1. Running Application

SimCenter Applications can be run in one of two ways:

1. As a Desktop Application

2. Through your Browser

3. Utilizing Docker

1.1. As A Desktop Application

All SimCenter applications can be downloaded from the SimCenter Research Tools page and run as a local application. The advantage of such an approach is that the applications start instantaneously, you can utilize the local files on your desktop in the applications as inputs, you can process the results again on your desktop. The disadnatage of the approach is that it requires downloading the application, and if you are on a Mac downloading and installing an x86 version of Python. This section walks you through the installation process on Windows and macOS operating systems from downloading the application to testing that it has been installed correctly.

• 1.1.1. Install on Windows 10
  • 1.1.1.1. Install Java
  • 1.1.1.4. Download the Application
  • 1.1.1.5. Test the Installation
  • 1.1.1.6. Troubleshooting
• 1.1.2. Install on MacOS
  • 1.1.2.1. Install Python 3.9
  • 1.1.2.2. Install Java
  • 1.1.2.5. Download the Application
  • 1.1.2.6. Test the Installation
• 1.1.3. Running Jobs at DesignSafe
  • 1.1.3.1. Allocation
  • 1.1.3.2. Credentials

1.2. Through Your Browser

SimCenter applications can also be run through your browser using DesignSafe resources. 8 compute nodes at TACC have been set aside for this purpose (the simcenter queue), allowing 8 individuals to simultaneously be running different simcenter applications. The advantage of this approach is that no installtion of the application is needed. The disadntages being typically a delay in starting the application, files that you want to work on have to be uploaded to TACC to run with the application, extra processing of the results again required the files be downloaded to your local desktop, and you need a TACC allocation to use this feature.

Note

1. When in the browser, files you wish to use with the application, e.g. OpenSees scripts, experiemental datasets, have to be uploaded to TACC to your WORK directory at TACC. As shown in the video, this can be done using DesignSafe Data Depot or you can do using scp.

2. Jobs by default go to the simcenter* queue, a special queue with access to **8 compute nodes set aside by TACC for these applications. If these are busy, i.e. your job seems to take forever to go from the queueing**state to the **running state, you can cancel the job request and try a different queue.

1.3. Utilzing Docker

The ability to run the applications in the browser is made possible through the use of docker images that have been created. For users of docker these same images can be run locally. To access your local files in the running docker containers, it is advised to bind your $HOME directory when the container starts. The following command can be used to run the application in a docker container: