Installation and setup

Articles on this page:

• Pre-4.11 versions require administrative privileges to install and run
• Recommended computer architectures for Bladed
• C++ runtime and 32/64-bit requirements for creating external DLLs
• Linux headless network licence activation
• Windows 11 support
• Windows Server support
• GPU support

Problem

In all versions of Bladed up to 4.11, administrator privileges are required to not only install but also run an instance of Bladed. This can sometimes cause problems running Bladed if a company does not allow employees administrator privileges.

Solution

Admin rights are not required for running Bladed 4.11 or later versions, although they are still needed for installation.

For Bladed 4.10 and earlier versions: A possible workaround to run Bladed without admin rights is to install Bladed to a user’s profile folder. Follow these steps:

• Obtain temporary admin rights to perform a Bladed installation.
• Open File Explorer and type %USERPROFILE% in the address bar. This will take you to your home folder where full permissions should be available.
• Install Bladed to this folder (remember to run the installer using the Run as administrator option).
• Once installed, navigate to the Bladed installation folder and right-click on the file Bladed_m72.exe.
• Select Properties in the context menu and the Properties window will appear.
• Navigate to the Compatibility tab.
• Click Change settings for all users at the bottom of the dialog.
• Another window will appear as shown below. Uncheck the box Run this program as an administrator at the bottom of the window. Click OK to close the window.
• Click OK in the Compatibility window to apply the changes and close the window (the Compatibility window should look the same as below).
• The user should now be able to open Bladed_m72.exe, load a demo model and run a calculation without error. Check that this can be completed once administrator privileges have been removed from the computer.

Keywords

Administrator privileges; Installation; Admin rights; User Account Control;

Problem

What computer hardware do you recommend for running Bladed?

Solution

We are unable to offer specific hardware recommendations because we do not have benchmarking figures for Bladed simulations from a range of CPU architectures or machine configurations.

However, there are a few high-level pointers:

The simulation code (dtbladed.exe) is single-threaded, therefore we recommend choosing a CPU with fast single-threaded performance (see https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html).

We recommend dedicating one logical CPU core for:

• each running simulation
• each instance of the user interface
• the Batch manager and runner (there is one runner per machine accepting Batch jobs)
• one core at all times for the operating system.

Regarding parallel instructions, Bladed does not support AVX. Dtbladed 4.5 and later use SSE2 but not AVX. Dtbladed 4.3 does not support any parallel instruction set.

A Bladed simulation typically consumes around 250 MB RAM. When running a large number of parallel simulations on a single process server, throughput is affected by the performance of the memory subsystem and disk write times. We therefore recommend choosing a machine equipped with low latency RAM and use of SSD disks for result output.

Keywords

Hardware; Computer architecture;

Problem

What versions of the C++ runtime can be used for creating External Controller and External Loads DLLs for Bladed for Windows?

Solution

Up to Bladed 4.17, the Bladed calculation executable on Windows is 32-bit only, which means that all user-developed external DLLs (i.e. External Controller and External Loads DLLs) for use with Bladed must be 32-bit too (NOTE: the Linux version of Bladed is 64-bit.)

The correct version of the Microsoft Visual C++ runtime must be used when compiling DLLs, to ensure compatibility with the Bladed calculation executable (dtbladed.exe) - see guidance below for different versions of Bladed. Compatibility cannot be guaranteed if this guidance is not followed, and may result in simulations failing or producing incorrect results.

Furthermore, DLLs should be compiled as release builds (i.e. they must target the release build of the runtime, and not the debug build).

DNV cannot provide support for any issues arising from the guidance in this article not being adhered to.

Bladed 4.2 and earlier

DLLs should only be compiled using the 32-bit version of v9.0 of the Visual C++ runtime (the default toolset provided in Visual Studio 2008).

Bladed 4.3 to 4.6

DLLs should only be compiled using the 32-bit version of v10.0 of the Visual C++ runtime (the default toolset provided in Visual Studio 2010).

Bladed 4.7 to 4.12

DLLs should only be compiled using the 32-bit version of v12.0 of the Visual C++ runtime (the default toolset provided in Visual Studio 2013).

Bladed 4.13 to 4.17

dtbladed in Bladed 4.13 has been upgraded to use the 32-bit version of v14.3 of the Visual C++ runtime (the default toolset provided in Visual Studio 2022).

For external controllers, testing has shown that DLLs built using earlier versions of the Visual C++ runtime (e.g. v12.0) continue to work with the upgraded version of dtbladed in Bladed 4.13. However, it is recommended that all future controllers be built using Visual C++ runtime version 14.3, to reduce the chance of errors from mixing different runtime versions.

For external loads DLLs, users who rely on DLLs built using Visual C++ runtime v12.0 or earlier must now rebuild them to target runtime version 14.0 or later before they can be used with Bladed 4.13. The minimum required toolset is available starting in Visual Studio 2015 with runtime version 14.0. However, it is recommended that all external loads DLLs be rebuilt using Visual C++ runtime version 14.3 (the default toolset provided in Visual Studio 2022). If a 14.x runtime version earlier than 14.3 is targeted, ensure the runtime environment for the toolset version in question is installed on the machines where dtbladed is to be run.

Keywords

DLL; C++; Runtime; Run-time; 32-bit; 64-bit; External; Controller; Loads

Problem

Is there a way of headless-ly activating a network license for a Linux Bladed installation (without opening the licence manager webpage and clicking through to allowing network connectivity to the license server)?

Solution

This can be done by modifying /etc/hasplm/hasplm.ini:

Server:

[SERVER]  
ACCremote = 1  
Adminremote = 1  
accessfromremote = 1

Client:

[SERVER]
accesstoremote = 1

[REMOTE]
serveraddr = [name or IPv4 address of the licence server]

Keywords

Linux; Headless; Network licence

Problem

Can Bladed be run on Windows 11?

Solution

Windows 11 is officially supported as of Bladed 4.18.

Earlier Bladed versions were built for and tested against older versions of Windows:

• Bladed 4.10 to 4.16: Windows 10
• Bladed 4.9 and earlier: Windows 7

Versions earlier than Bladed 4.18 may run successfully on Windows 11, but correct functioning cannot be guaranteed and such usage is not officially supported. Users should perform their own verification to ensure that earlier versions work as expected on Windows 11.

Keywords

Windows 11; OS; Operating system

Problem

Can Bladed be run on Windows Server?

Solution

Windows versions of Bladed have only been specifically built for and tested against regular versions of Windows:

• Bladed 4.18 and later: Windows 11 (24H2 or later)
• Bladed 4.10 - 4.16: Windows 10 (20H2 or later)

Although Bladed has not tested on Windows Server, it has been reported that it does run successfully on Windows Server.

However, it is known that the Bladed licensing system may not work as expected if Bladed is being used on multiple user sessions at the same time on a computer running Windows Server. As such, the use of Windows Server is not recommended for this kind of multi-user scenario.

Keywords

Windows Server; OS; Operating system

Problem

Does Bladed support GPU computing for running simulations?

Solution

In general, Bladed does not support GPU acceleration, due to the linear nature of the time-domain calculations.

The only exception to this is for vortex wake analysis, where part of the analysis can be offloaded to a GPU (although the majority of the analysis is still handled by the CPU). Find out more.

It is not planned to add GPU support to any other aspects of Bladed at the current time.

Keywords

GPU; Hardware; Performance