FFTools Plug-In

Introduction

The FFTools plug-in is a collection of modules which expand FEFLOWs capabilities:

Licensing

Please Read the End User License Agreement (EULA). To use FFTools, you must accept the terms of the Agreement.

Examples

Each module shows a simple input file example, but several more complex examples are also available which highlight the use and features of the different modules:

Requirements

The plug-in's minimum requirements are:

FEFLOW 7.x,
Layered prismatic elements,
Microsoft Windows 7, 8 or 10.

Installation

The IFM plug-in can be installed anywhere on your computer system, but a typical location would be:

C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\DHI FEFLOW 7.4\sdk\FFTOOLS\

Place the entire contents of the ZIP file into this directory, or a user defined directory. If you have multiple AquaGeo products, it is best to put each module in its own directory.

Add and Activate the Plug-In

The plug-in is added to the FEFLOW interface via the Plug-ins panel (View >> Panels >> Plug-ins). The plug-in can be added either with or without a FEM file open. Press the green "+" button next to Available Plug-ins in the panel and search for and select the FFTools Plug-In DLL. The Plug-ins panel will look similar to:

Once added, the plug-in will be available to use in any compatible FEFLOW model. When you open a model with which FFTools will be used, the plug-in must be attached to the FEM file. To attach the plug-in, on the Plug-ins panel, under Available Plug-ins, right click on the FFTools Plug-In entry and select Attach. The plug-in will then be listed under the Attached plug-ins portion of the Plug-ins panel for the currently open FEM file. The plug-in is then ready to use.

Unless FFTools is detached, plug-in data for FFTools will be stored in the FEM when it's saved. Note that if the plug-in is detached and the FEM file is saved, all plug-in customizations will be lost.

General Use

Each module can be accessed via the FEFLOW Plug-ins panel. The edit window is accessed by right-clicking on the FFTools Plug-In entry under the Attached plug-ins area and selecting Edit... in the pop-up menu. This will display the modules available for use, with a specific tab for each:

The modules allow the use of shortcuts for file names to allow automatic assignment of file names that are consistent with a user's model name (when a model is used by several people using different file names or if a user moves the model to a new work area, the filename shortcuts do not need to be changed):

[ModelPath]: points to FEFLOW's "root" directory, which by convention contains femdata, import+export, and results sub-directories.
[ModelDACPath]: points to FEFLOW's "results" directory
[ModelFEMPath]: points to FEFLOW's "femdata" directory
[ModelIEPath]: points to FEFLOW's "import+export" directory
[ModelResultsPath]: points to FEFLOW's "results" directory
[ModelName]: the model's file name (excluding ".fem") will the added to the module's output file name

These shortcut names are case sensitive.

Several modules import and export information via "comma-separated values" (CSV) files. These are ASCII files in which each numeric or string variable is separated by a comma (spaces and tabs generally work as well). String variables with spaces in them must be enclosed in double quotation marks. For example, a CSV file with five variables per line would look like:


                    1,2.2,"Well B",1e+4,-15

                    10,3.76,"Well 5",0.02,22.2

…and so on.

CSV files are easily created using many programs, such as Microsoft Excel.

In general, input files allow the user to add comments by using a "!" character. Any line that starts with "!" will be ignored and any information on an input line that appears after a "!" will also be ignored. In addition, any line with "_" at the end will treat the next line as a continuation of the current line.