About the technical support service
Technical support is a paid service. However, should you encounter an error while working with FlowVision, please do not hesitate to contact technical support.
Technical support enables you to:
- download and install FlowVision updates
- consult with qualified experts should you encounter errors within the FlowVision software
Technical support service engineers analyze program errors and, whenever possible, provide an immediate solution, which will allow you to continue working until the error is fixed in an updated version.
The technical support service also upholds communication between users and developers. Please send us your suggestions for possible improvements to the user interface, the program's operation, or for expanding the program's functionality.
Technical support is NOT responsible for:
- developing methodology for solving your computational task
- analysing the quality of the formulation of your computational task
- providing consultation regarding the formulation of your computational task
- solving your computational task
How to contact technical support
For written communication with technical support, please use the email addresses support@flowvisioncfd.com (for English-speaking users) and support@flowvision.ru (for Russian-speaking users).
The preferred communication method is via e-mail, as it is the most effective way to transfer large amounts of data
How the technical support service processes your request
When a user sends an email to the technical support service, their message enters an automated ticket request system - OTRS. Immediately after your message entering the system, you will be sent an automatic response informing you that your email has been received and is being processed.
If you have not received an automated response within 30 minutes, this means that your email may have not been delivered to technical support. In this situation, please check your spam folder and, if the response is not there either, contact a FlowVision sales manager with your original email request.
Following this automatic response, a technical support engineer will contact you, typically within one working day, either with a solution to your problem, or with additional questions for better diagnostics.
During further communication please do not change the subject field of the email correspondence with the technical support service engineer. If you wish to submit another request, which is unrelated to a previous request, please send a new email with a different subject (do not include the new request in communication related to another request).
How to reduce the time required to fix the error
Unfortunately, many requests received by the technical support service are mostly due to incorrect use of the FlowVision software. Carrying out a preliminary analysis of the problem would help to substantially reduce the time required to fix the error.
So, before contacting technical support, please perform the following steps:
If the error is related to the Solver or to a specific computational project:
- Make sure that the description of your computational task and model settings comply with any domain limitations of the mathematical models and numerical methods implemented in FlowVision. If there are any domain limits when applying a particular model, these will be detailed in the Theory section. When using common physical abstractions such as perfect gases, ideal liquids, etc., then you should adhere to the limitations which come with these assumptions.
- Make sure that your model geometry complies with FlowVision system requirements.
- If correction of any discovered flaws in the model does not resolve the error, please provide the technical support service with:
- log and err-files from the server part of the project
- the client part of the project
- a detailed description of the error
If the error is related to unsatisfactory accuracy of the computation:
- Perform a computational grid convergence study.
- Make sure that the distance from any boundary conditions does not influence the solution.
- Perform a time step convergence study.
- If correction of any discovered flaws in the model does not resolve the error, please provide the technical support service with:
- a description of your grid convergence study, with illustrations showing the dependency of key characteristics on the computational grid size, and also a detailed description or illustration of the computational grids considered
- a description of your time step convergence study, with illustrations showing the dependency of key characteristics on the time step
- the client part of the project
- information about the source of the reference data which disagrees with the FlowVision results (an extract from a scientific work along with a link to the source material, or a detailed description of a carried-out experiment along with its results and accuracy evaluation)
If the error is related to the work of the Solver, Pre-Postprocessor, License Manager, Solver-Agent, or other module, and is unrelated to a particular project:
- Turn on the DebugLog parameter for the module which generates the error.
- Restart the module.
- Reproduce the error.
- Create a diagnostics archive.
- Send this diagnostics archive to the technical support service.
- Provide the technical support service with a detailed description of your actions which result in the error. It is important that you inform technical support about which module(s) you use to perform each step.
- Provide the technical support service with the exact text of the error messages or, better yet, screenshots of the error messages. Specify the software module that generates the error message.
General recommendations:
- Examine the software log files
- Try to find information on how to resolve your error in the user manual, the "Frequently asked questions" section, or in the technical support team blog.
- Always specify the exact version of the program being used, along with its version number and build date.
First experience of working with FlowVision
Technical support does not have enough resources to train users in working with FlowVision, so training courses are provided as a separate service. If you are interested in receiving training courses, please contact our sales manager for more information.
The best way to quickly and effectively learn (or recap) the many useful features of FlowVision, is by sequentially (project-by-project) completing all the exercises in our tutorial, which is included in the program's distribution pack. Even if you do not plan on using some particular model for your computational tasks, we still recommend completing all the tutorial exercises, as they can illustrate various useful and convenient program functionality.