A cheat sheet of foamDictionary commands for making quick command-line edits to OpenFOAM dictionaries

foamDictionary-cheat-sheet.md

foamDictionary Cheat Sheet

Accompanies OnCFD Newsletter #082: Quick edits with foamDictionary

Retrieve entries

# Print the top-level keywords present in this dictionary
foamDictionary system/snappyHexMeshDict -keywords

# Print the addLayersControls sub-dictionary
foamDictionary system/snappyHexMeshDict -entry addLayersControls

# List the keywords in the addLayersControls sub-dictionary
foamDictionary system/snappyHexMeshDict -keywords -entry addLayersControls

# Print the ENTRY for nLayerIter in addLayersControls
foamDictionary system/snappyHexMeshDict -entry addLayersControls/nLayerIter

# Print the VALUE of nLayerIter in addLayersControls
foamDictionary system/snappyHexMeshDict -entry addLayersControls/nLayerIter -value

Change an existing entry

# Set the value for nLayerIter in addLayersControls to 100
foamDictionary system/snappyHexMeshDict -entry addLayersControls/nLayerIter -set 100

# Set a value as the result of another command
# eg set the number of subdomains = to the number of procs on the machine
foamDictionary system/decomposeParDict -entry numberOfSubdomains -set $(nproc)

Add a new entry

# Add a new top-level entry with a vector
foamDictionary my-include-file -entry top-level-var -add "(1 2 3)"

# Add an empty sub-dictionary called newdict
foamDictionary my-include-file -entry newdict -add "{}"

# Add an entry called myvar into the newdict sub-dictionary
foamDictionary my-include-file -entry newdict/myvar -add 2000

# Add a complete sub-dictionary:
# eg. add a new geometry file into snappyHexMeshDict
foamDictionary system/snappyHexMeshDict -entry geometry/newgeom.obj \
  -add "{type triSurfaceMesh; name my-new-geometry;}"

Remove entries

# Remove the complete "newgeom.obj" sub-dictionary
foamDictionary system/snappyHexMeshDict -entry geometry/newgeom.obj -remove
	

Ah, OK - yeah I can see this behaviour in some of the blockMesh tutorials.

Maybe you could raise it on the issue tracker?

Maybe you could extract some of the calculations into a separate dictionary & #include them back into your main dictionary?

Ah, actually the whole file is full of eval XD. So I choose to put the variable needed to be changed into a separate file. I’ll consider to raise it on the issue track. Thank you for your help! Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>

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________________________________ From: robinknowles ***@***.***> Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2024 6:19:20 PM To: robinknowles ***@***.***> Cc: Comment ***@***.***> Subject: Re: robinknowles/foamDictionary-cheat-sheet.md @robinknowles commented on this gist.

________________________________ Ah, OK - yeah I can see this behaviour in some of the blockMesh tutorials. Maybe you could raise it on the issue tracker? Maybe you could extract some of the calculations into a separate dictionary & #include them back into your main dictionary? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<https://gist.github.com/robinknowles/e8171f17eb7d147eb092f1e9731a4f0b#gistcomment-4859183> or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AJPAVMFW3VXPHBAOAUHMO4DYRDCKRBFKMF2HI4TJMJ2XIZLTSKBKK5TBNR2WLJDUOJ2WLJDOMFWWLO3UNBZGKYLEL5YGC4TUNFRWS4DBNZ2F6YLDORUXM2LUPGBKK5TBNR2WLJDHNFZXJJDOMFWWLK3UNBZGKYLEL52HS4DFVRZXKYTKMVRXIX3UPFYGLK2HNFZXIQ3PNVWWK3TUUZ2G64DJMNZZDAVEOR4XAZNEM5UXG5FFOZQWY5LFVEYTCNBVGM4TCOBVU52HE2LHM5SXFJTDOJSWC5DF>. You are receiving this email because you commented on the thread. Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS<https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1477376905?ct=notification-email&mt=8&pt=524675> or Android<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.android&referrer=utm_campaign%3Dnotification-email%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dgithub>.