Problem with FEAP while plotting in INTERACTIVE mode on Windows 64-bit

[sara.grbcic]

Dear FEAP Admins,

We are encountering a problem while plotting the displacement contours in the interactive mode in FEAP. This issue is present in all the FEAP versions we have, i.e. ver 8.4, ver 8.5 and ver 8.6.

FEAP program is installed on Windows 10 (64bit) with VS 2010 Shell and Intel® Parallel Studio XE 2015 Composer Edition. To install it we followed precisely the instructions given by prof. Govindjee available here: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QAh6QvOT6s). When building the solution no errors occur but a single WARNING in VS is given: warning LNK4098: defaultlib 'MSVCRT' conflicts with use of other libs; use /NODEFAULTLIB:library. From what I read on stackOverflow this warning means that some libraries are compiled with wrong/different options.

The problem we are facing is best described by following the attachments. For example we run the basic simple input file Itest.txt (attachment 1) describing a 2D solid elements patch test. In the interactive mode we then plot the mesh (PLOT MESH) (see attachment 2) and contours (PLOT CONT) (see attachment 3). From the pictures you can see that there must be a problem with the interactive mode for some reason. I don't know is there a direct relationship between the warning I obtained while building the solution in VS and the plot issue I described, it is just my assumption.

I tried to resolve the warning by adding /NODEFAULTLIB:library to the Linker Command Line and the warning disappeared but the problem is still present. However, the correct path should be to find the .obj or .lib file which was built with wrong options (please see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3007312/resolving-lnk4098-defaultlib-msvcrt-conflicts-with). I even tried to follow the alternative method for installation of FEAP on Windows available here: http://feap.berkeley.edu/wiki/index.php/Installation but without any change regarding the warning and the plots in the interactive mode. The problem is present on different systems, but all with Windows 10 (64bit) and the same compilers.

Could you please help me resolve the issue we are facing?

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,

Sara

[Prof. R.L. Taylor]

It is strange that you do not get two windows -- one for text input/output and the other for the graphics.  Something is off in your installation -- are you sure you did a QuickWin installation?  Is the graphics always off or only when done interactively?

[Prof. S. Govindjee]

Do you have an input file that will reproduce this error?  Also is this problem confined to a single machine or do you see it on other computers too?
Regarding the warning on the compile, I think that is unrelated.

[sara.grbcic]

I believe there must be a problem with the installation since  the problem is present on other computers too with the same system (Windows 10) and the same compiler (VS 10 and Intel PS). When doing the installation we followed prof. Govindjees video given in the link below and the only difference I noticed is the warning issued by VS during the build. As I wrote below, we also tried the alternative way of installing FEAP (without the need to build separately the library and the main) but the issue remains. The input which gives us that error is given in the attachment 1 (Itest.txt) and is actually an input file which is generated by prof. Govindjee at the end of the installation video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QAh6QvOT6s
When we run the interactive mode, at the beginning I have two windows, the moment I write PLOT, one window disappears and the only one left is the graphics window and the plots look like described in the previous post. Is it possible that we have a problem with the compilers?
Thanks for your reply.

[Prof. S. Govindjee]

Thanks.  This will be quite hard to debug, if we can not replicate on our computers.

I am concerned that you are using a very old version of VS.  The current version is 16.11 (Visual Studio 2019). VS 10 was last updated 10 years ago and its official end of support date was July 2020.  Thus it is possible that there is a conflict with the new OS and the old VS.

Can you give the exact version numbers you are using for the OS, Visual Studio, and the Compiler?  I may be able to re-create your system
and test it locally.

If you have the ability to install on a 'clean' machine that would be a good test too, so a newly installed OS, Visual Studio, and Intel Compiler.

[sara.grbcic]

The exact version of the compiler is given in the attachment. If you can replicate the problem I would be grateful. In the meantime I will check the installation with a more recent version of VS.

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,

Sara