This document serves as an installation guide for LIGGGHTS, an open-source discrete element method particle simulation software on Ubuntu Linux. It details the prerequisites including the installation of necessary libraries and tools such as Open MPI, VTK, and ParaView, and provides step-by-step instructions for the installation process, checking installations, and additional configurations. The document also covers optional packages for enhanced functionality and post-processing capabilities using LIGGGHTS.

1. Technische Universit¨at Berlin
Institut f¨ur Werkzeugmaschinen und Fabrikbetrieb
Installation Guide of LIGGGHTS for the
Linux-Distributor Ubuntu
Braj Bhushan Prasad
Berlin, February 8, 2017

2. INHALTSVERZEICHNIS I
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Install Open MPI 2
3 Install Libraries, Compiler g++ and git-core 2
4 Checking Installation 3
5 Visualization Toolkit: VTK 4
6 LIGGGHTS Installation 5
7 Checking LIGGGHTS Installation 6
8 Installation of Optional Packages 6
9 LIGGGHTS Post-Processing: LPP 7
10 Paraview 8

3. 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1 Introduction
LIGGGHTS is an Open Source Discrete Element Method Particle Simulation Software
developed by Sandia National Labs. LIGGGHTS stands for LAMMPS Improved
for General Granular and Granular Heat Transfer Simulations. The higher programming
language C++ is used to write the code of LIGGGHTS, which can be run either in
a single- or multi processor. In this document we will discuss about the LIGGGHTS
installation for the Linux operating system Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, 13.04, 14.04 LTS and 16.04
LTS. In order to install LIGGGHTS we need few libraries, like libvtk5-dev, libeigen2-dev,
libopenmpi-dev, a C++ compiler, Open MPI, LPP and Paraview. In this report we will
discuss the installation procedure of each one in details.
The entire installation can be time consuming and can take approximately one to two
hours, if no new error comes up. The maximum time consuming is the installation of
Open MPI (approximately 10 -15 minutes), LIGGGHTS (approximately 20 Minutes)
and by VTK (approximately 10-15 minutes). In my case the installation of VTK took
approximately 30 minutes as i was getting errors in cmake. If some error comes up during
compiling LIGGGHTS then it can be time consuming as one need to fix the Makefile. In
order to fix the Makefile one should be familiar with the Linux operating system. Sometime
installation of Paraview can also be tedious, if you are totally new to Linux world.
Sometime packages like MOLECULE, MC, ASPHERE are not automatically enable in
LIGGGHTS. In order to do that one should follow few steps which we will also discuss
in this document.
Before and after installation if we want we can use the two commands, namely: sudo
apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade respectively. The command sudo apt-get update
update the list of avilable packages and their versions, butit does not install or upgrade
any packages. The second command sudo apt-get upgrade installs newer versions of the
packages. It is to be noted that we use the command ”sudo apt-get update” first and then
sudo apt-get upgrade. The reason is that after updating the lists, the package manager
knows about available updates for the software we have installed.
It is useful to be aware of Linux operating system before one begin with installation. But
it is also not risky if one is not aware because the concept of learning by doing not only
goes good with CAD or CAE software but also to Linux operating system.

4. 3 INSTALL LIBRARIES, COMPILER G++ AND GIT-CORE 2
2 Install Open MPI
MPI library is needed to compile LIGGGHTS. MPI implementations are typically used
in so-called ”high-performance computing” (HPC) environments. MPI essentially provides
the inter-process communication (IPC) for simulation codes, computational algorithms,
and other ”big number crunching” types of applications. Some implementations are open
source, some are closed source. Open MPI, as its name implies, is an open source software
implementation of the Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard. Therefore it is necessary
to install Open MPI before we begin with LIGGGHTS installation. In order to install
Open MPI simply follow these steps:
• Go to http://www.open-mpi.org and download the latest .tar.gz package
• Create a directory to install openmpi using command
mkdir $HOME/openmpi
• Copy the download file into the directory openmpi using the command
cp $HOME/Downloads/openmpi −2.0.2. tar . gz $HOME/openmpi
• Go in openmpi directory using command
cd $HOME/openmpi
• Extract the package
tar −xzvf openmpi −2.0.2. tar . gz
• Go into the extracted directory
cd openmpi −2.0.2
• Configure using command
./ configure −−p r e f i x=$HOME/openmpi
• Compile
make a l l
• Finally install using the command
make i n s t a l l
3 Install Libraries, Compiler g++ and git-core
We need three different libraries to install LIGGGHTS without any hurdle. Each libraries
function and installation procedure are discussed below.

5. 4 CHECKING INSTALLATION 3
1. libvtk5-dev: This packet is needed for VTK1 header files for building C++ code.
In order to install this package we use the apt-get command:
sudo apt−get i n s t a l l libvtk5 −dev
2. libeigen2-dev: This is a lightweight C++ template library for linear algebra. This
library can be installed by using the following command:
sudo apt−get i n s t a l l libeigen2 −dev
3. libopenmpi-dev: This package contains the header files and compiler wrappers
which are needed to compile and link programs against libopenmpi. To install we
use above mentioned command:
sudo apt−get i n s t a l l libopenmpi−dev
The above mentioned libraries can also be installed by using one line command as follows:
sudo apt−get i n s t a l l libvtk5 −dev libeigen2 −dev libopenmpi−dev
If installation by using one line command shows some error then use the commands men-
tioned in 1. , 2. and 3.
LIGGGHTS have been written in C++ higher programming language. Therefore, we
also need a c++ compiler. In order to install a C++ compiler in UBUNTU we use apt-get
command:
sudo apt−get i n s t a l l g++
git-core package in UBUNTU can be installed by using the following command:
sudo apt−get i n s t a l l git −core
4 Checking Installation
In the next step we will control whether the Open MPI commands are correctly installed
or not. In order to do this we will use the following steps:
In order to control whether the open MPI command mpirun is correctly installed or not,
we will type the following command line on the terminal:
which mpirun
If the outcome on the terminal is as follows,
/ usr / bin /mpirun
1
The details about VTK will be discussed in another section.

6. 5 VISUALIZATION TOOLKIT: VTK 4
then it means that the Open MPI command mpirun is correctly installed.
Same procedure will be used to check the Open MPI command mpic++:
which mpic++
The following outcome will justify the correct installation:
/ usr / bin /mpic++
In order to know which mpic++ version you have installed, type the following command
on your terminal:
mpic++ −v
5 Visualization Toolkit: VTK
The open source Visualization Toolkit (VTK) is a object-oriented high level library for
data processing and visualization. We can clone VTK with Git by using the following
command:
git clone git://vtk.org/VTK.git VTK
In next step we go to VTK directory by using command:
cd /home/ ”user ”/VTK
Now we should generate Makefile in the current directory using:
sudo cmake
Using make command we execute this, build the program, using generated makefile as an
input
sudo make
In order to install .h, .a and .cmake files under usr/local/ we use the following command:
sudo make i n s t a l l
For convenienve reason it is useful to create symbolic links (short cut) of
/usr/local/include/vtk-5.8 and /usr/local/lib/vtk-5.8 in global environment. In order to
do this we go in /usr/local/include by using the command:
cd / usr / local / include
Now the following command will create a symbolic link named vtk of vtk-5.8 inside /us-
r/local/include

7. 6 LIGGGHTS INSTALLATION 5
sudo ln −s vtk −5.8 vtk
The following two step will finally install the VTK-5.8 in the system:
cd / usr / local / l i b /
sudo ln −s vtk −5.8 vtk
6 LIGGGHTS Installation
Now we are in the position to install LIGGGHTS. In order to do this we need to follow
the following steps:
Clone the LIGGGHTS by typing the following command on the terminal
git clone https://github.com/richti83/LIGGGHTS-WITH-BONDS.git
This step can take approximately five to ten minutes.
Once cloning of LIGGGHTS is done, then go in the src folder by using the below men-
tioned command:
cd LIGGGHTS−WITH−BONDS/ src /
With the following command we can compile LIGGGHTS
make fedora
Before compiling one can also get aware of the available commands on the system by
typing the following command in /home/konti-sim01/LIGGGHTS-WITH-BONDS/src:
make
It is preferable to create a symlink in /usr/bin/ to start LIGGGHTS-WITH-BONDS
from everywhere:
cd / usr / bin /
sudo ln −s /home/YOURUSERNAME/LIGGGHTS−WITH−BONDS/ src / lmp fedora lmp4bonds
After successful compiling LIGGGHTS type the following command in your terminal to
open the bash:
sudo gedit ˜/. bashrc
Add following lines at the end of bash file and save it

8. 8 INSTALLATION OF OPTIONAL PACKAGES 6
alias ”l i g g g h t s=/path−to−LIGGGHTS−WITH−BONDS/ src / lmp fedora ”
The alias command in bash allow us to create our own shortcut. In our case we have
created a command liggghts to run our simulation.
7 Checking LIGGGHTS Installation
Now in order to check whether the LIGGGHTS have been installed or not, open a new
terminal and type the following command:
l i g g g h t s
If LIGGGHTS comes up, telling version, compiling date etc. then it means you have
installed it successfully.
In order to check the simulation in LIGGGHTS we need to go in Tutorials public folder
using the following command:
cd /home/ ”user ”/LIGGGHTS−WITH−BONDS/examples/LIGGGHTS/ Tutorials public /
In the Tutorials public folder we can see many folders which contains input file. For
example we go in the ”movingMeshGran” folder and execute the simulation using the
command:
l i g g g h t s < in . movingMeshGran
If simulation runs without any error then it means that we have successfully installed the
LIGGGHTS and all required packages for pre-processing.
8 Installation of Optional Packages
Packages are groups of files that enable a specific set of features. Not all packages are
available in LIGGGHTS at the time of installation. Therefore, we need to install the
optional packages extra. In my case i needed the Package MOLECULE and MC to
create bond model. In order to install these two packages we need to follow the following
two step:
make yes−molecule
make g++
Same two steps can be used to install the package MC and any other packages.
If you have installed the LIGGGHTS-WITH-BONDS as mentioned above then you just
need to type the following command on your terminal and the packages will be installed:

9. 9 LIGGGHTS POST-PROCESSING: LPP 7
make yes−molecule
In order to see the list of packages one need to type the following command and the list
flash on the terminal:
make package
In order to check the status of the package we need to type the following command on the
terminal:
make package−status
9 LIGGGHTS Post-Processing: LPP
LIGGGHTS post-processing (LPP) converts LIGGGHTS dump files into VTK in par-
allel using the python multiprocessing toolkit, which can be visualized in Paraview and
can handle dump-file chunk-wise rather that loading all the data into memory at once. To
install LPP one can use the following command:
sudo apt−get i n s t a l l python−numpy
sudo g i t clone https :// github . com/CFDEMproject/LPP. g i t $HOME/LPP
In order to see whether LPP is properly installed or not we will run the same simulation
as discussed in section 7. Once the simulation is completed successfully, we need to go in
the ”post” folder. Here, we can see the dump file which can be converted to ”.vtk” file by
using the following command:
lpp dump∗. movingMesh
The following outcome on the terminal will confirm the conversion of dump file into .vtk
file:
wrote 351 granular snapshots in VTK format
Apart from this one can also see the the .vtk file in Paraview, which is generated through
using the command
lpp dump∗. movingMesh
Now open the bash using the command:
gedit ˜/. bashrc
Add the following lines at the end of bash:
export LPP DIR=$HOME/LIGGGHTS/LPP/ src

10. 10 PARAVIEW 8
In my case the above line looks as following:
export LPP DIR=/home/ konti−sim01/LIGGGHTS−WITH−BONDS/LPP/ src
export LPP NPROCS=4
export LPP CHUNKSIZE=1
alias ”lpp=/Path−To−LIGGGHTS−WITH−BONDS/LPP/ src / lpp . py ”
In my case the above line took the following shape:
alias ”lpp=/home/ konti−sim01/LIGGGHTS−WITH−BONDS/LPP/ src / lpp . py ”
We can also add the following lines to enable parallel processing in LIGGGHTS
export WMNCOMPPROCS=2
10 Paraview
Paraview is an open source data analysis and visualization tool. In other word we can
say that Paraview is a scalable front-end for visualization with VTK. Using Paraview
the LIGGGHTS simulation can be visualized, showing the whole movie of the process
including surfaces and imported meshes, and the motion of the particles. During the
visualization, it is possible to see the different characteristics of the particles, for example,
velocity, forces, radius, atom types, temperature, etc. Paraview offers the possibility of
managing the visualization parameters at any time in order to see the characteristics of
the simulation with precision.
To install Paraview use the following commands:
sudo apt−get update
sudo apt−get i n s t a l l paraview