CFD Direct is pleased to announce the release of version 7.0 of CFD Direct From the Cloud™ (CFDDFC), the leading marketplace product for CFD on Amazon Web Services. CFDDFC v7.0 includes OpenFOAM v7, ParaView v5.6.0, OpenMPI v3.1.4 and FreeCAD v0.18.3, running on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. CFDDFC v7.0 supports Elastic Network Adapter and Elastic Fabric Adapter which provide higher network performance on C5n instances. This delivers good parallel scaling performance on clusters of instances up to 1000 cores. The command line interface includes new options from simple launch of clusters and monitoring of costs.
CFD Direct Year 4: 2018-2019

In Year 4 of CFD Direct, we developed new functionality in OpenFOAM and maintained critical components of the code base, reducing the number of unresolved issues by 17%. We managed the OpenFOAM Foundation: promoting sustainable development, releasing OpenFOAM v6, packaging OpenFOAM-dev and publishing websites and documentation. We contributed 1383 man-hours of unfunded work in-kind to OpenFOAM, including organising and presenting at the OpenFOAM Open Day. We delivered 60 days of OpenFOAM Training, and provided low-cost cloud CFD with CFD Direct From the Cloud™, running 1.3 million core-hrs.
OpenFOAM v7 Training 2020

In Spring 2020, CFD Direct is running its OpenFOAM Training courses — Essential CFD, Applied CFD, and Programming CFD — fully updated with the latest features of the new version 7 release of OpenFOAM. Essential and Applied CFD courses are available — with some remote places for remote attendance — on: 3-6 Feb, London UK; 24-27 Feb, Houston USA; 11-15 May, Virtual; 15-19 Jun, Virtual. Programming CFD is available as Virtual Training on 28-30 Jan, 17-19 Mar, 9-11 and 7-9 Jul.
OpenFOAM Sustainability 2018

OpenFOAM sustainability involves developing software that meets critical needs of users, through a balance of resources, technology, investment and institutional support. The critical needs are availability, usability, robustness and extensibility. The critical work required to meet those needs are publishing, repair and redesign. Employers rarely allocate time to individuals to contribute critical work, so it is generally left to “career maintainers” at CFD Direct. With limited funding, decisions about the critical work are made by those who fund and/or contribute the work, via The OpenFOAM Hub.
CFDDFC on AWS C5/M5

CFD Direct From the Cloud (CFDDFC) is our established platform for running OpenFOAM, ParaView and supporting software using cloud computing. CFDDFC is now available on AWS C5 and M5 instances of Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2). The CFDDFC product page on AWS MarketPlace now lists CFDDFC versions 5.2 and 4.2, corresponding to versions 5 and 4 of OpenFOAM, respectively. Users who launch CFDDFC with the command line interface should update their installation of CFDDFC immediately.
CFD Direct Year 3: 2017-2018

In Year 3 of CFD Direct, we developed new functionality in OpenFOAM and maintained critical components of the code base, reducing the number of unresolved issues by 45%. We managed the OpenFOAM Foundation: promoting sustainable development, releasing OpenFOAM v5, packaging OpenFOAM-dev and publishing websites and documentation. We delivered 60 days of OpenFOAM Training, introducing our new “hybrid” classroom-virtual courses to host participants in person and remotely. We launched the new Cloud CFD course to teach inexpensive, secure, efficient CFD with CFD Direct From the Cloud™.