Learning Forum

[nsummerlin]

I am a University of Florida student working with Michael Omana and Adam Hammond-Clements from Sandia National Labs on a project that uses the user-defined collision kernel functionality of Ansys Chemkin.

 

Software installed: Ansys Chemkin 2024 R2, Intel Fortran Classic Compiler 2024.0.2

 

Following the Ansys API Manual, we edited the user_routines.f90 file (...chemkin.win64/user_routines/user_routines.f90), compiling it via the makefile in the same directory (...chemkin.win64/user_routines/user_routines_pc.mak) into user_routines.lib (...chemkin.win64/lib/user_routines.lib).

 

(It should be noted that before each step, as appropriate, the FLEXLM_ARCH environmental variable was appropriately set for Windows)

 

Proceeding with the linkage step, we renamed the bin files associated with the modified "Get Custom Collision Kernel" subroutine, also outlined in the API manual (...chemkin.win64/bin/auroradll.dll, ...chemkin.win64/bin/auroradll.exe, ...chemkin.win64/bin/auroradll.lib) and ran the appropriate makefile to rebuild auroradll.dll linked with user_routines.lib (...chemkin.win64/drivers_cpp/drivers_cpp_pc.mak), using the following command (from the API manual):

 

nmake -i -f drivers_cpp_pc.mak ..\bin\auroradll.dll

 

But this command, when executed in a oneAPI command prompt with Administrator Permission, returns the error message:

 

NMAKE : fatal error U1073: don't know how to make '..bin/auroradll.dll'

 

Any help with properly running this makefile to link the shared-object libary would be greatly appreciated, as this is a near-total roadblock to our research until we can resolve it.

[jcooper]

Hi:

There are quite a few possible reasons for this error:

1. Compiler compatibility: Your compiler seems to be somewhat newer than the supported versions shown in our compiler requirements guide. The compile and link flags and system libraries used in the make files have been verified with the supported compilers and corresponding platforms:

Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022 Version 17.6.x (including the MS C++ compiler),

Intel OneAPI 2023.1.0 Classic C++ compiler (version 2021.9.0) and

Intel OneAPI 2023.1.0 Classic FORTRAN compiler (version 2021.9.0) (for Chemkin API, Chemkin user-programmed subroutines and FORTE output user routines.)

This is documented in the API manual here: https://ansyshelp.ansys.com/Views/Secured/corp/v252/en/chemkin_api/i43132.html

 

2. Linker failure: Is aurora.dll at the expected location? If the linking stage failed, then the problem may be that the .dll file is absent.

 

I would suggest first trying the little sample program we have for testing your compilers. It is located in the utilities folder of the Chemkin installation.

1. Open the test program to compile and link, named helloTest_Intel_Composer.zip. 

2. Copy this .zip file to a Windows system and extract it to create a helloTest sub-directory.

3. For the Linux platform, copy the helloTest sub-directory to your Linux system.

4. Set up your compiler environment.

5. Follow the directions in the readme.txt file to use the make utility to compile and link the test programs. The test programs should compile and run as described in the readme.txt file.  

I hope this helps to sort out the problem.

[nsummerlin]

Hello!

1. The installed compiler is a version of the Intel Fortran Compiler Classic which is slightly newer than recommended, but shares the "ifort" syntax. Is the C++ compiler additionally necessary for linking this user-defined function, even though it's only written and compiled in Fortran?
2. The file "auroradll.dll" is not supposed to be at the expected location, according to the API manual. It's supposed to not be found by the makefile (the API manual suggests either moving or renaming it to keep a backup of the installed auroradll.dll), and the makefile is supposed to recreate it with the compiled user-defined function linked in.

Any additional assistance you could offer would be much appreciated.