefined standards on fatigue, stiffener and plate buckling, beam member checks, joint checks and weld. Such as AISC 360-10, API 2A RP, ISO 19902, Norsok N004, DIN15018, Eurocode 3, FEM 1.001, ABS 2004, ABS 2014, DNV RP-C201 2010, DNV CN30/1995, FKM etc. | SDC Verifier | 5.3.1 | 2020-03 | Student version available | Windows |
Feature comparison[edit]
This table is contributed by a FEA-compare[16] project, which provides an alternative view of this table with the first row and Feature column being fixed for ease of table exploration.
Feature | COMSOL Multiphysics | MFEM | GetFEM++ | deal.II | Range Software | Elmer | MOOSE | FEniCS Project | FEATool Multiphysics |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
license: | Proprietary | BSD | LGPL | LGPL | GPL | GNU (L)GPL | LGPL | GNU GPLLGPL | Proprietary |
GUI: | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes, partial functionality | Yes | Postprocessing only | Matlab and Octave GUI |
Documentation: | User guides, reference manuals, API documentation, application libraries with solved examples, online tutorials | examples, miniapps, Doxygen, online documentation | User doc, tutorials, demos, developer's guide | tutorials, video lectures, Doxygen | user manual, tutorials | ElmerSolver Manual, Elmer Models Manual, ElmerGUI Tutorials, etc. LaTeX documentation available in PDFs | Doxygen, Markdown, example codes, test inputs | Tutorial, demos, book | Online FEATool documentation, tutorials, and model examples |
Mesh | |||||||||
mesh elements: | Intervals (1D); triangles, quadrilaterals (2D and 3D boundaries); tetrahedra, pyramids, prisms, hexahedra (3d) | segments, triangles, quadrilaterals, tetrahedra, hexahedra, prisms | intervals, triangles, tetrahedra, quads, hexes, prisms, some 4D elements, easily extensible. | intervals (1d), quads (2d), and hexes (3d) only | points(0d), segments (1d), triangles, quadrilaterals (2d), tetrahedra, hexahedra (3d) | intervals (1d), triangles, quadrilaterals (2d), tetrahedra, pyramids, wedges, hexahedra (3d) | Tria, Quad, Tetra, Prism, etc. | intervals, triangles, tetrahedra (quads, hexes - work in progress) | intervals, triangles, tetrahedra, quads, hexes |
mesh high-order mapping: | Any? Second-order is the default for most cases. | arbitrary-order meshes and NURBS meshes | any order | Yes, for Lagrange elements | (Any - work in progress) | ||||
mesh generation: | Built-in | meshing miniapps and target-matrix mesh optimization | Experimental in any dimension + predefined shapes + Extrusion. | external+predefined shapes | Yes (TetGen) | Limited own meshing capabilities with ElmerGrid and netgen/tetgen APIs. Internal extrusion and mesh multiplication on parallel level. | Built-in | Yes, Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) supported via mshr (CGAL and Tetgen used as backends) | Integrated DistMesh, Gmsh, and Triangle GUI and CLI interfaces |
mesh adaptive-refinement: | Yes, full adaptive mesh refinement (h-refinement); no p-refinement but several higher-order elements are included. Mesh adaptation on the whole or parts of the geometry, for stationary, eigenvalue, and time-dependent simulations and by rebuilding the entire mesh or refining chosen mesh elements. | conforming and non-conforming adaptive refinement for tensor product and simplex meshes | Only h | h, p, and hp for CG and DG | h-refinement for selected equations | h, p, mached hp, singular hp | Only h | ||
mesh inputoutput: | STL, PLY, NASTRAN, 3MF, VRML (import only), native format | VTK, Gmsh, CUBIT, NETGEN, TrueGrid, and MFEM format | gmsh, GiD, Ansys | rbm, stl | ExodusII, Nemesis, Abaqus, Ensight, Gmsh, GMV, OFF, TecPlot TetGen, etc. | XDMF (and FEniCS XML) | FeatFlow, FEniCS XML, GiD, Gmsh, GMV, Triangle | ||
mesh check: | Avoids inverted and degenerated elements; various mesh quality measures | ? | limited features (double nodes, degenerated elements, intersected elements) | intersections (collision testing) | |||||
CAD files support: | STEP, IGES, others. | No | IGES, STEP (with OpenCascade wrapper) | Yes (stl) | Limited support via OpenCASCADE in ElmerGUI | ||||
mesh operation: | Merge, copy, refine; convert; boundary layers; extrude, revolve, sweep, loft for 3D geometies | Extrude, rotate, translation, refine | Extrude, rotate, translation, refine | Merge, join, extrude, modular mesh modifier system | Merge, join, extrude, and revolve operations | ||||
Parallel possibilities | |||||||||
automatic mesh partitioning: | METIS and space-filling curve partitioning | Yes (METIS) | yes, shared (METIS/Parmetis) and distributed (p4est) | No | partitioning with ElmerGrid using Metis or geometric division, internal partitioning in ElmerSolver using Zoltan | Metis, Parmetis, Hilbert (shared and distributed meshes) | Yes (ParMETIS and SCOTCH) | ||
MPI: | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (up to 147k processes) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
threads: | Supports multithreading | Using OpenMP, RAJA, or OCCA backends | Threading Build Blocks | Yes | threadsafe, some modules threaded and vectorized. | Yes | |||
OpenMP: | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (vectorization only) | Yes | Yes, partially | Yes | ||
OpenCL: | No | Through OCCA backends | No | No | No | No | |||
CUDA: | No | Yes | No | since 9.1, see step-64 for matrix-free GPU+MPI example | No | Preliminary API for sparse linear algebra | |||
Solver | |||||||||
Dimension: | 0D, 1D, 2D, 3D (can coexist) | 1D/2D/3D | Any, possibility to mix and couple problem of different dimension | 1/2/3D | 0D/1D/2D/3D (dimensions may coexist) | 1D/2D/3D (dimensions may coexist) | 1/2/3D | 1/2/3D | 1/2/3D |
FE: | Lagrange (order 1-7), Hermite (order 3-7), discontinuous Lagrange (order 0-7), bubble, Gauss point, serendipity, Nedelec | Arbitrary-order Lagrange elements (continuous and discontinuous), Bernstein basis, Nedelec and Raviart-Thomas elements, support for NURBS spaces (IGA) | Continuous and discontinuous Lagrange, Hermite, Argyris, Morley, Nedelec, Raviart-Thomas, composite elements (HCT, FVS), Hierarchical elements, Xfem, easily extensible. | Lagrange elements of any order, continuous and discontinuous; Nedelec and Raviart-Thomas elements of any order; BDM and Bernstein; elements composed of other elements. | Lagrange elements | Lagrange elements, p-elements up to 10th order, Hcurl conforming elements (linear and quadratic) for | Lagrange, Hierarchic, Discontinuous Monomials, Nedelec | Lagrange, BDM, RT, Nedelic, Crouzeix-Raviart, all simplex elements in the Periodic Table (femtable.org), any | Lagrange (1st-5th order), Crouzeix-Raviart, Hermite |
Quadrature: | Gauss-Legendre, Gauss-Lobatto, and uniform quadrature rules. | Gauss-Legendre, Gauss-Lobatto, midpoint, trapezoidal, Simpson, Milne and Weddle (closed Newton-Cotes for 4 and 7 order polinomials), Gauss quadrature with logarithmic or 1/R weighting function, Telles quadrature of arbitrary order. | Gauss-Legendre (1D and tensor product rules in 2D and 3D) tabulated up to 44th-order to high precision, best available rules for triangles and tetrahedra to very high order, best available monomial rules for quadrilaterals and hexahedra. | ||||||
Transient problems: | Yes, BDF, Runge-Kutta (RK34, Cash-Karp 5, Dormand-Prince 5), and generalized alpha time stepping | Runge-Kutta, SSP, SDIRK, Adams-Bashforth, Adams-Moulton, Symplectic Integration Algorithm, Newmark method, Generalized-alpha method | Any user implemented and/or from a set of predifined. Explicit methods: forward Euler, 3rd and 4th order Runge-Kutta. Implicit methods: backward Euler, implicit Midpoint, Crank-Nicolson, SDIRK. Embedded explicit methods: Heun-Euler, Bogacki-Shampine, Dopri, Fehlberg, Cash-Karp. | Yes | implicit-euler explicit-euler crank-nicolson bdf2 explicit-midpoint dirk explicit-tvd-rk-2 newmark-beta | BE, CN, and Fractional-Step-Theta schemes | |||
Predifined equations: | Incompressible Navier-Stokes, heat transfer, convection-diffusion-reaction, linear elasticity, electromagnetics, pressure acoustics, Darcy's law, and support for custom PDE equations | Miniapps and examples for Laplace, elasticity, Maxwell, Darcy, advection, Euler, Helmholtz, and others | Laplace? | Yes (Incompressible Navier-Stokes, Heat transfer (convection-conduction-radiation), Stress analysis, Soft body dynamics, Modal analysis, Electrostatics, Magnetostatics ) | Around 50 predefined solvers | Phase Field, Solid Mechanics, Navier-Stokes, Porous Flow, Level Set, Chemical Reactions, Heat Conduction, support for custom PDEs | Incompressible Navier-Stokes, Heat transfer, convection-diffusion-reaction, linear elasticity, electromagnetics, Darcy's, Brinkman equations, and support for custom PDE equations | ||
Automated assembly: | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||
Visualization: | Built-in | In situ visualization with GLVis. Export to VisIt and ParaView. | External or with the Scilab/Matlab/Python interface. Possibility to perform complex slices. | External (export to *.vtk and many others) | GUI (built-in) | ElmerGUI comes VTK based visualization tool (but Paraview is recommended) | Yes, VTK-based GUI, Python visualizatuion library | Buil-in simple plotting + External | Built-in with optional Plotly and GMV export |
Output format: | Text and unstructured VTK-file for data.BMP,PNG, GIF, TIFF, JPEG, glTF, Windows clipboard, Microsoft PowerPoint (for images). GIF, Flash, AVI, WebM (for animatios). Touchstone data (for networks). | VisIt, ParaView (VTU), GLVis format | vtk, gmsh, OpenDX. | *.dx *.ucd *.gnuplot *.povray *.eps *.gmv *.tecplot *.tecplot_binary *.vtk *.vtu *.svg *.hdf5 | Several output formats (VTU, gmsh,..) | ExodusII, Xdr, etc. | VTK(.pvd, .vtu) and XDMF/HDF5 | GMV and Plotly | |
Boundary elements solver: | Yes | No | Yes | Existing but without multipole acceleration (not usable for large problems) | No | ||||
Use multiple meshes: | Yes including different dimensions and taking account of any transformation. | Yes, autorefined from same initial mesh for each variable of a coupled problem | Continuity of non-conforming interfaces ensured by mortar finite elements | Yes, including non-matching meshes | |||||
Linear algebra | |||||||||
Used libs: | MUMPS, PARDISO, SPOOLES; ARPACK, BLAS, BLIS, Intel MKL, LAPACK | Built-in and integrated with hypre. Optional integrations with PETSc, Ginkgo, SuperLU, Suite Sparse, libCEED, and more | SuperLU, MUMPS, Built-in. | Built-in + Trilinos, PETSc, and SLEPc | No | Built-in, Hypre, Trilinos, umfpack, MUMPS, Pardiso, etc. (optional) | PETSc, Trilinos, LASPack, SLEPc | PETSc, Trilinos/TPetra, Eigen. | Matlab/Octave built-in (Umfpack), supports integration with the FEniCS and FeatFlow solvers |
Iterative matrix solvers: | GMRES, FGMRES, BiCGStab, conjugate gradients, TFQMR, or any precoditioner. Algebraic and geometric multigrid. Domain decomponsition (Schwarz, Schur) | Krylov methods (CG, MINRES, GMRES, BiCGStab) | All Krylov | All Krylov (CG, Minres, GMRES, BiCGStab, QMRS) | GMRES, CG | Built-in Krylov solvers, Krylov and multigrid solvers from external libraries | LASPack serial, PETSc parallel | Matlab/Octave built-in | |
Preconditioners: | Direct preconditioner, Krylov, SOR, SSOR, SORU, SOR line, SOR gauge, SOR vector, Jacobi, incomplete and hierarchical LU, SAI, SCGS, Vanka, AMS | Algebraic, Geometric, and p-multigrid. Block ILU preconditioning. Support for hypre's AMS and ADS preconditioners for H(curl) and H(div). | Basic ones (ILU, ILUT) | Many, including algebraic multigrid (via Hypre and ML) and geometric multigrid | ILU, Jacobi | Built-in preconditioners (ILU, diagonal, vanka, block) and | LASPack serial, PETSc parallel, algebraic multigrid (via Hypre) | Matlab/Octave built-in | |
Matrix-free | |||||||||
matrix-free: | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Experimental implementation | |||
matrix-free save memory: | Yes | No | Yes | No | |||||
matrix-free speed-up: | Yes | No | Yes | No | |||||
Used language | |||||||||
Native language: | Primarily C++ and Java | C++ | C++ | C++ | C++ | Fortran (2008 standard) | C++ | C++ | Matlab / Octave |
Bindings to language: | Full API for Java and Matlab (the latter via add-on product) | PyMFEM | Python, Scilab or Matlab | No | No | Python | |||
Other | |||||||||
Predefined equations: | Yes, many predefined physics and multiphysics interfaces in COMSOL Multiphysics and its add-ons. | A large number of Bilinear and Linear forms | Model bricks: Laplace, linear and nonlinear elasticity, Helmholtz, plasticity, Mindlin and K.L. plates, boundary conditions including contact with friction. | ||||||
Coupled nonlinear problems: | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||||
Binary: | Windows, Linux, macOS | Yes, via OpenHPC. Also available as part of Spack, xSDK, E4S, FASTMath, RADIUSS and CEED. | Linux (Debian/Ubuntu) | Linux, Windows (work in progress), Mac | Windows, Linux (launchpad: Debian/Ubuntu), Mac (homebrew) (all with MPI) | Linux (DebianUbuntu), Mac | Windows, Linux, Mac | ||
fullname: | Elmer finite element software | ||||||||
Testing: | Comprehensive unit and regression tests. Continuous integration through Travis CI | 3500+ tests | More than 700 consistency tests ensuring backward compatibility | 4300+ tests, Testing as a service for derived applications | |||||
scripting: | Full API for Java and, through add-on product, Matlab | Runtime parsed mathematical expression in input files | Fully scriptable in as m-file Matlab scripts and the GUI supports exporting models in script format | ||||||
automatic differentiation: | Yes | Forward-mode for Jacobian computation, symbolic differentiation capabilities | |||||||
multiphysics: | Yes, full custom and predefined multiphysics couplings between all kinds of physics | Arbitrary multiphysics couplings are supported | Arbitrary multiphysics couplings are supported | Arbitrary multiphysics couplings are supported | |||||
Optimization Solvers: | With the Optimization Module add-on: Coorinate search, Nelder-Mead, Monte Carlo, BOBYQA, COBYLA, SNOPT, MMA, Levenberg-Marquardt | Integration with HiOp. Built-in SLBQP optimizer | Support for TAO- and nlopt-based constrained optimization solvers incorporating gradient and Hessian information. | ||||||
HIP: | Yes | ||||||||
Symbolic derivation of the tangent system for nonlinear problems: | Yes | ||||||||
Support for fictitious domain methods: | Yes |
References[edit]
Open Source Cad Software For Mac
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- ^'FEATool Multiphysics - Product Information'. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
- ^'FreeFem++'. freefem.org. Retrieved 2018-11-30.
- ^'Sorbonne Université | Lettres, Médecine, Sciences'. www.sorbonne-universite.fr. Retrieved 2018-11-30.
- ^Curie, UPMC - Université Pierre et Marie. 'Jacques-Louis Lions Laboratory (LJLL) - UMR 7598 - SCIENCE'. sciences.sorbonne-universite.fr. Retrieved 2018-11-30.
- ^Mathematica Documentation
- ^'Mathematica Quick Revision History'. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
- ^'Student Products - Free Simulation Software'. Ansys.com. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
- ^http://quickfield.com/pack.htm
- ^http://quickfield.com/allnews/qf64.htm
- ^http://www.quickfield.com/free_soft.htm
- ^'NX Nastran: Siemens PLM Software'. Plm.automation.siemens.com. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
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- ^GitHub For ease of maintenance of this table, please, first consider to contribute changes directly to the project instead of editing the table below, however, direct wiki edits are also valid and will be backported