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Software Tools

Tools for numerical modeling of crustal dynamics and earthquake faulting.

See the workflow diagram for how combinations of these tools are usually used in the context of numerical modeling of crustal dynamics.

Geologic Structure

  • Gocad

    Commercial software for constructing and interpreting models of geologic structure. Primarily used in oil, gas, mining, and environmental work. Good for constructing fault surfaces from geologic data sets. Exports surfaces in ASCII TSurf format. Used to construct the SCEC Community Fault Model and SCEC Community Velocity Model-H (i.e., the Harvard model).

  • Earth Vision

    Commercial software for constructing and interpreting models of geologic structure. Primarily used in oil and gas work. Can export surfaces in ASCII Tsurf format. Used to construct the USGS Northern CA 3-D geologic model.

Mesh Generation

  • CUBIT

    Sandia National Laboratories developed mesh generation tool for structured and unstructured 2-D and 3-D models. Support for unstructured hex meshing and its GUI and scripting interfaces make this a popular tool. Importing complex geologic models (e.g., Tsurf files) can be difficult. Export to Exodus files allows seamlesss integration with PyLith.

    • Website: cubit.sandia.gov
    • Availability: non-commercial; small, one time acquisition fee
  • LaGriT

    Los Alamos Grid Toolbox (LaGriT) for generation of unstructured triangular and tetrahedral meshes. User interface is the command line or an input file. Steeper learning curve than CUBIT but has richer features for manipulating the mesh and improving element quality. Seamless import of Tsurf files. Export to GMV/Pset files allows seamless integration with PyLith.

    • Website: lagrit.lanl.gov
    • Availability: free; Binaries for Mac, Linux, and Sun; moving towards open source
  • TetGen

    Open source code for generating tetrahedral meshes. Volume mesh created from surface meshes.

  • NetGen

    Open source code for generating tetrahedral meshes. Last release was in 2004.

Physics Code

  • PyLith

    CIG developed open-source code for modeling 2-D and 3-D dynamic and quasi-static crustal deformation. Elements supported include linear triangular, quadrilateral, tetrehedral, and hexahedral cells.

  • GeoFEST

    NASA/JPL developed code for modeling quasi-static crustal deformation. Includes adaptive mesh refinement using Pyramid. Supports tetrahedral cells.

  • Abaqus

    Commercial finite-element code. Primarily used in mechanical engineering work.

Visualization

  • ParaView

    Open-source, VTK-based 3-D visualization software. Easy to use GUI with Python scripting capabilities. Seamless visualization of PyLith output. Some documentation via builtin help, but detailed documentation is sold by Kitware.

    • Website: www.paraview.org
    • Availability: source code with binaries for several platforms.
  • Mayavi2

    Open-source, VTK-based 3-D visualization software. Easy to use GUI with extensive Python scripting capabilities. Moderate learning curve due to limited documentation. Can be difficult to install due to many dependencies.

  • Visit

    Open-source, VTK-based 3-D visualization software. Easy to use GUI with Python scripting capabilities. Seamless visualization of PyLith output. Extensive documentation.

  • Matlab

    Widely used commercial visualization and data processing software. 3-D visualization is somewhat limited compared with most 3-D visualization tools.

  • OpenDX

    Open-source 3-D visualization software. Easy to use GUI with limited scripting capabilities. Extensive documentation is available. Unclear if code is being actively developed.

    • Website: www.opendx.org
    • Availability: open source with binaries for some platforms
  • Iris Explorer

    Commercial 3-D visualization software. Easy to use GUI interface.

  • Fledermaus

    Commercial 3-D visualization software.

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