Running Fire Dynamics Simulator/Smokeview on Latest Ubuntu LTS

I am trying to run a program called Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS/SMV) on the latest version of Ubuntu LTS (20.04.2.0-desktop-amd64). The program installs via an .sh file package through Terminal and I followed the instructions from the website (here: https://github.com/firemodels/fds/wiki/Installing-and-Running-FDS-on-a-Linux-Cluster). The Terminal installation process goes through prompts and finishes. However, when I type in the "fds" command in Terminal to check if it is installed correctly, I get an error that the command does not exist. Also, the program does not work correctly when calling it to run as instructed.

I'm certain the issue is that it is not installed correctly. I am using the latest version of the FDS program released for Linux in Aug 21 2020. Perhaps I need an older version of Ubuntu? Or a different Linux OS type? I am new to Ubuntu and Linux but I have used it before and I use the program on Windows in Command Prompt so I am familiar with how to run it and what the commands and results should look like.

The program does not have a version of Linux it is compatible with listed. The download is here: https://pages.nist.gov/fds-smv/downloads.html.

I am certain Ubuntu is installed correctly.

Anyone with knowledge of this program NIST Fire Dynamics Simulator/Smokeview or installing programs like it that do scientific/mathematical modeling on Ubuntu would be greatly appreciated.

If I do not find a solution, my next guess is to install the version of Ubuntu released before the programs release date, but I am concerned about outdated OS installs.

Thanks for any help!

Solution 1:

I was typing the wrong command. Need to type:

source $HOME/FDS/FDS6/bin/FDS6VARS.sh and source $HOME/FDS/FDS6/bin/FDS6VARS.sh

to put FDS in the correct filepath (assuming you installed to default filepath, change the filepath if you did not). You can add both these commands to ~/.bashrc file to load FDS to every Terminal window.

These instructions are in the Wiki here: https://github.com/firemodels/fds/wiki/Installing-and-Running-FDS-on-a-Linux-Cluster , after step 4. I followed the instructions for "if you do not have modules".

Type which fds to confirm it is in the correct filepath.