Can Butterfly be still used?

grasshopper butterfly
1

Hello everyone,

I have been using Ladybug and Honeybee for a while. I need to evaluate the airflow and buoyancy/stratification for a project. I know that Butterfly once integrated OpenFoam into other plugins. However, it seems there has been no update since 2019. I wonder if I can still use the Butterfly v. 0.0.05 on Rhino 7 along with Ladybug Tools 1.6.0. If not, are you aware of any substitute for this plugin?

Thanks,
Habib

2

Hi Habib，
I usually tell these questions something similar before I answer them: Give it a try!
In fact, Butterfly is one of the best CFD plugins out there, and while it hasn’t been maintained for years. it doesn’t matter,All you have to tolerate is a few tips and reports that don’t affect your calculations.

2 Likes
3

Thanks, Zhengrong,

I tried to install Butterfly and OpenFOAM on my university lab computer, which I use for my research. However, it seems Butterfly can not connect to OpenFOAM. I am unsure if the OpenFOAM and Butterfly should be in the same directory on the computer. I don’t have that much control over the directory of installation on this computer.

4

You should install BlueCFD-core 2017-1 Version. This version can connect to Butterfly Version 0.0.05.
http://bluecfd.github.io/Core/Downloads/#bluecfd-core-2017-1

5

Although according to the instructions, Home · ladybug-tools/butterfly Wiki · GitHub, the BlueCFD-core 2017-2 needs to be installed; I installed both 2017-1 and 2017-2. The problem should be something else. On my laptop, I installed Butterfly 0.0.05 and BlueCFD-core 2017-2. It works fine. But I still can not understand what is wrong with my university lab computer. There might be something related to the directory, I guess.
Thanks

6

You should post some details about your question. Butterfly only support simple user name,not support special symbol.You need to post the user name.

7

I‘m using butterfly with no problem. As @minggangyin mentioned above, you have to install the Blue-CFD core 2017.
I normally take the results after from paraview which will be installed automatically with Blue-CFD

1 Like
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When I run the sample Butterfly file, it doesn’t,t work properly. It says I might not have run Rhino as administrative. However, when I run Rhino as an administrative, the Butterfly does not exist in the Grasshopper. And if I attempt to install the Butterfly again, it doesn’t let me drag and drop the Butterfly installer in the Grasshopper.

9

Maybe you need install Bluecfd-core 2017-2 Version for butterfly.

10

As I mentioned in the previous reply, I also installed Bluecfd-core 2017-2, which didn’t work.

Thanks anyway.